Japanese Shitamachi as a Case of "Necessary Slums"
In the modern Japanese context, the concept of "shitamachi" often evokes a sense of longing, traditoon, history,and community. Roughly translated as "lower neighborhoods," the shitamachi is often credited as the repository of Japanese urban history, where traditional crafts and businesses thrived, and a sense of "togetherness," long lost in the faceless confines of modern apartment and office blocks, can still be found. Simply put, they represent a supposedly more wholesome Japan, where pressures of modern corporate world has yet to disturb the social fabric created by centuries of traditional communal life.
But to simply package the shitamachi as traditional neighborhoods masks the horrors suffered by their long-time residents. The shitamachi was where the "normal" people on the lower end of the rigid social class system lived during the country's long era dominated by military-led feudal system. Their lower social status meant lower incomes, less public facilities, and having to make do with little material. Tight spaces, relative lack of sanitation, and large populations ensured the shitamachi was ravaged periodically by deadly epidemics. To put in the simplest terms, they were the slums of medieval Japan.
And as slums, the shitamachi of yesteryears differ little from modern-day slums that ring developing world cities such as Manila and Delhi. But the fact that Japan somehow managed to move people out of the shitamachi while preserving them as a sort of positive-sounding heritage for the general populace could provide a blueprint for other countries facing the slum problem today. By looking at the history of Japan's efforts to get people of the shitamachi, other countries can borrow policies and development strategies that provide higher standards of living for the poorest of poor urban residents.
Interestingly, history shows that Japan's efforts to get rid of its shitamachi slums did not really show significant impact until relatively recently. As the dominance of an isolationist military junta give away to a new imperial government bent on Western-style reforms and uptake of modern technology, life in shitamachi did not change all too much. Even as the country modernized, residents of these traditional slums were often left out of the country's rapid development, as their traditional means of earning a livable income through crafts and petty trade were increasingly replaced by Western-style factories and centralized retail centers.
Fundamentally shift did not come until after WWII. Bombings of major cities in the country by allied forces destroyed much of the shitamachi, which proved to be highly vulnerable to firebombing given the wooden structures of the houses. Rapid expansion of industrial capacity provided the Japanese government with the skills and capital needed to mass-manufacture apartment blocks on the cheap, and dole them out to former shitamachi residents. Availability of such centralized housing reduced the need of the poor having to resort to ad hoc housing that characterized the shitamachi.
Steadily rising incomes of the general populace, with expansion of the country's manufacturing sector, combined with efficient means to quickly assemble new housing units meant even those who continue to live the shitamachi can now afford to leave and instead live in more modern, organized environments. Government push to dedicate some remaining shitamachi as cultural monuments, while tearing down others to make way for more modern buildings, further incentivized people to move out and live in now relatively abundant and cheap apartment blocks.
There are several lessons to slum-plagued cities around the world from Japan's effort to move people out of the shitamachi. One is government initiative to provide affordable housing. Like the earliest post-WWII apartments in Japan, these mass-manufactured residences need not be perfect or spacious, but they need to be abundant and financially accessible. For many slum-filled cities of the world, the local and national governments simply do not see a government-led initiative to build affordable housing as a policy priority. As slums envelop and constrain urban expansion, lack of such policies will prove to be shortsighted.
Second is the need to not demonize the slums and their residents. The shitamachi experience is marked by procedural, yet dignified exit of their residents, concurrently marked with preservation of the shitamachi as tradition. The same is not seen in other countries, where slums are simply detested by elites and the middle class as physical eyesores, and their residents as freeloading squatters with little to contribute to society's development. Such demonization of slum residents can only further marginalize them within society as a whole, and make integrating them, through better housing and jobs, less popular among others.
And lastly, poor countries perhaps need to recognize that having slums is often just a part of the development experience, unavoidable and necessary. Some countries are all too eager to restrict flow of poor people just to prevent formation and expansion of slums. That might be a mistake. Instead, emergence of slums would prove the government a popular mandate to invest in social welfare, whether it be affordable housing or employment training, for poorer urban residents, in order to find and get rid of root causes that lead to slums forming in the first place.
But to simply package the shitamachi as traditional neighborhoods masks the horrors suffered by their long-time residents. The shitamachi was where the "normal" people on the lower end of the rigid social class system lived during the country's long era dominated by military-led feudal system. Their lower social status meant lower incomes, less public facilities, and having to make do with little material. Tight spaces, relative lack of sanitation, and large populations ensured the shitamachi was ravaged periodically by deadly epidemics. To put in the simplest terms, they were the slums of medieval Japan.
And as slums, the shitamachi of yesteryears differ little from modern-day slums that ring developing world cities such as Manila and Delhi. But the fact that Japan somehow managed to move people out of the shitamachi while preserving them as a sort of positive-sounding heritage for the general populace could provide a blueprint for other countries facing the slum problem today. By looking at the history of Japan's efforts to get people of the shitamachi, other countries can borrow policies and development strategies that provide higher standards of living for the poorest of poor urban residents.
Interestingly, history shows that Japan's efforts to get rid of its shitamachi slums did not really show significant impact until relatively recently. As the dominance of an isolationist military junta give away to a new imperial government bent on Western-style reforms and uptake of modern technology, life in shitamachi did not change all too much. Even as the country modernized, residents of these traditional slums were often left out of the country's rapid development, as their traditional means of earning a livable income through crafts and petty trade were increasingly replaced by Western-style factories and centralized retail centers.
Fundamentally shift did not come until after WWII. Bombings of major cities in the country by allied forces destroyed much of the shitamachi, which proved to be highly vulnerable to firebombing given the wooden structures of the houses. Rapid expansion of industrial capacity provided the Japanese government with the skills and capital needed to mass-manufacture apartment blocks on the cheap, and dole them out to former shitamachi residents. Availability of such centralized housing reduced the need of the poor having to resort to ad hoc housing that characterized the shitamachi.
Steadily rising incomes of the general populace, with expansion of the country's manufacturing sector, combined with efficient means to quickly assemble new housing units meant even those who continue to live the shitamachi can now afford to leave and instead live in more modern, organized environments. Government push to dedicate some remaining shitamachi as cultural monuments, while tearing down others to make way for more modern buildings, further incentivized people to move out and live in now relatively abundant and cheap apartment blocks.
There are several lessons to slum-plagued cities around the world from Japan's effort to move people out of the shitamachi. One is government initiative to provide affordable housing. Like the earliest post-WWII apartments in Japan, these mass-manufactured residences need not be perfect or spacious, but they need to be abundant and financially accessible. For many slum-filled cities of the world, the local and national governments simply do not see a government-led initiative to build affordable housing as a policy priority. As slums envelop and constrain urban expansion, lack of such policies will prove to be shortsighted.
Second is the need to not demonize the slums and their residents. The shitamachi experience is marked by procedural, yet dignified exit of their residents, concurrently marked with preservation of the shitamachi as tradition. The same is not seen in other countries, where slums are simply detested by elites and the middle class as physical eyesores, and their residents as freeloading squatters with little to contribute to society's development. Such demonization of slum residents can only further marginalize them within society as a whole, and make integrating them, through better housing and jobs, less popular among others.
And lastly, poor countries perhaps need to recognize that having slums is often just a part of the development experience, unavoidable and necessary. Some countries are all too eager to restrict flow of poor people just to prevent formation and expansion of slums. That might be a mistake. Instead, emergence of slums would prove the government a popular mandate to invest in social welfare, whether it be affordable housing or employment training, for poorer urban residents, in order to find and get rid of root causes that lead to slums forming in the first place.
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