Ichikawa – Part 1
March 7, 2008
In cause of my internship by the Ichikawa-government, I choose this town as my study object about identity. This article describes what I know about this town after two days internship.
Ichikawa is a town located in the Chiba-Prefecture. Around 470’000*1 people are living in Ichikawa, at which the number of inhabitants is fluctuating with 100’000 between daily- and nighttime. The cause is that this town was planned as a residential-town (?when exactly?) for Tokyo. The topography is very flat and wide contrary to the west of Tokyo. And the planning has to seek to a family friendly city-planning.
Historic, the place of Ichikawa was agricultural area. Fields and woods. Agriculture and fishing. After the economic-boom, at beginning of 20th century, the pression on residential market increased. The fields had to make place for mansions and other building, many farmer became rich by selling her land. This situation built the cityscape that you can still discover old traditional farmer houses beside the mansions.
old house along the historic road from Edo-period (Gyotoku)
new house traditional style (same road like above)
Short statistic*2:
Households 1925: 3217
Households 2006: 210’519
*1 März 2007 – Wikipedia
*2 市川市時計年間
March 7, 2008 at 10:06 am
Dear Andreas
could you already define what the factors of the typical identity of Ichikawa are or could be?
There is an identity on the cultural level (how houses are built to the street / private – public) for all Japan which you start to detect.
But what is it for Ichikawa?
SIncerely Hans
March 7, 2008 at 11:47 am
Hello Andreas,
Thank you for setting up a dialogue within the context of your special studies in Japan. A few comments regarding the Information:
1. It would be helpful if you could begin to structure the types of information you are beginning to record so that a small databank might be developed which others may browse. A basic overview of land development policies might serve as an initial and effective framework from which to understand some of the observations you make. Policy, management strategies and economic aims all contribute significantly to spatial transformation, and I imagine that some basic information on your blog (with visual information) would be helpful to the reading public and to you as a building block of understanding. Specifically, you might inquire about the concept of a CPA (City Planning Area) within your context, the deployment of the Development Permit System imposed by the central government after WWII, and also the limitation of allowable taxes as a way to contain local planning authorities.
2. You might explore the relationship between planning policies (management) and the transformation of the urban landscape which you describe. Specifically, Japan has a tradtion of centralized planning which has been increasingly challenged by local, more participatory groups of citizens (“Machizukuri”).
some possible sources regarding the reconstruction of Post-war Japan and contemporary planning policies:
Sorensen, Andre. Rebuilding Urban Japan after 1945 (review)
The Journal of Japanese Studies – Volume 31, Number 2, Summer 2005, pp. 493-498
Mori, H., (1998) Land conversion at the urban fringe: a comparative study of Japan, Britain and the Netherlands, in: Urban Studies, Vol. 35, No. 9, p.1541-1558.
Nakai, N., (1988) Urbanization promotion and control in metropolitan Japan, in: Planning Perspectives, 3:2, p. 197-216.
Sorensen, A. (2002) The making of urban Japan, cities and planning from Edo to the twenty-first century, London: Routledge.
Sorensen, A. (2003) Major issues of land management for sustainable urban regions in Japan, in: Sorensen, A., Marcotuillio, P., Grant, J., (Edt.) Towards sustainable cities. East Asian, North American and European Perspectives on Managing Urban Regions , Aldershot: Ashgate.
Koizumi, H. (2003) Empowerment in the Japanese Planning Context, in: Sorensen, A., Marcotuillio, P., Grant, J., (Edt.) Towards sustainable cities. East Asian, North American and European Perspectives on Managing Urban Regions , Aldershot: Ashgate
Sotah, S. (2003) Sustainable community improvement in Japan: Infill redevelopment where everyone can continue to live, in: Sorensen, A., Marcotuillio, P., Grant, J., (Edt.) Towards sustainable cities. East Asian, North American and European Perspectives on Managing Urban Regions , Aldershot: Ashgate.
With best regards,
Andrew Whiteside