• Back
• Next

日本語

Struggles in research

My research focused on analyzing 24 projects across 13 cities involved with the consolidation of public and welfare facilities, and these projects were operated by a variety of organizations, such as local governments, redevelopment unions, and private companies. For this reason, I had to contact the organizations that managed each project, and thus gathering information required a lot of patience. The most difficult experience I faced was when gathering information from redevelopment unions. Once the target project was up and running, the redevelopment unions were dissolved and I had no way of contacting them. As a result, I needed to contact the construction and community-planning companies that were involved in the projects, which required several extra steps.

Details of the research

In this country, where the population is declining and aging, the industrial hollowing-out of city centers is becoming prominent due to various factors, such as the suburbanization of large shops and an increase in motorization. As such, there is a growing importance placed on revitalizing city centers. In response to these circumstances, local governments have been formulating basic plans for revitalizing city centers as an ongoing process since around 2006. It is especially important to improve public and welfare facilities in rural cities with little private investment. Consolidation is significant in that it creates a hub in the city center, which serves to create a center for activity.

In this research, I shed light on the method of creating focal locations at city centers through the consolidation of public and welfare facilities in city centers.

There are many types of projects for consolidating public and welfare facilities. Projects have different influences on the city center based on a combination of different factors including the organization leading the project, the intended usage, the total floor area, and the location. Projects were categorized into three types with regard to the method of creating focal locations at city centers as follows:

1. Projects that create a new focal location by building facilities with a total floor area of 10,000m² or above that are at least 100 meters away from a train station or a city office.
2. Projects that enhance the surroundings of an existing focal location by building facilities with a total floor area of less than 10,000m² that are less than 100 meters away from a train station or a city office.
3. Projects that build facilities with a total floor area of less than 10,000m² at least 100 meters away from a train station or a city office, but that do not create a new focal location nor enhance an existing focal location.

Furthermore, these projects were also divided into two types based on the effect on population flow as well as their main purposes: projects with welfare and commercial purposes that pull population flow towards them, and projects with residential purposes that push population flow away from them. By looking at the data with the methods of creating a focal location on one axis and the effect on population flow on a second axis, I found that there were six methods of creating focal locations as follows and shown in Fig. 2.

1. Pulling at a new focal location.
2. Pushing at a new focal location.
3. Enhancing and pulling at an existing focal location.
4. Enhancing and pushing at an existing focal location.
5. Other (pulling).
6. Other (pushing).

Prospects

Currently there are many public and welfare facilities that are deteriorating and require renewal in municipalities across Japan. However, renovations require significant costs. Thus, consolidation of public and welfare facilities is needed through greater collaboration between government and the private sector. In order to gather population towards a city center, services that are closely related to our everyday life, such as medical services, welfare services, and childcare, become vital. Therefore, it is also important to combine uses when consolidating facilities.