Description
Book SynopsisExplores the decade-long challenge to reconstruct Kobe after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.
Trade ReviewDavid Edgington’s fine analysis of the Kobe earthquake (officially known as the Hanshin Awaji Great Earthquake) places the event within a wider context of urban planning and disaster planning in Japan and examines the long-term impact of the earthquake. In so doing, it provides the reader with one of the most precise dissections of the Japanese planning system that has yet been written, as well as furnishing a profound insight into the various aspects of urban Japan.
-- Paul Waley * Urban Studies, 49:1151-1153 *
Edgington presents a richly descriptive account, based on meticulous data collection, of the urban planning and urban management aspects of Kobe’s long-term recovery from the Hanshin earthquake. The painstaking quality of the research is evident throughout the book, which imparts the key lessons of Kobe’s experience with disaster recovery. -- Keiichi Sato, University of Tokyo (Translated from the Japanese by Margaret Gibbons) * Social Science Japan Journal, vol 14, no 2, Summer 2011 *
Table of ContentsPreface
1 Introduction
2 Earthquakes and Urban Reconstruction
2.1 The Problem of Post-Disaster Reconstruction
2.2 Japanese Planning and Administrative Practice
3 Kobe and the Hanshin Earthquake
3.1 Kobe up to the Time of the Earthquake
3.2 The Geography of Crisis
4 The Planning and Reconstruction Response
4.1 Actions Taken by the National Government
4.2 Actions Taken by Local Government
5 Protest, Participation, and the Phoenix Plan
5.1 The Citizens’ Protest
5.2 The City’s Response and the Commencement of "Machizukuri" Planning
5.3 The Phoenix Reconstruction Plan
5.4 Review by the National Government
6 Neighbourhood Case Studies
6.1 Shin-Nagata in Western Kobe
6.2 Moriminami in Eastern Kobe
7 Symbolic Projects and the Local Economy
7.1 Funding for the Symbolic Projects
7.2 Kobe’s Economy and the Plight of Small Firms
7.3 The Chemical Shoes Industry
7.4 Attracting New Industries and Firms
7.5 The Kobe Airport and the City’s Debt
8 Conclusion
8.1 Was the Ten-Year Reconstruction Plan Successful?
8.2 What Were the Major Influences on Kobe’s Reconstruction?
8.3 The Geographies of Crisis and Opportunity
8.4 Lessons for Japanese Cities
8.5 Are There Lessons for Other Cities?
Notes
References
Index
