A Study on the Role of Cityscape Management System forCityscape Identity Management-Focused on 23 wards in Tokyo, JapanSONG, JEANHWA

Abstract
Cityscape identity is formed on the basis of a certain political, economical, andsocial circumstance within a specific place and time, such that the cityscape of
one city is different from that of another city. Various tangible and intangible
components of cityscape from physical elements to socio-cultural elements
enable us to associate a representative image with each city.
With the advent of the localization era followed by economic stability, manylocal cities and towns in Japan have recognized the significance of cityscapemanagement and cityscape planning as a means for developing their own city
identities, in order to support and improve the quality of life of citizens as wellas to promote city competition in various ways. The issue of cityscapemanagement has achieved more prominence throughout the country, and each
local government in Japan has begun to give priority to cityscape management
plans and policies, trying to discover-reorganize-visualize distinctive cityscapefeatures to form a cityscape identity. The boom of establishing a uniquecityscape management system in local cities from the late 1970s to the early
1990s, mainly drawn by the National Government of Japan, indicates a general
concern about cityscape identity management, and under these social
circumstances, local cities in Japan have devoted themselves to introducing
adequate cityscape management systems fit to their own conditions, some ofwhich turned to be very successful in dealing with their own cityscape identity,
while others did not.
This thesis seeks to explore where and how those different results between localcities arise in managing the cityscape, and eventually to derive appropriate andeffective cityscape management techniques that can fit the individual context ofa city, through reviewing and analyzing the cityscape management systems ofthe 23 wards in the Tokyo Metropolitan City where the local government plays
a major role in cityscape management. Structured into three parts including thePreface, An Overview of Cityscape Management in Japan, and Implementationsof Cityscape Management Systems in the 23 Wards in Tokyo and seven chapters,
this thesis contains parts and chapters that discuss important issues as follows:1First, in Part One, Chapter One initiates the task and provides a theoreticalfoundation through establishing the significance of cityscape management,
which is the rationale of carrying out this research, and clarifying the mostimportant and frequently used concepts and terms, such as cityscape, cityscape
identity, and cityscape identity management, in order to delineate the directionof this study; in this study, cityscape identity management refers to all efforts
involved in systems and activities to retain and improve the cityscape identity ofa city, which is defined as the natural components that make a city retain its
unique character, especially in the physical aspect, creating an ensemble ofeffects that determines what it represents to the people. Also, relevant researchand documents are reviewed in this chapter to understand how cityscape
identity has been characterized and what kind of management systems havebeen implemented so far, in addition to finding out what their implications andlimitations are; previous studies have made significant contributions to the fieldof landscape management study through the identification and evaluation ofexisting multidisciplinary management systems. However, most studies havefocused on only a small area, which was designated as a historic preservationarea, usually located in the local cities as in case studies, and morecomprehensive studies on cityscapes in metropolitan cities leading to a morethorough understanding of the differences in the cityscape management systemsof each city through a comparative study remain to be pursued.

Based on the mise-en-place, a brief historical review of the landscapemanagement system in Japan, which is the basis of each local management
system, is presented; the historical review is followed by a review of Tokyo
Metropolitan Government (TMG)’s cityscape management system, which has adirect influence on each of the 23 cities’ cityscape management systems to beestablished and implemented, both of them undertaken as a preliminary study
before conducting the main research in Part Two:
Chapter Two investigates the origin of the concept of cityscape and cityscapemanagement and takes a historical perspective on the development of cityscapemanagement systems in Japan, focusing on how the recognition oflandscape/cityscape management has emerged and expanded to include theestablishment of a cityscape management system at the national level. Inaddition, several relevant systems used by the Japanese national government in
the city planning fields that have affected cityscape management activities, aswell as the cityscape management systems themselves, are included in this2

review.
Then, Chapter Three analyzes the identity of cityscapes of the Tōkyō
Metropolitan City extracted from its original natural environment andhistorical development process, and the development process of cityscapemanagement of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government from a historicalperspective, reaching from its introduction to the present implementing status,by taking a closer look at the latest cityscape management system, CityscapePlanning of the TMG. Aiming to create a metropolitan cityscape for theinternational city Tokyo as well as to preserve the legacy of historicallyimportant cityscape from the Edo Period, Cityscape Planning of the TMG
emphasizes consistency and cooperation among the wards, cities, and towns ofTōkyō and also between the TMG and those lower local authorities, having themost direct and/or indirect effect on the local ordinances and plans for cityscapemanagement of each ward in Tōkyō. Creating such an overall andcomprehensive cityscape management system in a city at the national level or
prefectural level turned to be indispensable, and its implementation has beensuccessfully carried out, but a definite ceiling in en bloc management of thegiant metropolis Tokyo was identified because of the thousands of cityscapes in
the area, differing according to the topography, history, and human activity. To
cope with the deficiencies of those overall cityscape management systems, thespecial 23 wards have established management systems and implemented themin their own ways, which is discussed in detail in the next part.

Based on this background of the development of upper cityscape management
policy and planning systems, Part Three investigates the development of thecityscape management system at the local level to understand how substantiallythe national-level systems are reflected and implemented in sub-level systems by
examining the 23 special wards of the TMG, divided into three main chapters:
Chapter Four looks at the present cityscape characteristics of each ward drawn
from its formation process as well as the original landscape to clarify the originof the cityscape identity of each ward by analyzing how it has changed and whatkind of identity has been created and by focusing on three main factors thatcomprise the cityscape of the 23 wards: geographical features, historicaldevelopment, and land-use patterns since the Edo Period. The cityscapes ofeach of the 23 wards have evolved from various prototypes in various ways, andeach of them has been incorporated into the present Tōkyō Metropolitan City
at different points in time, which had a significant influence on the originalcityscape in each ward, with city planning-related projects implemented by the3

local government and/or private developments, both of which were intensified
by the unpredictable needs of the capital Tōkyō. With different origins anddifferent development processes, the 23 wards have created various kinds ofcityscapes.
This work then moves on the classification process of cityscape management
systems of the 23 wards according to the mainly-used method that has been
implemented based on the historical background and circumstances of eachward as reviewed in the previous chapter, focusing on how the recognition ofcityscape management has emerged and expanded to include the establishmentof a cityscape management system at the local level, so as to elucidate thedifferences between wards and evaluate the appropriateness of each system; the23 wards are first divided into two groups. One group consists of eight wards
implementing cityscape management systems on a legal basis of their own, suchas a cityscape ordinance, cityscape plans and guidelines, or a preliminary
notification system concerning only the ward’s own cityscape, which wereintroduced independently of those of the upper organization, Tokyo
Metropolitan Government. The other group consists of the remaining fifteen
wards controlling cityscapes under the urban planning systems of their own oradopting Tokyo’s cityscape ordinances or cityscape planning as a legal basis.
These fifteen wards in the latter group are re-classified into smaller groups
according to their principal means of cityscape management.
Chapter Five scrutinizes the eight wards implementing cityscape management
systems based on their own legal management tools such as Bunkyo ward,
Chiyoda ward, Kita ward, Koto ward, Setagaya ward, Taito ward, and Toshima
ward, concerning the introduction time of the cityscape management systems
including the cityscape ordinance and its background, and the implementation
circumstance of each management tool including the method of area division,
the range of objects being managed, and the kinds of objects that require
notification to the ward office. Categorized into three groups, legal systems suchas cityscape ordinances and cityscape planning, devices for implementing or
supporting those legal systems such as a pre-notification system or
pre-counseling on new building development, and tools related to publicity
activities and the encouragement of citizen participation, cityscape management
systems of each of the eight wards are analyzed individually, at which point afurther look is taken at the deficiencies or difficulties encountered in
implementing the cityscape management systems, through interviews with theofficials in charge of each ward. While implementing cityscape management
systems based on similar principles and methods, the 8 wards, with their own
cityscape ordinances and planning systems, have developed the basic tools in4their own ways from the number of cityscape management tools to theprimarily used methods of managing the cityscape.
Lastly, Chapter Six analyzes 15 wards with indirect cityscape management
systems, first categorizing them into five groups, which are the wards managing
the cityscape through the District Planning, the wards managing the cityscapethrough the active participation of citizens, the wards managing the cityscapeusing mixed methods, the wards managing only the limited district’s cityscape,and the wards without any special systems for managing the cityscape. Eachgroup is investigated through pertinent materials and in-depth interviews with
officials in charge, focusing on the main cityscape management tools and thecontents and details of the coverage of each tool and examining with whatsystem and how the ward manages the cityscape by which department of theward, citizens’ interest and participation and any educational activities to attract
people’s attention to cityscape management and involve them in the process,other relevant notable particulars, and deficiencies and solutions. These fifteen
wards have implemented far fewer cityscape management tools using the word‘cityscape’ in their title than the wards with exclusive cityscape management
systems reviewed in Chapter Five, and the specifics of each ward varied; notonly were wards giving low priority to cityscape management, but also wards
were actively utilizing other tools in managing their cityscapes in practice, evensome that did not realize that those activities could be considered formal andofficial “cityscape management.”

Chapter Seven concludes by summarizing the findings of this study and bygiving suggestions for implementing favorable cityscape management for local
cities considering the introduction or revision of their own cityscapemanagement system in the near future. It is certain that citizens’ awareness ofcityscape management plays an important role in cityscape management with orwithout a formal system, and thus the significance of educational activities
about cityscape management can never be overstressed. Consequently, the mostideal cityscape management system, in terms of its feasibility as implemented byboth the executer - the ward - and citizens directly concerned with theirsurrounding cityscape, was found in wards where the ward and its citizens wereboth greatly concerned about the surrounding cityscape and the management of
its identity, and therefore cooperated with each other, thus facilitating therealization of an effective cityscape management system.

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