Urban Regeneration and the Shift of Planning Approaches: The Case of Japanese Regional Cities

Abstract

The Center for Sustainable Urban Regeneration (cSUR) at the University of Tokyo has undertaken research on sustainable urban regeneration and the governance of city regions. The objective of the research is to examine the characteristics of the emerging space of global city regions and to discuss possible strategies and forms of governance for those city regions, with a focus on the roles of regional cities as creative hubs of city regions. Three International Workshops on Sustainable Urban Regeneration and Local Governance in Regional Cities were held in order to make a comparative study among city regions in Asia, Europe and the US. The first International Workshop was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on 4 March 2005 in collaboration with the Gadjah Mada University, and the second and third International Workshops were held in Tokyo with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on 17 January 2006 and 12 January 2007 respectively. The commonalities as well as differences of the selected case city regions were discussed in depth and many useful in- sights and ideas emerged during the workshops. This book presents the re- sults of these workshops. All contributors presented their papers in the workshops and expanded their initial analysis and ideas based on the dis- cussions at the workshops and subsequent correspondences among the par- ticipants. This book has combined empirical and comparative analysis on the gov- ernance of city regions in Asia, Europe and the United States, which, we believe, will add a new perspective to discussions on the sustainable future of cities and regions. We hope that the ideas conceived in this book will serve as a useful and thought-provoking resource for researchers, practi- tioners and students and those who are interested in the nature of emerging city regions and sustainable cities and regions.