From paddy fields to sustainable town in four decades: tight integration of urban planning and place management in Yukarigaoka, Japan
Abstract
Private real estate developers disproportionately focus on spatial planning and short-term returns, often forgetting the crucial role played by place management toward the achievement of sustainable communities. This research presents an alternative model of privately initiated urban development: Yukarigaoka, a new town in the eastern outskirts of Tokyo founded in the late 1970s. The case study has been analyzed through field research, assessments of local media, interviews and literature review, focusing on urban planning strategies and place management practices. Yukarigaoka is a non-speculative model entailing the developer’s long-term commitment to the creation of a community sustained by unique planning features and innovative, award-winning place management practices. As a result, the development avoided the demographic imbalance of many Japanese public new towns of the same period. Population has been constantly growing and the town has been attracting families, strengthening local engagement and a defined identity. Despite a degree of paternalism in approach and the mediocre design quality of the built environment, Yukarigaoka confirms that livable communities result from the tight integration of planning and management. It provides an important planning and management precedent for new and existing communities in other Asia-Pacific cities toward establishing a synergistic relationship between built and natural components and in advocating for long-term profit different from a predominantly neoliberal developmental model that maximizes immediate returns.
Keyword : sustainable development, urban planning, participative place management, privately developed town, sufficient profit model, livability, Yukarigaoka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Baliga, A., & Chakrya, K. S. (2017, February 3). Boeung Kak: A disastrous decade. The Phnom Penh Post. https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national-post-depth-politics/boeung-kak-disastrous-decade
Berghauser Pont, M., & Haupt, P. (2010). Spacematrix: Space, density and urban form. NAi Publishers.
Boisen, M., Terlouw, K., Groote, P., & Couwenberg, O. (2018). Reframing place promotion, place marketing, and place branding – moving beyond conceptual confusion. Cities, 80, 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.08.021
Botschen, G., Promberger, K., & Bernhart, J. (2017). Brand-driven identity development of places. Journal of Place Management and Development, 10(2), 152–172. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMD-07-2016-0051
Brasor, P., & Tsubuku, M. (2016, April 30). Yukarigaoka proves ‘new towns’ can age well. The Japan Times. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/04/30/how-tos/yukarigaoka-proves-new-towns-can-age-well/
Capitanio, M. (2018a). Participatory place management in the age of shrinkage: The case of Kunitachi within Tokyo’s peripheral areas. Journal of Place Management and Development, 11(4), 447–462. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMD-06-2017-0056
Capitanio, M. (2018b). The role of urban design in Tokyo’s shrinking peripheral areas: The case of Tama New Town. Archnet-IJAR, 12(1), 112–133. https://doi.org/10.26687/archnet-ijar.v12i1.1344
Du, H. (2015). Phu My Hung New Urban Development in Ho Chi Minh City: Only a partial success of a broader landscape. International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, 4(1), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2015.03.005
Forsyth, A., & Crewe, K. (2009). New visions for suburbia: Reassessing aesthetics and place-making in modernism, imageability and new urbanism. Journal of Urban Design, 14(4), 415–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574800903265470
Guitart, D. A., Pickering, C., & Byrne, J. A. (2012). Past results and future directions in urban community gardens research. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 11(4), 364–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2012.06.007
Huynh, D. (2015). Phu My Hung New Urban Development in Ho Chi Minh City: Only a partial success of a broader landscape. International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, 4(1), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2015.03.005
Insch, A., & Florek, M. (2008). A great place to live, work and play. Journal of Place Management and Development, 1(2), 138–149. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538330810889970
Knox, P. L., & Mayer, H. (2009). Small town sustainability: Economic, social, and environmental innovation (1 ed.). Birkhäuser Architecture. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783034608978
Kodama, S., & Nakano, T. (2016). Yūkarigaoka kara kangaeru seichō kanri machi-dzukuri ni kansuru kenkyū.
Lee, C.-M., & Stabin-Nesmith, B. (2001). The continuing value of a planned community: Radburn in the evolution of suburban development. Journal of Urban Design, 6(2), 151–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574800120057827
Murayama, A. (2016). Land use planning for depopulating and aging society in Japan. In Urban resilience (pp. 79–92). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39812-9_5
Motani, K. (2014). Shinayakana nipponrettō nokku Rikata. Satō takanobu, Tōkyō.
Nassauer, J. I. (1995). Messy ecosystems, orderly frames. Landscape Journal, 14(2), 161–170. https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.14.2.161
Nelson, R. H. (2005). Private neighborhoods and the transformation of local government (1st ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Nihon Toshi Keikaku Gakkai. (2011). 60 Purojekuto ni yomu Nihon no toshi-dzukuri. Asakurashoten, Tōkyō.
Nikkei Keizai Shinbunsha. (2019). Genkai toshi, Anata no machi ga mushibamareru. Nihon Keizai shinbun shuppan, Tōkyō.
Pekkanen, R. J., Tsujinaka, Y., & Yamamoto, H. (2014). Neighborhood associations and local governance in Japan (1 ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315797731
Seki, Y., Kobayashi, S., & Uchiumi, M. (2002). Study on the realities of area management led by private associations’ Cases in Yukarigaoka District & Usui District, Sakura City (in Japanese).
Sevtsuk, A. (2016). City form lab. http://cityform.mit.edu/en
Sintusingha, S. (2006). Sustainability and urban sprawl: Alternative scenarios for a Bangkok superblock. URBAN DESIGN International, 11(3), 151–172. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.udi.9000174
Sintusingha, S. (2008). Sustainable world-class cities and glocal sprawl in Southeast Asian metropolitans. In M. Jenks, D. Kozak, & P. Takkanon (Eds.), ‘World cities’ and urban form: Fragmented, polycentric, sustainable? (pp. 145–160). Routledge.
Statistics Japan. (2018, February 7). Average residential land price. https://stats-japan.com/t/kiji/11139
Terada, T. (2017). Urban sprawl or co-existence with nature: Lessons from Japanese urban-rural mixture. In The 2017 IFLA Asia Pacific Regional Congress (pp. 41–49), Bangkok.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government. (2017). Tokyo’s history, geography, and population. http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/ABOUT/HISTORY/history03.htm
Tsukamoto, T. (2011). Neoliberalization of the Developmental State: Tokyo’s bottom‐up politics and state rescaling in Japan. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 36(1), 71–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2011.01057.x
Uemura, T. (2019). Discussion on the factors of sustainable urban growth in shrinking region: Case Study of Eucalyptus Hills in the city of Sakura developed by the private developer Yamaman. In The AESOP Annual Congress (pp. 4357–4379), Venice.
van den Hoek, J. W. (2008). The MXI (Mixed-Use Index) as tool for urban planning and analysis (No. 3, Delft). http://bk.home.tudelft.nl/fileadmin/Faculteit/BK/Actueel/Symposia_en_congressen/CRE_2008/Papers/doc/Paper03_vandenHoek.pdf
Yamaman Kabushikigaisha. (2016). Chitoseyūto Yūkarigaoka. Yume hyakka, 10(2). http://town.yukarigaoka.jp/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/yume_10-02.pdf
Zenker, S., & Rütter, N. (2014). Is satisfaction the key? The role of citizen satisfaction, place attachment and place brand attitude on positive citizenship behavior. Cities, 38, 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2013.12.009