No.73 National Urban Issues Conference

I attended the National Conference on Urban Issues held in Naha City from November 9th to 10th, 2017. This conference was jointly sponsored by the National Association of Mayors, the Goto Yasuda Memorial Tokyo Institute for Urban Research, the Japan Urban Center, and the city of Naha. This is a conference where mayors, city council members, local government officials, researchers, etc. from all over the country come together to discuss urban issues and local autonomy.
This year marks the 79th time for this historic conference; the first was held in Osaka in 1930, the second in Tokyo in 1930, and since then it has traveled to various locations every other year, and after a break during the war, Since Osaka City in 1948, it has been held every year in various parts of the country.
The themes of the first session were fire prevention and construction, improvement of defective housing, land readjustment, and parks, and the second session was on urban suburban land control, street traffic control, and beneficiary burden. It can be seen that they were working on issues that were relevant to the background of the times. While I respect the pioneering spirit of our predecessors, I also feel remorse for the fact that issues that were considered issues 90 years ago have not been completely resolved even now.
The Goto Yasuda Memorial Tokyo Urban Research Institute was founded in 1911 by Shinpei Goto, then the mayor of Tokyo, and was renamed as a public interest incorporated foundation in 2012.
Mayor Goto appealed for the establishment of a large research institute to scientificize political administration, and when he became mayor of Tokyo in 1919, he proposed the establishment of an independent research institute modeled after the New York City Government Research Council, and he sympathized with this idea. This was made possible by Zenjiro Yasuda, a banker who offered to donate 3.5 million yen, an unprecedented amount at the time. The City Government Hall/Hibiya Public Hall was built using this donation, and was selected as a historic building by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 1999.
On the first day of this conference, five people gave presentations. Among them, Naha Mayor Mikiko Shiroma gave a report on urban development in Naha, which is becoming an increasingly cosmopolitan city, while Yusuke Yamashita, associate professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University's Graduate School of Humanities, gave a presentation titled ``The reality of a society with a declining population and the role of urban local governments.'' Professor Yoshiro Shimoji, Director of the Department of Tourism Industry and Science at the University of the Ryukyus, gave a lecture on ``Okinawa tourism has entered a new stage.''
Recent discussions on regional revitalization have focused on tourism businesses that are expected to attract inbound tourists, and the international city of Okinawa is also working to become a tourism-oriented prefecture. However, according to Mr. Yamashita, the meaning of tourism is to interact and not to make money exclusively.While it is profitable for transportation and accommodation industries, there is not much money for the tourist destinations themselves that directly provide content. There is also a fact that.
On the second day of the conference, a panel discussion was held with five participants, coordinated by Professor Haruhiko Goto of Waseda University's Faculty of Science and Engineering. The theme was "Attractiveness of cities and regional revitalization strategies that connect people," and panelists discussed community development practices promoted from the public and private sectors from the perspective of human connections.
After the event, we had a short time before boarding the plane to tour Naha city and visit the former naval headquarters bunker on a small hill near Tomigusuku. As the war was nearing its end and materials and equipment were in short supply, I was amazed at the huge underground facility that was built by hand, but I was reminded once again of the misery of war and the importance of peace.
This was the first time in Okinawa's 90-year history that the event was held in Okinawa, and given the current political instability and military situation in Far East Asia, it is of great significance that it was held in Okinawa, which is in the midst of military base and territorial disputes. That was it. I think we need to visit Okinawa more and learn more about it.