57
© The Author(s) 2020
T. Mino, S. Kudo (eds.), Framing in Sustainability Science,
Science for Sustainable Societies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9061-6_4
Chapter 4
The Value of Grey
Makoto Yokohari, Akito Murayama, and Toru Terada
Abstract Modern urban planning, initiated in Western Europe and North America
at the dawn of the twentieth century, framed the concept of “city” as an area where
no agricultural land uses should be included. In Japan, however, the demarcation
between the city and countryside was ambiguously “grey” in comparison to that of
Western cities. This ambiguous mixture of urban and rural land uses characterized
both the fringe and the interior of Japanese cities as well. Edo, the former name of
Tokyo, was already the largest city in the world in the eighteenth century with more
than one million people; but at the same time, welcomed and was quite compatible
with a vast amount of agricultural land that covered more than 40% of the city.
Detesting an ambiguous “grey” mixture and adoring homogeneity and clear
“black-and-white” separation of land were the precepts of modern urban planning;
that is, how modern urban planners framed the problem of building sustainable cities. According to such an urban planning concept, the Japanese mixed land use has
long been regarded as a premodern and deniable use of land. One key feature of the
1939 Comprehensive Parks and Open Space Plan of Tokyo was developing a greenbelt surrounding Tokyo to clearly differentiate the central core of the city with its
urban land uses from the surrounding countryside with its rural land uses. The City
Planning Act in 1968 also aimed at achieving a clear separation of urban and rural
land uses by designating Urbanization Promotion Areas (UPA) and Urbanization
Control Areas (UCA) in each local municipality.
M. Yokohari (*)
Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: myoko@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp
A. Murayama
Urban Land Use Planning Unit, Department of Urban Engineering, School of Engineering,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: murayama@up.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
T. Terada
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: terada@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp
© The Author(s) 2020
T. Mino, S. Kudo (eds.), Framing in Sustainability Science,
Science for Sustainable Societies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9061-6_4
Chapter 4
The Value of Grey
Makoto Yokohari, Akito Murayama, and Toru Terada
Abstract Modern urban planning, initiated in Western Europe and North America
at the dawn of the twentieth century, framed the concept of “city” as an area where
no agricultural land uses should be included. In Japan, however, the demarcation
between the city and countryside was ambiguously “grey” in comparison to that of
Western cities. This ambiguous mixture of urban and rural land uses characterized
both the fringe and the interior of Japanese cities as well. Edo, the former name of
Tokyo, was already the largest city in the world in the eighteenth century with more
than one million people; but at the same time, welcomed and was quite compatible
with a vast amount of agricultural land that covered more than 40% of the city.
Detesting an ambiguous “grey” mixture and adoring homogeneity and clear
“black-and-white” separation of land were the precepts of modern urban planning;
that is, how modern urban planners framed the problem of building sustainable cities. According to such an urban planning concept, the Japanese mixed land use has
long been regarded as a premodern and deniable use of land. One key feature of the
1939 Comprehensive Parks and Open Space Plan of Tokyo was developing a greenbelt surrounding Tokyo to clearly differentiate the central core of the city with its
urban land uses from the surrounding countryside with its rural land uses. The City
Planning Act in 1968 also aimed at achieving a clear separation of urban and rural
land uses by designating Urbanization Promotion Areas (UPA) and Urbanization
Control Areas (UCA) in each local municipality.
M. Yokohari (*)
Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: myoko@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp
A. Murayama
Urban Land Use Planning Unit, Department of Urban Engineering, School of Engineering,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: murayama@up.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
T. Terada
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: terada@k.u-tokyo.ac.jp