The Japanese City

by Pradyumna P. Karan, Kristin Stapleton

Overview

Japan is one of the most crowded countries on earth, with three-fourths of its population now living in cities. Tokyo is easily the most populous city on the planet. And yet, though closely packed, its citizens dwell together in relative peace. In America, inner-city violence—often attributed in part to overcrowding—is frequently emphasized as one of the great social problems of the day. What might we learn from Japan's situation that could be applied to our own as we approach the twenty-first century?

In this collection an interdisciplinary group of international scholars seek to understand and explain the process and characteristics shaping the modern Japanese city. With frequent comparisons to the American city, they consider such topics as urban landscapes, the quality of life in the suburbs, spatial mixing of social classes in the city, land use planning and control, environmental pollution, and images of the city in Japanese literature.

The only book on the subject, The Japanese City surveys the important literature and highlights the current issues in urban studies. The numerous photographs, maps, tables, and graphs, combined with the high quality of the contributions, offer a comprehensive look at the contemporary Japanese city.

Contributors: William Burton, David L. Callies, Roman Cybriwsky, Kuniko Fujita, Theodore J. Gilman, Richard Child Hill, P.P. Karan, Robert Kidder, Cotton Mather, and Kohei Okamoto.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813120355
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	12/18/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

P.P. Karan, professor of geography and chair of the Japan Studies Program, and Kristin Stapleton, assistant professor in the department of history, both teach at the University of Kentucky.

Table of Contents

	List of Figures, Tables, and Photographs	vi
	Preface	ix
1	Introduction	1
2	The City in Japan	12
3	Urban Landscapes of Japan	40
4	From Castle Town to Manhattan Town with Suburbs: A Geographical Account of Tokyo's Changing Landmarks and Symbolic Landscapes	56
5	Suburbanization of Tokyo and the Daily Lives of Suburban People	79
6	Together and Equal: Place Stratification in Osaka	106
7	Urban Land Use and Control in the Japanese City: A Case Study of Hiroshima, Osaka, and Kyoto	134
8	Disasters Chronic and Acute: Issues in the Study of Environmental Pollution in Urban Japan	156
9	Urban Restructuring in Omuta, Japan, and Flint, Michigan: A Comparison	176
10	The Image of Tokyo in Soseki's Fiction	221
	List of Contributors	242
	Index	245

Editorial Reviews

A welcome addition to the study of Japanese cities.

Urban Studies

Charts, statistical table, graphs and maps are plentiful: this is an interdisciplinary effort with good bibliographic resources.

Canadian Journal of Urban Research

Relatively little attention has been paid in the field of Japanese studies to the regional and local levels. The Japanese City therefore makes a valuable contribution to the field with its interdisciplinary look at the city.

Miranda A. Schreurs

The reader will find informed comments on land use and planning, urban restructuring, social classes, landmarks and cultural symbols, historical consciousness and, of course, environmental pollution; the focus is on contemporary Japan. The book excellently demonstrates that a topic as complex as Japanese cities can only be understood through a multidisciplinary approach.

Journal of Asian Studies

An important new contribution to research about Japanese urbanism.

Pacific Affairs

An interesting and readable volume that certainly makes a contribution to the slim English-language literature on Japanese cities and Japanese geography.

Geographical Review

"Charts, statistical table, graphs and maps are plentiful: this is an interdisciplinary effort with good bibliographic resources." — Canadian Journal of Urban Research

"An interesting and readable volume that certainly makes a contribution to the slim English-language literature on Japanese cities and Japanese geography." — Geographical Review

"The reader will find informed comments on land use and planning, urban restructuring, social classes, landmarks and cultural symbols, historical consciousness and, of course, environmental pollution; the focus is on contemporary Japan. The book excellently demonstrates that a topic as complex as Japanese cities can only be understood through a multidisciplinary approach." — Journal of Asian Studies

"Relatively little attention has been paid in the field of Japanese studies to the regional and local levels. The Japanese City therefore makes a valuable contribution to the field with its interdisciplinary look at the city." — Miranda A. Schreurs

"An important new contribution to research about Japanese urbanism." — Pacific Affairs

"A welcome addition to the study of Japanese cities." — Urban Studies

From the Publisher

Geographers, sociologists social planners, and political scientists look at the development and nature of the environment where 77% of Japanese people live. They explore the landscape, changing landmarks and symbols of Tokyo and other cities, the quality of life in the suburbs, the effective use of space the Japanese have cultivated, and other features. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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