The Development of Tokyo - Essay Example

[Supervisor Tokyo Introduction The paper focuses on tracing the development (historic, economic and social) of Tokyo and the timeline of emerging as a global city within its national context and history. The position of a city in any hierarchy of world importance is not a static phenomenon. This paper takes the example of Tokyo and explores its interaction with the dramatic economic and political events in Japan over the past 20 years. Although Tokyo is widely regarded as one of the top three 'world cities', the argument is supported that it retained many national characteristics, partly based on its location in a 'developmental state'. As national fortunes have changed, so has Tokyo's relationship with its global environment. Twenty years ago Japan was experiencing economic boom and this was reflected in dramatic development projects in Tokyo. The concept of 'world city' was used at this time to legitimize such development. The 1990s were viewed in Japan as 'the lost decade' with great uncertainty over policy direction as the boom collapsed and urban policy in Tokyo entered a phase of inertia. It is argued that the city is now entering a third phase in which a new competitive attitude is emerging regarding the role of Tokyo and this is leading to changes in strategic urban policy. However, this new approach is still embedded in old structures and conceptions and hence there are tensions in developing future policy. Literature Review Tokyo emergence as one of the developed cities of the world very gradually. A lot of effort and dedication by the Japanese brought about this drastic change to Tokyo, which used to be primarily an epicenter for agricultural output of Japan. Tokyo's economic success and world city status have been widely acknowledged ( Friedmann, 69-73; Sassen, 55-86). In practically all the league tables that describe the 'world city' hierarchy, Tokyo sits there at the top with New York and London. However, since the boom years of the 1980s Japan has witnessed a dramatic fall in its economic fortunes. A pertinent question to ask is whether this fall at the national level has been mirrored by a change in Tokyo's world status. The term 'world city' was first introduced as the official policy in the same document. It described the future of Tokyo by predicting that Tokyo will make further strides as a big city with a population of over 12 million, a lively city characterized by mutual contacts and support for transcending generations, a comfortable city with a combination of abundant greenery and charming waterfront, and a city which will maintain a balance between residence and work place while functioning both as a domestic and international information junction and as a major base for the international economy. This is the very image of Tokyo as an attractive international city-that is, a world city-which will lead the world both in name and reality (TMG, 1987, p. 50). When examining the nature of urban policy and planning, it is impossible to ignore the context of global economic change. Many of these policies are formulated as a response to global economic pressures. The priority of urban policy in many cities is to attract inward investment and increase economic competitiveness in relation to other world cities, or similar cities in their region (Short and Kim, 214-235)-although the manner in which this is pursued can vary according to local circumstances (Hall and Hubbard, 85-99). Often these entrepreneurial approaches are adopted to stimulate revitalization after the loss of earlier economic vitality. Thus, as a hypothesis, it is reasonable to ask whether such an entrepreneurial policy emphasis has developed in Tokyo in the context of the Japanese economic crisis. Although Tokyo is nearly always bracketed with London and New York as the top three world cities, there is considerable debate over the degree of similarity between them. One criticism of the global city debate is its Anglo-American ethnocentrism and its tendency to "exaggerate convergence and thus homogenize dissimilar cities" (White, p. 456). It is therefore necessary to explore beyond the typologies and examine the details of the dynamics of each city (Amin and Graham, 411-429; Thrift, 138-149). There seems to be a general agreement that Tokyo exhibits special features, but there are different views over the degree of difference, the significance of the difference and whether convergence is taking place, with Tokyo losing its special characteristics. These characteristics include its economic structure, patterns of business ownership, degree of social polarization and immigration, and the amount of state involvement. An outline will be given of the two aspects of this debate that have most bearing on the focus of this paper-Tokyo's particular economic character and the influence of the state. The expansion of literature and research on world cities can be dated to the 1980s. The paper by Friedmann and Wolff (309-344) is widely argued as stimulating much of this interest. As the 1980s was also the period when the economies of Japan and Tokyo were booming, it is not perhaps surprising therefore to find that Tokyo is almost universally categorized as a leading world city ( Fujita and Hill, 119-134; Rimmer, 283-308; Sassen, 55-86; Machimura, 114-128). The first edition of Sassen's book The Global City (2001), which has been perhaps the most widely quoted work on world cities, was based upon material of the 1980s and promoted the message that London, New York and Tokyo, although having different histories and cultures, were experiencing the same trends because they were the three top command centers of the global economy. Most of the world city typologies give greatest attention to the location of the headquarters of the world's largest corporations or banks (Short and Kim, 214-235). According to Machimura, the number of headquarters of transnational corporations (TNCs) in Tokyo increased more than three times between 1975 and 1987 and the size of the financial market expanded. His study also shows a significant increase in service industry employment in the 1980s (Machimura, 114-128). For instance, producer services, such as information processing (software), advertising and specialist services, showed an increase of more than 30 per cent during the 1980s. Information-processing industries recorded a remarkable increase of 98 per cent between 1998 and 2000, and 61 per cent between 2000 and 2001. In terms of these particular economic factors, the statistics show that Tokyo changed in a similar way to London and New York during the 1980s. When the Japanese economy was booming, the major national corporations and banks were to be found dominating the lists of the top world players, pushing Tokyo up the world city hierarchy if measured by the presence of these top players. However, there is a difference between a city that contains its own national organizations that operate internationally and a city that is a location for a wide range of top organizations from other parts of the world. Japanese TNCs1 and financial institutions, with their headquarters in Tokyo, certainly adopted a world outlook in the 1980s and set up offices in major cities across the globe (Machimura, 114-128). However, in terms of foreign direct investment, foreign capital and foreign labor, Tokyo remained largely non-global during the 1980s (Friedmann, 69-73; Rimmer, 283-308; White, 451-477). As the Llewelyn-Davies report puts it Tokyo remains more of a national centre, the centre of an outstandingly successful global trading nation, than a global city in the London or New York sense Tokyo's offices predominantly house Japanese corporations, its banks primarily serve Japanese industries, its lawyers and accountants are mainly on the payrolls of these same companies, its night clubs cater largely to Japanese corporate clients, its tourist attractions cater principally for Japanese families and Japanese school parties (Llewelyn-Davies, p. 52). Tokyo is therefore a centre for Japanese capital that, in a period of boom, has extended its business reach to overseas countries by export, merger and investment, including becoming the world's leading exporter of capital (Sassen, 55-86). Many analysts have also noted another dimension of Tokyo's economic structure that differs from London and New York. Tokyo still contains a significant concentration of manufacturing activity and an accumulation of medium and small-sized firms (Fujita, 119-134). Tokyo's economic character can be summarized as being relatively 'closed' and having all-round economic functions including a strong manufacturing sector (Kamo, P. 1-12). Flows of capital and company activity are mainly outward rather than inward, because Tokyo has relied heavily on expansion of Japanese-owned TNCs (Hill and Fujita, 119-134). Tokyo did not really open its doors to the outside world and has remained a Japanese city. As Kamo puts it Tokyo's rating as a world city is mainly based on the scale of its economy [but] in terms of the quality of global node functions, Tokyo is still somewhat immature as a world city (Kamo, p. 10). Analysis & Critique The approach taken here has been to analyze the strategic planning documents that have been prepared since the 1980s and identify the way these documents treat Tokyo's position in the global economy. To what extent do they refer to the concept of a 'world city' and what do they mean by this The main priorities in the various strategies and the degree to which they reflected the perceived role of the city have also been identified. Although these issues have been explored for the boom years in order to provide a base-point, the main focus has been on the more recent period, in order to explore whether new directions can be detected. Many new policy statements have emerged in the past few years and the analysis of these documents has been supplemented by interviewing people who have either been involved in preparing the polices or providing advice and comment.1 The focus has been on plans and land-use policies prepared at the strategic or city-wide level. Reflecting the integrated nature of Japanese government, the documents include those prepared by both central and city governments. One of the interesting dimensions to explore is whether there has been a change in this relationship between central and city governments in recent years. Japan has experienced some dramatic changes in economic fortune over the past 20 years. This paper has attempted to show how this economic context has affected urban policy for Tokyo. Three interlocking aspects of this relationship between economic context and urban policy will be highlighted for discussion. The first is the change in attitude to Tokyo as a world city that has occurred over the period. The second is the way that this has affected the approach to strategic planning. The third, as an issue for further investigation, is the possible change in the role of the state as an actor in the relationship between economic forces and urban policy. In exploring these three aspects, the question is addressed as to whether recent policies can be interpreted as a new direction for Tokyo. It is found that there does seem to be a shift in approach as both the city and the nation try to adapt to the new economic pressures. However, there are also many constraints imposed by the strength of past structures and traditions and many dilemmas to resolve. It could be said that the direction for policy change has been indicated at the national level and the Tokyo city government has also taken a positive step towards a new set of strategic priorities, but that the implications of this new framework have yet to be thoroughly worked through to the level of implementation. Conclusion Attitudes to the role of Tokyo have been changing in national government. After a period in which the concept of world city was unfashionable, the national administration of Hashimoto announced the Japanese version of the Big Bang policy in 2003. This proposed that Tokyo should be revived as one of the world's economic centers and be made into a free, fair and global financial market (Kamo, 2145-2165). This was the context for the election for Governor of Tokyo in 1999, which was won by Ishihara. His election manifesto was based on the idea that national recovery should start in Tokyo. He presented himself as a strong political leader who could stop the decline of both Tokyo and Japan. His dynamic approach, in which he proposed to revitalize Tokyo again as Japan's leading city and an important world player, contrasted with the sluggish approach under Hiroshima. It is not an overstatement to say that the future of a city depends upon its degree of attractiveness in intercity competition. Recently, compared with Asian cities in particular, it is sometimes said that Tokyo is losing its status. It seems to be extremely important to address the urban policy of Tokyo from the viewpoint of increasing its attractiveness as a world city (TMG, 2000a, p. 5;). Works Cited AMIN, A. and GRAHAM, S. (2000) The ordinary city, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 22, pp. 411-429. FRIEDMANN, J. (2001) The world city hypothesis, Development and Change, 17(1), pp. 69-73. FRIEDMANN, J. and WOLFF, G. (2000) World city formulation: an agenda for research and action, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 6, pp. 309-344. FUJITA, K. and HILL, R. C. (Eds) (1999) Japanese Cities in the World Economy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. P. 119-134 HALL, T. and HUBBARD, P. (Eds) (2001) The Entrepreneurial City. Chichester: Wiley.P. 85-99 HILL, R. C. and FUJITA, K. (2002) Osaka's Tokyo problem, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 19, pp. 181-191. KAMO, T. (2000) An aftermath of globalisation East Asian economic turmoil and Japanese cit- ies adrift, Urban Studies, 37(12), pp. 2145-2165. KAMO, T. (2000) The Tokyo problem as a 'Japan Problem': world city formation in the context of Japanese political structures, Hogaku Zasshi (Journal of Law and Political Science, Osaka City University), 38(3.4), pp. 1-12. LLEWELYN-DAVIES (2003) Four World Cities: A Comparative Study of London, Paris, New York and Tokyo. London: Llewelyn-Davies. P.52 MACHIMURA, T. (2000) The urban restructuring process in Tokyo in the 1980s: transforming Tokyo into a word city, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 16(1) pp. 114-128. RIMMER, P. J. (2001) Japan's world cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya or Tokaido megalopolis, De- velopment and Change, 17(2), pp. 121-158. SAITO, A. (2003) World city formation in capital- ist developmental state: Tokyo and the water- front sub-centre project, Urban Studies, 40(2), pp. 283-308. SASSEN, S. (2001) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.P.55-86 SHORT, J. R. and KIM, Y.-H, (1999) Globalization and the City. Harlow: Longman. P.214-235 THRIFT, N. (2000) Cities without modernity, cities with magic, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 113, pp. 138-149. TMG (TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT) (1987) The 2nd Long Term Plan. Tokyo: TMG. TMG (TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT) TMG (TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT) (2000a) Tokyo To Toshi Hakusho 2000-Koku- sai Toshi Tokyo no Miryoku wo Takameru. Tokyo: TMG. WHITE, J. W. (2001) Old wine, cracked bottle Tokyo, Paris, and the global city hypothesis, Urban Affairs Review, 33(4), pp. 451-477. Read More