Eyal Ben-Ari - Changing Japanese Suburbia

CHANGING JAPANESE SUBURBIA

Images of Japanese Society: Ross E. Mouer and Yoshio Sugimoto

An Intellectual History of Wartime Japan: Shunsuke Tsurumi
Changing Japanese Suburbia: Eyal Ben-Ari

A Cultural History of Postwar Japan: Shunsuke Tsurumi

Beyond Computopia: Tessa Morris-Suzuki

Constructs for Understanding Japan: Yoshio Sugimoto and Ross E. Mouer

Japanese Models of Conflict Resolution: S. N. Eisenstadt and Eyal Ben-Ari

Forthcoming

Enterprise Unionism in Japan: Hirosuke Kawanishi

Group Psychology of the Japanese in Wartime: Toshio Iritani

The Rise of the Japanese Corporate System: Koji Matsumoto

Science, Technology and Society in Postwar Japan:

Shigeru Nakayama

Transferred Development: Western Technology and the

Industrialisation of Japan: Ian Inkster

First published in 1991 by

Kegan Paul International Ltd

This edition first published in 2009 by

Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Eyal Ben-Ari 1991

Transferred to Digital Printing 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 10: 0710303815 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 9780710303813 (hbk)

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. The publisher has made every effort to contact original copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

This book, based on fieldwork carried out in Japan between 1981 and 1983, is a study of two residential communities in the context of Japans post-war urban and social developments. Rather than attempting a comprehensive ethnographic account of the two communities studied, it represents an effort to examine some questions bearing upon the changing qualities and dynamics of such localities. These questions, which arose while doing my fieldwork and analysing the data, sprang from the contrast I could not help but note between the dominant social scientific approaches to Japanese society which had shaped my view of the plight of postwar villages and neighbourhoods and what I was actually experiencing in the communities I was studying. The accepted views tend to lay the blame for the breakdown or dissolution of local communities on the macro forces of urbanization and modernization or on the transfer of community orientations and modes of organization to the workplace. What I saw, however, were two communities marked not only by thriving local activity but also by a high capacity to undertake joint ventures. I was thus faced with a need somehow to explain the discrepancy between the rather bleak portrayal in the literature and the more favourable circumstances I had encountered. A few words about the two communities, and about my initial attempts to account for their peculiarities, may contribute to an understanding of how this explanation or rather the questions leading to it were formulated.

Yamanaka, a commuter village, and Hieidaira, a new suburban housing estate, are set against the picturesque Hieizan mountain chain to the east of Kyotos northern suburbs (see Yamanaka, which has a population of 230 people, appears to be nestled into the surrounding hills, its rather large country-style houses centring on the road leading to Hieidaira just above. The village has been connected with the nearby cities of Kyoto and Otsu by new roads as well as telephone and transportation services, and within it a host of new public facilities meeting halls, gymnasium, day-care centre, playground, and pool have been constructed. Agriculture and forestry, once the prime sources of income, have now become either a weekend affair or an occupation for the aged. Almost all of the villages men and many of its women have become sarariiman, i.e. salaried employees who commute to jobs outside the locality. Thus, Yamanaka, like many older villages located within or near Japans big cities, has become a suburban village. None the less, communal life seems to flourish; local organizations include, for example, the neighbourhood association, a womens group, an old-folks club, a childrens association, and a sports committee. In addition, village rites and ceremonies such as the spring and autumn festivals, initiation rites, and a childrens summer festival are scrupulously observed.

Japan: major islands and cities

Kansai: major prefectures and cities

Suburban Hieidaira, on the other hand, was developed as an area for second summer homes but its location made it economical for standard residential development as the urban centres of Kyoto and Osaka expanded and residential areas were being built further away from the urban cores. Hieidaira now resembles many other newly constructed housing estates in the country. Its three wards are divided into neat, orderly rectangular blocks of detached dwellings. In contrast to the village and its natural surroundings, the estate appears to have been thrust upon the mountains.

Hieidaira has a population of 2,400 people in 700 households, of which sarariiman make up the largest minority. Other occupational groups include independent merchants, teachers and artisans. Despite the fact that a significant proportion of Hieidairas women work, women form the core of local activists and bear the brunt of managing the local neighbourhood association, childrens association, sports teams, old-folks club, PTA, voluntary welfare-worker group and chorus, as well as clubs for those interested in both traditional pastimes such as calligraphy, the tea ceremony and flower arranging and modern ones like English, psychology or book-reading.

Hieidaira has undergone great change in its short history. Because it was shoddily developed, the citizens found they had to organize and fight for what are considered minimum public facilities in a residential estate. Successful movements for the establishment of educational facilities school, kindergarten, day-care centre were followed by pressure on the developer and on the Otsu city government to provide new roads, a new water system, community and meeting halls, a fire brigade and a bus system.