A Policy Pendulum Swinging between the Center and the Suburbs Perspective on Regeneration Policies o

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A Policy Pendulum Swinging between the Center and
the Suburbs- Perspective on Regeneration
Policies of Central Districts in Japan 

• IFHP Spring Conference in Liverpool
• Takashi ONISHI
• Professor Department of Urban Engineering,
• Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

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Institutional Changes over Retail Activities (1)

• The Department Store Act(1956)
• Large-Scale Retail Store Act(1974)
• Regulating store space, closing time, number of
  holidays and opening day
• Strengthening the regulations(late 1970s)
• reducing store space subject to requiring a
  report and by introducing local meeting for
  adjusting retail activities in the latter half of
  1970es
• Deregulating after Japan-US Structural
  Deliberation
• Abolished in 2000
• Large-Scale Retail Store location Act(2000)
• reducing bad effects of the large-scale store to
  surrounding living conditions

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Institutional Changes over Retail Activities (2)
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Fig.1 Retail Business Outlook
shops1,236thousandsturnover134,571billionsempl
oyees7589thousands in 2007
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Annual Turnover by Business Categories in Japan
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Fig.2 Retail Sales by Locations
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Fig.3 Location of Large-Scale Retail Stores by
Land Use Categories in Japan
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Fig.4 Population, Area, Density of DIDDID
Densely Inhabited Districts
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Changes of DID Density in Metropolitan and
Rural Regions
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Compact City Policy in Aomori
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• Inducing a compact city policy in a city.
• Public Investment in the center is attracting
  attention.

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A Compact City structure in Toyama
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Shopping Center in Takamatsu
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Shopping Center in Takamatsu
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Shopping Center in Takamatsu
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Conclusions

• 1. The choice and concentration strategy should
  be applied to broader policies especially
  including public capital investment such as road
  construction and arrangement of city area.
  Therefore, the coordination among related
  policies is more important than before.
• Inducing private investment for revitalizing the
  center is indispensable to make the projects
  there sustainable. Information dissemination, tax
  exemption for investment and other policies for
  private companies which are interested in the
  investment in the rural city centers to reduce
  the risk when they invest projects.
• 3. Nevertheless, it is important to understand
  that the revitalization of the city center is one
  of the necessary policies. Since cities are
  expanding to the suburbs nowadays, city
  governments must consider not only the
  revitalization of the center but also amenable
  living conditions in the entire city areas. The
  city center should be treated as one of the
  center for citizens daily life.