Japanese Urban Planning

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Since 1918, urban planning throughout Japan has continuously been changing. When Japan first began urban planning, the main focus was of the industrial society that was dominated numerous of Japan’s cities. As time went on, the industries stayed in the cities and the government then had to deal with the problems of industries, including environmental problems along with population increases. At the beginning, numerous of the plans and strategies were based on what other cities Europe had done and this strategy continued throughout the urban planning process. Therefore, as time went on in Japan, urban planning had to change due to the problems of previous plans and the ever changing society.

Before 1918, when the City Planning Bureau was formed, Japan had no system for urban planning. The City Planning Bureau formed the City Planning Research Committee whose goal was to establish a system of urban planning to incorporate the industrial society that Japanese citizens were now living in due to World War I. The City Planning Research Committee soon created the City Planning Law. Two of the biggest aspects of this law were to set up a zoning system based on the German zoning system and to create the city around what Haussmann did in Paris. Therefore, this system had certain areas that were used for certain activities and numerous of the buildings had businesses or shops on the bottom floor which allowed for easy commercial shopping for consumers and apartments on the upper levels of the building for citizens to live in that allow them to be closer to their particular job within the city. Also, when the City Planning Research Committee was being created, an Urban Building Law was being drafted; this law restricted location of certain ...

... middle of paper ...

... Overall, Japan still has urban planning issues, just like any other city has because the urban planning is a continuous cycle.

Works Cited

Murakami, K., & Wood, D. M. (2006). Becoming the city of trees: Spatial planning in japan and the feeling of place. Planning Theory & Practice, 7(4), 445-448. doi:10.1080/14649350600985011

Sorensen, A. (1999). Land readjustment, urban planning and urban sprawl in the tokyo metropolitan area. Urban Studies (Routledge), 36(13), 2333-2360. doi:10.1080/0042098992458

Sorensen, A. (2001). Urban planning and civil society in japan: Japanese urban planning development during the 'taisho democracy' period (1905–31). Planning Perspectives, 16(4), 383-406. doi:10.1080/02665430110066884

Takafusa, S. (2004). The role of development planning in japan. The International Conference On China’s Planning System Reform. Retrieved from Google.

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