ジェントリフィケーションと都市政策

Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, Tokyo has been undergoing extensive reurbanization, and a lot of gentrification projects are currently being undertaken in the central area. This study aims to examine this transformation of socio-spatial structure of the Tokyo metropolitan area from the perspective of gentrification studies. Recently, urban policy has been the foundation of gentrification in gentrification studies. These studies introduced the idea that the wide variety of urban policies, which were framed according to the political situation of each county or city, affects the characteristics of gentrification. Consequently, in this study, I trace the urban policy implemented by both the national government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) since the mid-1990s. I choose to focus on urban renaissance policy and housing policy out of the many fields of the urban policy. I find that the aim of the nation's urban renaissance policy is to escape from recession after the economic downturn, and the TMG's policy corresponds with this goal. Furthermore, I discuss the inclusion of “neoliberalism” and “entrepreneurialism” in the urban renaissance policy, with gentrification in the central Tokyo area in the early 21st century being the spatial expression of this inclusion. Moreover, I recommend that housing policy be incorporated into the overall urban renaissance policy thereby regarding as a tool for gathering the elite who are suitable for urban economic growth strategy rather than responding to residents' basic need.