Land Use Change and Zoning System in the Urban Fringe: A Case Study in Adachi-ku, Tokyo

Abstract

Japanese cities have grown rapidly since the Meiji Restoration of 1868. As the cities have grown, modern urban planning systems have been introduced. The Urban Planning Act enacted in 1919 was the most important law regulating urban land use, which has later been complemented with a number of other urban laws and systems. The author thinks that land use change in the urban area is related to such regulations, and is a very important subject for urban geographers. However, not many attempts have been made so far in this respect. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between change in land use and zoning regulations in a historical perspective of urbanization in Adachi-ku, Tokyo. As a consequence, the geographical feature of Adachi-ku located at a northeastern fringe of Tokyo will be clarified better.At first, the author examined the relation between land use change and zoning in entire Adachi-ku, and then he picked up three sample areas in order to clarify the process of land use change.The results obtained are summarized as follows:Adachi-ku consists of the southern and northern parts. The former was built up before World War II, but the latter part has been urbanized rapidly after the war. The former area shows highly mixed land use consisting of residential houses, commercial facilities and small to middle-scale industrial establishments. Strict regulation on land use zoning did not exist before the war, pemitting to form such mixed land use. Since the 1970s, government housing estates, public facilities and so no have been built at vacant lots where factories were evacuated. Because the zoning destination was not effective enough to control the land use, areas of mixed land use have expanded spontaneously, especially in sub industrial zones in the southern part.The Green Belt of Tokyo designated after World War II covered the northern part. In this green belt, construction of houses was legal unless they violate the building-to-land ratio around them. However, many new comers built their homes there much in disorder, violating the ratio or building their houses sporadically. Discord between land use and zoning became more apparent as urbanization proceeded. Since the 1960s, new land readjustment projects were implemented, and much of the green belt were converted to residential areas and a lot of government housing estates were built. This means that some of the land readjustment projects followed the existing land use change. However, many vacant lots and much farmland still remain at the midst of built-up areas, creating another type of mixed land use.