Debates on urban reconstruction through reclamation of traditional water scenery in 1940s Tokyo

Junichi Hasegawa

Planning Perspectives, 2018, vol. 33, issue 1, 29-52

Abstract: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, seeking to break an impasse in its state-sponsored war-damage reconstruction efforts after the Second World War, presented proposals in the late 1940s to reclaim centuries-old canals in its central area to dispose of wartime rubble and create land for redevelopment. The Government also received a proposal forwarded by Japan’s professional baseball association to reclaim a scenic pond in central Tokyo and build a baseball stadium there, and it responded favourably. Two canal reclamation projects were realized, but the pond reclamation was eventually abandoned. These reclamation proposals provoked debates of varying intensity over the loss of traditional scenery as part of urban reconstruction. This paper examines those debates and interprets their meaning within the history of Japan’s city planning. It notes the awakening of concern for land use planning after reclamation – in particular, the preservation of locations of scenic value – in the context of urban reconstruction. The paper also considers the limited nature of civic space for public discourse and debate over planning proposals and a collusive aspect of the inter-governmental relationship in city planning. It also considers the attitudes towards reclamation displayed by Hideaki Ishikawa, the principal planner of Tokyo’s war-damage reconstruction plan.

Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02665433.2017.1393630 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rppexx:v:33:y:2018:i:1:p:29-52

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rppe20

DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2017.1393630

Access Statistics for this article

Planning Perspectives is currently edited by Michael Hebbert

More articles in Planning Perspectives from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().