North American-type Smart Growth and the Japanese Suburb: A Case Study

Abstract

This paper offers a preliminary examination of similarities between the Japanese suburb and many of the concepts promoted by the anti–sprawl movement in North America, commonly referred to as smart growth (also known as New Urbanism or Pedestrian oriented Development). As the first phase of a larger project, the research focused on a case study suburb in the city of Toyama, Japan. A mid–sized city, with a population of approximately 420,000, Toyama′s suburbs are less influenced by population and land pressures common to a large metropolis such as Tokyo. Typological similarities with Smart Growth concepts, in the form of mixed land use, connectivity between neighbourhoods, and access to open space were nonetheless found. More interesting, a similarity with the radical New Urbanist concept of ″form–based zoning″ was also found. This is significant as it appears to have allowed a process of nearly continuous small–scale change in the case–study suburb extending back for at least 23 years. Though the extent to which the findings can be generalised for all of Japan′s suburbs remains uncertain, implications are briefly considered for both Japan and North America.