Large Japanese Cities Research Articles

Revisiting Korean Slums in Postwar Japan: Tongne and Hakkyo in the Zainichi Memoryscape

Korean shantytowns existed in every large Japanese city from the postwar years through the late 1960s. Japanese people recall them as secluded, dirty, impoverished, and dangerous. To many scholars, their existence confirms the transwar continuity of Japanese oppression of underclass ethnic minorities. But zainichi Koreans who grew up in such slums, which they called tongne, offer inspirational stories and fond memories of living there. This article sheds light on Koreans’ postwar experiences by discussing the important sociopolitical functions of the tongne and their continuing symbolism among the zainichi population. Viewing the tongne as zainichi's postliberation place of origin and paying attention to the reproduction of its meanings in hakkyo (schools) helps us understand the uneven terrain of power relationships in zainichi society, including why the Chongryun exercised great cultural power at least until the 1970s.

Special Features in Large Japanese Cities in Urban Systems Based on Internal Migration by Age Group

Special Features in Large Japanese Cities in Urban Systems Based on Internal Migration by Age Group

Changes in per capita CO2 emissions of six large Japanese cities between 1980 and 2000: An analysis using “The Four System Boundaries” approach

Cities can play a critical role in mitigating climate change. Although several carbon accounting methods have been proposed to identify mitigation responsibility of cities, there is still no single common and widely accepted method. In this study, we have adopted a method that is based on four system boundaries to identify and compare per capita CO2 emissions of six large Japanese cities in 1980 and 2000. Despite the fact that substantial differences exist among these cities in terms of industrial structure and transformation, population, and local climatic conditions, we found that the per capita CO2 emissions for the system boundary 4, which is CO2 emissions attribution to city from the consumption perspectives, are very similar among them and are stable over the 20-year study period, although those for all the other system boundaries are not similar. This is in contrast to the general claims made by local authorities regarding their success in reducing per capita CO2 emissions. Such claims are made on the basis of emissions estimated using the system boundary 2 method. We argue that using the system boundary 4 provides a more realistic account of changes in urban CO2 emissions and trends and should be adopted by local authorities in their pursuit of urban climate change mitigation goals.

Acceptance of energy efficient homes in large Japanese cities: Understanding the inner process of home choice and residence satisfaction

In Japan's Long-term Energy Supply and Demand Outlook, promotion of energy-efficient homes (EEHs) is essential. For most people, however, energy efficiency is not a primary motivating factor when selecting a home. People cannot be satisfied with their own homes just as the home is energy efficient. For EEH promotion policies, it is important to identify factors that affect people's choice of homes and factors that affect their satisfaction with living in their homes. In addition to searching for such factors, constructing a model that explains the process through which people choose homes and are satisfied with living in their homes contributes to the implementation of EEH promotion policies.In this study, we conducted a web questionnaire survey to investigate which factors affect people's choice of EEHs and which factors affect their satisfaction with their residences. Based on observed facts and with reference to a behavioral model in the social psychological field, we constructed a theoretical model that explains the process through which people choose homes and are satisfied with their residences. As a result, in order to promote EEHs, first it is necessary to make people choose EEHs by appealing to their health consciousness and community considerations. Second, it is necessary to have people realize the satisfaction of living in EEHs by following up on how to use EEHs' technology and by raising awareness of the environment. Based on the observed facts, revealing people's decision-making and physiological process in choosing a home and their satisfaction with their residence is useful for planning EEH promotion policies.

Winners in the urban champions league – A performance assessment of Japanese cities by means of dynamic and super-efficient DEA

This paper aims to provide an advanced dynamic efficiency assessment methodology for city performance strategies in Japan, based on an extended and super-efficient Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The use of this novel efficiency-improving approach originates from earlier research based on the so-called Distance Friction Minimisation (DFM) method. In the present study we develop a new multi-period model from a blend of a Target-Oriented (TO) DFM model including a dynamic approach. This new model is able to present a more realistic efficiency improvement projection comprising a dynamic system of target-settings to achieve a target improvement level so as to programme more realistic policy actions. The above-mentioned Dynamic TO-DFM model will be applied to and tested for a multi-dimensional efficiency assessment of several large Japanese cities. In this study, we consider due to comparative data limitations, two inputs (population and city budget) and two outputs (GDP and tax revenues). Based on these items, this study assesses the relative economic performance of 16 Japanese big cities by means of the above described, extended super-efficient DEA model. Finally, we present an efficiency improvement programme based on the Dynamic TO-DFM model for enhancing the position of inefficient cites.

Comprehensive planning in Japanese large cities

ABSTRACTComprehensive planning has been a key activity of local governments in Japan. This paper discusses the history of the comprehensive planning concept and argues that the purpose of comprehensive planning in large Japanese cities (dai-toshi) differs from that in Western cities. Specifically, Japanese comprehensive plans reflect Japan’s distinctive planning and political culture, such as the country’s history of granting gradually increased local autonomy to its cities under the Local Government Act, and the implementation of top-down plans prepared and implemented by powerful mayors and bureaucracies. Since year 2000 comprehensive plans for Japanese large cities have begun to change due to lower rates of economic growth, population stability, and ageing, alongside the challenges of introducing more efficiency and effectiveness into the planning process.

A Simple Algorithm for Predicting Bacteremia Using Food Consumption and Shaking Chills: A Prospective Observational Study.

Predicting the presence of true bacteremia based on clinical examination is unreliable. We aimed to construct a simple algorithm for predicting true bacteremia by using food consumption and shaking chills. A prospective multicenter observational study. Three hospital centers in a large Japanese city. In total, 1,943 hospitalized patients aged 14 to 96 years who underwent blood culture acquisitions between April 2013 and August 2014 were enrolled. Patients with anorexia-inducing conditions were excluded. We assessed the patients' oral food intake based on the meal immediately prior to the blood culture with definition as "normal food consumption" when >80% of a meal was consumed and "poor food consumption" when <80% was consumed. We also concurrently evaluated for a history of shaking chills. We calculated the statistical characteristics of food consumption and shaking chills for the presence of true bacteremia, and subsequently built the algorithm by using recursive partitioning analysis. Among 1,943 patients, 223 cases were true bacteremia. Among patients with normal food consumption, without shaking chills, the incidence of true bacteremia was 2.4% (13/552). Among patients with poor food consumption and shaking chills, the incidence of true bacteremia was 47.7% (51/107). The presence of poor food consumption had a sensitivity of 93.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 89.4%-97.9%) for true bacteremia, and the absence of poor food consumption (ie, normal food consumption) had a negative likelihood ratio (LR) of 0.18 (95% CI, 0.17-0.19) for excluding true bacteremia, respectively. Conversely, the presence of the shaking chills had a specificity of 95.1% (95% CI, 90.7%-99.4%) and a positive LR of 4.78 (95% CI, 4.56-5.00) for true bacteremia. A 2-item screening checklist for food consumption and shaking chills had excellent statistical properties as a brief screening instrument for predicting true bacteremia.

Japanese citizens’ preferences regarding voluntary carbon offsets: an experimental social survey of Yokohama and Kitakyushu

This study uses an experimental social survey in two large Japanese cities to explore citizens’ attitudes toward international voluntary carbon offsetting that encourages low carbon development in developing countries. In particular, the study focuses on whether the offsetting is a contribution to meet national target of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction under the Kyoto Protocol or reduction beyond the national target, using Kyoto credits generated from climate change mitigation projects in developing countries. The study finds that around 40% of the survey respondents chose real carbon offsetting over a gift certificate as compensation for their participation in the survey, around half of whom chose carbon offsetting contribution to the world. However, most of the current Japanese carbon offsetting providers utilise only the carbon offsetting contribution to the Japanese government. Thus, Japanese citizens have significant untapped potential for undertaking more carbon offsetting to meet targets other than national targets. However, the results also show that there is a general lack of understanding regarding the mechanism of carbon offsetting. Carbon offsetting providers in Japan and other countries that may have national self-imposed targets and allowing the usage of international carbon offsetting should therefore be considered, so as to provide individuals with the options of either contributing to their government to help it meet its national target or contributing to the world to help reduce GHG emissions beyond the national targets.

Particle associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmospheric environment of urban and suburban residential area

Ten polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with suspended particulate matter in the ambient air were collected at two sampling sites: urban and suburban residential areas of Yokohama, Japan from 1999 to 2005. The concentrations of target compounds were determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The total concentrations were higher in urban residential area than suburban residential area. They ranged from 0.31 to 6.16 ng/m3 withameanof2.07ng/m3 and 0.33 to2.87ng/m3 with a mean of 1.02 ng/m3 in the urban and suburban residential areas, respectively. The predominant compounds determined both in the urban and suburban residential areas were benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[ghi]perylene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and benzo[e]pyrene. The concentrations of 5- and 6-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were higher in the urban than the suburban residential area, accounting for 77.3 % and 72.1 % of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, respectively. Source identification was performed by principal component analysis. Two principal components were identified for each study area and these accounted for 95.9 % and 83.3 % of total variance, respectively. The results revealed that stationary source and vehicle emissions were the major pollution sources in the studied areas. The impact of emission regulations for automobiles in large Japanese cities, which were enacted during 2002 and 2003, was also studied. Based on the average total concentration, emission reduction was 47.8 % and 18.6 % in urban residential and suburban residential areas, respectively.

Urban and suburban aerosol in Yokohama, Japan: a comprehensive chemical characterization

This article analyses elemental composition of suspended particulate matter (SPM) samples collected monthly from 1999 to 2005 at two locations in Yokohama, Japan. Microwave digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy was employed to measure Mg, Al, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Ag, Cd, Cs, Ba, Pb, and Bi. Water-soluble ions (Na(+), NH(4+), K(+), Ca(2+), Cl(-), NO(3-), and SO(4)2-) and carbonaceous mass (elemental and organic carbon) were detected using ion chromatograph and CHN analyzer, respectively. The results indicate that the composition of SPM on one of the sites is determined by automobile emissions and on the other by industrial combustions. The impact of the emission regulations for automobiles in large Japanese cities, which were enacted during 2002 and 2003, on the SPM composition of the samples is also studied.

Work and Family Life of Childrearing Women Workers in Japan: Comparison of Non‐Regular Employees with Short Working Hours, Non‐Regular Employees with Long Working Hours, and Regular Employees

This study assessed the working and family life characteristics, and the degree of domestic and work strain of female workers with different employment statuses and weekly working hours who are rearing children. Participants were the mothers of preschoolers in a large Japanese city. We classified the women into three groups according to the hours they worked and their employment conditions. The three groups were: non-regular employees working less than 30 h a week (n=136); non-regular employees working 30 h or more per week (n=141); and regular employees working 30 h or more a week (n=184). We compared among the groups the subjective values of work, financial difficulties, childcare and housework burdens, psychological effects, and strains such as work and family strain, work-family conflict, and work dissatisfaction. Regular employees were more likely to report job pressures and inflexible work schedules and to experience more strain related to work and family than non-regular employees. Non-regular employees were more likely to be facing financial difficulties. In particular, non-regular employees working longer hours tended to encounter socioeconomic difficulties and often lacked support from family and friends. Female workers with children may have different social backgrounds and different stressors according to their working hours and work status.

A performance evaluation method of monitoring systems for inner-basin drainage under imperfect observation

Major issues of urban drainage are coping with flooding caused by torrential downpours and water pollution caused by washing loads from non-point sources. Large-scale trunk sewers and pumping stations are constructed in large Japanese cities. To reduce both types of damage due to floods and water pollution, these sewerage systems should have additional functions of storage and treatment of the washing loads. In such a case, pump operations have a key role for the reduction of damage. However, perfect observation of the state of the system is difficult since continuous observation of water levels and/or water flow in all the points of the sewers is necessary. Hence, we cannot use operation optimization techniques which require perfect observation of the system. In a certain condition, several stochastic optimization techniques only require partial state observations: systems equations and observation equations are both linear, the objective function is quadratic and the time-horizon of the problem is finite. Although there may be cases where these assumptions hold, it is hard to obtain an optimal operation policy of pumping stations in urban inner-drainage systems using these optimization techniques, since observation equations, at least, are non-linear in most situations. This paper focuses on this partial observability of states for pump operation problems in sewerage systems. A practical method to design pump operation optimization and an evaluation method of the performance on the reduction of damage by implementing another monitoring station to the system are introduced. A numerical example is also presented to illustrate how the proposed method works.

Japanese garbage management: debunking American myths

Domestic media reports and other information communicated to the American public have lead to widespread perception that extensive recycling is being carried out in large Japanese cities, far in excess of recycling rates achieved in large cities in the United States. This erroneous perception by the American public concerning how the japanese manage their solid waste has contributed to an expectation that very high municipal recycling rates in large American cities can and should be readily realized and that incineration of solid waste can and should be avoided. This report indicates that in fact, high recycling rates are not achieved in large Japanese cities. To the contrary, integrated solid waste management is carried out in large Japanese cities with considerable emphasis upon incineration of combustible solid waste.

Global Marketing Innovation in Consumer Banking: Japan

As Japan′s domestic banking industry deregulates it is forced to confront marketing issues which it never had to deal with under the hothouse conditions that prevailed as recently as five years ago. Citibank, the American consumer banking giant, provided the initial stimulus which led large Japanese city banks to become more market responsive to their small depositors in both their products and promotional strategies. Everything from credit cards to electronic delivery systems, from cash machines to direct marketing have been affected by the retail bank strategy launched by Citibank Japan in 1985. In this situation Citibank, a foreign bank which owns a very small niche in the Japanese consumer banking marketplace, has turned out to be the “mouse” that shocked Japan′s giant “elephant” banks into changing their ways to the benefit of Japan′s bank customers. It has nudged these institutions closer to adopting the global marketing trends affecting consumer banking worldwide.

Land Use Change of the Surrounding Areas of the CBD in Fukuoka City

In 1975 and 1976, the problem concerning the surrounding areas of the CBD was taken up as a theme by the Association of Japanese Geographers. These symposiums gave us substantial results but left certain problems.In order to solve these problems, this paper aims to clarify urban land use changes of the surrounding areas of the CBD in a large Japanese city. Furthermore, inner city problems which are noticeable in European and American cities should be investigated in Japanese cities.Fukuoka City is selected as the study area, because functional differentiation is developed as a result of rapid urban growth and the urban core area and its surrounding area are easily identified.In this paper, the author analyzes spatial patterns of land use using the grid square data of land uses (published by the Fukuoka Municipal Office) and examines the relation between these patterns and the movement of enterprises and population. He also investigated land use changes in the surrounding areas of the CBD by an intensive field survey. After examining factors which caused these land use changes, he considered the expansion process of the urban core. The results are summarized as follows:1) Spatial patterns of urban land uses in Fukuoka City reveal an obvious areal differentiation. In general, land uses are arranged from the core to the periphery as follows: Around the central business district, mixed land-use districts of residences and industries are located in the northern and eastern parts, while those of residences and commercial facilities are located in the southern and western parts. In the periphery of the study area, residences are dominant in western and southern parts, and the industrial district lies in the eastern part and along the coast.2) In the mixed district of residences and industries around the CBD, population density reaches a high degree but there can been seen a fall in population itself. The number of enterprises has neither increased nor decreased, apparently. On the other hand, in the mixed district of residences and commercial facilities, the population is not decreasing seriously and this district is experiencing a decline of manufacturing activities, but a growth of service and retail trade industries.3) Land use changes in the areas surrounding the CBD are classified into three types: 1. the districts where land use is more intensified and urban core functions are concentrated. 2. the districts where transitional land uses such as parking lots or vacant land are dominant. 3. the districts which have mixed land uses of residential and commercial functions or of residential and industrial functions.4) These land use changes are caused by several factors such as functions of the hinterland, areal movement of the urban core, the direction of urban growth (development of transportation, infrastructure, etc.) and city planning.5) The urban core area in Fukuoka City is expanding to the southwest. However, this horizontal growth has its limit, because accessibility to the urban core is declining. Vertical growth is becoming distinctive.

Shibuya Center, Tokyo

Gigantic commercial centers exist at principal transportation nodes in several large Japanese cities. A model generalizes characteristic components of these centers: a transportation hub, a staging area, zones for department stores and office towers, an area of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, specialized shopping streets, an amusement quarter, and a love-hotel zone. These places attract huge crowds, and Shibuya is a representative center that is popular with students and young company employees. THE purpose of this article is to describe the internal spatial structure of a large commercial center in Tokyo, Japan, and to examine its characteristics in the context of contemporary Japanese society. The emphasis is on the role of the center as a place for after-school and after-work socializing and recreation. Many commercial centers in the largest Japanese cities contain facilities for these functions, which are expressed most clearly in the mixture of businesses that surround railroad stations at key commuter interchanges. Each workday hundreds of thousands of riders transfer from one railroad or subway line to another at these centers. They provide outstanding opportunities for observation of daily routines of the urban middle class and for commentary on numerous themes about Japanese customs of work and leisure. This article also is in the tradition of efforts by foreigners to understand Japanese material culture and behavioral patterns. In other words, the text reflects the fascination that foreigners in Japan often display for societal details and distinctive attributes of the built environment.1 The methodology assumes that the built environment reflects societal context and that analyses of spatial patterns and physical morphology at a place offer insight into the complex interplay of cultural traits, historical circumstances, political and social systems, and other factors that shape the characteristics of a place. As an essay in landscape interpretation, this article follows a long-standing tradition in geography, but with a focus on relationships between society and urban environment.

Formation and Development of the Inner City in Osaka during the Japanese Industrialisation

The object of this paper is to clarify how the residential areas in large Japanese city, Osaka, developed their own distinctive characteristics in the course of industrialisation. The study covers the modern period from the Meiji Restoration (1860's) to the beginning of the Showa Era (late 1920's to 1930's). The built-up area in this period exactly corresponds to the present-day inner city area. This paper also examines how and why the problems relating to the present inner city such as economic decline, physical decay and social disadvantage appeared in the industrialisation process since the Meiji Era. The author holds the following viewpoints: First, most of the emerging factory workers are assumed to be members of lower class society. Secondly, the poorer areas, which later became the inner city area, were created through the inflows of above mentioned factory workers in the course of industrialisation. Therefore the formation of lower class residential areas provides the key factor for the study of inner city problems in Osaka. Study of the labor market are used in clarifying social and living conditions of factory workers in the course of industrialisation. So the author deals with the changing process of labor markets as the analytical tool and focuses on the level of laborers' daily lives. The inadequacies of the existing Anglo-Saxon models to the areal structure of the Japanese city are pointed out, since the Japanese urban residential expansion can only be understood by taking into consideration the peculiar characteristics of the Japanese modernisation process.The results obtained are as follows: The expansion of residential areas up to the beginning of World War I characterised mainly by the outward extension of the lower class residential areas that included most of the laborers working in the cotton textile industries, heavy industry and the miscellaneous industries. The labor markets in each industry were organised differently in this development. These laborers, however, all belonged to the essentially the same class, with no appreciable income or living standard differences among industries. The organisation of residential structure consistently reflected the periphery-lower class structure proposed by Sjoberg. After World War I, the following two new factors emerged: The first is the rapid increase of white collar office workers. The second is that of a growing distinction in standard of living as well as income among members of the former lower class society, i.e., between large heavy industry workers and other factory workers. These new two factors contributed to the transformation of residential structure independently of the existing structure. The most important development was the creation of new residential areas. In this stage three types of residential area were clearly observed. The first and dominant were lower class residential areas which surrounded the city center and extended outward, building up sparse areas among some flophouse districts even at this time. This area was also characterised by the progress of the slum clearance, appearance of Korean residential districts and real advent of social policies. The second type of residential area was that of the better-off factory workers, which was formed adjacent to the factories' sites. However, this type of residential area was distributed sporadically within the first type of residential area. Between them, there were found no appreciable distinctions of housing and living conditions. The third type was white collar office workers' residential areas, which were created beyond the lower class ones and restricted to the upland lying to the south-east of Osaka City. These areas were created independently of periphery-lower class structure, which had been the most dominant or sole areal differentiation up to this time.