Isami Kinoshita

Bridging Community Differences through Informal Processes Reexamining Participatory Planning in Seattle and Matsudo

Participatory planning today faces a dual challenge—the growing diversity and differences at the community level and the limitations of institutionalized participation. By comparing two cases of community planning in Seattle, Washington, and Matsudo, Japan, this article examines the role of informal processes in overcoming institutional and social barriers and negotiating differences of identities, values, and interests. The article argues that, through animated interactions, building of trust, experiential learning, and spontaneity, informal activities and processes can serve as important vehicles for creating meanings, social relationships, and collective actions and enable planners to navigate the cultural and political terrain of community differences.

Charting generational differences in conceptions and opportunities for play in a Japanese neighborhood.

This paper is written about the transformation of childrens playing spaces in one neighborhood in Tokyo (Taishido district in Setagaya ward). As part of an action research project that was initiated in 1981 and followed up in 2005, play maps were created for residents of four generations. In exploring historical changes in the town that have affected the play of children, we found many unwelcome patterns of change that have the effect of decreasing nature spaces, limiting communication between children, and even decreasing childrens play outdoors. On a positive note, this action research illustrated an effective approach for engaging people of different generations and encouraging them to pay more attention to environmental changes that have an impact on childrens play and to take actions to improve the neighborhood for and with children. This paper is meant to contribute to our understanding of childrens environment issues, an area that has roots in several disciplines, including human development, environmental psychology, geography, urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture.

Danger from Traffic to Fear of Monkeys: Children's Independent Mobility in Four Diverse Sites in Japan

The study reported on in this article was based on a study of childrens independent mobility in four different areas in Japan. Interviews were given to the head principals of the sampled schools, and the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) members, and questionnaires were sent to a total of 530 children aged 7–15 years and their parents. These were conducted in order to obtain information regarding the possibilities for children to engage in independent mobility within a variety of community settings. The findings showed that many young children in Japan are allowed by their parents to travel to and from school alone. The older the children were the more they were granted many varied licenses and freedoms for independent mobility. However, a change in childrens attitudes toward the home-school journey was identified in this study. While it is a common norm in Japan that children should go to school on foot or by public transportation, the findings showed that some children have started to rely on private cars as the main transportation to travel to and return from school. In particular this was evident with children who live in small towns and rural areas. This study reveals that in a diverse geographical environment, the extent to which Japanese children can engage in independent mobility is varied. Overall, for children living in the capital city of Tokyo it appears they have more freedom to engage in independent mobility than their counterparts in suburban, small town and rural areas.

Children’s Play Environment after a Disaster: The Great East Japan Earthquake

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, together with the subsequent tsunami and nuclear power station accident, damaged a wide area of land. Children who experienced these terrible disasters and the post-disaster situation are still suffering in mental, physical and social ways. Children’s play is an activity that they undertake naturally and which can help them recover from such disasters. This paper addresses the role of play, adventure playgrounds and other play interventions, including play buses, for the health triangle, which addresses mental, physical and social issues of children after the disasters. These interventions were shown to be effective because children could express their stress. This included play for their mental health, different body movements for their physical health and communication with playworkers and new friends for restructuring their social health. These three aspects relate to and support each other within the health triangle. An increase in childhood obesity and lack of exercise is an additional health issue in Fukushima. For a balanced recovery within the health triangle, more play environments should be provided and some improved. A child’s right to play should be implemented in the recovery stage after a disaster.

Design Collaboration in the Space of Cross-Cultural Flows

This article examines the development and outcomes of a collaborative design studio involving two groups of landscape architecture students in Japan and the United States. Through both virtual (online) and real (face-to-face) interactions, participating students jointly developed urban design proposals for two respective local neighborhoods in Matsudo and Seattle. The challenges for the studio included communicating across cultural, geographic, and technological barriers, as well as more subtle differences in design culture and approach. These barriers and challenges present a stark contrast to the seamless space of flows that often characterize the globalized network of transactions and communication. In analyzing the studio outcomes and pedagogical lessons, the article explores the complementarities of online collaboration and cross-cultural learning. Specifically, it examines the mechanisms of cross-cultural learning in an online environment and the processes through which cross-cultural learning open the windows for a critical understanding of the socio-cultural processes of design in the digital and network age.

The Safe and Fun Children's Play Spaces: Evidence from Tokyo, Japan, and Bandung, Indonesia

This paper presents findings from a research project aimed at understanding childrens perceptions of play spaces, with an emphasis on safety and fun. Six places that were considered by the respondents of the first-stage research as having both attributes of safety and fun were observed. The findings show that these spaces are generally separated from motor vehicles and the child and adult users of these spaces show socially acceptable behaviours and a positive response toward childrens outdoor play. Nevertheless, the findings also point out the significant differences in the characteristics of the safe and fun play spaces in Tokyo, Japan, and Bandung, Indonesia, in terms of their user behaviour, space availability, play affordances and availability of natural elements.

An empirical research study on prospect–refuge theory and the effect of high-rise buildings in a Japanese garden setting

This study was carried out to test prospect–refuge theory and the effect of external high-rise buildings on landscape preferences in a traditional Japanese daimyo (feudal lords) garden, namely, the Hama-rikyu Gardens located in Tokyo, Japan. Eight sites in the garden were selected to be tested with respect to their degree of openness, their degree of safety, and the ratio of background buildings present. An in situ survey was conducted with 129 people (15–18 per site) who agreed to take part in the survey. Subjects were asked to assess the view at each site in the direction indicated by a sign and to provide responses about (a) their general preference for the view, (b) their perception of the openness of the view, (c) their perception of the safety of the site, (d) their perception of the pleasantness of/disturbance from the background buildings. The results indicated that predefined open-protected sites were more preferred than the others; prospect (perceived openness) was an important indicator of the preferences, whereas the refuge-related symbols (perceived safety) of the garden were not perceived differently between the sites; the ratio of background buildings did not have a significant effect on either landscape preferences or perceived prospect–refuge attributes, whereas the perceived pleasantness of/disturbance from background buildings significantly affected the overall landscape preferences. The results indicated that the design techniques of Japanese daimyo gardens, including the usage of the Shakkei (borrowed scenery) technique, might reveal the principles of prospect–refuge theory. Furthermore, the effect of the surrounding buildings is considered to be a subjective aspect that depends on observers’ experiences and attitudes, rather than an objective one.

A Study on Relations between Spatial Management in Villages and Green Tourism(PAPERS OF THE 19th SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH MEETING)

空間管理の停滞が起きている中山間地域において,「グリーンツーリズム (以下G.T.) によって空間管理を再生していく仕組みづくり」に資する知見を得ることを研究の目的とした。すなわち, G.T.を契機とする集落空間管理の変容を概観し, 集落空間管理の作業頻度の傾向から農家を類型化し, 類型とG.T.への参加意識, 参加状況との相関を分析し, 以下の結論を得た。下:(1) G.T.を契機とし, 地域住民, 都市住民による, 多様な空間の管理の再生とこれに対応した新たな管理システムの創出が見られた。(2) 農家毎に見た, G.T.への参加意識の高さ, 参加状況の多様性と,「水田管理作業頻度全般の高低」,「非水田管理作業全般の低さ」には相関が見られた。

A Study of Sphere Characteristics of Elderly People's Outing Activities for their Daily Lives Management in Built-up Residential Area

本研究は, 既成住宅地における高齢者の日常的な生活管理外出の圏域特性を概観した上で, 通院外出及び買い物外出の外出先となる空間が, どのように選択されているのかを解明することを目的とした。研究の結果,(1) 高齢期の生活管理外出は自宅から半径1km圏内が中心となっていること,(2) 通院外出は医療の質に対する対象者の評価により空間選択が行われていること,(3) 買い物外出は, 運動のために自宅から半径1km圏外の空間を選択するケースが60代で, また外出の負担増大を理由に自宅から半径1km圏内の空間を選択するケースが70代以上で多く認められ, 年齢によって外出圏域に段階性があると考えられること, 等の知見が得られた。

A Case Study on Resident's Awareness of the Meaning and Role of Edible Landscape

これまでエディブル・ランドスケープについてコミュニケーションの媒体としての意味を明らかにしてきたが, 本研究では居住者による現在の敷地内の食べられる植物の植栽に対する意識および公共空間におけるエディブル・ランドスケープの形成に対する意識を, 子ども時代の体験や記憶との関連から分析した。その結果子ども期の体験は敷地内のエディブル・ランドスケープの形成に影響をもち, またその他の人物追想など個人の記憶によって, 現在の敷地内のエディブル・ランドスケープの要素は多重の意味を有しているが, 公共空間のエディブル・ランドスケープにその意味の付与が希薄であり.この点に配慮した住民の関わりが課題としてとりだされた。