Yukaku (red-light district) and city planning in Japanese colonial cities in Taiwan, 1895-1945

In 1895, Taiwan (Formosa) was ceded to Japan by the Qing dynasty. In the earliest period of the Japanese rule, a crowd of Japanese prostitutes immigrated to Taiwan, which opened an era when sex industry of both Japanese and locals appeared broadly in the cities. Then, aiming to solve sanitary and security issues, Japanese colonial government started to set “kashizashiki designated area (also called yukaku area simply)” in each city in 1896, and allowed prostitutes to do their business only inside the area. It also provided the rough location planning of colonial cities far earlier than other well-studied urban policies or plannings, such as the “city improvement plannings (shiku-kaisei)” started in 1900 and so on. Thus, in this context, these designations can be considered as the earliest “silent” planning of the Japanese colonial cities. After that, some yukakus moved to another location in the cities once or more, in response to city growth and progress of the “city improvement planning”. This study found that there were yukakus in 16 cities of colonial Taiwan in total, and the meanings and grounds of each location changed in response to the progress of urban planning or urban developing

Suburbanization and Urban Public Transport Declining public transport in Japanese regional city and regional transport policy

In contrast to the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, urban transport in Japanese regional cities has been on the decline. In addition to the rise in automobile usage, the population of city centres is decreasing and that of suburbs is increasing. With these problems in mind, we examine the transport situation in Japanese regional cities, and propose a desirable urban transport policy for these cities. By using census micro-statistics, we provide a summary of the transport situation in regional cities, and compare these situations to the major metropolitan areas in the United States. We then reveal the lack of policy measures required to tackle these problems, and discuss some prospects for future urban transport policy in Japanese regional cities.Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. Faculty of Economics and Business. The University of Sydne

Spatial Structure in Chinese and Japanese Cities: A Comparative Study of the Supergrid and Superblock Structure

[EN] Supergrids and Superblocks form an urban structure that extends across large areas of many Chinese and Japanese cities. The grid structures consist of wide roads at a city scale and define Superblocks, each with a network of narrower streets. My paper investigates the form-function interrelationships of these structures from morphological perspectives against a backcloth of theory that stresses an integrated network of streets as the prerequisite for a convenient and synergetic environment, with a specific focus on road/street networks, and mix and distribution of functional activities. Both qualitative and quantitative methods (including space syntax) are used to investigate four Superblocks from two pairs of Chinese and Japanese cities: Xi’an and Kyoto, and Nanjing and Osaka, from three aspects: integration, connection and interaction. Here I focus on the Nanjing-Osaka pair and the findings demonstrate clear but divergent patterns between the two cities, which are indicative of general differences between Chinese and Japanese Superblocks: there are very strong interrelationships between the street network and distribution of activities in the Japanese Superblocks, but these are much less evident in the Chinese Superblocks and this results largely from the extensive Chinese cultural practice of building walls around compounds. It reveals some structural disadvantages, leading to congestion of traffic and functional activities in some strategic locations in Chinese Superblocks. It also highlights some crucial qualities in the structures of many Japanese Superblocks that can provide inspiration for China’s future urban development and possibly for cities in other parts of the world.All maps and data are collected and created by the author, who is partially funded by the University of Sydney for the on-site fieldwork in the two cities.Chen, XF. (2018). Spatial Structure in Chinese and Japanese Cities: A Comparative Study of the Supergrid and Superblock Structure. En 24th ISUF International Conference. Book of Papers. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 125-137. https://doi.org/10.4995/ISUF2017.2017.4555OCS12513

The impact of the American Civil War on city growth

This paper analyzes the persistence of the shock caused by the American Civil War on the relative city size distribution of the United States. Our fi�ndings suggest that the effects of this shock were permanent, which sharply contrasts with previous results regarding World War II for Japanese and German cities. It should be taken into account that the conflict considered in this paper took place at an earlier stage of the industrialization and urbanization processes. Moreover, our results are determined by the fact that the battles were fought in the open �field, not in urban areas. Some related evidence regarding the presence of a safe harbour effect is reported.

Decomposition of density into their components: Analysis for the case of Japan

The concept of density has been changing through the time; originally, it has the simple definition of the total population divided by the area of analysis. However, the division of cities into residential and commercial areas, the increasing in the number of tall buildings, and the necessity of creating public spaces inside cities created the necessity of refine the original concept of density. This paper decomposes the concept of density into six indicators across the Japanese municipalities in order to explore the real characteristics of them under a more detailed analysis. We showed that, for example, some cities have high density but not due to be a crowded city; instead those cities have reduced residential areas or the average height of buildings are not as tall as other areas

Decomposition of density into their components: Analysis for the case of Japan

The concept of density has been changing through the time; originally, it has the simple definition of the total population divided by the area of analysis. However, the division of cities into residential and commercial areas, the increasing in the number of tall buildings, and the necessity of creating public spaces inside cities created the necessity of refine the original concept of density. This paper decomposes the concept of density into six indicators across the Japanese municipalities in order to explore the real characteristics of them under a more detailed analysis. We showed that, for example, some cities have high density but not due to be a crowded city; instead those cities have reduced residential areas or the average height of buildings are not as tall as other areas

On the effect of the built environment and preferences on non-work travel: Evidence from Japan

This study uses data from the 4th Nationwide Person Trip Survey to analyse the relation between the built environment, modal access preference at residential location and travel behaviour in Japan. By estimating random parameter count models, significant statistical associations were found between the built environment and preferences with non-work trip frequency by mode. Furthermore the effect of population density, car ownership and some access preference traits were found to be heterogeneous for some modes. Since most of the recent literature has focused largely on North-American and European cities, this study contributes to the existing body of literature by examining the role of the built environment and individual preferences on travel behaviour in the context of Japanese cities, and sheds some light on existing heterogeneity in the effects of some factors related to travel behaviour

Preliminary discussions on the urbanization of rural areas in modern Iran

In this translation draft of the first part of the author's recently-published book in Japanese, entitled as "Rural-cities in Contemporary Iran: Revolution, War and the Structural Changes in the Rural Society," we are presenting the preliminary discussions on Iranian middle-sized cities and towns which emerged in these 30 years or so. We start from the explanations of the contents of the above-mentioned book and do the reviewing of the preceding studies, followed by the critical review of the studies on the Iranian revolution in 1979, and the studies on Iran's recent political trends and the tendencies towards the local governance, which was tempered and collapsed with the appearance of President AhmadÄ«nejÄd. This consists of the Introduction and the first parts of Chapter 1 of our book, and we are expecting to finish translating the whole contents and to publish it in the near future. We apologize for the shortcomings of this paper, for example some partial lack of correspondence of its bibliography with the main contents, mainly because of the technical reasons.Iran, Rural societies, Urbanization, Social change, Social structure

Countries of the Baltic Region in the Global Culinary Space

Globalisation is creating a global culinary space where culinary traditions of different countries interact and compete. The author sets out to explore characteristic features of the culinary space of nine Baltic States as part of the global culinary space. The author uses empirical data on the number of restaurants serving different national cuisines in the main cities of the region. The Baltic culinary space incorporates the world’s leading cuisines (Italian, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) as well as the local cuisines of the BSR countries. The world’s leading cuisines prove to be more influential in the region than the local ones. Some countries of the Baltic Sea region (Russia, Poland, Sweden, Latvia, and Denmark) have culinary sovereignty, since their residents prefer national cuisines. In some other countries of the region (Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania), the public favours the world’s leading cuisines — Italian, Japanese and American — over the local ones. The non-capital Baltic cities of Poland and Germany, as well as St. Petersburg, display a greater sense of culinary patriotism than Warsaw, Berlin, and Moscow respectively. This article attempts to explore the features of the Baltic culinary space. The author considers the environmental and socio- historical factors key determinants of the countries’ cuisines