In a new international and university funded research project we set to explore the untapped potential of urban alleys to boost resilience and community spirit in cities facing increasing risks from environmental and climatic challenges. The project, which spans Japan, Australia, and Taiwan, aims to transform these often-overlooked urban spaces into vibrant, functional parts of the cityscape.
Focusing on comparative analysis between Sydney, Taipei, and Tokyo, the study seeks to uncover how urban alleys can be redesigned to foster community engagement and enhance urban sustainability. By integrating innovative design strategies and community feedback, the project hopes to offer practical guidelines that could reshape Tokyo’s alleys into more inclusive and resilient public spaces.
The research will be supported by Senshu University and happen in form of a collaboration between different international research institutions in the three countries, emphasizing a mix of visual analysis and secondary data to craft tailored urban solutions.
The study will have several key goals, such as:
Enhancing Urban Resilience: To determine how alley redesign can contribute to a city’s ability to withstand and adapt to environmental and social challenges.
Promoting Sustainability: To explore sustainable urban design practices that utilize alleys for green spaces, waste management, and energy-efficient initiatives.
Increasing Community Engagement: To engage local communities in the redesign process, ensuring that the changes reflect their needs and enhance their quality of life.
Boosting Economic Opportunities: To examine how revitalized alleys can stimulate local economies by supporting small businesses, markets, and tourism.
Improving Public Health and Wellbeing: To create safer and healthier environments through improved alley designs that encourage physical activity and social interactions.
Preserving Cultural Heritage: To respect and incorporate historical and cultural elements of the alleys in the redesign, preserving the unique character of each city.
Encouraging Innovation in Urban Design: To use the project as a laboratory for testing new urban design ideas that could be applied to other parts of the city or exported to different urban settings.
Together with Lisa Woite we worked the last two years on an exciting research project dealign with the liminality of subcultural spaces in Tokyo and the changing urban situation of the city they are situated in. This is one of the first outcomes of this research project about liminal spaces in Japan and this time we are very happy to be a part of the special issue “Urban Borderlands: Difference, Inequality, and Spatio-Temporal In-Betweenness in Cities”, edited byDeljana Iossifova (University of Manchester) and David Kostenwein (ETH Zurich). Many thanks for all the critic, advice and support coming from peer-reviewers, colleagues and friends.
The paper is open access and available for download here:
The Liminality of Subcultural Spaces: Tokyo’s Gaming Arcades as Boundary Between Social Isolation and Integration
Heide ImaiFaculty of Intercultural Communication, Senshu University, Japan
Lisa WoiteDepartment of Imaging Arts and Sciences, Musashino Art University, Japan
The Kobe Fieldwork, conducted at the beginning of November 2023, aimed to examine the town planning mechanisms implemented by the city government to protect diverse communities and strengthen their resilience. Upon arrival, we commenced our visit to Mount Rokko, observing the city’s development since the 1995 Earthquake. Our exploration included the recovery process and a visit to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Museum, which featured a guided tour and a movie screening.
The following day, we delved into the history of the foreign settlement quarter and explored the local farmers market, renowned for its innovative approach to connect producers, consumers, and people from various backgrounds. The market, held every Saturday in a picturesque park, provided us with the opportunity to conduct interviews with over ten food stand operators, discussing their contributions to local farming, food security, and different recovery initiatives, as well as the establishment of local farm networks and distribution channels for wine, cheese, beer, and of course, vegetables. Additionally, we learned about collaborative workspaces, the utilization of akiya (vacant homes) for various purposes, startup promotions, and local tourism initiatives.
The field trip concluded with a comprehensive tour of the Kobe harbor development, which included visits to the Tadao Ando Children’s Library, the Kiito Design Centre, and the Atoa Complex, along with the newly developed Tooth Tooth Food Market and the iconic Kobe Sign. The Kobe Fieldwork provided the participants with a broad spectrum of experiences, from historical sites and cultural landmarks to insights into disaster management and recovery strategies. More fieldtrips will follow in 2024.
For some students it will be final semester and seminar work will be concluded resulting in diverse research projects related to urban sociology and cultural experiences. These projects encompass a wide range of topics and areas of investigation, including:
Urban Renewal and Gentrification: Students explore how urban renewal initiatives and gentrification are impacting the fabric of neighborhoods in Tokyo and other Asian cities, considering their effects on local communities, businesses, and cultural heritage.
Community Revitalization: Research projects delve into the efforts to revitalize local communities within urban settings. This might involve studying the role of local businesses, grassroots initiatives, and community engagement in driving revitalization.
Urban Planning and Development: Students investigate the urban planning strategies and development projects shaping the physical and social landscape of Tokyo and other cities. This could include an examination of transportation infrastructure, green spaces, and architectural design.
Cultural Diversity: Exploring the cultural diversity within urban environments is another avenue of research. This might involve studying cultural festivals, immigrant communities, or the influence of globalization on local traditions.
Everyday Life in the City: Projects also focus on the daily experiences of residents in urban areas, shedding light on routines, challenges, and opportunities. This could encompass studies of work-life balance, commuting patterns, and leisure activities.
Historical Perspectives: Some projects take a historical approach, tracing the evolution of urban areas and examining how past events and decisions have shaped the current urban landscape.
Comparative Studies: Comparative research could involve analyzing similarities and differences between Tokyo and other Asian cities, drawing out lessons and insights that can be applied globally.
These research projects aim to deepen our understanding of urban life, culture, and society, with a focus on Tokyo and its counterparts in Asia. Students apply sociological and ethnographic research methods to explore these topics, and their findings will contribute to broader discussions about the dynamics of modern cities. More soon about the upcoming results
Looking Back and Looking Forward: Community and Justice in Crisis
The Pacific Rim Community Design 2023 Sendai took place from 16-18 September 2023. At Day 1 all participants visited Futaba, a town erased by 3.11, the Futaba Disaster Museum and listed to the major and how the town tries to recover. He showed us around the derelict city hall where the time stood still and displayed the time of the event: 14.46pm at 3.11. Afterwards we had the opportunity to see one of the local elementary schools and how also here time stop suddenly when the triple disaster hit. Parents were able to pick up belongings some 7 years later, but some never did as the memory must have been too sad.
From former 6500 residents just 100 returned (09.2023) or moved here (e.g. newcomer) since the lifting of the evacuation order on 30 August 2022. Many areas near the destroyed coastal areas are mainly planned for work/shopping but not living or residential purposes (even though around the new JR Futaba station (which is located along the Joban line) new low rise housing is constructed at the moment, offering affordable and subsidied houses and apartments for rent).
Also many (new) companies settle in the area, some are still under construction, attracting even more companies as 70 percent of the construction cost can be covered by public funds. Newcomer who plan to settle in the town can receive 200man/ 16.000 Euro, returnees cannot receive this, which leads to more inner conflicts and shows how complex the situation is. Thanks to all who organized this tour, it was a very inspiring to see the development, even though the town might never recover fully.
On day 2 we visited the Tomioka Archive museum, its impressive installations which featured items which were collected from private homes (70 percents of the items on display) including clocks, calendars but also a wrecked police car which reminds the visitor of the tragedy of the triple disaster which caused so many death, not just immediately but also many years later (the Futaba museum mentioend a number of a total of 2337 disaster related death in Fukushima by 31 March 2023). Minachan who is working as story teller for a local NGO eventually joined us on a bus tour around Tomioka showing us the former shotengai (central shopping street), schools, station buildings and even the fundament of her own house which is she now rebuilding in Tomioka.
After lunch we visited the Tomioka winery which started 2014/2015 to plant vines to better use the area and create something for future generations. Three school friends (who are now in their 50s) came together, used their own land and funds to start the procedure and continue to realize the project with the help of crowdfunding and many volunteers to finally to suceed to produce 500 bottles per year (as of 2022). Most of the bottles go to the crowdfunders, volunteers and all people involved but they have high hopes to be able to sell wine very soon to the general public. More about their initiave can be found here: https://tomioka-wine.com/
Our final stop brought us to Namie Cafe and the Ocafe, which is the initiave of a former residents and other women to tell the stories of 3.11 and their survivor.s Oka-san rebuilt and opens her house as cafe to all who want to know more about the disaster which especially hit Namie town but also many other local communities so hard. We listed to three kamishibai stories, narrated by three amazing women who work effortless to create a local network to which we should listen to and learn from so that such disaster will not happen again. If you are in the area, give them a call, surely they are welcoming you: https://ocafe-utuwa.mystrikingly.com/
On monday all participants came together at the Tohoku Universitie’s International Research Institute of Disaster Science – IRIDeS together to discuss their impressions, listen to different researchers and finally to poster presentations who featured many new ideas. Many thanks to all the organizers for all the efforts, energy and time as they took months to prepare this event, lets not just talk but realize how to create livable communities.
Ocafe is growing 1000 Sakuratrees to give to schools and other groups
This years summer fieldwork trip brought us to London and Paris, where we had the chance to walk and discover different neighbourhoods, present our recent research about urban walking methods and made new connections for upcoming seminar projects.
When the next semester starts in some weeks, the new seminar students will not just discuss the human scale of global cities, but also learn about different methods to visualize their diversity, creativity and subcultural spaces.
In May students started to prepare a new series of interviews for the upcoming screening of a documentary about everyday life and challenges in Tokyo’s neighbourhoods, this time focussing on Jinbocho, Kanda. The aim it is to highlight the challenges the residents and visitors face everyday to live and access this neighbourhood. This forms a unique chance for the students to conduct town walks and interviews at the same time, documenting their work and research not just in form of fieldnotes, visual sketches but also videomaterial which they can utilize to recall the fieldwork and support their findings.
As the work just started, the time of the screening and exhibition will be announced at a later date. More can be found here: https://heideimai.com/seminar-cities-culture-and-everyday-life-2022%e5%b9%b4%e5%be%8c%e6%9c%9f/
After some eventful weeks, a new semester and academic year has started in April. We will enter the second year back F2F and final year for some of the students who started at this faculty in 2020, survived covid-19 and went abroad in 2022. It will be my honor to guide these and all new students to learn more about communication, connections and the city which has so much creativity and dynamics to offer. In some new research project we will also address more current problems as post-pandemic public spaces under pressure, how to achieve urban sustainability/ diversity and support urban-rural linkages to learn more about urban and rural Japan common and different problems. A not complete list:
Olivier and Jarrod from the Local Japan Podcast are hosting a regulary podcast to connect local Japan and its people to the world. Being recently invited to talk about lessons we can learn from rural Japan we talked about vernacular landscapes, sustainable shrinking and the passion to connect and communicate with people to share the wisdom of the rural Japanese landscape and how to protect it.
After a general introduction and weekly theoretical lectures covering topics such as urban renewal and gentrification, students learned a toolset of fieldwork techniques such as city walks, visual mapping, observation, and interviews. To better get to know the community, the students took ten walks around Jimbocho. First interviews were conducted in October (which was also published in the Nikkei Shimbun in December 2022), and a list of people we want to interview in the future was created.
In the second stage, the students began to discuss the usage of local parks, highways and skyscraper rooftops, etc., and began to create their own research questions. . To consolidate these topics, Kanda Jimbocho’s Mock-up Model was built.
Recently our seminar was interviewed by Nikkei Shinbun. We talked about the fieldwork we currently conduct in Kanda Jinbocho and we were more than delighted to introduce the journalists to the connections we made overthe last months in the local community and how this will help to improve the character of this neighbourhood.
Senshu University, School of International Communication, Learning Culture through Experiences in Exchange 2022/12/07 Nihon Keizai Shimbun Morning Edition Page 31
Senshu University’s School of International Communication is a new faculty created in the 2020 academic year. It provides opportunities for fieldwork, study abroad, and practical educational experiences. It aims to develop human resources who are well versed in Japanese culture and cross-cultural understanding and who can respond to globalization. In late November, five students from the Faculty of Intercultural Communication visited Yamatoya Shokumoten, a long-established geta store in Kanda Jimbocho, Tokyo. The purpose of their visit was to report their findings through SNS (social networking site). The store rents a part of the store to other kimono businesses. On the day of the visit, haori (Japanese traditional haori coat) and hand towels using a technique called chusen (tie-dyeing) were on display. Ryuhei Funabiki, the fifth-generation owner of the store, explained that he wanted to convey the charm of kimono, and the students exchanged opinions, saying, “It looks good even when worn over Western clothes. Associate Professor Imai Heide, who is teaching the seminar students, is from Germany and has practical experience in architecture and urban design. “Without the backing of a culture that is easy to empathize with, a community cannot be created. I hope to make students aware of this through a familiar city,” she says about the aim of this fieldwork.
The Faculty of International Communication has approximately 700 students in the Department of Intercultural Communication and the Department of Japanese Language. In the first year, all students learn the basics of Japanese culture and cross-cultural understanding. After that, each department cultivates expertise through study abroad, seminars, and practical experience. Communication across borders requires not only the ability to understand and use language, but also an understanding of cultural diversity and universality. In order to enable students to study a wide variety of topics, the department has assembled a faculty specializing in languages and interdisciplinary themes. Dean Tetsuro Negishi explains the department’s aim: “We provide students with a three-dimensional approach to the world and society. The Department of Intercultural Communication places emphasis on fieldwork and other practical activities. For the first time at Senshu University, students are required to study abroad. Department Chair Kenro Suzuki says, “We hope that students will gain a broad understanding of communication through local experiences. The Japanese Language Department, on the other hand, teaches Japanese as a global lingua franca. The students will deepen their knowledge in a practical manner by utilizing literature and materials. The leftward-facing face on the wall visually indicates the rule of reading characters from the left,” he said. Tomoe Konno, a second-year student in Professor Tatsuya Saito’s seminar on Japanese phonology and notation, shows and explains a manuscript of the “Shinkokin Wakashu. In Professor Saito’s seminar, students choose a subject of their choice, compile their findings into panels, and display them in the university library. Professor Saito says, “We devise ways for students to learn practical skills such as presentation, planning, and negotiation through the transmission of Japanese language. Journalists and actors are invited as lecturers to deepen students’ practical understanding of the Japanese language. For students who wish to become Japanese language teachers, a program to teach Japanese at schools in Japan and abroad is also available. More and more foreigners are becoming interested in Japan through animation and food culture. We will nurture human resources who can transmit the Japanese language, backed up by academic studies, to foreign countries. For the department, which focuses on real-life exchanges, the outbreak of the new coronavirus was a blow to the department. Some students had to postpone their planned study abroad programs. On the other hand, there were some positive outcomes, such as the start of online Japanese language joint research with a Croatian university with which the department had been in contact. The 2023 academic year will see the first graduates of the program. Dean Negishi is enthusiastic, saying, “We hope to send out people who can make use of what they have learned through their five senses in society.”
With the start of a new research project, which is part of the Chiyoda Studies Project(千代田学) students, staff and teachers aim to obtain diverse opinions and suggestions from a wide range of community members to analyse how the everyday life in Chiyoda-ku, especially in the Kudanshita, Jimbocho and Ogawamachi neighbourhoods has changed. In accurately reflecting on the diverse opinions of the residents, we can consider and develop better approaches for the revitalization of local communities and re-integrate various policies, including different machizukuri, tourist and local branding plans.
2022-2044 Next Steps include:
Understanding the local community setup
Interviewing different members of the community
Reflecting on the different social problems (as result of in depth data analysis)
Formulating and Suggesting specific approaches for each community
Special Issue: The present issue of Asian Studies is devoted to the investigation of the causes, effects, and ethical and ideological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, particularly in East and South-East Asia. COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on global societies. There have been enormous changes in the economy, lifestyles, education, culture, and many other aspects of social life (Caron 2021, 1). The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed societies, cultures, organizations, infrastructures, and many social services into a completely new reality. In this respect, the COVID-19 pandemic is without doubt a crisis of global proportions. Therefore, the whole of humanity should try to find a strategic solution to it, and to this end, the importance of intercultural dialog is manifested in a particularly clear and unambiguous way.
Paper Abstract: Different disasters throughout history have prompted Japan to develop diverse approach-es to recovery, revitalization, and local resilience. The current global COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. In this paper, we argue the need to study the impacts of COVID-19 on outside major cities such as Tokyo as such areas were already experiencing socioeconomic decline. Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture is a city that has also been undergoing extensive post-disaster reconstruction after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), nota-bly through various bottom-up approaches, often initiated by volunteers and migrants bringing new, creative ideas to community revitalization. These efforts continue to shape the social life of its residents during COVID-19, making Ishinomaki an important case study in both disaster reconstruction and rural revitalization. This paper examines exam-ples in which creativity played a key role in revitalization, recovery, and community re-silience in Ishinomaki over the last decade to shed light on current creative revitalization initiatives at the grassroots level, initiated and carried out by citizens. Drawing on an eth-nographic approach conducted remotely in the form of semi-structured interviews, the paper presents the personal narratives of a diverse range of residents and social networks committed to rebuilding the soft infrastructure that is often overlooked compared to hard infrastructure. The paper proposes suggestions for the future based on lessons learned from the past decade, and hopes to illuminate how Japan’s rural areas are adapting to a new normal in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Different disasters throughout history have prompted Japan to develop diverse approaches to recovery, revitalization, and local resilience. The current global COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. In this project, we argue the need to study its impacts on Japan’s rural areas, which were already experiencing socioeconomic decline. Rural Japan, including Ishinomaki has also been undergoing extensive post-disaster reconstruction after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), notably through diverse bottom-up approaches, often initiated by volunteers and migrants bringing new, creative ideas to community revitalization. These efforts continue to shape the social life of its residents during COVID-19, making Ishinomaki an important case study in both disaster reconstruction and rural revitalization. This research examines also other interesting examples in which creativity played a key role in revitalization, recovery, and community resilience. The project proposes suggestions for the future based on lessons learned from the past decade and hopes to illuminate how Japan’s rural areas are adapting to a new normal in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To make good use of the semester break another domestic study tour brought us on the first day to Fujinomiya and the Fuji World Heritage Centre in Shizuoka (https://mtfuji-whc.jp/en/), designed by Shigeru Ban and open since 2018. Due to the lack of crowds avoiding to travel in Japan caused by the worldwide corona virus outbreak, the museum was literally empty. This allowed us to take pictures from all angles on this sunny yet very windy day.
On the second day we were able to first visit the Yokoayama Observatory (https://www.iseshima-kanko.jp/en/see-and-do/1249) which allows the visitor to overlook the beautiful Ago Bay, where austers and pearls are farmed and which reminds us much of Finlands’ rough cliff landscape. Afterwards we finally arrived at the Ise Jingu Geku – the outer shrine of the very famous Ise Shrine where in 2019 the new emperor was enthroned. The shrine building which was rebuilt in 2013 and will be rebuilt in 2033 again (thus every 20 years) cannot be photographed but the atmosphere was transquil and very special. A visit to the Ise Jingu Naiku -the inner shrine of the Ise Shrine completed this visit to this grand heritage site.
On the third day we were able to visit another famous site, the Mikimoto Pearl Island (http://www.mikimoto-pearl-museum.co.jp/index.html) where Mikimoto Kokichi, a local entrepreneur, succeeded in 1893 to produce cultured pearls on an island called Ojima (相島). The trip ended with a ferry ride over the Ise Bay to reach Irago with its impressive lighthouse tower and beautiful strawberry fields.
More about Ise Jingu’s architecture can be found here:
A recent study tour brought us to Shimonoseki (Yamaguchi) and Kitakyushu (Fukuoka), located between Japanese main island of Honshu and Kyushu, the third largest of the main islands. Starting to discover different revitalization processes in urban Mojiko, Shimonoseki and Kitakyushu (including the very interesting Toto Museum), we further discovered more local areas as the remote island of Tsunoshima (known for its colbalt blue water) and Kawatana Onsen town, kown for Kawatana Soba and Kengo Kuma small exhibition centre.
The next day we discovered Kiwanosato (Kutsuwai, Shimonoseki), a small village which tries to bring back (new) life into the community with the help of creative, local ideas and international collaborations. In comparison, Onoda village, well known for its cement and brickstone production, surprised with a very well maintained, rural development at the seaside, known as Kirarara Yakeno Beach. Almost 20 years ago Kengo Kuma was involved in the development and the area is now featuring a small glass museum/workshop and restaurant with stunning setting, especially during sunrise and sunset.
The third and final day brought us to the outskirts of Fukuyama where the the remote, yet tranquil Shinsoji Zen Garden and Museum complex first ask wellknown architect and historian Terunobu Fujimori to built a central building in 2014. In 2016, artist Kohei Nawa developed together with Sandwich Architects a floating, almost spaceship-like building which features inside an impressive Zen installation. As the bathhouse and several cafes where closed, it will be for sure not the last visit to this beautiful spot in West Japan.
Recently I was interviewed by my former student Mizuki Nakata for her research about professional migrant women in Japan, where she is aiming to understand what difficulties including for example isolation, exclusion and discrimination but also challenges as building up a social network, realizing some kind of work-life balance and finding the right niche in Japanese society, they faced and even overcame. As there are nowadays so many different kind of women in Japan, living, working, surviving but also thriving here, it will be important to see what kind of results the research will reveal and how it might help other women to take control of their own life, set goals, and make positive choices, or in other words, how can we empower women to change Japan from inside.
In the night from 8 to 9 September, typhoon faxai swept across Shizuoka, Kanagawa, Chiba, and Tokyo, and the typhoon was the strongest in Japan’s recent history. With 965 hPa air pressure and wind speeds of up to 210 kilometers per hour, up to 400 millimeters of rain were observed in some places. Next to train delays, school closures and a chaotic situation at Narita airport (some 17000 people were stranded at some point in the terminal) many electric pylons were destroyed and up to 900,000 people were without power. As of today, there are still ca. 500,000 people without power and heavy thunderstorms make the restoration work very difficult, so that some are afraid that the electricity will just be back at the end of the month in some places.
Apart from the lack of power, running water (which is urgently needed to cool down as temperatures still reached 36 degree on 10 september) and food (most stores in Chiba stayed closed due to damage and a lack of power) many people complain about the lack of information and guidance from the government. These adds extra stress to the already severe situation which hits especially elderly, young children and other marginalized members of the society very hard.
With the start of new semester next week, I am currently reworking the content of the course “Sociology of Disaster” to see what can we learn from the disaster and how we can be better prepared.
