Paper to be Presented at the ICGG Taegu 2000 Conference

Taegu, South Korea, 9-13 August, 2000


 

 

 

Changing urban governance for socially discriminated people:

 A Case of Osaka City, Japan

 

 

Toshio Mizuuchi

Department of Geography, Osaka City University

Osaka, 558-8585, JAPAN

mizuuchi@lit.osaka-cu.ac.jp

 

 

1.       Homelessness and Yoseba

 

According to a survey by Osaka City University in the summer of 1998, it was determined that there were 8,660 homeless people within Osaka city.  Why do homeless people think that Osaka city is the best place to live in Japan?  Figure 1 shows the distribution of where these homeless people reside.  It can be seen that the distribution grows as we move out from each of the inside of the Osaka Loop line (JR railways), and the northern and southern parts of the city.  It is also possible to note that there is almost few distribution for the west seaside and the east inland area, but that there is a significant distribution for big parks such as Osaka Castle park and Nagai park, as well as Nakanoshima park.

 

The southern part of the Osaka Loop line, in particular, is worthy of attention in that the distribution of the homeless is very significant in a wide area.  Most of the homeless in Japan have experience in the construction industry.  The Airin district (Kamagasaki) located in the southern part of the Osaka Loop line near Shin Imamiya station is credited for giving birth to the employment of the homeless for work in the construction industry.  Unfortunately, the employment of workers for construction work decreases in periods of recession, and laborers easily fall into a dire situation.  Where such a situation can easily occur is in this Airin district (Kamagasaki), and the biggest factor that a lot of homeless can be seen in the southern part is due to the existence of this area.

 

One characteristic of the construction labor market in Japan is the existence of Yoseba as a space where employers and laborers directly meet for possible employment, as is observed in the Airin district (Kamagasaki).  Sanya in Tokyo, Kotobuki in Yokohama, Sasajima in Nagoya, Chikko in Fukuoka, and so on, are well-known Yoseba spots in Japan.  Among these areas, the scale of Kamagasaki is the largest in Japan, where laborers numbering over 20,000 live in an area of 0.4k‡u and stay in common lodging facilities and cheap hotels which exist in large numbers.  Laborers are directly affected by changes in the economy, and there are many cases in which they inevitably switch to a homeless lifestyle when their reserves to live in the above common facilities and hotels run out.  Consequently, the residential areas around Yoseba spots are located in what are considered the most valueless places in the Japanese housing market, and have also come to be viewed as problem areas in the urbanized process.

 

In this research, an introduction is made of Osaka city as an example of a transition in urban governance concerning an area in which a minority group (specifically, the Airin district) lives in large numbers and the local population.  This form of governance is very unique in that it brings together the minority group, a social movement body and a volunteer group.  By describing the characteristics of this form of governance, seemingly removed from the transition of the form of urban governance for mainstream society, the actual state of the city government of Osaka city, which is aiming at becoming a world city in the 21st century, can be clarified.

 

2.      History of the Politics for Urban Lower-class People

 

The Osaka Loop line site where the Airin district (Kamagasaki) is located is in the inner city area of Osaka city.  It is composed of an area that was formed from the ending of the Meiji period to the middle of the Taisho period (from the 1910's to the start of the 1920's) when a wave of urbanization surged for the first time in Japan.  In the current stage where no city planning regulations have been implemented (the city planning regulations were enacted in 1919), no planned area development has yet begun as shown in Fig. 2.  It is growing as an area overcrowding with wooden housing, and consisting of narrow alleys, irregular block sections and roads that are not wide enough.

 

The Yamanote Line, which is a loop line in Tokyo, runs through the Sumida River low-land region of the downtown area and high-land areas (i.e., the ups and downs are drastic from the viewpoint of geographical features), while the Osaka Loop line runs on a flat low-land region that spreads to the east and west of the high-land Uemachi terrace.  In addition, Tokyo differs from Osaka owing to it accommodating most of the population growth increases due to industrialization from the 1910fs to the beginning of the 1920fs, and in large part differs from Osaka in terms of the social classes living in the inner city; Tokyo has shown an increase in the white-collar population since its early days.  In Tokyo, quite an opulent hierarchy has come to have an abundant loop zone in which to live, while in Osaka, focus is on the factory laborers, and this loop zone is growing as place in which a large number of the non-opulent working class are residing.

 

From the viewpoint of city policy, the existence of the loop zone in Osaka has become a factor that has brought about an advanced urban social policy for Osaka city at that time.  In this loop zone in which the laborer working class is concentrated, a town of factory workers centered on heavy industry system laborers has appeared in the northern part, and has been a well-known area as the base of labor union movements.  In the southern part, cheap inns (quarters for casual workers) from the Edo period were made to move to the south by the slum clearance projects, Kamagasaki was formed, and at the same time, the lower classes concentrating on day laborers in the surrounding areas significantly increased.

 

The largest Buraku (outcast people) settlement in Japan had existed in the southwest.  The Buraku settlement itself had expanded greatly with the development of the Osaka city area and the development of the leather industry (i.e., a Buraku industry), which had been taken in by Osaka city.  In addition, in the eastern part, laborers from the Korean peninsula (which was made a colony by Japan) had begun to concentrate, and a town of Korean people was formed and largely increased.  In this way, a great deal of the inflow and concentration of such factory laborers, day laborers, Buraku laborers, and Korean laborers had brought about a minority crescent zone in the southern part.

 

The bureaucrats of Osaka city in those days recognized such an area as an explosives warehouse that could explode anytime in society, and consequently, a political view was paid on not only factory laborers and day laborers, but also on from salaried workers centered on teachers and store clerks to Korean laborers, longshoreman, and the homeless, and a "discovery" was made on the laborers and the poor.  At that time, this was connected to the urban social policy by the most advanced social welfare bureau of Osaka city office.  They released more than two hundreds survey documents in 24 years from 1919 to 1942, and labor and social welfare facilities such as community centers, lodgings, and day-care centers were constructed.  A fact that should be specially mentioned in Japanese urban politics is that the English style "Fabianism City Management" was implemented under the leadership of Hajime Seki, then called a scholar mayor (1923 to 1935 as mayor).

 

The population of Osaka reached a peak of 3,250,000 in 1940.  Regardless of the implementation of such an urban social policy, the main living environment was a poor-quality area as shown in Fig. 3, but the population extensively spread out around the southern and western parts, and even a slum clearance project and construction work to improve residences, with implementation beginning from 1933, were carried out in the southern area.  Ironically, however the end of World War II was met with the result of the poor-quality environment being destroyed by fire by the air raids of the U.S. Armed Forces numbering tens of times from the spring to the summer of 1945.

 

3.      Post-war Development and Visible Urban Poverty

 

Over the 10-year period after the war, the War Rehabilitation Project and Disaster Recovery by typhoons were important policy problems in Osaka city.  The burned-down areas by the air raids covered about half of the loop zone of the loop line, but the minority crescent zone had almost all burned down, except for a concentrated area of Koreans in the southeastern part.  It may be thought that the slum clearance proceeded unintentionally, but barracks were once again established in road schedule areas, in spite of the implementation of plans via the War Rehabilitation Project, because residential reconstruction work was entrusted to the power of individuals.

 

Accordingly, the problems of black markets (i.e., one was set up in front of every station), the homeless, and orphans were taken up.  In Kamagasaki, cheap inns were rapidly revived.  The towns of Koreans living in Japan, most of which were in the southeastern part, reached the postwar days without suffering much war damage.  Around 1950, movements to improve the status of Koreans got into swing concerning national identity and the management of ethnicity, but there were many cases of people (Koreans) changing their nationality to North Korean after the Korean War; the condition continues of almost no channel with the municipal government except the responsibility of paying taxes.

 

Politically in the city, the revival of the city's infrastructure was the main theme in the War Rehabilitation Project.  In the minority crescent zone, the policy towards the Buraku settlement started first.  The power of the Buraku Liberation Movement based in the Buraku settlement moved the administration, and it was in 1955 that the movement generated a residence requirement movement.  In the city's policies, although a small happening, it was in 1959 that, while using the public housing law established in 1951, improved apartments were first constructed with special use of budget.  The Buraku Liberation League, which was made the center of a movement to liberate the Buraku settlement, aggressively used even a residential district improvement law established in 1960, and from Osaka city, won the construction of large-scale municipal apartment houses by a residence improvement plan.  The power of this movement was greatly shown in the Nishinari area located in the central part of the minority crescent zone.

 

Furthermore, political intervention in the town of day laborers (of Kamagasaki) first began due to the first Kamagasaki riot in 1961.  This riot was the first occurrence in Kamagasaki since the end of the war.  Since this incident, various policies restricted to Kamagasaki have come to intensively be dropped.  In 1966, a distribution of roles was decided with Osaka prefecture taking labor measures, Osaka city taking welfare measures, and the police department taking public order measures, and it was decided to call Kamagasaki and its surroundings (as the area applying these measures) the Airin district (literally means elovely neighborhoodf).  One result was a large Airin General Affairs Center that was established in 1970 in the center of the Airin district (Kamagasaki).  A social health care center was set up as a labor welfare center and medical organ, mainly for the introduction of construction labor and for health consultation, and the Municipal Rehabilitation and Consulting Center was established as a new protection and accommodation facility for laborers in the Airin district.

 

4.      Urban Development in the Economic Boom of the 1960fs and the Beginning of the 1970fs

 

Towards the 1960's, the War Rehabilitation Project had almost reached its completion, but the thing that moved the city policies of Osaka decisively was the International Exposition held in 1970.  Because the preparation time of the exposition was exactly during a period of high economic growth, the traffic infrastructure work, i.e., the extension of subway lines and expressways, became the star policy of Osaka city.  In addition, it was decided to advance harbor functions and construct Rinkai New Town by withdrawing from an industrialization line at an early time, for the use of a landfill developed on a large scale, by making the Rinkai area differ with the policies of Osaka Prefecture promoting the construction of a heavy chemicals industry in the Sakai and Senboku areas.  Structurally in the city, the Shin Osaka station appeared in the northern part of Osaka city at the same time the Shinkansen was completed in 1964, and this made the center of gravity (i.e., the economic center of Osaka) shift northward.  The site of the International Exposition in 1970 was near Senri New Town, the first "New Town" in Japan to the north of (but not in) Osaka city, and the neighborhoods of the north-south traffic route called Midosuji, which links Shin Osaka (from the center of the city) and Senri New Town, appeared as a new business center.  In addition, politically, it was decided that city redevelopment on a maximum scale would start around the northern and southern terminals of Umeda and Abeno.  Accordingly, in 1965, the population of Osaka reached its peak of 3,160,000 since the war, but in 1970, the population began to decrease with 2,980,000 people.

 

The political measures of Osaka city towards the population increases of the 1960fs were in the large-scale supply of municipal housings for low-income people further outside the loop zone.  Because the wealthy class largely resided between the northern part and the Hanshin region on the outskirts of Osaka city, the region in which the increasing lower middle class concentrated spread to the loop zone extension of Osaka city.  In the minority crescent zone in particular, the transformation of the Buraku settlement was remarkable.  In 1969, central government funds were extensively invested for the Buraku and a project to measure the living environment improvements of the Buraku was introduced in a 10-year plan.  It became such that Osaka city concluded an intimate relationship with the Buraku Liberation League (i.e., movement body), and became involved in most aggressively improving the living environment not only locally but nationwide.  Kamagasaki proceeded to rapidly get into specialization in the town of construction work laborers, remarkably transformed the area into a pool of single male manpower, made boarding houses to accommodate these workers in addition to middle-layer hotels, and remarkably transformed the landscape in a short period of time, by increasing the demand for the nationwide urban and regional development, and by establishing an Airin system.

 

In the minority crescent zone, by the political intervention of Osaka city in the affairs of the Buraku, and the establishment of the Airin system in Kamagasaki, a new phase was reached, but these were done separately despite being adjoined geographically.  There was completely no political intervention into affairs relating to the living spaces and labor of Korean residents living in Japan, instead Osaka city was in a situation of a confrontational relationship by the problem of the maintenance of ethnicity classes teaching Korean culture and the Korean language for the Korean childrens.

 

5.      Inner-city Problems after the Oil Crisis and Economic Stagnation

 

After the oil shock in 1973, hollowing out of industries began forming in the manufacturing industrial power base in Osaka city, due to the withdrawal of the metal and shipbuilding industries at harbors to the west of the loop zone.  A lot of blocks became vacant, the population decreased, aging progressed, and typical inner city problems like the loss of life of towns began to appear.  The land subsidence in Osaka having to do with its industrial structure became conspicuous.  The population saw a considerable decrease of some 200,000 people from 1970 to 1975.  Politically, in 1971, Osaka Prefecture changed from a position of development leadership type politics to a leftist governor regime of promoting welfare policies, and even Osaka city became a leftist government and declared the solution of inner city problems and the enhancement of welfare policies as the policy themes of the city.  Concerning these inner city problems, a number of gentrification projects in the area of administrative leadership were carried out by redeveloping vacant lots evacuated by large-scale factories.

 

The living environment improvements of the Buraku, i.e., a welfare policy in a broad sense, reached its peak between the latter half of the 1970's and the beginning of the 1980's.  About ten thousands units were transformed into middle-layer apartments in 12 Buraku districts in the city, and community centers, day-care centers, senior citizen welfare centers and gyms etc. were established.  At the same time, it became such that the municipal government decided to mostly pursue to respect human rights, which was learned from the movement of the Buraku Liberation League in Osaka city, but criticism arose with the Buraku liberation movement about coming out with the viewpoint of ethnicity in race, which they advocated, from Koreans living in Japan and Okinawans.  The status improvement movement of the Koreans living in Japan is a fight denouncing discrimination and is also a fight for civil rights.  Moreover, because the fight only began from the 1980's, it has never been included in any part of the municipal government such as the anti-discriminatory Buraku and Airin district problems.

 

6.      Spectacular Urban Development and Grass-roots Rejuvenation Movement in the Inner City

 

The bubble economy in the latter half of the 1980's was enough to make people forget the economical land subsidence in Osaka.  A waterfront development project at a brilliant bay-shore area was launched and the eyes of people came to be directed at the sea for the first time, by the steering of a bureaucratic mayor who was supported mostly by supra-partisan alliance.  The construction of people-gathering facilities aiming at making Osaka a world city in the 21st century to survive the competition among worldwide cities had begun at harbor landfills and other seaside areas.  In addition, the construction of huge people-gathering facilities around terminals was successively done.  Capital was invested as real estate capital in the Osaka Loop Line zone as well, which generally was regarded to be of less value, and overcrowded wooden low-layer houses were steadily rebuilt into rental condominiums and commercial buildings.  Even the Airin district was transformed remarkably to an area that created an illusion of a line of business hotels (from the viewpoint of appearance).

 

However, a riot was occurred in 1990 in the midst of the bubble economy after 17 years absence.  The riot was one in which the rage of day laborers exploded, but at the same time, was also a riot used by youngsters labeled as "delinquent" and vulgar to vent their frustrations.  Unfortunately, no changes have since occurred in the Airin system, and no changes have since been made in the district being an existence isolated as a special area of the municipal government.  There has even been a visible inflow of foreigner laborers, but a lot of them exist in gangs and have gone underground.

 

The living environment improvements of the Buraku settlement entered the level of near-completion in the first half of the 1990's.  The opening of a museum on human rights, the offering of sympathy towards multi-racial cultures and the holding of an international conference to push for solidarity were also carried out.  However, these were different from the affairs of the Buraku, and people of the surrounding areas where living environment improvements did not proceed criticized buraku projects for going too far.  At the same time, the movement ideologies and methods of the living environment improvement that Osaka city cultivated in cooperation with the liberation movement body, contributed to the activities of several Machizukuri committees standing up for the improvement of areas concentrated with overcrowded wooden houses.  Ironically, there was a side stimulated by the Machizukuri committee activities of the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in 1995, but towards the 1990's, the Machizukuri business began to change for the first time where residents could not help but begin to consider things by themselves.

 

In the meaning of grass-roots Machizukuri movements, attention has come to focus on the Koreans living in Japan and Okinawans, who use their folk culture and folk entertainment, and who have begun to perform events and cultural festivals in the minority crescent zone.  The negative sounds of Chosen and Okinawa have come to be given positive meanings with Korean and Uchinaanchu, respectively, which in turn have begun to have an ethnic flavor.  Tsuruhashi, the gateway to a town of Koreans living in Japan on the east side of the Osaka Loop zone, where Chosen was once viewed as discriminatory, has changed it into something with an "ethnic" flavor, and has come to swim in the limelight as a Korean Town and an international marketplace.  In addition, progress has finally been seen in the systematic recognition of Osaka city to move forward with ethnicity classes at elementary schools, i.e., one of the bases for inheriting a folk culture.  In this light, a form of grass-roots participation of a contrastive municipal government has appeared from a minority group, with such cases as foreigners with permanent residence status (but with no voting rights) and Okinawans beginning to have relationships with the municipal government, and an average Japanese person being able to get in touch with the municipal government, which to date could only be done indirectly through connections with a local assembly member.

 

7.      Visible Homeless and a New Urban Poverty

 

In the long period of recession in the latter half of the 1990fs, Osaka showed Japan's highest jobless rate.  In particular, the situation became very serious in the labor market in the Airin (Kamagasaki) district, as the job vacancy rate fell to a quarter of the golden age of the bubble economy.  Originally, about 1,000 to 2,000 homeless people were sleeping rough on the roads in the Airin district and its surrounding areas, in underground areas, and at terminal stations.  Since 1996, however, they began to pitch and live in tents using the blue sheets largely circulated for the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, in city parks and along rivers.  In the summer of 1998, their numbers reached 8,660, and in the summer of 1999, over 10,000, with the number in parks reaching a count of 2,500.

 

The homeless problem has been processed as a problem in the Airin district within the Osaka municipal government and has not been recognized as a citywide problem.  They exist at Osaka Castle park and at Nakanoshima park adjacent the city hall, as well as in the middle of residential areas.  Because of Nagai park, which has a field to be used by the 2002 World Cup for soccer, and Nishinari park, which was formed via the living environment improvements project for the Buraku settlement, a lot of them have come to reside in these areas, come to be seen by citizens, visitors and businesspeople, and have surfaced suddenly as a city-wide problem.

 

In the 1990's, Osaka city put up the slogans "International People-gathering City", "Ideal City for Living", and "City that Respects Human Rights" to survive the heated competition among cities, and then, the movement to attract the Olympics to Osaka was shaken due to the appearance of the large amount of homeless people.  The homeless problem was taken up as an issue for the first time in a mayoral election in November 1999.  This is because it had become very clear that the residence rights of the homeless and the public welfare rights of the general public were in completely opposite directions.  Because it is the minimum duty of the government to not force the homeless out of parks and to eliminate the conditions making homelessness inevitable, Osaka City has taken the position that the residence rights of the homeless can no longer be deprived.  It was in November of 1998 that the initiative to solve this problem was entrusted to the central government.

 

Twenty percent of the homeless have no experience in the Airin district, and also have no experience with construction work; they are new to the life of homelessness. The volunteer groups that have come to offer support to the homeless of the Airin district, and the administration that has come to support the Airin system to date, are confused at the appearance of these new homeless people.  The compulsion of the homeless for independence should be kept away from; even the force to empower these homeless people is in a weak condition.  However, a subsidy has already been obtained from the central government, support for the independence of the homeless has begun in the Airin district by the NPO group and new circuits have started to be built in which grass-roots movements participate even in the municipal government.  It has been pointed out that it is the characteristic of the municipal government of Osaka that such circuits should strongly function, where various objection statements from the Osaka Loop line zone are steadily taken in by the municipal government.  In that most people of the wealthy class do not reside within Osaka city, the creation of a world city should be done with a focus on business, at waterfront areas and America-mura and by Yoshimoto Company.  At the same time, it is actually possible to read interesting relationships in Osaka City, where residents of the loop zone (Osaka residents) use various circuits, actuate identity politics, reflect these to the municipal government, and proceed to raise opposition.