Cultural liaisons

The renaissance of Tokyo Bay

An exchange programme between coastal management practitioners and academics from
the UK and Japan has highlighted cultural differences in the interpretation of what
constitutes good coastal management. Dr Steve Fletcher, from Bournemouth University,
looks East in search of answers.

Tokyo is by far the largest city in the world
with an estimated population of around 35
million (UN Population stats 2005). So large
is this figure, that in 2005, the world’s
number one megacity could actually boast
more residents than the entire country of
Kenya (34 million). Undoubtedly the city’s
growth and fortunes have been helped by
the huge natural resources and maritime
positioning of Tokyo Bay.
land, and major infrastructural
developments, such as the Aqualine road
bridge and tunnel linking the east and west
sides of the Bay. Combined with these
pressures are management systems that
emphasise traditional resource management
arrangements, limited opportunities for
stakeholder involvement, and a reliance on
government to take the lead in key policy
and decision-making processes.
exchange visits with the benefits of each
visit shared with a wider audience at a
seminar held in each country.
Having been part of the UK delegation to
Tokyo, two key projects from the city
served to underline some very fundamental
cultural differences discovered between the
two countries as to coastal site
conservation.

Tokyo Bay has, in turn undergone
considerable built development around its
perimeter, particularly during the post-war
period in which Japan experienced
considerable economic success. This has
included the expansion of the urban areas
of both Tokyo and Yokahama, reclamation
of large areas of inter-tidal and sub-tidal
With a very different national and urban
context than the UK, an exchange
programme was set up in the hope that
coastal management professionals in both
countries would gain inspiration, ideas and
solutions through seeing how others work
and practice their profession. The
programme consisted of two learning
Renaissance of Tokyo’s
waterfront
As a result of the large scale reclamation of
much of the perimeter of Tokyo Bay, the
urban waterfront of Tokyo itself is entirely
artificial. Much reclamation has taken the
form of small islands separated by narrow
channels of open water. The resultant

14 The edge Autumn 2007

The regeneration of Tokyo’s canals, while primarily driven
by social factors, has also incorporated environmental
improvements, such as species re-establishment and
habitat creation.
waterfront is effectively a network of
urbanised canals.
In recent years the value of the canals as an
attractive waterfront area in its own right
has been recognised and steps taken to
clean up the area in terms of its aesthetics
and environment through the Bay
Renaissance Project. Much investment has
been focused on this area and it now hosts
waterfront walks, cafes and bars, new
businesses (including marine training and
education agencies) and is an urban safe
and attractive place to visit.
With little public or NGO pressure for
coastal conservation in Japan, however,
efforts to improve the environmental
quality of the canals, which during the
post-war period became polluted and
depleted of native species of fish and
plants, has been difficult. With a general
lack of awareness among the public and
government of the need to conserve coastal
sites and the notion of ICZM not
prominent, the environment has often
been seen as one to be exploited, rather
than conserved. However the Bay
Renaissance Project has sought to engage
with local communities, largely through
the involvement of children in local
schools, to improve environmental
conditions. With school children involved
in habitat creation and monitoring of
species numbers, artificial habitats are now
being created as spawning grounds for
native fish to encourage their re-
establishment.
Coastal conservation and
education
Over 95 per cent of the coast of Tokyo Bay
has been physically altered and immense
areas of tidal flats reclaimed. This places
The huge Aqualine road bridge and tunnel, completed in
1998, now links the east and west sides of Tokyo Bay.
particular significance on the remaining
tidal flats as both conservation sites and
educational resources. Despite the paucity
of ‘natural’ sites around Tokyo Bay,
conservation legislation is very weak and at
present the largest area of tidal flats
anywhere around the Bay remains
undesignated as a conservation site.
The general lack of awareness among the
public of the need to conserve coastal sites
remains and educational facilities have now
been established in the form of a well
resourced and staffed study centre.
However, the centre primarily focuses on
providing educational experiences with a
coastal theme for students from visits from
schools; it is not focused on public
education or interpretation. There is,
therefore, a continued lack of opportunity
for the residents of Tokyo Bay to access
coastal space and learn about coastal issues.
During the exchange visits, the two country
teams demonstrated very different reactions
to the issue of conservation. For the UK
team, it was amazing that the Tokyo Bay
tide flats were not protected. The Japanese
team, however were equally amazed that so
much of the UK coast was protected. A
country’s cultural values can create very
different attitudes towards conservation in
a general sense.
The cultural context
Tensions evident in the two examples above
relate to how nature and the coast
specifically are considered within society. It
is helpful to consider this by noting the
differences and similarities between coastal
management in the UK and Japan. Both
have a plethora of legislation that makes
managing coastal space a complex process
and both have highly pressured coastal
areas and limited land area available. In
contrast, the UK has an established
stakeholder involvement culture that seeks
to influence coastal planning and
management decisions from local to
national levels. This is almost entirely
absent in Japan with public or stakeholder
“ It was amazing to the
UK team that the Tokyo Bay
tide flats were not
protected. It was equally
amazing to the Japanese
team that so much of the
”
UK coast was protected.
involvement very restricted, limited NGO
activity, and little demand for
involvement. Instead, many coastal
conflicts are resolved through
compensation imposed by government.
The key underlying difference is one of
society and culture, particularly in relation
to the role of the state in resource decisions
which in Japan is comparatively centrally
dominated.
On a wider note, the applicability of
sharing experiences between countries
should therefore only be considered in a
context that is sensitive to prevailing
cultural differences. Cultural expectations
of what coastal management should be and
what constitutes the right management
interventions were both challenged in this
exchange programme. The role of culture
in how coasts are managed, is perhaps far
more significant than previous research
focus has indicated.
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