Japanese Cities

3 Japan’s World Cities OSAKA AND TOKYO COMPARED

3 Japan's World Cities OSAKA AND TOKYO COMPARED Kenichi Miyamoto OSAKA'S SIGNIFICANCE The Osaka metropolitan area was once the center of the Japanese economy, but today the Tokyo metropolitan area has taken over that position. This essay discusses the relative decline of the Osaka metropolitan area, with special reference to the city of Osaka, the causes of the decline and policies for restructuring. The relative decline of Osaka is similar in some respects to the decline of big cities in the United States and Europe, but at the same time it is totally different. An analysis of these similarities and differences provides a basis for a comparative theory of the city as well as a clue to the character of the Japanese economy. Osaka was the capital of the ancient emperors from the middle of the seventh century until late in the eighth century, when the political center of the country shifted to Nara and Kyoto, and then to Edo (Tokyo ). Osaka was a point of marine transportation on the Inland Sea, and it developed as a religious and economic center. During the Edo era (1603-1868), it functioned as a national market, where agricultural and industrial products from all over Japan were traded. Japan's early commercial capitalists gathered in Osaka, and Europeans called this city the Venice of the Orient. After the Meiji restoration (1868), modern factories producing fabrics and other manufactures sprang up in the city, and Osaka came to be called the Manchester of the East. In the 1920s, Osaka was Japan's largest city and the nation's center of commerce and industry, while Tokyo 53 Kenichi Miyamoto was the political center. During the "Taisho democracy" in the 1910s and 1920s, Osaka played the leading role in urban policy and administration , including city planning. The man in charge of Osaka during the years of the Taisho democracy was Hajime Seki, a most distinguished administrator and theorist of Japanese local autonomy. 1 He was a professor at Tokyo Business College (now Hitotsubashi University) and a famous researcher of industrial and social policy. In 1914, he became deputy mayor of Osaka, and in 1923 mayor. For twenty years he put his best efforts into modernizing Osaka and made a great contribution to the establishment of urban science in Japan. Hajime Seki brought all his strength to changing city planning from an orientation toward political authority to one toward modern industry and civic life. Hajime Seki planned and conducted transportation projects, including the harbor, Midosuji Street (as beautiful as the Champs Elysees ), the road network, and the subway; electricity supply projects; and water service and sewer systems. All serve as the skeletal structure of the city even now. He also attempted to put social services, such as social welfare and educational and cultural administration, into his urban policy . Unlike Bismarck, who advocated a national social policy for Germany , Hajime Seki thought that urban social policy should be implemented locally. He thought urban policy should aim for "a comfortable city to live in" (one having what are now called "amenities"), and he did his best to raise the standard of living for the majority-namely, the workers. He conducted the nation's first survey of workers' household economy, established publicly owned housing, day nurseries, public markets, and a welfare administration for the city. He also implemented pollution control measures, including a hygiene laboratory, where air pollution was regularly monitored for the first time in Japan. He further established the Osaka City University of Commerce (now Osaka City University), the first university managed by a local government. Intended to contribute to civic culture but not to become a copy of the imperial university, Osaka City University had the first Urban Administration faculty in the country. He also established a think tank for urban study, the City Association of Osaka. Thus, during Seki's administration, Osaka played the leading role in modernization and urban administration in Japan. It was in the forefront partly because the central government had less influence there than in Tokyo and because Osaka had a more liberal economic climate than Tokyo. More important, however, was the strong support for Seki's ideas and policies from the citizens of Osaka, who were influenced by the Taisho democracy. 54 JAPAN'S WORLD CITIES Nevertheless, the Great Depression and the war brought an end to the Taisho democracy. The maturation of modern urban administration in Japan...