Green growth strategies in a shrinking city: Tackling urban revitalization through environmental justice in Kitakyushu City, Japan

ABSTRACT

Shrinking cities are places characterized by long-term population decline, property abandonment, social inequality, and environmental degradation. Urban scholarship, however, has not yet addressed the challenges of promoting social and environmental justice in shrinking cities. Focusing on Kitakyushu City, Japan, this article explores the manner in which grassroots movements can push forward environmental justice and how that can lead to policies coping with urban shrinkage and environmental degradation. Kitakyushu City was Japan’s major iron and steel center during the rapid industrialization years, which culminated in severe environmental degradation. The need for environmental justice pushed grassroots movements and, in particular, women’s associations to initiate different campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the city’s environmental hazards and to trigger governmental response. Since then, environmental policies are driving Kitakyushu City’s fight against the negative consequences that shrinkage brings about in Japanese cities. Using case study methodology and critically assessing the implemented policies, this article argues that seeking environmental justice presents an opportunity to tackle long-term decline. Hence, the article explores the theoretical implications and empirical factors behind environmental justice as the basis for a new urban revitalization model.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Maria Elena Indelicato, Malia Mullen, Rosangela Tenorio, and Nieves Moreno for their support. I thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments.

Notes

1. Data from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The historical series of the Vital Statistics can be found online (Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, 2018).

2. Interviews were carried out during July 2017.

3. In 1963 when the five cities merged, each city became a ward of the new Kitakyushu City. However, in 1974, the two larger wards were subdivided. Yawata Ward was divided into Yawata-Higashi Ward and Yawata-Nishi Ward and Kokura Ward became Kokura-Kita Ward and Kokura-Minami ward.

4. For more information, see Kitakyushu Forum on Asian Women (2018).

5. Yaskawa Electric is one of Kitakyushu’s most important companies with headquarters in the city.

6. For a detailed explanation of the program, please visit see City of Kitakyushu (2018).

7. For a full description of the project, see “Future City” Initiative (2014).

8. For a complete list of all the projects and further information, visit the project’s webpage (Green Asia International Strategic Comprehensive Special Zone, 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fernando Ortiz-Moya

Fernando Ortiz-Moya is an Assistant Professor in Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. His teaching interests revolve around architectural and urban design and the different ways in which our physical environment can promote social integration and equality. His research has focused on global transformations of our urban systems, particularly on shrinking cities, exploring the responses given in different countries to the problems generated by urban decay. At the same time, Fernando studies cities from a cinematic perspective, analyzing how the film media portrays the ongoing changes in our built environment.