NEWS
2023.01.26
A Report on the Core Session of the AJI International Symposium 2023: “Whose ‘Public Space’? International Case Studies of Cities in Japan, Europe, and the United States”
On Thursday, February 23, the Core Session of the AJI International Symposium 2023 “Asia-Japan Research Beyond Borders: Asian Societies Striving for Secure and Sustainable Life,” was held. The AJI and the Institute of Regional Information, Ritsumeikan University co-hosted this session. The session was titled “Whose ‘Public Space’? International Case Studies of Cities in Japan, Europe, and the United States.” The session was conducted in a hybrid manner with simultaneous English interpretation. Before the opening, President Yoshio NAKATANI (Ritsumeikan University), also Director of the Asia-Japan Research Organization, delivered his complimentary address, welcoming the participants and explaining the purpose of this symposium.
Director Nakatani delivering his address (on the screen)
【Panelists for the Core Session】
Moderator: Professor Hiroyuki MORI (College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University)
Presenters / Titles:
-Professor Daisuke ABE (Faculty of Policy Science, Ryukoku University) / “Reconsidering Tourism Policy: Some Issues in Post-Overtourism”
-Professor Hiroshi YAHAGI (Research Fellow, Ryukoku University) / “Gentrification: New York and Osaka”
-Professor Tomohiko YOSHIDA (College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University)) / “Focusing on the Increasing Elderly and the Coming of the 'Death-burdened Society' in the Public Sphere of Urban Space”
-Professor Hiroyuki MORI (College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University): “Declining and Aging Population, and the Public Administration and Finance of Large Cities: The Case of Kyoto and Osaka”
This session aimed to reexamine tourism and gentrification policies promoted by urban local governments under the declining and aging populations common to developed countries. The massive wave of finance, information, and tourist capitalism that has pervaded the world amid globalization is exposing the lives of citizens in cities to risks, and the question, “whose public space?” is being rethought globally. After the COVID-19 pandemic, a major challenge for universities is to tackle this question and reconsider “what the city is” for its citizens.
In this symposium session, cities such as Barcelona, New York, Osaka, and Kyoto, which have exemplified the economic and social dynamics of contemporary cities, were taken up and examined comprehensively from the perspectives of urban planning, economics, public administration, and finance. A summary of each report is as follows:
Professor Abe made a presentation about the issue of overtourism with statistical materials on tourism, including a surge in international tourism numbers, mainly in European cities. According to Professor Abe, overtourism is a wide-ranging issue, which evokes a problematic issue of how citizens confront it. In doing so, he suggested that it would be important not to avoid tourism but to aim for a city that coexists with it.
Prof. Daisuke Abe delivering his presentation.
Next, Prof. Yahagi provided an economic overview of how gentrification occurs in cities and introduced the dynamics of cities in the United States and Japan, such as New York and Osaka. Gentrification causes a division between the wealthy and ordinary citizens, resulting in harsh conflict between them. He argued that this issue threatens the living conditions of citizens as well as transforming urban spaces.
Prof. Hiroshi Yahagi delivering his presentation
The third presenter, Professor Yoshida, focused on the “multi-death society” phenomenon occurring in Osaka as a phase of the aging society and analyzed the spatial changes it has brought about in the city using GIS measuring. Particularly, Osaka has an extremely high number of elderly people living alone. Prof. Yoshida showed that the consequences of this issue for a large city such as Osaka would be an important research topic in the future.
Prof. Yoshida making his presentation
Lastly, Professor Mori examined the various aspects of the urban financial crisis behind urban municipalities' promotions of tourism and gentrification, using Kyoto and Osaka as examples. According to Prof. Mori, while the two cities share some common features, such as their fiscal stringency, there is a difference in the causes. A survey showed that while Kyoto City has incurred fiscal problems due to its past public debt, the issue in Osaka City is caused by operating expenses related to civil lives. He concluded that administrative and fiscal policies differ greatly depending on the policy intentions of local governments and that this depends on the autonomy of the citizens living there.
Prof. Mori delivering his presentation
The presentations were followed by many questions and comments from the floor, and the participants could reconfirm the significance and importance of research on this theme.