tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/tokyo-15538/articles
Tokyo – The Conversation
2021-10-05T04:47:03Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168468
2021-10-05T04:47:03Z
2021-10-05T04:47:03Z
If I could go anywhere: the deep mountains and mysterious valleys of Tokyo’s Nezu Museum
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422579/original/file-20210922-13-1jbfzu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=115%2C144%2C6221%2C4092&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> © Nezu Museum</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>A nimble row of bamboo grows between the street and the grounds of the <a href="https://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/">Nezu Museum </a>根津美術館 in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo. The softly murmuring greenery gently ushers you along the side of the museum, beneath its overarching eaves, to the entrance. </p>
<p>In the winter months, when there is snowfall in the capital, masses of snow slide off the roof to line the ground at the bottom of this bamboo, creating the illusion of a white-peaked mountain range on the path.</p>
<p>There are many such transporting and transient scenes to be found at the Nezu Museum and Garden, located on the private estate of the Nezu family and housing the extraordinary collection of pre-modern East Asian treasures amassed by businessman and philanthropist Nezu Kaichirō (1860-1940).</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422580/original/file-20210922-21-upp354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422580/original/file-20210922-21-upp354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422580/original/file-20210922-21-upp354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422580/original/file-20210922-21-upp354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422580/original/file-20210922-21-upp354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422580/original/file-20210922-21-upp354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422580/original/file-20210922-21-upp354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Approach from the main gate of Nezu Museum © Nezu Museum.</span>
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<p>The original house, built in 1906, was destroyed in an air raid in 1945. Following successive reconstructions over the decades, the decision was made to undertake a large scale renovation to restore Nezu’s vision.</p>
<p>The renowned Japanese architect Kuma Kengo redesigned the museum building with elements found in traditional Japanese residential architecture and a contemporary finish. It reopened in 2009. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-a-world-through-the-eyes-of-botanical-artist-marianne-north-at-kew-gardens-165663">If I could go anywhere: a world through the eyes of botanical artist Marianne North at Kew Gardens</a>
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<p>The foyer opens to full length windows overlooking the garden, a modern take on the traditional Japanese idea of creating an invisible threshold from the inside to outside world. Buddhist sculptural pieces are displayed facing inwards: they cast a friendly eye on visitors whose gaze naturally drifts from the garden inside. Though not specifically a house museum, the atmosphere here has the intimate characteristics of a private home. </p>
<p>I have a deep interest in museums that were once someone’s home, especially those with gardens; however small. From <a href="https://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/">Kettle’s Yard</a> in Cambridge, England to the <a href="https://www.alvaraalto.fi/en/architecture/the-aalto-house/">Alvar Aalto House/Studio</a> in Helsinki, to the <a href="https://madparis.fr/en/museums/musee-nissim-de-camondo/the-townhouse-and-the-collections/">Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris</a>, I seek them out for the intimacy and personality sometimes missing from large, formal museum spaces.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/65Ghwlvc1qY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kengo Kuma talks about his design principles for Nezu Museum Tokyo.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>A gentle, calm atmosphere</h2>
<p>There are over 7,400 objects in the Nezu collection, many of which are classifed as Important Cultural Property or national treasure. In some galleries, the LED light fittings are programmed and adjusted to resemble sunrise; in others, to imitate the diffused light from a paper lantern.</p>
<p>These carefully considered aspects of display serve to protect the objects from harsh, possibly damaging light, and generate a gentle, calm atmosphere. Each object is also afforded a luxurious amount of room, making it easier to become absorbed in the ritual of close observation. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-japanese-art-island-chichu-a-meditation-and-an-education-133439">If I could go anywhere: Japanese art island Chichu, a meditation and an education</a>
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<p>We might be invited to contemplate a small but robust 16th century, <a href="https://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/en/collection/detail.php?id=40463">jewel-shaped ceramic incense container</a>. Or to behold the pair of 19th century, six-fold screens created by Suzuki Kiitsu: Mountain Streams in Summer and Autumn — so modern and bright the water appears to flow across and off the panels.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422581/original/file-20210922-19-1q023zu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The entrance hall to the museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Nezu Museum</span></span>
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<p>At each turn, I feel as if I am activating Kuma’s architectural vision of designing a space at one with the landscape, not imposed upon it. This is a building that works in harmony with its surroundings. Stepping into the garden offers a seamless continuum of this experience. </p>
<p>As I think about living with objects and nature, I recall the brilliant short film made by husband and wife design team Charles and Ray Eames in 1955: House: After Five Years of Living. Composed entirely of 35mm slides, the film details their modernist family home in the Californian neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades. Intersecting with the building itself are objects and artefacts; table settings and images of nature such as pine needles or the silhouette of a eucalyptus tree. Just like Kuma’s approach, emphasis is placed on texture and warmth coupled with steel, and cool stone. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CUc3kBpFUF0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">House: After Five Years of Living.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Four types of tea-houses</h2>
<p>The garden of the Nezu Museum comprises a series of panoramic views and four types of tea-houses framed by the delicate architecture of maple trees and other foliage. The variant greens are pleasantly overwhelming, an irresistible and gentle embrace as you wander the winding pathways of this vast and multifaceted estate occupying 17,000 square metres of metropolitan Tokyo. </p>
<p>The initial layout reflected the <em>shinzan-yūkoku</em> garden style, translated as “deep mountains and mysterious valleys”, and over the years it has been carefully restored to reflect the tastes of Nezu.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422582/original/file-20210922-13-11n1bb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422582/original/file-20210922-13-11n1bb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422582/original/file-20210922-13-11n1bb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422582/original/file-20210922-13-11n1bb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422582/original/file-20210922-13-11n1bb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422582/original/file-20210922-13-11n1bb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422582/original/file-20210922-13-11n1bb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Buddhist statue in the garden © Nezu Museum.</span>
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<p>The variation and life of a mountainside appears in small and delicate ways: pruned hedges, rocks covered in moss. Glimpses of the pond through a veil of evergreen trees might reveal a momentary sparkle of sun glitter or the reflection of clouds. </p>
<p>In the spirit of the ritual of tea drinking, the museum’s cafe, also designed by Kuma, sits at the end of a stone path lined with a low, snaking hedge of pink azalea. I have a long list of favourite museum cafés. This one is in the top tier. A glass tea-house nestled amongst the trees, it serves a deliciously refreshing matcha.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/411jpe3deaY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Nezu Museum Garden Tour.</span></figcaption>
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<blockquote>
<p>Drinking fragrant<br>
new tea from Uji<br>
I can scoop up the essence<br>
and understand<br>
how the ancients came to adore it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>-Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875)</p>
<p>The Nezu Museum is a cultural retreat offering restorative experiences through art, objects and its captivating garden. I look forward to our reunion once the borders are open again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivia Meehan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A vast estate in metropolitan Tokyo, this museum and garden in the former home of businessman and philanthropist Nezu Kaichirō is a place of calm beauty.
Olivia Meehan, Object-based Learning Co-ordinator, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164912
2021-07-22T13:42:01Z
2021-07-22T13:42:01Z
Tokyo 2020: how Japan’s moment of glory has become a millstone for the economy
<p>“Japan is back!” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMQbCId6J8">declared Shinzo Abe</a>, the then Japanese prime minister, after he made a surprise appearance dressed as Super Mario at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Tokyo 2020 was supposed to be a moment of national glory, a chance to put the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 firmly in the past, and to showcase Japan’s technological pre-eminence in spearheading an environmentally sustainable Olympics. </p>
<p>Yet the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is beginning – a year later than planned – without spectators. As athletes converge on Tokyo, the city is back in emergency restrictions for the fourth time. </p>
<p>The government remains determined to make the games a COVID-secure success. But with Japanese multinationals shying away, infections surging, and costs three or four times higher than the original estimates, it is barely even clear if this spectacle can go the distance. </p>
<h2>Great economic hopes</h2>
<p>Tokyo 2020 was supposed to be a great economic stimulus, replicating the achievements of Tokyo 1964. It was <a href="https://www.joc.or.jp/english/historyjapan/tokyo1964.html">thanks to</a> hosting that Olympics that Japan <a href="https://apjjf.org/-Christian-Tagsold/3165/article.html">invested in</a> infrastructure such as the famous Shinkansen bullet train. </p>
<p>In Tokyo, they built an expressway linking the international airport in Haneda to the centre, and widened some of the city’s major arteries, while an important new highway between Osaka and Nagoya was also opened. These infrastructure improvements helped to bring about the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23780983">Japanese economic miracle</a> over the next couple of decades. </p>
<p>But this time around, there were signs of trouble long before the pandemic. The main Olympic stadium, which was designed by the late British architect Zaha Hadid, had to be <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2015/07/17/japan-scraps-zaha-hadid-tokyo-2020-olympic-stadium/">re-designed from scratch</a> as its complex roof structure became too expensive. Instead, the organisers <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35158004">built a stadium</a> at roughly half the cost.</p>
<p>As costs spiralled, the organisers looked at moving some events out of Tokyo to existing venues elsewhere. Not only would this reduce costs, it would help spread the benefits of economic development – in an echo of UK-style “levelling up”. </p>
<p>Just like Britain, Japan suffers from widening inequalities between the capital and the rest of the country. For example, <a href="https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/002/2020/040/article-A001-en.xml">house prices rose</a> 15% in Tokyo between 2002 and 2018 while falling between 5% and 15% everywhere else. Over the same period, the disparity in wages <a href="https://www.asahi.com/articles/photo/AS20190729000356.html?jumpUrl=http%253A%252F%252Fdigital.asahi.com%252Farticles%252Fphoto%252FAS20190729000356.html%253F_requesturl%253Darticles%252Fphoto%252FAS20190729000356.html">grew from</a> about 20% to more like 35%. </p>
<p>The Japanese regions <a href="http://160.12.231.41/dspace/bitstream/10241/10793/1/2-2.pdf">were sceptical</a> of the whole idea that the Olympics <a href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210226/p2a/00m/0sp/025000c">would help</a> level up. Local business people knew that construction projects would still be concentrated around Tokyo, with limited benefits to their regions. There was also talk that demand in Tokyo would cause a supply shock, leaving manufacturers in the regions clamouring for materials.</p>
<p>That particular concern might have been overblown in the end, and some moves did see investment. For example, cycling has been moved to Izu some 125 miles west of the capital, and the city’s velodrome has been upgraded. </p>
<p><strong>Map of Japan</strong></p>
<p>Other moves failed, however. Miyagi prefecture in north-east Japan, 250 miles from Tokyo, was considered for rowing and canoe sprinting. This was seen as a way to accelerate the slow pace of reconstruction following the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56252695">March 2011 earthquake</a> and the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. </p>
<p>But again financial reality intervened. Disputes over cost-sharing and other logistical issues emerged, and it was decided to hold rowing <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1042559/tokyo-2020-claim-cost-of-using-alternative-rowing-and-canoe-sprint-venue-would-be-greater-than-current-plans">in Tokyo Bay</a> as <a href="https://www.infobae.com/aroundtherings/ioc/2021/07/12/tokyo-2020-stands-by-original-rowing-venue/">originally intended</a>. Another venue in Miyagi is hosting football, while baseball and softball are taking place in Fukushima itself. </p>
<p>Despite such efforts to save money, the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2021/07/21/the-massive-costs-behind-the-olympic-games-infographic/">government’s estimate</a> for the cost of the Olympics had risen from the initial US$7.3 billion to US$12.6 billion (£5.3 billion to £9.2 billion) by late 2019. Then came the pandemic. Thanks to the postponement, the official estimates are a $22 billion cost, and <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/2020-tokyo-olympics-could-cost-much-more-than-anticipated-233114764.html">some are saying</a> it will be nearer US$30 billion. Meanwhile, the huge stimulus from international tourists that the Japanese authorities would have been expecting from the Olympics is no longer happening. </p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>Even before it began, <a href="https://hangorin.tumblr.com/post/56054121488/2020">domestic support</a> for the Olympics was weak, as the wider economic benefits were unclear, especially outside Tokyo. With COVID infections currently accelerating in Japan, and Tokyo particularly badly hit – <a href="https://digital.asahi.com/logout/?jumpUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asahi.com%2Farticles%2FASP7P77KFP7PUTIL01V.html%3Firef%3Dcomtop_7_05">4,943 new national cases</a> on July 21, <a href="https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/">including 1,832</a> in the capital – the public mood has shifted further against the games. According to a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/07/20/japan-unwanted-olympics/">recent survey</a>, 55% of Japanese think the games should not go ahead, and 68% think that infections can’t be controlled by the organisers. </p>
<p>As expected, <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/three-test-positive-for-covid-19-in-tokyos-olympic-village.html">some athletes</a> arriving into Japan have tested positive, including participants from Uganda and the US, along with British athletes “pinged” on a flight en route to Tokyo as close contacts to people with infections. </p>
<p>The possibility of the games turning into a super-spreader event seems to have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/19/toyota-scraps-olympics-tv-ads-amid-lukewarm-support-in-japan">prompted Toyota</a> to pull its TV adverts. The leaders of Panasonic, NTT, Fujitsu, NEC and Keidanren, the employers’ association, are skipping the opening ceremony. Increasingly, the idea that there needs to be a trade-off between health and the economy seems to be losing traction.</p>
<p>The Japanese government is still determined to go ahead with the games, despite being warned of accelerating community transmission by its scientific advisers. The fourth <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/07/12/national/fourth-coronavirus-emergency-tokyo/">Tokyo state of emergency</a> began a few days ago, curbing people’s movements until August 22. Bars and restaurants are having to curtail late-night services as part of the restrictions, inflicting further pain on a sector that has already been <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/01/30/business/economy-business/japan-hospitality-second-state-of-emergency-covid19/">hit hardest</a> by COVID. Tokyo’s nightlife is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/23/tokyo-red-light-district-closed-coronavirus-bars-restaurants-kabukicho">being blamed</a> for the spike, never mind that the government has been unwilling to impose tougher restrictions, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/04/14/commentary/japan-commentary/coronavirus-japans-constitution/">claiming it is</a> prevented by the constitution. </p>
<p>In this situation, running a COVID-secure Olympics looks increasingly like a major challenge. With the system of isolation bubbles at the athletes’ village <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/olympic-village-covid-19-infection-bubble-already-broken-health-expert-2021-07-20/">already failing</a>, it brings to mind events on the stricken cruise ship <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/diamond-princess-coronavirus-cruise-ship-japan">Diamond Princess</a>, where COVID spread like wildfire after it left Yokohama in February 2020. </p>
<p>Just like the UK is trying to plough on with its own plan for opening up the economy as cases surge, it’s only a matter of time before both nations find out whether the supposed trade-off between health and the economy is workable – or is actually a false dichotomy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Taku Tamaki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The economic benefits of the Olympics are in question like never before.
Taku Tamaki, Lecturer in International Relations, Loughborough University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159907
2021-04-29T06:03:08Z
2021-04-29T06:03:08Z
Even if Olympians are jumping the COVID vaccine queue, that’s not necessarily wrong. A bioethicist explains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397721/original/file-20210429-17-1d0d2zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C39%2C8862%2C2169&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/runners-silhouettes-pattern-vector-illustration-267695348">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The go-ahead for Australian Olympians <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/australias-olympic-athletes-granted-access-to-covid-19-vaccines">to be vaccinated</a> against COVID-19 before others the same age has led to allegations of “<a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/rio-olympics-2016/2021/04/28/australia-olympics-virus-vax/">queue-jumping</a>”.</p>
<p>One of the issues at stake is whether athletes should be vaccinated ahead of the Tokyo Olympics with the Pfizer vaccine we know is currently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/australia-abandons-covid-19-vaccination-targets-after-new-advice-astrazeneca-2021-04-11/">in short supply</a>. This is at a time when so many vulnerable Australians have yet to receive their shots.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1387326538534821888"}"></div></p>
<p>Prioritising Olympians can be justified. The trouble is, they shouldn’t be prioritised for the Pfizer vaccine given the interests and claims of other deserving Australians.</p>
<p>The explanation for this is much more nuanced and ethically interesting than it seems at first. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-now-the-tokyo-olympics-will-go-ahead-but-at-what-cost-154851">For now, the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead. But at what cost?</a>
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<h2>What just happened?</h2>
<p>Before this week’s announcement, Olympic athletes would have been part of the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/when-will-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine">phase 2b vaccine rollout</a>, alongside the bulk of adults under 50.</p>
<p>But this week, federal health minister Greg Hunt <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/australias-olympic-athletes-granted-access-to-covid-19-vaccines">said</a> “vulnerable Australians remain an absolute priority” for vaccination but “our athletes deserve the opportunity to compete” without having to worry about the coronavirus. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/japan-is-facing-a-fourth-covid-wave-and-sluggish-vaccine-rollout-will-it-be-ready-for-the-olympics-158700">Japan is facing a fourth COVID wave and sluggish vaccine rollout. Will it be ready for the Olympics?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So athletes were moved up to <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/australias-olympic-athletes-granted-access-to-covid-19-vaccines-0">phase 1b</a>, the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/when-will-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine">same group as</a> some health workers, and people with disabilities or underlying medical conditions.</p>
<p>If these health workers and vulnerable people are under 50 — and many of them will be — they should receive <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/pfizer-vaccine-will-not-be-available-to-australians-over-50/03230585-82d7-49e3-acce-e59c8b45f9ac">the Pfizer vaccine</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-setback-for-vaccine-rollout-with-astrazeneca-not-advised-for-people-under-50-158661">recommended vaccine</a> for this age group. This is the vaccine now also earmarked for Olympic athletes, as they are under 50.</p>
<p>So who has the stronger ethical claim to the Pfizer vaccine?</p>
<h2>Olympians should be prioritised …</h2>
<p>Australian Olympians can make a strong claim to priority access for the Pfizer vaccine. Competing in the Olympics is <a href="https://www.olympics.com.au/news/aoc-welcomes-government-support-for-olympic-athlete-vaccination/">unbelievably hard work and a rare honour</a>. Most Olympians toil for years to compete at the pinnacle of their sport, which only happens every four years.</p>
<p>So having the COVID-19 vaccine would allow them to safely fulfil an important “personal interest” that requires incredible sustained effort over a long period of time. </p>
<p>Think of a personal interest as someone’s stake in something, where fulfilment of this interest contributes to their well-being and happiness. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1387138893066104832"}"></div></p>
<p>All of us have such personal interests, whether it’s playing a sport, painting or reading. In a sense, they’re trivial pursuits as nothing life-or-death depends on them. But they’re still important; they’re part of what makes us human. </p>
<p>We have special admiration and respect for people whose interests represent the pinnacle of human achievement, such as Olympians. And you could certainly argue Australia values elite sporting achievement.</p>
<p>So there are two mutually reinforcing reasons why Australia’s Olympic athletes should be prioritised for the Pfizer vaccine over other Australians: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>it will help them safely achieve a rare personal interest for which they’ve worked hard and represents a pinnacle of sport</p></li>
<li><p>we generally agree society should support people in their pursuits of such amazing interests, all else being equal. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>… just not right now</h2>
<p>However, the challenge rests on claims other Australians can make to the Pfizer vaccine. This is particularly so when there are claims for scarce resources, like the vaccine in Australia at the moment. While Australia has ordered more Pfizer vaccine, this is not scheduled to arrive until <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-09/national-cabinet-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-clots-rollout/100058440">the last quarter of 2021</a>, after the Olympics has finished.</p>
<p>When scarce resources are necessary to protect interests in being alive, we usually — and rightly — give priority to those interests. In other words, a person’s interest in staying alive and healthy should trump another person’s personal interest, which may be important, but not life or death.</p>
<p>Let’s return to those people currently listed <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/when-will-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine">in phase 1b</a>, particularly health-care workers and people with underlying conditions or disabilities. Their claim to the Pfizer vaccine is clearly in the public interest. </p>
<p>Access to the vaccine would protect and promote the health of others (as in the case of health care workers) or the very preservation of life itself and protection against serious disease (as in the case of persons with disabilities). </p>
<p>If we were to rank these various competing interests, it becomes clear why Olympians should not be prioritised over others in phase 1b.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-vaccines-wont-be-compulsory-for-the-tokyo-olympics-but-if-offered-heres-what-athletes-need-to-know-155470">COVID vaccines won't be compulsory for the Tokyo Olympics. But if offered, here's what athletes need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>But Olympians should still queue jump</h2>
<p>The athletes’ justification for being prioritised for vaccines still holds moral weight, though, when it comes to other Australians. </p>
<p>All Australians under 50 will have important interests they’d like fulfilled that will depend on getting the Pfizer vaccine (for example, international travel). But the vast majority of these interests aren’t the pinnacle of achievement or take years of hard work. </p>
<p>If this were the trade-off at hand, Olympians should get the vaccine first. So the issue isn’t <em>whether</em> Olympians should be prioritised, but <em>when</em>. </p>
<p>They could be prioritised in their existing cohort, <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/when-will-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine">phase 2b</a>. Alternatively, they could be vaccinated as part of <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/when-will-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine">phase 2a</a>, alongside other “high-risk workers”.</p>
<p>Doing so might be the compromise we need to protect Olympians, their safety, and their efforts while respecting the interests and claims of those more deserving.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diego S. Silva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It’s easy to call Australian Olympians who receive their COVID shot early ‘queue jumpers’. But the argument for them having early access to the vaccine is more nuanced. Here’s why.
Diego S. Silva, Lecturer, Sydney Health Ethics, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157077
2021-03-17T13:21:49Z
2021-03-17T13:21:49Z
Sea levels are rising fastest in big cities – here’s why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389828/original/file-20210316-23-18odtnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4509%2C3361&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jakarta is sinking while sea levels rise.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">dani daniar / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is well known that climate-induced sea level rise is a major threat. What is less well know is the threat of sinking land. And in many of the most populated coastal areas, the land is sinking even faster than the sea is rising.</p>
<p>Parts of Tokyo for instance sank by 4 metres during the 20th century, with 2 metres or more of sinking reported in <a href="https://www.deltares.nl/app/uploads/2015/09/Sinking-cities.pdf">Shanghai, Bangkok, and New Orleans</a>. This process is known as subsidence. Slow subsidence happens naturally in river deltas, and it can be accelerated by the extraction of groundwater, oil or gas which causes the soil to consolidate and the surface to lose elevation. </p>
<p>Subsidence leads to relative sea level rise (sea level rise plus land sinking). It turns croplands salty, damages buildings, causes widespread flooding and can even mean the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpPJMOp_P3M">loss of entire coastal areas</a>.</p>
<p>Subsidence can threaten flooding in low-lying coastal areas, much more so than rising sea levels, yet scientists are only just realising the global implications of the threat with respect to coastal cities. </p>
<p>In fact, while the average coastal area experiences relative sea level rise of less than 3mm per year, the average coastal resident experiences a rise of around 8mm to 10mm per year. This is because so many people live in deltas and especially cities on deltas that are subsiding. That’s the key finding of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-00993-z">our new research</a>, where we analysed how fast cities are sinking across the world and compared them with global subsidence data including less densely populated coastlines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing relative sea level rise in 23 coastal regions around the world." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When weighted by population, relative sea level rise is worst in south east Asia, followed by south and east Asia, and the southern Mediterranean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-00993-z.pdf?origin=ppub">Nicholls et al</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our finding reflects that people often choose to live in river deltas, floodplains and other areas that were already prone to sinking, and in doing so will further enhance subsidence. In particular, subsiding cities contain more than 150 million people in the coastal zone – that’s roughly 20% of people in the world who live by the sea. This means relative sealevel rise will have a more sudden and more severe impact than scientists had originally thought.</p>
<p>Here are a few of the most affected cities:</p>
<h2>Jakarta</h2>
<p>The Indonesian capital <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44636934">Jakarta</a> is home to 10 million people, and is built on low-lying land next to the sea. Groundwater extraction caused the city to sink <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/106/1/012006/meta">more than three metres</a> from 1947 to 2010 and much of the city is still sinking by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44636934">10cm or more each year</a>. </p>
<p>Subsidence does not occur evenly, leading to uneven risks that make <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11069-011-9866-9.pdf">urban planning difficult</a>. Buildings are now flooded, cracks are appearing in infrastructure which is being abandoned. </p>
<p>Jakarta has built <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/jakarta-building-giant-sea-wall-to-stop-city-from-sinking/av-49921821">higher sea walls</a> to keep up with the subsidence. But since groundwater pumping continues, this patching-up policy can only last so long before the same problems occur again. And the city needs to keep pumping since groundwater is used for drinking water. Taking water, the very thing that humans need to survive, ultimately puts people at risk from inundation. </p>
<p>The battle against subsidence is <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2020.00005/full">slowly being lost</a>, with the government proposing in 2019 to move the capital to a purpose-built city on the island of Borneo more than 1,000km away, with subsidence being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know">one of many reasons</a>.</p>
<h2>Shanghai</h2>
<p>Developing rapidly in the past few decades, and now with a population of 26 million, Shanghai is another sinker. The city has maximum subsidence rates of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-012-0468-7">around 2.5cm a year</a>. Again this is mostly caused by lowering groundwater levels, in this case thanks to <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11069-012-0220-7.pdf">drainage to construct skyscrapers, metro lines and roads</a> (for instance Metro Line 1, built in the 1990s, caused rapid subsidence).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Body of water in front of lots of skyscrapers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shanghai is found where the river Yangtze meets the sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John_T / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If no additional protection is built, by 2100 this rate of subsidence and sea level rise mean that a storm surge could flood around 15% of the city.</p>
<h2>New Orleans</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/how-humans-sank-new-orleans/552323/">New Orleans</a>, centuries of embankments and ditches had effectively drained the city and sunk it, leaving about half of it below sea level. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of New Orleans with shaded areas below sea level." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much of New Orleans is below sea level (red) and relies on sea walls to stay dry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.datacenterresearch.org/maps/reference-maps/#gallery-5">The Data Center, New Orleans</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Hurricane Katrina breached the levees in 2005, the city did not stand a chance. The hurricane caused <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/103/40/14653.short">at least US$40 billion (£29 billion) in damage</a> and particularly took its toll on the city’s <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0021934706296188">African American community</a>. More than <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/103/40/14653.short">1,570 people</a> died across the state of Louisiana.</p>
<p>If the city had not subsided, damage would have been greatly reduced and lives would have been saved. Decisions that were made many decades or more ago set the path for the disasters that are seen today, and what we will see in the future.</p>
<h2>There are no simple solutions</h2>
<p>So what can be done? Building a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/4/619">sea wall or dike</a> is one immediate solution. This of course stops the water coming in, but remember that the sea wall is sinking too, so it has to be extra large in order to be effective in the long-term. In urban areas, engineers cannot raise ground easily: that can take decades as buildings and infrastructure are renewed. There is no simple solution, and large-scale urban subsidence is largely irreversible. </p>
<p>Some cities have found “solutions”. Tokyo for instance managed to stop subsidence from about 1960 onwards thanks to <a href="https://www.iges.or.jp/en/publication_documents/pub/peer/en/1208/IRES_Vol.6-2_403.pdf">stronger regulations on water pumping</a>, but it cannot get rid of the overall risk as parts of city are below sea level and depend on dikes and pumps to be habitable. Indonesia’s bold proposal to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know">move its capital city</a> may be the ultimate solution.</p>
<p>Increased urbanisation especially in deltas areas and the demand for freshwater means subsidence will remain a pressing issue in the coming decades. Dealing with subsidence is complementary to dealing with climate-induced sea level rise and both need to be addressed. A combination of rising seas and sinking lands will increasingly leave coastal cities at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Brown received funding from European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme project: Responses to coastal climate change: Innovative Strategies for high End Scenarios – Adaptation and Mitigation (RISES-AM), grant agreement number 603396.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert James Nicholls received funding from the Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation
project (International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, 107642) under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia programme with financial support from the UK Government’s Department for International
Development, the IDRC, Canada, from European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme project: Responses to coastal climate change: Innovative Strategies for high End Scenarios – Adaptation and Mitigation (RISES-AM), grant agreement number 603396 and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 869304,PROTECT Project.</span></em></p>
Sinking land plus rising seas are putting hundreds of millions of people at risk.
Sally Brown, Scientist, Bournemouth University
Robert James Nicholls, Professor of Climate Adaptation, University of East Anglia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/153046
2021-01-18T17:43:47Z
2021-01-18T17:43:47Z
Tokyo Olympics: An ethical approach will determine whether athletes should get vaccinated ahead of the public
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378860/original/file-20210114-22-qtgq27.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C2628%2C2070&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian athlete Finn Wakeling of the whitewater slalom team member is among those training in anticipation of the Tokyo Olympics.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Marissa Tiel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The debate about prioritizing the return of sport during this global pandemic heated up recently when the National Hockey League indicated <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-covid-19-vaccination-dont-expect-nhl-players-skip-line-1.5851135">it would purchase vaccines and then had to rescind this statement</a>. </p>
<p>On Jan. 8, International Olympics Committee (IOC) official Dick Pound suggested that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN29D0D2">athletes should be prioritized for vaccines so that the Tokyo Olympics can go ahead this summer</a>. Canadian athletes like wrestler Erica Wiebe and gymnast Kyle Shewfelt responded that while they want to compete, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/olympics-2020-vaccine-idUSL4N2JK05Q">they did not think that athletes should be prioritized over front-line workers and high-risk people</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Olympic organizers continue to prepare for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, despite the fact that the city is in a state of emergency and recent polls have shown that hosting the Games is rapidly losing favour with locals.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1348645008317030400"}"></div></p>
<p>The Canadian government <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7516433/coronavirus-vaccine-nhl-buying/">cannot prevent private sales</a> of the vaccine; however, they do have oversight on national sporting bodies. Currently there is no mandate that Olympic athletes must <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2020/11/17/olympics/no-mandatory-vaccine-olympics-says-ioc-chief-thomas-bach">be vaccinated</a>. </p>
<p>Should athletes be prioritized within national supplies so that they are protected when competing? Should the IOC or sponsoring corporations consider purchases direct from the supplier thus creating a second queue for national athletes reducing the global supply? The <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympians-should-have-access-to-covid-vaccine-says-campbell-20210112-p56tjy.html">public debate</a> is ongoing as COVID-19 <a href="https://ncov2019.live/data">second wave numbers soar</a> around the world.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-rescheduled-tokyo-olympics-could-heal-a-post-coronavirus-world-134757">How the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics could heal a post-coronavirus world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Prioritizing athletes</h2>
<p>In order for athletes to be vaccinated in advance of the Tokyo Olympics — currently scheduled to begin on July 23 — they will need to be prioritized in the government supply chain over more vulnerable populations.</p>
<p>Using the recently released <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-ca">vaccine calculator</a>, a 25-year-old Canadian — the average age of an Olympic athlete — would qualify for Stage 3 of the national COVID-19 vaccine rollout. The calculator projects that between 12,201,641 and 22,456,373 Canadians are in the vaccine queue ahead of this age group. Using a vaccine uptake of 70.3 per cent, this means that the 25-year-old would be vaccinated sometime between <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-ca?c=CAD&v=careHome:0,pregnant:0,healthWorker:0,indigenous:0,otherCongregate:0,essentialWorker:0,vaccinationRateChoice:0,uptake:70.3!perc,adultPopulation:31966591,age:25">mid-July and mid-September</a>.</p>
<p>Public opinion has not welcomed <a href="https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2020/12/11/nhl-backlash-covid-19-vaccines/">the idea of corporations purchasing vaccines</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a face mask riding a bicycle past an Olympics logo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378859/original/file-20210114-23-fbzq1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the spread of the coronavirus rides a bicycle past the Japan National Stadium, where opening ceremonies and other events are planned for Tokyo 2020 Olympics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ethical dilemmas and limited time</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has presented policy-makers and political decision makers with pressing ethical dilemmas. Decisions must be made quickly with limited time to gather information, reflect and fully understand all possible consequences. This does not mean that there is no logic or sequence process for ethical decision-making. </p>
<p>An ethical dilemma is not a situation where one must determine the right and wrong decision choice, but rather it is a situation where there might be two or more right solutions, and where each potential solution leads to different decisions and consequences.</p>
<p>So we are left with the following ethical dilemma: Are there compelling arguments in favour of prioritizing athletes’ access to the COVID-19 vaccination?</p>
<p>Two differing philosophical theories — deontological and teleological — might help us arrive at different decision outcomes.</p>
<p>Deontological theories state that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/deontological-ethics">ethical dilemmas should be resolved by applying the universal standard or code of justice that everyone must follow</a>. On the other hand, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/teleological">teleological approaches</a> require that ethical decisions result in the greatest benefit for the largest number of people.</p>
<p>Consider <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Robin-Hood/">Robin Hood</a>, who robbed from the rich for the benefit of the poor. Would you turn him in to the authorities? If you do, the money will be returned to those who need it less.</p>
<p>From a deontological perspective, you’d turn him in: the rule about stealing is very clear. However, from a teleological perspective you could provide a compelling moral case that helping the needy is more important than giving money back to the wealthy. Now, the ethical lens you would use would vary depending on your stakes in the situation — you may respond differently depending on whether you were the person who was robbed or the beneficiary of the stolen funds.</p>
<h2>Athletes’ dilemma</h2>
<p>Following this example, a deontological approach would say that athletes should follow the rules specified and not be allowed to jump the queue under any circumstances. </p>
<p>A teleological perspective would approach the dilemma by asking whether there were enough overall benefits to justify prioritizing athletes at the expense of others. And this is a matter of perspective.</p>
<p>So how can decision-makers approach this situation and make the appropriate choice?</p>
<p>Ethicist R.M. Kidder suggested a <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/how-good-people-make-tough-choices-rev-ed-rushworth-m-kidder">guided step-by-step approach to solving ethical dilemmas</a>:</p>
<p><strong>Step 1:</strong> Recognize that this is indeed an ethical dilemma and that there is evidence on both sides of the argument that would suggest each decision made could be an ethical one. </p>
<p><strong>Step 2:</strong> Determine the actors involved. Who is responsible and accountable for the decision? Who will the decision impact — in this case athletes, vulnerable populations, sports organizations, countries, sponsors, media, audiences, etc.</p>
<p><strong>Step 3:</strong> Identify the relevant facts — do athletes need to be vaccinated in order to hold the Tokyo Olympics?</p>
<p><strong>Step 4:</strong> Test right and wrong consequences for possible outcomes. For example, what would the public response be to either decision? How would the media respond? Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for all affected by the decision.</p>
<p><strong>Step 5:</strong> Apply various ethical approaches — both deontological and teleological, among others — what solutions would emerge?</p>
<p><strong>Step 6:</strong> Look at the decision from a legal, ethical and financial point of view simultaneously.</p>
<p><strong>Step 7:</strong> Once you have decided on a course of action, develop a risk mitigation plan to anticipate and address consequences.</p>
<p><strong>Step 8:</strong> After the decision has been implemented, track the outcomes and apply this learning moving forward.</p>
<p>In a time of great division and isolation, the values and objectives of the Olympic Games could play a major role in healing the world. But are the costs associated with prioritizing vaccines for Olympic athletes worth it?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann Pegoraro receives funding from Sport Canada. She is a co-director of E-Alliance, Canada's new Gender Equity in Sport Research Hub</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lianne Foti is an assistant director of the International Institute for Sport Business and Leadership at the University of Guelph.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Rodenburg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As COVID-19 vaccines roll out, a debate about whether athletes should be prioritized over more vulnerable populations has emerged.
Kathleen Rodenburg, Assistant Professor, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
Ann Pegoraro, Lang Chair in Sport Management, Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
Lianne Foti, Assistant Professor, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134871
2020-04-09T09:35:56Z
2020-04-09T09:35:56Z
Olympics postponement may be a cultural opportunity for Tokyo
<p>When a terrorist attack during the Munich 1972 Olympics killed 11 members of the Israeli team, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Avery Brundage, <a href="https://www.stripes.com/news/games-must-go-on-says-brundage-1.36208">famously said</a>: “The games must go on”. The Salt Lake City 2002 games also went on, just months after the 9/11 attacks on New York. </p>
<p>In 2020, however, the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 organisers conceded to mounting <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/pressure-is-rising-to-postpone-the-2020-tokyo-olympics.html">international pressure</a> as the coronavirus pandemic continued to spread, and postponed the games until July 2021.</p>
<p>This is only the fourth time in 124 years that the summer Olympics have not been delivered as planned. The impact of the postponement on world sport will be immense. Yet, beyond the impact on athletes and investors, the postponement also has a major impact on Tokyo city and everything it expected to gain by hosting the Olympics.</p>
<p>This is the second time Tokyo has been forced to change its games preparations, after it cancelled the 1940 Olympics due to the second world war. When Tokyo did eventually host its first games in 1964, it used them as a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07075332.2012.626572">soft power platform</a> to project a future-facing city and a post-war Japan that was about to become a world leader in industry and technology.</p>
<h2>Big plans for 2020</h2>
<p>In 2020, Tokyo had <a href="https://gtimg.tokyo2020.org/image/upload/production/kndtqwos6ucxo4mfkpey.pdf">bold aspirations</a> to tell the world new stories about contemporary Japan. It also wanted to showcase different perspectives on Japanese heritage, presenting the games as “<a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/games-vision/">the most innovative in history</a>”. The 2020 games were seen as a chance for Japan to project itself as a major international cultural and creative centre, with the capacity to shape trends worldwide. </p>
<p>The official Tokyo 2020 cultural programme – the Cultural Olympiad – was <a href="https://www.nettam.jp/en/olympiad-culture/1/">launched</a> straight after the Rio 2016 games and had grown into an ambitious <a href="https://culture-nippon.go.jp/events/?label=beyond2020">nationwide programme</a> by 2020. Its first three years focused on a national agenda, prioritising the promotion and rediscovery of traditional Japanese culture within Japan itself and a special focus on <a href="https://www.nettam.jp/en/olympiad-culture/9/">enticing the young</a> into classic and new forms of Japanese heritage. </p>
<p>From April 2020, the aim was to shift into an international gear. The <a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/events/nippon-festival/">Nippon Festival</a> was to be Tokyo 2020’s flagship cultural event, scheduled to last until the end of the Paralympic Games in September. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4kAXDk02-2Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Key cornerstones of the festival included a plan to showcase Japanese heritage in a new light, via initiatives such as a <a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/events/nippon-festival/kabukiandopera">Kabuki x Opera</a>, a world premiere aimed at exploring the links between ancient kabuki theatre traditions and Western opera. The festival also planned to celebrate the cultural and economic <a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/events/nippon-festival/tohoku-mocco">potential of the Tohoku region</a> which was seriously damaged after the 2011 earthquake. There was also an international children’s programme planned for July called <a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/events/wassai/">Wassai</a>, and plans to explore new forms of inclusion, such as the <a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/events/one/">ONE festival</a> showcasing the creative work of disabled and LGTB communities. </p>
<p>As of early April 2020, only the Kabuki x Opera event had been officially cancelled, but the remaining Nippon Festival headline acts have become effectively impossible to deliver as Japan enters a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/japan-shinzo-abe-declares-state-of-emergency-over-coronavirus">state of emergency</a>. </p>
<h2>An opportunity to showcase culture</h2>
<p>It remains to be seen whether the complexity of postponing the Olympic sport competitions by a year will push the often underfunded and under-promoted Olympic culture and arts agenda back into the shadows. There may be few resources left to reenact all the major Olympic art events at their original scale in 2021. However, by March 2020, much of the cultural programming had already been delivered and new forms of collaboration secured. There are many stories worth telling about the first three years of Japan’s Cultural Olympiad without the need to wait until 2021 – from the government-led <a href="https://culture-nippon.go.jp/events/?label=beyond2020">Beyond2020</a> national legacy programme, to the capital’s own <a href="https://tokyotokyofestival.jp/en/">TokyoTokyo festival</a>.</p>
<p>Far from having a negative impact on Tokyo and Japan’s cultural repositioning plans, the postponement of the games gives organisers an opportunity to show they care. They can show they are in tune with the global health crisis and contribute towards positive and inspirational global messaging by tapping into the wealth of creativity, community empowerment and rich heritage present within their Cultural Olympiad programme. </p>
<p>The postponement of the games therefore offers an opportunity to refocus the public’s attention on the symbolic dimension of the Olympics. After all, the games are supposed to be a festival, designed to showcase human excellence and bring <a href="https://www.apa.org/international/pi/2012/10/un-matters">the world together</a> in peaceful community rituals. The absence of the games in 2020 offers an additional year for organisers and artists to explore these aspirations and express them in innovative ways.</p>
<p>Where previous host cities, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-art-needs-to-retake-the-olympic-stage-64139">most recently Rio in 2016</a>, failed to make a splash with their cultural programmes, what the world needs most right now as it battles coronavirus are stories of societal strength and cultural cooperation. </p>
<p>In the absence of Tokyo 2020 as a gathering for world sport and medal rankings, this may be the chance for Japan’s creative industries to raise their game. Ahead of the sporting competitions in 2021, games organisers should make the most of the artists and creators they’ve worked with since 2016 to show how innovative they can be, and to tell us loud and clear why hosting the Olympics, particularly in the aftermath of a virus pandemic, still matters to Japan and the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beatriz Garcia has received funding from the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Olympic Studies Centre (Advanced Research Grant). She has been invited as External Expert to the Culture and Olympic Heritage Commission. </span></em></p>
The event may have been postponed until July 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, but there is already a big cultural legacy to Tokyo 2020.
Beatriz Garcia, Director, Cities of Culture Research Observatory, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134577
2020-03-24T23:27:08Z
2020-03-24T23:27:08Z
Postponing the Olympics is the right call — curbing the coronavirus pandemic matters more than money
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322735/original/file-20200324-155674-1armbv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C597%2C4146%2C2623&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man takes a selfie with the Olympic rings in front of the New National Stadium in Tokyo on the same day the International Olympic Committee announced the 2020 Summer Games would be postponed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Olympic and Paralympic Games have <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/joint-statement-from-the-international-olympic-committee-and-the-tokyo-2020-organising-committee">officially been rescheduled</a> to a date beyond 2020, but not later than the summer of 2021. The International Olympic Committee had been under pressure to make a decision about the Tokyo Games and now that it’s happened, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/story/2020-03-24/ioc-smart-decision-by-postponing-the-tokyo-olympics-to-2021">there appears to be widespread support to postpone the world’s largest sporting event</a>.</p>
<p>We study ethical issues in public health and sports and it’s clear the decision to postpone the Olympics was necessary given the imperative to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rescheduling the Games affirms the need to prioritize the health of our athletes and the public over financial losses.</p>
<p>Prior to the decision to reschedule, there was some sentiment that <em><a href="https://adage.com/article/special-report-olympics/olympics-backers-say-show-must-go-nbc-ad-sales-soar-125-billion/2242136">the show must go on</a></em>. A staggering amount of money has been sunk into planning and preparing for the Olympics — something to the tune of <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/what-could-an-olympics-postponement-cost-japan/articleshow/74797471.cms">US$12 Billion</a>. Then there’s the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2020/03/24/canadas-elite-athletes-greet-olympic-bombshell-with-support-despite-the-disappointment.html">tremendous disappointment for athletes and spectators</a> around the world. Tokyo was also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/03/24/1940-tokyo-olympics-postponed-coronavirus/">the host city of the 1940 Games that were called off because of the Second World War</a>, so there was added pressure to make sure it wouldn’t be the first city to cancel the Olympics twice.</p>
<h2>An ethical imperative</h2>
<p>But none of those reasons should have compelled Tokyo to proceed with the Games this summer. An ethical imperative exists to protect the well-being of our athletes and the public — and to curb the spread of this pandemic. If this was not possible, then no amount of money already sunk into the Olympics would be a compelling reason to proceed. </p>
<p>There are other ethical decisions to consider when deciding when — or whether — the Games should be rescheduled.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-executive-board-statement-on-the-coronavirus-covid-19-and-the-olympic-games-tokyo-2020">International Olympic Committee’s default position</a> had been to proceed with the Tokyo Olympics unless there were compelling reasons to cancel them due to COVID-19. This is now the IOC’s position in terms of planning for the rescheduled Games.</p>
<p>We suggest re-casting this default position: the Olympics should only proceed in 2021 if there is sufficient evidence to suggest that adequate preventative, containment and mitigation measures can be put in place so as to adequately protect the thousands of athletes and their entourage, the hundreds of thousands of spectators and the broader public from the general spread of the pandemic.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322738/original/file-20200324-155652-vlu7qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322738/original/file-20200324-155652-vlu7qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322738/original/file-20200324-155652-vlu7qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322738/original/file-20200324-155652-vlu7qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322738/original/file-20200324-155652-vlu7qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322738/original/file-20200324-155652-vlu7qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322738/original/file-20200324-155652-vlu7qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Going forward, the International Olympic Committee will need to demonstrate an unprecedented level of transparency in determining how the Tokyo Games will proceed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the unprecedented context of hosting the Olympics during a pandemic — even the tail end of it — a necessary condition should be that these measures be in place, even though there isn’t yet any clear indication of what these measures would look like. Unless these conditions can be satisfied, the Olympics should not proceed.</p>
<h2>IOC must be transparent</h2>
<p>Finally, given the numerous interests at stake — athletes, spectators, sponsors, broadcasters, local planners, and the IOC — it is critical that the decision to proceed, further postpone or cancel is made in as fair and transparent a manner as possible. This is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/sep/07/corruption-olympic-movement-ioc">not typically how the IOC operates</a>, but in the current situation the larger global public interest must take priority.</p>
<p>This means engaging meaningfully with various stakeholders on this decision and articulating transparent reasons for why decisions are being made. Promoting fair and transparent decision-making in this context can promote public trust and legitimacy.</p>
<p>Between now and the time that a decision has to be made regarding a rescheduled date, there is an opportunity to implement these fair and transparent decision-making processes. Doing so will enhance the ethical quality of how we make the right decision in the months to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Misener receives research funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxwell J. Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The decision to reschedule the Olympic and Paralympic Games was the right move. But how should we decide whether and when the Games should now be held?
Maxwell J. Smith, Assistant Professor & Co-Director, Health Ethics, Law, & Policy (HELP) Lab, Western University
Laura Misener, Associate Professor & Director, School of Kinesiology, Western University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123304
2019-09-12T20:44:11Z
2019-09-12T20:44:11Z
The next battles against tobacco must be fought in the world’s major cities
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291825/original/file-20190910-190031-olddso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C16%2C5316%2C3473&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is one of many emerging global metropolises that are struggling to protect residents against tobacco.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global cities like New York and London were among the first to pioneer <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.058164">effective tobacco control policies</a> — like smoke-free workplaces, public cessation services and higher tobacco taxes. </p>
<p>These life-saving policies were so successful that an international treaty called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was negotiated in 2003 to promote similar evidence-based policies throughout the world. Until recently, <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2008/20081117/en/">many assumed</a> the <a href="https://www.who.int/fctc/signatories_parties/en/">181 countries that ratified the treaty</a> had benefitted from it.</p>
<p>This month we published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2287">new research in the <em>British Medical Journal</em></a> showing that a pre-existing decline in global cigarette consumption was not accelerated by this international tobacco control treaty. </p>
<p>Worse yet, our depressing findings show that while people are smoking less in richer countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, tobacco consumption is rising by over 500 cigarettes per adult in poorer countries like China, Indonesia and Vietnam.</p>
<p>These unexpected results raise two important questions: what could explain these global disparities in tobacco control, and what can be done to address them?</p>
<h2>Tobacco taxes too low</h2>
<p>Global disparities may largely be explained by shifting economic trends and governments’ different capabilities in implementing tobacco control policies. </p>
<p>Rapidly growing metropolises like Beijing, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City have not had the same success in protecting their residents against the dangers of tobacco as the richer early-adopting cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jakarta, Indonesia. Tobacco consumption is rising by by over 500 cigarettes per adult in poorer countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One major reason is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0955-8">tobacco taxes in these cities are a fraction</a> of what we know they should be and are <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/global/pdfs/en/Indonesia_tobacco_taxes_report_en.pdf">not rising as quickly as incomes</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, these cities will <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2014-051821">lose billions of dollars</a> in lost productivity and health-care expenditures, and the <a href="https://www.who.int/tobacco/publications/surveillance/rep_mortality_attibutable/en/">number one preventable cause of premature death</a> will grow worse every year for hundreds of millions of people.</p>
<h2>Tax avoidance and smuggling</h2>
<p>Yet these emerging cities are not necessarily themselves to blame. Our research, when combined with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2016.1273370">past studies on the tobacco industry</a>, provides some of the first quantitative evidence for what economists would call an “equilibrium effect” in the tobacco market — whereby the implementation of tobacco control policies in richer countries incentivized tobacco companies to relocate their lobbying, marketing and promotion activities to poorer countries with far less stringent policies.</p>
<p>In fact, there is a tragic irony to this story: the oligopolies dominating the global tobacco market are all headquartered in the very cities that pioneered the tobacco control policies, and these policies now drive industry operations to emerging cities with far fewer protections against this deadly product.</p>
<p>Phillip Morris in New York. British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco in London. Japan Tobacco in Tokyo. Not only are these publicly traded companies leveraging capital from wealthy investors in these cities to worsen the tobacco epidemic abroad, they are repatriating billions of dollars back into these wealthy cities through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/30/tobacco-firm-bat-costs-developing-countries-700m-in-tax">systemic tax avoidance</a> and <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/13/suppl_2/ii104.full.pdf">international smuggling</a> coordinated at the highest levels — all while <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60312-9">aggressively fighting against effective tobacco control policies</a> around the world.</p>
<h2>One billion expected deaths</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2287">Our research</a> demonstrates that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has not yet led to equitable protection against the harms of tobacco for the great cities of the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tobacco taxes in cities like Beijing are not rising as fast as incomes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 2044 there will be <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization">twice as many people living in the world’s cities</a> as in rural areas, meaning we cannot leave any city behind if we have any hope of defeating the global tobacco epidemic.</p>
<p>The next stage of this long war must be fought city by city. Whether that means raising tobacco taxes in Beijing, curtailing industry marketing in Jakarta, requiring plain tobacco packaging in Ho Chi Minh City or taking legal action in New York and London — we all have a role to play in fighting <a href="https://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/2008/en/">to prevent the one billion deaths</a> that are expected from tobacco in the 21st century.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Hoffman declares support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (project 312902) and the Research Council of Norway. He was previously employed by WHO.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathieu JP Poirier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rapidly growing metropolises like Beijing, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City are struggling to protect residents against tobacco. Life-saving policies in rich countries may be partially to blame.
Steven J. Hoffman, Director, Global Strategy Lab and Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science, York University, Canada
Mathieu JP Poirier, Assistant Professor of Soclal Epidemiology, York University, Canada
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/122433
2019-08-28T11:48:22Z
2019-08-28T11:48:22Z
Why would anyone want to sit on a plane for over 18 hours? An economist takes the world’s longest flight
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289512/original/file-20190826-8889-j6yaz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A customer waits for the world's longest flight from Singapore to Newark.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Singapore-Flight-New-York/bafca6aa739745bbbf2197235dc678b7/1/0">AP Photo/Wong Maye-E</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently <a href="https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-to-operate-project-sunrise-research-flights-direct-new-york-london-to-australia/">Qantas announced</a> plans to conduct test flights from New York and London to Sydney and two other Australian cities. </p>
<p>If commercialized, these routes would become the longest in the world at about 19 hours. Qantas said it will conduct test flights <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/qantas-wires-up-people-for-19-hour-endurance-flight-11566471393">with only employees</a> on board to ensure the flights are safe and comfortable enough for paying customers. </p>
<p>I heard this news after finishing a round-trip on what is currently the world’s <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/longest-flights-in-the-world">longest flight</a>, the 18 hours and 45 minutes Singapore Airlines schedules to get from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericrosen/2018/10/11/worlds-new-longest-flight-from-singapore-to-newark-launches-today/#6a42a6a12aca">Newark, New Jersey, to Singapore</a>, a route that began last October. The return trip is slightly quicker. Fortunately for me, there were favorable winds so each way took about 30 minutes less than scheduled.</p>
<p>Being aloft twice for the better part of a day gave me plenty of time to ponder the origins and <a href="http://businessmacroeconomics.com/">economics</a> of long-distance flights – with plenty of time to spare for binge watching.</p>
<h2>Talk about a long flight</h2>
<p>Pilots and airlines have been pushing the boundaries of flight times since the earliest days of air travel. In fact, 19 hours is rather quick for the industry’s trailblazers.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.wired.com/2009/06/dayintech-0609/">first plane to make it across the Pacific</a> took off from Oakland, California, in 1928. It took the aircraft, dubbed the “Southern Cross,” <a href="https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/southern-cross/">three long flights</a> to get to its final destination in Australia: 27 and a half hours to Hawaii, 34 and a half hours to Fiji and a final 21 and a half hours to Brisbane. In all, the pilot and his crew covered about 7,000 miles in 10 days – all without losing any luggage.</p>
<p>A few years later, in 1931, two daredevils in search of a US$25,000 prize <a href="https://www.wired.com/2010/10/1005first-nonstop-transpacific-flight">flew from Tokyo to the state of Washington</a> in the first nonstop flight over the Pacific Ocean. To save weight and fuel, the pilots even threw out their landing gear after takeoff. When they reached the U.S., they crash landed – but survived to claim the prize. The flight took 41 hours and covered more than 5,500 miles.</p>
<p>These super-long flights, of course, were taken by daredevil pilots with no passengers. And they were very dangerous. One of the most famous aviation failures involved <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/19/amelia-earhart-found-disappearance-theories/1475518001/">Amelia Earhart</a>, who disappeared in 1937 while attempting to cross part of the Pacific on a world circling flight.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289516/original/file-20190826-8856-1rxgxj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289516/original/file-20190826-8856-1rxgxj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289516/original/file-20190826-8856-1rxgxj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289516/original/file-20190826-8856-1rxgxj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289516/original/file-20190826-8856-1rxgxj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289516/original/file-20190826-8856-1rxgxj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289516/original/file-20190826-8856-1rxgxj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first trans-Pacific flight included three layovers, with legs as long as 34.5 hours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kingsford_Smith#/media/File:StateLibQld_1_139254_Landing_the_aircraft,_Southern_Cross_in_Brisbane,_Queensland,_ca._1928.jpg">John Oxley Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Six days and 60 hours</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.clipperflyingboats.com/transpacific-airline-service">first service</a> to ferry paying customers across the Pacific was created by Pan Am in October 1936. </p>
<p>The trip started from San Francisco and ended in Manila, capital of the Philippines. It took six days and about 60 hours of flying time. The plane flew during the day and made stops in Hawaii, Midway, Wake and Guam at night. The longest leg, from San Francisco to Hawaii, <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/hawaii-by-air/online/pan-am-clippers/pan-am-spans-the-pacific.cfm">took 18 and a half hours</a>. </p>
<p>Pam Am’s planes, called the “Clippers,” <a href="https://www.clipperflyingboats.com/">didn’t need airports</a>. They were specially designed to <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/hawaii-by-air/online/pan-am-clippers/pan-am-spans-the-pacific.cfm">take off and land in the water</a>. The planes <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/hawaii-by-air/online/pan-am-clippers/what-was-it-like-to-fly.cfm">were also quite luxurious</a> and even had separate areas for eating and sleeping.</p>
<p>But all that luxury while spanning the globe was quite expensive. </p>
<p>The one-way fare from San Francisco to Manila <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/China-Clipper-s-flight-made-history-75-years-ago-3165474.php">was $950</a>, or $17,400 in <a href="https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm">today’s dollars</a>.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the cost of flying these long routes – in terms of both money and time – has come down dramatically. These days you can fly direct from San Francisco to Manila in business class for around $3,000, including the return flight. The trip to Manila takes just 14 hours.</p>
<p>Today’s flights are also a lot safer. The concern for many passengers is not crashing but instead <a href="https://www.popsci.com/are-long-airplane-flights-bad-for-your-health/">health risks like deep vein thrombosis</a>, a type of blood clot. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289517/original/file-20190826-8880-1gukbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289517/original/file-20190826-8880-1gukbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289517/original/file-20190826-8880-1gukbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289517/original/file-20190826-8880-1gukbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289517/original/file-20190826-8880-1gukbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289517/original/file-20190826-8880-1gukbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289517/original/file-20190826-8880-1gukbch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amelia Earhart disappeared while attempting to circumnavigate the globe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-APHS245875-Amelia-Earhart/e473225ce73d48db80cefd8f7c091c00/6/1">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Saving time, money and bags</h2>
<p>Still, even if things have improved, I think most of us agree that <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/pdworld/2008/02/flying_isnt_fun_anymore.html">flying is not fun</a>. Airlines <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielreed/2018/04/26/airline-customer-satisfaction-scores-fell-in-2018-even-as-more-people-flew-on-them-than-ever-before/#3e9ae4ca2ddc">regularly rank near the bottom</a> among industries in customer satisfaction surveys. </p>
<p>So why would we want to increase the amount of time spent 30,000 feet above the ground in a metal tube with wings? </p>
<p>For one thing, it means less total travel time. For example, my flight to Singapore would have taken three and a half hours longer with a layover in Hong Kong. </p>
<p>But if you’re someone who might prefer a break during a long flight halfway around the world, a more practical benefit is that removing the connection also reduces the chance <a href="https://pp.bme.hu/tr/article/view/1870">your luggage is lost</a>, since bags are handled fewer times. Almost half of all bags delayed in 2017 <a href="https://www.sita.aero/resources/type/surveys-reports/baggage-report-2018">were a result</a> of baggage handlers missing connections.</p>
<p>Flying a full plane load of passengers directly also saves airlines money – which often translates into lower prices for consumers too. An extra layover at a major airport <a href="https://www.fraport.com/en/misc/binaer/business-and-partner/airlines-cargo/airport-charges/infographic--airport-charges-at-frankfurt-airport/_jcr_content.file/fraport_entgelte_eng.pdf">can be expensive</a>, with fees for landing, takeoff, parking, noise abatement and security. Airports also charge extra for <a href="https://www.fraport.com/en/misc/binaer/business-and-partner/airlines-cargo/airport-charges/list-of-service-charges/_jcr_content.file/list-of-service-charges---july-2019.pdf">optional services</a> like cleaning, towing and providing electricity to a plane while it is parked at the gate. </p>
<h2>Expect more ultra-long flights</h2>
<p>One thing that was interesting about the Qantas announcement is all the research it plans to do during its test flights – scheduled for October through December – on the passengers themselves. </p>
<p>Scientists and medical experts will monitor sleep patterns, food and beverage consumption, lighting, physical movement and in-flight entertainment to assess their impact on health and well-being – and prevent any blood clots in the legs.</p>
<p>Using this data, Qantas hopes to make ultra-long flying a more pleasant experience. After all, the main reason to take a single 19-hour flight is to arrive faster and feeling better than taking multiple flights to the same destination.</p>
<p>Whether you love or hate flying, expect longer flights in the future as more efficient planes allow airlines to go ever farther. Given we seem to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-hectic-multitasking-lives-were-wired-to-binge-on-tv-24158">wired for binge watching</a>, I don’t think this trend is so bad. </p>
<p>I could have actually used a longer flight. My effort to binge the second season of “Star Trek: Discovery” was abruptly interrupted as we descended back into Newark, with just 10 minutes left in the final episode.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The day and a half it takes to get from New York to Singapore and back offers plenty of time to ponder the economics of ultra-long-haul flights – and wonder why we’d want to make it any longer.
Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior Lecturer, Boston University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117910
2019-05-29T04:55:46Z
2019-05-29T04:55:46Z
Despite Japan’s low crime rates, it’s seen a number of mass stabbings in the past decade
<p>On May 27, a 51-year old man went on a <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201905280019.html">killing spree</a> in the Japanese city of Kawasaki, located south of Tokyo. With a knife in each hand, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/28/national/crime-legal/11-reported-stabbed-kawasaki-including-elementary-school-children/#.XOzoJy2B3OQ">he killed a 39 year-old man and a 12 year-old schoolgirl, and injured 15 school children aged between six and twelve</a> as they waited for a school bus. </p>
<p>The attacker was detained at the scene, but later died from self-inflicted stab wounds to his neck and shoulders. A witness reported seeing the attacker swinging his knives and <a href="http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201905280019.html">shouting “I will kill you”</a> while children screamed for help.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-japan-is-reluctant-to-retry-the-worlds-longest-serving-death-row-inmate-98397">Why Japan is reluctant to retry the world's longest-serving death row inmate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A recent history of indiscriminate killings</h2>
<p>The attacker was <a href="https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190529_05/">identified</a> as Ryuichi Iwasaki. He grew up with, and was still living with, his <a href="https://www.sankei.com/affairs/news/190528/afr1905280072-n1.html">relatives</a> in Kawasaki city where the attack took place. </p>
<p>Those interviewed who knew Iwasaki did not seem surprised by the attack. His classmates from junior high school described him as a troubled child often losing his temper, behaving violently, and being bullied at school. More recently, Iwasaki was <a href="https://www.sankei.com/affairs/news/190528/afr1905280072-n1.html">verbally aggressive to his neighbour</a> because the leaves from the neighbour’s garden had brushed against him.</p>
<p>With the perpetrator dead, we are unlikely to get to the bottom of what motivated an apparently indiscriminate attack, but this incident isn’t the first time Japan has experienced a mass stabbings of this kind. </p>
<p>In 2016, 19 residents at a care home for people with mental disabilities were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/26/japan-care-home-attack-satoshi-uematsu-horrifying-vision-disabled-people">stabbed to death</a>. A former employee at the care home who confessed to the killing claimed that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>it is better that disabled people disappear. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2008, a 24-year-old unemployed man who <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/12/19/national/ibaraki-station-stabber-gets-his-wish-the-death-sentence/#.XO09PS2B3OQ">wanted to</a> “end his boring life” went on a stabbing spree in Ibaraki, killing two people and injuring seven. </p>
<p>In the same year, a 25-year-old man stabbed and killed seven people and injured ten in Akihabara, a busy shopping hub in Tokyo. A month before the incident, the attacker <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-06-10/japan-massacre-suspect-said-he-was-ugly-lonely/2466572">wrote</a> on an online platform: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t have a single friend and I won’t in the future. I’ll be ignored because I’m ugly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children have also been victims of indiscriminate attacks. In 2001, a 37-year-old man killed eight children at a school in Osaka. He later <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/09/world/knife-wielding-man-kills-8-children-at-japanese-school.html">told police</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I hate everything. I tried to commit suicide several times but could not die. I wanted to be arrested and executed by the death penalty.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-is-in-you-cant-link-imprisonment-to-crime-rates-40074">The evidence is in: you can't link imprisonment to crime rates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Low crime rates, but fear of crime is growing</h2>
<p>Despite these incidents, Japan remains one of the safest countries in the world. </p>
<p>According to the 2016 <a href="https://dataunodc.un.org/crime">UNODC statistics</a>, Japan’s rate of intentional homicide per 100,000 population is the lowest in the world at 0.3 (if we exclude Macau at 0.2), compared with 0.9 for Australia and the 5.4 for the United States.</p>
<p>Officially recorded cases of murder in Japan have been <a href="https://www.crimeinfo.jp/data/statistics_09-2/">decreasing steadily since the 1960s</a>. The recorded statistics for murder averaged around 3,500 cases per year in the 1960s, decreasing to around 1,500 cases per year in the 1980s, and down to 710 cases in 2017. </p>
<p>The same downward trend can be seen in <a href="https://www.crimeinfo.jp/data/statistics_11/">murder convictions</a>: 234 cases in 2017, down from 609 cases in 2007.</p>
<p>While Japan’s remains extremely low, the Japanese public’s fear of crime has been growing. <a href="https://apjjf.org/-Tom-Ellis--K--HAMAI/2340/article.pdf">Government surveys</a>, and the results of the <a href="https://www.syaanken.or.jp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/17313-7.pdf">Japan General Social Survey</a>, show that the Japanese public are more fearful of being a victim of crime, and believe that violent crime is on the rise. At the same time, Japanese public are ill- and mis-informed about crime and punishment issues. </p>
<p>For example, while the majority of the Japanese public supports the death penalty, the same survey respondents <a href="https://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/knowledge/the-public-opinion-myth-why-japan-retains-the-death-penalty/">lacked basic knowledge</a> about how it works, such as the number of people executed per year, or the method of execution. Respondents overestimated rate of homicides and violent crimes.</p>
<p>The perception gap between actual crime trends and public perceptions is not unique to Japan. It is seen in countries, such as the <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/publication/1970-01/sri_crime_closing_the_gaps_012008.pdf">UK</a>, <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/crime-rate-perception-gap/">US</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265760925_Mind_the_Gap_Bridging_the_Perception_and_Reality_of_Crime_Rates_with_Information">Colombia</a>. And while people generally believe that the crime is on the rise, they are less pessimistic about local crime and overly pessimistic about national crime rates.</p>
<h2>An ageing prison population</h2>
<p>The low crime rate in Japan makes a horrific crime like the Kawasaki stabbing newsworthy. The moral panic created by media coverage of horrific crimes in the past has an impact on public perceptions of crime, <a href="https://apjjf.org/-Tom-Ellis--K--HAMAI/2340/article.pdf">but also on criminal justice policy and practice</a>. </p>
<p>Some researchers <a href="https://apjjf.org/-Tom-Ellis--K--HAMAI/2340/article.pdf">argue</a> that public’s fear of crime, and politicians’ response to the fear, resulted in new legislation imposing more severe punishment on offenders. This widened the criminal justice net, with a greater proportion being diverted into the formal criminal justice process.</p>
<p>The result of the expanded use of criminal justice system to deal with deviance, combined with the ageing population, has resulted one in five prisoners being over the age of 60. Japanese prisons have been described as a “<a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/04/16/national/social-issues/prisons-japan-becoming-like-nursing-homes-amid-surge-elderly-offenders/#.XO1LTy2B3OQ">nursing home</a>”. Recidivism is <a href="http://hakusyo1.moj.go.jp/en/66/image/image/h004008002001e.jpg">high among elderly prisoners</a> because they lack family and financial support. In 2016, of the 2,500 prisoners over the age of 65 who were convicted in 2016, around a third had six or more previous convictions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276914/original/file-20190529-126239-gyvwka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276914/original/file-20190529-126239-gyvwka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276914/original/file-20190529-126239-gyvwka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276914/original/file-20190529-126239-gyvwka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276914/original/file-20190529-126239-gyvwka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276914/original/file-20190529-126239-gyvwka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276914/original/file-20190529-126239-gyvwka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prisoners receive dialysis treatment with at a medical prison in Tokyo as a prison officer watches on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.crimeinfo.jp/gallery/">CrimeInfo</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aum-shinrikyo-subway-sarin-attack-japanese-cult-members-await-execution-two-decades-on-90890">Aum Shinrikyo subway sarin attack: Japanese cult members await execution two decades on</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lone attacks are different in Japan</h2>
<p>After the Kawasaki stabbing, Japan’s education minister, Masahito Shibayama, announced that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe had <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/28/national/crime-legal/11-reported-stabbed-kawasaki-including-elementary-school-children/#.XO3OXS2B3OR">instructed him</a> to make every possible effort to secure safety at schools. </p>
<p>Unlike a number of lone actor attacks that have occurred outside of Japan in recent years – such as the Christchurch mosque attacks and the Pittsburgh synagogue attack – the attacks carried out in Japan are not motivated by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-17/christchurch-attacks-stark-warning-of-toxic-hate-flourishing/10909394">right-wing ideology</a>. </p>
<p>What lone attackers in Japan have in common are social exclusion and low social capital. A further expansion of formal social control through the use and threat of imprisonment is unlikely to prevent future attacks.</p>
<p>I grew up in Tokyo, where it was – and still is – normal <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/why-japanese-kids-can-walk-to-school-alone/408475/">for children as young as six to play without the presence of an adult, or to take public transport alone</a>. I hope that the Kawasaki stabbing does not result in <a href="https://www.mpg.de/6347636/terrorism_traffic-accidents-USA">“indirect damage”</a> that further excludes vulnerable people via the criminal justice system, or curtails the freedom and independence currently enjoyed by Japanese school children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117910/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mai Sato receives funding from DFAT and the European Commission. Mai is affiliated with CrimeInfo. </span></em></p>
Despite low crime rates, indiscriminate mass stabbings aren’t unheard of in Japan. But unlike recent mass killings in Western countries, they aren’t motivated by right-wing ideology.
Mai Sato, Fellow, School of Regulation and Global Governance, The Australian National University, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101316
2018-08-16T20:17:21Z
2018-08-16T20:17:21Z
Tokyo’s heatwave suggests risky temperatures for the 2020 Olympics. Here’s what the city can do
<p>The Northern Hemisphere is currently suffering an unprecedented heatwave. In Japan, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/08/13/reference/olympic-heat-wave-fears-steps-can-tokyo-take/#.W3TL3pMzajg">more than 100 people have died</a> and tens of thousands more are in hospital due to heat-related illness. </p>
<p>Tokyo, which is hosting the 2020 Olympics, has for the first time <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44935152">registered temperatures</a> over 40°C. This is raising concerns about the city’s viability to stage long-distance outdoor events such as the marathon and the endurance walk in similar conditions. The government has even discussed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-2020-daylight-savings/japan-mulls-daylight-savings-proposal-for-2020-olympics-report-idUSKBN1KR02E">introducing daylight saving</a> so marathon runners can start at 5 or 6 am.</p>
<p>One of the authors of this article, Makoto Yokohari and colleagues, recently <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325205010_Microclimate_Variation_and_Estimated_Heat_Stress_of_Runners_in_the_2020_Tokyo_Olympic_Marathon">published a paper</a> that predicted the heat stresses on the athletes’ bodies during the race. They showed even at the very start of the race, runners will be exposed to extremely dangerous temperatures, which will only get more extreme as they move along the course. </p>
<p>So, what can Tokyo do to lessen the risk of heatstroke for both athletes and spectators of the 2020 Olympics?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-a-savage-summer-in-the-northern-hemisphere-and-climate-change-is-slashing-the-odds-of-more-heatwaves-100582">It's a savage summer in the Northern Hemisphere – and climate change is slashing the odds of more heatwaves</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How hot will it be?</h2>
<p>Tokyo has hosted the Olympics before, in 1964, but these games were held in October. Following a tradition of three decades, the summer Olympics will now be held from July 24 to August 9. And there’s a good chance of very high temperatures during this time in 2020.</p>
<p>The ability for the human body to allow evaporation is a critical part of coping with heat. One way sports physiologists measure heat is by using the wet bulb-globe temperature. This temperature reading combines heat and humidity. If the humidity is high, less water evaporates so the recorded temperature is higher. <a href="https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Citation/2018/05000/Case_Series_of_Exertional_Heat_Stroke_in_Runners.6.aspx">Prior research</a> has shown risk of heat stroke increases dramatically if the wet bulb-globe temperature exceeds 28°C. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-how-can-extreme-heat-lead-to-death-91480">Health Check: how can extreme heat lead to death?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The chances of this occurring during the Tokyo marathon are high. In Tokyo, the average maximum daily <a href="https://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/data/en/normal/normal.html">temperature</a> is around 30°C and the average relative humidity over 70% in July and August. The chosen <a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/news/notice/20180531-01.html">marathon course</a> also includes a number of areas that put athletes and spectators at risk, such as the courtyard of the Imperial Palace, a wide expanse of shadeless asphalt the runners are expected to cross twice – the second time after having run 35 kms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232234/original/file-20180816-2924-1937vdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Tokyo Olympics marathon track is designed to go past some of the city’s signature sights, such as the Imperial Palace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The course determination was based less on the athlete’s welfare and more on the attractiveness of Tokyo’s touristic locations. As Lord Sebastian Coe, head of the International Association of Athletics Federations <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1065687/olympic-marathon-course-to-highlight-essence-of-tokyo-as-route-announced">noted</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The marathon course is a growing highlight of the athletics program with imaginative courses that show off the best of cities, are challenging for athletes and are fan friendly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The team’s paper calculated the metabolism of the runners and the expected stresses on the human body during the race. The model they used considers air temperature, humidity, likely energy absorption of heat from the surroundings and the heat generated from running. </p>
<p>The model showed that extremely dangerous temperatures will be present at the start of the race. On a stretch of the east-west highway, the athletes will run for a mile towards the sun. The high values of solar radiation and road surface temperatures means this section is rated as extremely dangerous.</p>
<p>The maps below illustrate the energy budget, which is the heat athlete’s bodies are projected to absorb during the race if it were to go ahead as planned, starting at 7:30am on August 9. The ideal number for a marathon should be as low as possible, and the higher the number climbs, the more the body is absorbing heat.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232045/original/file-20180815-2891-15j39xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Projected energy budget for the runners if race is on August 9 at 7.30am.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can the city do?</h2>
<p>For the runners, some options like changing the side of the road on which they run can be considered. Overhead shading is possible but obviously costly. Water spraying is <a href="http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/en/climate/heat_island.html">an option</a> but is not very effective in humid conditions. Street trees for shading can double their height from 2.5-5ms but this can take <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/mcpherson/psw_2012_mcpherson001.pdf">five years</a>. Leaving more greenery in Tokyo would certainly be a good legacy but with two years to go, they won’t be ready in time. </p>
<p>For the spectators, one suggestion is to ask retailers, restaurants and businesses along the course to voluntarily open their stores and offices to those who feel sick, allowing them to stay in an air-conditioned room and provide them with a water bottle and a wet towel to cool them down. A network of such businesses might be the key.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-climate-proof-our-sports-stadiums-90020">We need to 'climate-proof' our sports stadiums</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>More radical suggestions include changing the season to late October or early November. But the decision has been ruled out by the organisers, mainly as it falls out of line with the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-the-summer-olympics-are-held-in-july-august-despite-heat">prime time US TV schedule</a>. Changing the location of outdoor sports to the northern Island of Hokkaido, or the highlands in Nagano or Yamanashi around 150-250 kms from Tokyo, is another idea. And the most drastic is to move the race time, so it starts at 2am and finishes around 5am.</p>
<p>The team’s projections, shown in the map below, illustrate the drop in dangerous heat levels if the race is held later, on August 25 at 6:30am.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=219&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=219&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=219&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232046/original/file-20180815-2918-18g1lf4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Projected energy budget for the runners if the race is held later, on August 25 at 6.30am.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Olympic Organising Committee Tokyo 2020’s <a href="https://tokyo2020.org/en/news/notice/20180612-02.html">Sustainability Plan and Guiding Principle</a> includes the aim to bring nature into the city. Part of its proposed plan is to coat the road with a resin that will reflect the heat. A lighter road surface can certainly help and this is something <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/whatever-the-weather-battling-urban-heat/10119482">cities in Australia</a> are experimenting with. It is unknown whether the shading and painting will be enough to cool the course.</p>
<p>Legend has it the original marathon runner the Greek messenger Pheidippides died on reaching the finishing line. Let’s hope the Tokyo 2020 Olympics isn’t a historical re-enactment of that event. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WHt0eAdCCns?wmode=transparent&start=6378" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Olympic marathon in the 1965 documentary Tōkyō Orinpikku. In those days athletes were amateurs, some ran barefoot and they stopped to have a drink.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marco Amati receives funding from the Commonwealth Smart Cities and Suburbs scheme for a project that looks at movement in cities and shading.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Makoto Yokohari receives funding from the Japanese Government and local municipalities including Nerima City, Tokyo. He serves as an advisory committee member for several organizations and local municipalities including 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics. </span></em></p>
Athletes and spectators are likely to encounter dangerously hot temperatures when Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympic games. With two years to go, there’s still time to take protective measures.
Marco Amati, Associate Professor of International Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Makoto Yokohari, Professor, Division of Environmental Studies, University of Tokyo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101102
2018-08-07T07:21:48Z
2018-08-07T07:21:48Z
How many people make a good city? It’s not the size that matters, but how you use it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230842/original/file-20180807-191013-1i6bix1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most of Australia's population is concentrated in big cities like Sydney and Melbourne.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s population clock is, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?OpenDocument">according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics</a>, steadily ticking away at an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 23 seconds. It’s <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?OpenDocument">set to tick over</a> to 25 million around 11pm tonight.</p>
<p>Many are debating what the <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/08/06/15/11/australia-25-million-population-milestone-urban-planning-growing-pains">ideal population</a> is for a country like Australia. But because most of this population growth is concentrated in our big cities, perhaps we should be thinking less about that and more about the ideal size of a city. Historically, there have been many theories on what this would be.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migration-helps-balance-our-ageing-population-we-dont-need-a-moratorium-100030">Migration helps balance our ageing population – we don't need a moratorium</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>From Aristotle to Albanese</h2>
<p>For Aristotle (384–322 BC), for instance, the key was balance. Cities had to contain a minimum number of groups, such as citizens and slaves, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2008.00243.x">to work politically</a>. Similarly, a city’s population had to be balanced against the size of the territory it drew its resources from to enable each citizen (but not slave) to have what he called a “good life”. </p>
<p>Aristotle reputedly drew on the constitutions of what were then known as city states. These aren’t directly comparable to today’s cities but do make for good test cases with which to examine urban models. City states of the time, in the vanguard of urban life as they were, were equivalent to small towns of today and less connected and more homogeneous. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230845/original/file-20180807-191019-1brkjvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">City states in Ancient Greece were more like today’s small towns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the 20th century, as the world’s population grew, planners around the world tried to deliberately limit the size of cities. But how did they decide on the ideal size? </p>
<p>Planning theorist <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Town_planning_at_the_crossroads.html?id=KJJFAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=yttps://books.google.com.au/books/about/Town_planning_at_the_crossroads.html?id=KJJFAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Lewis Keeble wrote</a> in the late 1950s that the ideal UK city size could be determined by setting the distance for citizens to reach the countryside. So, a resident in the centre of a town could reasonably be expected to walk to the edge of the city for a distance of two miles (3.2km). </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230847/original/file-20180807-191025-133jahn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tokyo has successfully managed its population size.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under this concept, with a density of 50 people per hectare, the ideal city size would be 160,000. For a city, where the population would have access to public transport, Keeble estimated this would be around 4 million. </p>
<p>Keeble was the first to admit these calculations were naive. Yet a calculation of city size based on the biological limits of the human body, mixed with the use of public transport, echoes contemporary thinking. Cities that often top the <a href="https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/Liveability_Free_Summary_2017.pdf">liveability scale</a> – such as Melbourne and Vancouver – are universally mid-sized (around 4-5 million people) with low population density.</p>
<p>More recently, in the late 1990s, the Italian physicist Cesare Marchetti’s term “the 30-minute city”, first proposed in a <a href="http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/4071/">relatively obscure paper</a>, has been drawn into policy language.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-30-minute-city-how-do-we-put-the-political-rhetoric-into-practice-56136">'The 30-minute city': how do we put the political rhetoric into practice?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the lead-up to the 2016 federal election, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull aimed for a deal to be struck between all levels of government, to deliver suburbs where residents can get to school or <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2016/s4452888.htm">work within 30 minutes</a>. And in a speech to the National Press Club two years earlier, Labor’s shadow minister for cities, Anthony Albanese, <a href="http://anthonyalbanese.com.au/address-to-the-national-press-club-canberra">said</a> he was “particularly attracted” to the concept of the 30-minute city.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is the simple concept that most people’s day-to-day work, educational, shopping or recreational activities should be located within 30 minutes’ walking, cycling or public commuting from their homes.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>It’s not the size that matters</h2>
<p>But a city’s liveability isn’t equal to its appeal for living and working in. Tokyo, the largest city in the world, will never top the liveability scale. Its infrastructure challenges are of a different order compared to Australia’s cities. The equivalent of Australia’s population passes <a href="https://www.railway-technology.com/projects/shinjuku-railway/">through the ticket barriers of Shinjuku</a>, its busiest station, in a week. </p>
<p>But these challenges are being managed quite successfully.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-lessons-from-tokyo-a-city-of-38m-people-for-australia-a-nation-of-24m-78335">Five lessons from Tokyo, a city of 38m people, for Australia, a nation of 24m</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This should give population planners a clue to how to deal with a big urban Australia: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Connecting cities. Urban, developed economies have understood that to use the surface areas that can be urbanised effectively they have to connect their large cities with smaller ones using high-speed rail. Large cities have the existing expensive infrastructure such as airports but the smaller cities are the ones that have the capacity to grow.</p></li>
<li><p>Connecting within cities. Transportation technologies are constantly evolving. While debates rage about infrastructure, from rail crossing to bike lanes, we are in fact in the middle of a revolution thanks to the uptake of a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/23/17585814/lime-electric-scooter-bike-6-million-rides">range of low-speed electric vehicles</a>, such as scooters. Designing cities for these would benefit pedestrians (unlike cars) and would also anticipate the changes that are going to be necessary for an increasingly aged society.</p></li>
<li><p>Focus on small to medium cities. Even though the second-largest city in the world, Delhi, growing to the size of Tokyo without the same infrastructure is a scary prospect, the lion’s share of urban growth is happening in medium-sized cities. The top ten fastest-growing cities are all in Africa. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinder">fastest growing city to 2035 is going to be Zinder</a> in Niger, for example, a city of 300,000. If Australia were to follow this global trend, policies should be focusing on Newcastle over Sydney and Bendigo over Melbourne.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Ultimately, as Aristotle argued, cities are natural biological entities. Like all biological organisms they should have natural limits. Megacities of today are able to transcend those limits in ways that couldn’t have been imagined even 100 years ago. How long humanity can keep doing this is ultimately a question of biological destiny.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marco Amati receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program's Clean Air and Urban Landscape's Hub; the Australian Research Council and the Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.</span></em></p>
Planners have long tried to determine the ideal city size, and ideas have evolved with changing circumstances. But a good city depends more on the way it’s managed than on how many people it holds.
Marco Amati, Associate Professor of International Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84872
2018-04-19T12:43:54Z
2018-04-19T12:43:54Z
Our favourite cities – by four urban planners
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210080/original/file-20180313-30979-p8wnd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/132839688@N08/25722656605/sizes/l">B. Lucava/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>More and more people <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html">are moving into cities</a>. As growing populations place pressure on urban housing, infrastructure and transport systems, residents, planners and politicians are having to come up with clever solutions to make their cities decent places to live. Yet the quality of a city is not simply defined by the grandeur of its buildings, or the efficiency of its transport system. Here, four urban planners name their favourite cities, and explain what makes them special.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Maputo, Mozambique</h2>
<p><strong>Vanesa Castán Broto, University of Sheffield</strong></p>
<p>We do not see cities: we experience them through a multitude of encounters. Trying to explain why I like Maputo is like putting together all those encounters in a unique, yet partial, vision of the city. Not only have I had great times there, but Maputo has taught me most of what I know about the contemporary city. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3828/idpr.2017.9">my research</a> became entangled with the future of this city, my own success depended on understanding Maputo. Liking Maputo became a necessity. So when I try to explain why I like Maputo so much, it’s impossible to detach the reasons from my own biography. I don’t have a straightforward, bounded picture of the city ready to offer up to others. Instead, I can tell you what I learned there. </p>
<p>Maputo revealed to me how contemporary cities go beyond that absurd dichotomy of the “formal” and “informal” city. In Maputo, city managers talk of the separation between a “city of concrete” – the old colonial city, designed by the Portuguese – and the “city of reed” – the neighbourhoods, or barrios, where most of the population live. The latter often <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549839.2013.801573">lack basic infrastructure</a> such as water, sanitation and electricity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209995/original/file-20180312-30969-j449lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209995/original/file-20180312-30969-j449lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209995/original/file-20180312-30969-j449lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209995/original/file-20180312-30969-j449lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209995/original/file-20180312-30969-j449lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209995/original/file-20180312-30969-j449lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209995/original/file-20180312-30969-j449lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chance encounters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/25061723@N00/3364584440/sizes/l">cordelia_persen/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For a while, this way of looking at things made a lot of sense to me. Then I took a liking to walking around the city, as a means of discovery. As you walk Maputo, you experience how the formal and informal cross into each other, to the point where the boundaries become hopelessly blurred. </p>
<p>You may be walking down the Costa do Sol on a Sunday afternoon, watching new hotels being built with <a href="https://www.urbanafrica.net/news/changing-cityscape-maputo/">Chinese capital</a>, while Maputo’s incipient middle classes eat seafood in front of Maputo Bay. Suddenly, without you noticing, you find yourself in a neighbourhood of makeshift huts, where flooding is obviously a routine problem. </p>
<p>Maputo also showed me how the built environment intrudes into people’s lives. I experienced this myself walking around Chamanculo – an historical but under-serviced neighbourhood near the centre. Life in Chamanculo is organised around a few large open avenues. The buzzing economic activity of small traders selling mostly food, drinks, charcoal and kitchenware, and businesses such as internet cafes, hairdressers and local shops is occasionally interrupted by the roaring of a four-wheel-drive car with tinted windows. </p>
<p>These big avenues are connected by small passages in between the houses, which can considerably shorten walking distances. Every time I go to Chamanculo, I study the map, and I tell to myself that this time I will know my way around the neighbourhood. But once I enter, I am lost. I have never had this experience anywhere else in the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209968/original/file-20180312-30961-15gdel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209968/original/file-20180312-30961-15gdel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209968/original/file-20180312-30961-15gdel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209968/original/file-20180312-30961-15gdel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209968/original/file-20180312-30961-15gdel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209968/original/file-20180312-30961-15gdel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209968/original/file-20180312-30961-15gdel3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Labyrinthine Chamanculo from above.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2010-10-18_10-55-36_Mozambique_Maputo_Chamanculo_%E2%80%9DB%E2%80%9D.jpg">Hansueli Krapf/Wikimedia Commons.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have been lost in Chamanculo numerous times, alone and accompanied, and always experience the same: the streets seem to fold onto me and when I turn back the way I came from, it is completely unfamiliar. I feel both fear and wonder about how the city reinvents itself around me. Unsurprisingly, local residents demand public lighting to increase the security in those areas, and you have to wonder how people – especially women – feel when they have to venture into this labyrinth at night to reach the collective toilet.</p>
<p>Most of all, Maputo has taught me to think of the cities as places of possibility. For example, in Maputo I dropped my obsession with electrification. Talking with people about how electricity and fuels matter to them, I <a href="https://www.developmentbookshelf.com/doi/book/10.3362/9781780449296">realised that</a> people have found many ways to obtain the services they need – whether they have reliable access to electricity or not. </p>
<p>I am not downplaying the tremendous injustices that nearly a billion residents of informal settlements around the world experience every day, because they don’t have access to basic services. But Maputo invites you to think of different ways in which urban life, right across the globe, could be reimagined. For me, this is a comforting thought in a world that seems to be riding towards a <a href="http://www.resourcepanel.org/reports/weight-cities">global resource crisis</a>. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Havana, Cuba</h2>
<p><strong>James Warren, Open University</strong></p>
<p>In Havana, <a href="http://www.temas.cult.cu/articulo/2263/la-habana-toda-vieja">everything is old</a> - so old, in fact, that the city will celebrate its 500th birthday in November 2019. Its age appears magnified by the fact that many of the buildings don’t receive the level of maintenance that they really deserve. Even so, the city has made efforts to preserve and protect what is historic, while <a href="http://www.cubanartnews.org/news/urbanism-preservation-and-planning-ahead-in-habana-vieja/5353">applying new practices</a> such as earmarking income from tourism to rebuild local housing and protect architecturally or culturally significant sites. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210057/original/file-20180313-30979-tn4m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210057/original/file-20180313-30979-tn4m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210057/original/file-20180313-30979-tn4m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210057/original/file-20180313-30979-tn4m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210057/original/file-20180313-30979-tn4m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210057/original/file-20180313-30979-tn4m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210057/original/file-20180313-30979-tn4m8y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Street life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/franxx/13936719278/sizes/k/">Franx'/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The city’s masterplan aims to ensure mixed land use wherever possible, so housing, shops, offices and institutions can often be found in the same building. This creates dynamic, walkable spaces, where everything you need is nearby, and avoids creating places which are only for specific groups, such as tourists or locals. </p>
<p>From my perspective as an urban planner, it is amazing that Havana has been able to do so much work with such limited materials. But perhaps this was inevitable, since high-quality labour is so readily available. An old Cuban joke goes that half the population are qualified builders, since everyone has to pitch in and work on their own properties. </p>
<p>Like other major capitals, Havana is a collection of many “villages” or smaller cities within a city. At every turn, the streetscapes are different: many municipalities can be identified by their distinctive balconies and doorways. These places are full of life, as people are constantly out on the streets: sitting, chatting, singing, selling, buying, repairing and just living. </p>
<p>The city is open for visitors. You can meander down the Malecón, to the urban greenery of Vedado and beyond. And the historic Habana La Vieja acts as a tourist magnet, while retaining plenty of local life for residents.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209996/original/file-20180312-30972-143z7ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209996/original/file-20180312-30972-143z7ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209996/original/file-20180312-30972-143z7ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209996/original/file-20180312-30972-143z7ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209996/original/file-20180312-30972-143z7ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209996/original/file-20180312-30972-143z7ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209996/original/file-20180312-30972-143z7ia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Malecón, at dusk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosz/34346341604/sizes/l">szeke/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet the city still has corners where tourists don’t go, <a href="http://www.soziologie.arch.ethz.ch/_DATA/276/Schmid-Christian-Pena-Jorge_Deep-Havanna.pdf">sometimes called</a> “Habana profunda” (deep Havana). It’s an area where locals live and work, though many still have connections to the city centre through jobs and education. There might not be many tourist attractions there, but the barrios are visually wonderful. </p>
<p>Perhaps unlike the other cities, Havana is a shrinking city. Its population has <a href="https://www.havanatimes.org/?p=118446">remained fairly static</a> for a long time now, due to people migrating abroad, combined with low birth rates. The ageing population is not being replaced, which is some cause for concern. Havana remains the jumping-off point for many younger Cubans making their way elsewhere, or coming from other parts of the country to live in the capital. But more seem to leave than stay.</p>
<p>Despite some poor roads, a stretched waste removal system and somewhat erratic energy and water supplies, Havana retains a warm welcome to visitors, and seems determined to become a better place for all those who live there. I think Havana is what it is due to the resilience of the “habaneros” (Havana locals); always ready for the next hurricane, even as they are picking up the pieces <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41235494">after Irma</a>. The Habaneros have excellent mobilisation plans and risk reduction systems in place for any situation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210136/original/file-20180313-30986-bic6wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210136/original/file-20180313-30986-bic6wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210136/original/file-20180313-30986-bic6wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210136/original/file-20180313-30986-bic6wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210136/original/file-20180313-30986-bic6wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210136/original/file-20180313-30986-bic6wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210136/original/file-20180313-30986-bic6wo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dominos in Diez de Octubre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashumathura/16643582962/sizes/l">ashu mathura/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Residents seem undaunted, even as <a href="https://phys.org/news/2013-04-cuba-vast-losses-sea.html">the sea encroaches</a> on Havana’s low-lying shores. Yet I am optimistic that somehow Havana can survive the longer-term issues linked to climate change – or anything else that comes their way. As Havana and the Habaneros <a href="http://www.medicc.org/mediccreview/index.php?issue=14&id=167&a=vahtml">grow older</a> together, is there something we can learn from the way that their society is trying to bring all generations together to solve the city’s various planning issues. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Tokyo, Japan</h2>
<p><strong>Greg Keeffe, Queen’s University Belfast</strong></p>
<p>Tokyo is the city of my dreams. For the “gaijin” (foreigner) the first few days are a sensory overload. But, as you settle in, that sense of chaos evaporates and suddenly everything seems to be in the right place. As I travel around on double-decker freeways, driverless bus-train hybrids and monorails in the sky, I appear to have found how a city should be. </p>
<p>Whenever I need to do anything, there’s a convenient way to do it right there in front of me. This is true at any scale, from the city-wide transport system, to finding a hot cuppa – it seems there’s always a vending machine for it, just within reach.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210058/original/file-20180313-30989-1lx71cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210058/original/file-20180313-30989-1lx71cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210058/original/file-20180313-30989-1lx71cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210058/original/file-20180313-30989-1lx71cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210058/original/file-20180313-30989-1lx71cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210058/original/file-20180313-30989-1lx71cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210058/original/file-20180313-30989-1lx71cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Convenience, at the push of a button.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/napdsp/18021609015/sizes/l">Nate2b/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, Tokyo really is a huge vending machine, where every necessity is there at the touch of a button: even access to nature. It makes me think that a lot of our social and urban problems are actually born out of frustration, because things don’t work well enough, because things we don’t need get in the way of the perfect urban function.</p>
<p>Like all dreamscapes, you can customise Tokyo to your own desires: hanging out in Shinjuku or Shibuya at night, you can dance, eat, drink and party until dawn to the banging tunes of J-pop. This bit of Tokyo is a sort of global portal to the stars; a timeless place without memory or history.</p>
<p>Yet the very next day (with or without a hangover), you may be in the Roji of Nezu – small, narrow alleys that evoke the memory of a life that was frugal and modest. Visiting temples and shrines in utter silence, you can immerse yourself in the wooden world of the Edo period, dating back to 1600. Here, it seems one mile in space can measure a thousand years in time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210061/original/file-20180313-30965-sh0brk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210061/original/file-20180313-30965-sh0brk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210061/original/file-20180313-30965-sh0brk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210061/original/file-20180313-30965-sh0brk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210061/original/file-20180313-30965-sh0brk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210061/original/file-20180313-30965-sh0brk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210061/original/file-20180313-30965-sh0brk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A glimpse of a temple built during the Edo period.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/93277085@N08/16403635454/sizes/l">ai3310X/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Old and new, fast and slow: just-in-time Tokyo is a city of contradictions. It’s a place where fast-paced culture and introspective meditation work together, creating a space/time warp which feeds not only the physical needs of the population, but also their hearts and souls.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Rotterdam, The Netherlands</h2>
<p><strong>Kaeren van Vliet, Sheffield Hallam University</strong> </p>
<p>Like many other European cities, Rotterdam suffered considerable bomb damage in the Second World War. But its postwar reconstruction took a distinctive path, looking to the future instead of the past – and this continues to give the city a unique character, based on movement, light, energy and progress.</p>
<p>Rotterdam is a city on the move. Trams glide and clang through the city; spotlessly clean barges travel up and down the river taking goods to and from the continent; bright yellow water taxis zoom across the water and cyclists travel rapidly in vast shoals – sometimes to the alarm of slower pedestrians. </p>
<p>In the face of rising sea levels, sinking land and ever fuller rivers, water has to be respected, not resisted. Water engineering is an art – the lakes and canals in the city and its surrounds are connected, monitored and managed. School playgrounds, fields and underground car parks cooperate to prevent homes from flooding. New housing is provided with canals, and some residents are even fortunate enough to be able to keep a boat at the bottom of their garden.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210063/original/file-20180313-30958-rzo8s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210063/original/file-20180313-30958-rzo8s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210063/original/file-20180313-30958-rzo8s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210063/original/file-20180313-30958-rzo8s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210063/original/file-20180313-30958-rzo8s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210063/original/file-20180313-30958-rzo8s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210063/original/file-20180313-30958-rzo8s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The art of water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jev55/14191667641/sizes/l">jev55/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this city, there is space for people. Most of the population live in flats or small homes, so there are playgrounds for children, tree-lined waterside walks, seats for resting and city centre parks, which feel like a home outside of home. People are particularly proud of the fronts of their houses, and many have benches for sitting and talking to neighbours. People here seem to trust their neighbours, leaving flowerpots and bicycles out on the street. And there are allotments around the city edge, to escape to on summer evenings or at the weekend.</p>
<p>At night, the city centre is aglow. The lights of the Erasmus bridge and new tower blocks along the Maas link the southern part of the city to the centre. As you cross the bridge, the pavement sparkles like the milky way. The houses in the suburbs are radiant in the nighttime, with large windows offering a momentary glimpse into the home life of the locals. </p>
<p>Nature here seems ordered and managed, water is held in straight courses and trees and grass are kept neatly trimmed. The city ducks seem friendly – the suburban geese, not so much. The landscape is big but predictable, stretching towards an endless horizon. There is light here and, though often pale and grey, the sky is vast. You feel as though you could cycle on forever.</p>
<p>If you look hard, you can find traditional windmills and tulips. But you’re more likely to find ecological prairie planting or vast windfarms rotating in unison, powering the city into the future. Rotterdam reminds me of what planning, landscape and urban design can achieve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanesa Castán Broto receives funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Keeffe receives funding from EU Framework 7 Smart Cities. He is affiliated with the Royal Society of Arts (Fellow). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Warren and Kaeren van Vliet do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Character, resilience, convenience and sustainability are what make cities great places to live and learn.
Vanesa Castán Broto, Professorial Fellow, University of Sheffield
Greg Keeffe, Professor of Architecture + Urbanism. Head of School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast
James Warren, Senior Lecturer, Engineering and Innovation, The Open University
Kaeren van Vliet, Senior Lecturer In Planning, Sheffield Hallam University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/78335
2017-07-10T20:09:23Z
2017-07-10T20:09:23Z
Five lessons from Tokyo, a city of 38m people, for Australia, a nation of 24m
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177244/original/file-20170706-18401-1osijpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tokyo, seen here from the Skytree tower, is home to more people than any other city on Earth but has managed to remain highly liveable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Population growth has profound impacts on Australian life, and sorting myths from facts can be difficult. This article is part of our series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/is-australia-full-39068">Is Australia Full?</a>, which aims to help inform a wide-ranging and often emotive debate.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The release of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/2071.0">2016 Census data</a> provides a good opportunity to reflect on the future growth of Australian cities. And what better example of the future to use than Tokyo? </p>
<p>Frequently the subject of <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2016/05/the-night-streets-of-tokyo-captured-blade-runner-style/484883/">futuristic visions</a>, the city went through one of the world’s most rapid post-war population growth periods. The <a href="http://metrocosm.com/how-many-u-s-cities-can-you-fit-inside-tokyo/">Greater Tokyo area</a> has a <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/tokyo-population/">population of 38 million</a> – almost 60% more than the <a href="https://theconversation.com/census-2016-reveals-australia-is-becoming-much-more-diverse-but-can-we-trust-the-data-79835">population of Australia</a>. Yet Tokyo remains one of the world’s <a href="https://monocle.com/film/affairs/most-liveable-city-2016-tokyo/">most liveable metropolises</a>. </p>
<p>How can Australian cities replicate this <a href="https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-worlds-most-liveable-cities">conjuring feat</a> while retaining their own <a href="https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=liveability2016">high levels of liveability</a>? We identify five lessons from Tokyo’s experience.</p>
<h2>Lesson 1: manage urban growing pains</h2>
<p>Tokyo was devastated at the end of the second world war. The city experienced rapid rebuilding and growth. The population of the central Tokyo prefecture, which is <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/tokyo-population/">home to 13.5 million people</a>, increased <a href="http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/ABOUT/HISTORY/history03.htm">from 3.5 million in 1945 to 11.6 million</a> in 1975. </p>
<p>This 30-year growth spurt happened at a rate almost twice that predicted for Greater Melbourne, for example, from 4.4 million today <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiSyab8t_PUAhUGn5QKHTVZDrMQFggmMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Fnews%2Fvictoria%2Ffuture-melbourne%2Fhow-were-preparing-for-melbournes-population-to-top-8-million%2Fnews-story%2Fb66db8e05d1deedbb7c1cf2733ffcdff&usg=AFQjCNFwT7khxQPGqavcL4N-Wicjq46K4w">to 8 million by 2050</a>.</p>
<p>Tokyo’s rapid growth had a number of negative impacts. These included very significant <a href="http://www.kankyo.metro.tokyo.jp/en/pollution/">environmental pollution</a>. The basic approach during this period was to grow first and clean up later. </p>
<p>The consequence for Tokyo was disorganised patterns of urban development – sprawl. The answer involved tighter planning controls and <a href="http://www.toshiseibi.metro.tokyo.jp/pdf_e/021.pdf">land re-adjustment programs</a> to improve environmental conditions and ensure infrastructure was effective. </p>
<p>The lesson here for Australian cities is that, in the face of rapid population growth, better forward planning is the only way to avoid or minimise <a href="https://theconversation.com/city-planning-suffers-growth-pains-of-australias-population-boom-75930">negative side effects</a>.</p>
<h2>Lesson 2: Introduce metropolitan governance</h2>
<p>A critical factor in Tokyo’s liveability is the role of metropolitan governance in ensuring good planning and co-ordination. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/index.htm">Tokyo Metropolitan Government</a> was established in 1943. In contrast, for Australian cities a metropolitan level of co-ordination is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/metropolitan-governance-is-the-missing-link-in-australias-reform-agenda-55872">exception rather than the rule</a>. With Greater Melbourne, for example, the <a href="https://vpa.vic.gov.au">Victorian Planning Authority</a> plays an important role but <a href="https://theconversation.com/towards-a-collaborative-city-the-case-for-a-melbourne-metropolitan-commission-57578">lacks oversight from local political representatives</a>. The governor and the assembly members in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, on the other hand, are accountable to the electorate.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177043/original/file-20170706-26471-kxtsps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tokyo’s governor, pictured campaigning for the July 2 assembly elections, is one of the most powerful politicians in Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Tokyo government also has considerable political autonomy since it generates 70% of its revenue from local taxation. In 2014, it had a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Metropolitan_Government">budget of ¥13 trillion</a> (A$151 billion) – on a par with Sweden’s. This makes the governor of Tokyo one of the most powerful politicians in Japan, second only to the prime minister.</p>
<p>The Tokyo government’s approach has always involved strong interventionist policy and considerable emphasis on infrastructure development, with a reliance on <a href="http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/ABOUT/CITY_VIEW/FILES/4_CITYVIEWTOKYO.pdf">public-private partnerships to get results</a>. </p>
<h2>Lesson 3: Commit early to world-class public transport</h2>
<p>Public-private partnerships to develop metropolitan railways has been a standard approach in Japanese cities for most of the 20th century and continues to underpin Tokyo’s success as a global city. For example, the Mitsubishi Corporation played an instrumental role in developing the Marunouchi district around Tokyo Station. The latter was built in 1914 and connected intercity stations in a loop <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=LomFAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=mitsubishi%20corporation%20andre%20sorensen%20japanese%20planning&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">decades before other cities</a>. </p>
<p>These public-private interventions have cemented Tokyo’s status as a <a href="http://www.newgeography.com/content/002923-the-evolving-urban-form-tokyo">transit-oriented metropolis</a>. The city has by far the highest public transport usage in the world. </p>
<p>Compared to other major cities like Seoul, London, New York and Beijing, Tokyoites rely far more heavily on public transport, cycling or walking to <a href="https://www.lta.gov.sg/ltaacademy/doc/J14Nov_p54ReferenceModeShares.pdf">get around</a>. In Tokyo prefecture, <a href="http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/ABOUT/CITY_VIEW/FILES/6_CITYVIEWTOKYO.pdf">rail accounts for 48% of trips</a>, bus 3%, cycling 14% and walking 23%. Private car use accounts for only 12% of trips. </p>
<p>A continuous investment in rail networks above and below ground would ensure Australian cities can better accommodate predicted population growth. A <a href="https://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2017/05/17/melbourne-subway-map-rail-fantasy/">fascinating map</a> designed by Adam Mattinson shows what a subway system for Melbourne could look like based on the Tokyo model. To achieve this may require that the tram system moves underground – almost certainly a pipe dream. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177246/original/file-20170706-14401-1go3ieu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Tokyo prefecture, 48% of trips are by rail as everyone lives within ten minutes’ walk of the subway station.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett, Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lesson 4: Decarbonise the economy as it grows</h2>
<p>Tokyo was lucky to be able to grow rapidly in an era when climate change was not the recognised problem that it is today.</p>
<p>The challenge for Australian cities will be to grow their economies while reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to match the <a href="http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/city/city_index/216917-city-index-carbon-emissions">per capita levels for Tokyo</a>, and then to cut them much further. The World Bank calculated that, <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTUWM/Resources/GHG_Index_Mar_9_2011.pdf">in 2006</a>, per-capita emissions for Sydney were 20.3 tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub> compared to 4.89 tonnes for Tokyo.</p>
<p>Tokyo is also seeking to cut its emissions by 30% by 2030 compared to 2000. In Australia, <a href="http://www.planmelbourne.vic.gov.au">Plan Melbourne</a>, for example, aims to achieve a target of net zero emissions by 2050 even while the population continues to grow. </p>
<p>While investments in low-carbon public transport will be central to meeting this target, it is also essential to pursue ambitious energy efficiency and renewable energy targets. </p>
<p>Tokyo is aiming for a 38% drop in energy consumption and a rise in renewable energy from 8.7% in 2014 to 30% of electricity generation <a href="http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/ABOUT/ENVIRONMENTAL_POLICY/FILES/04_2030_Goals.pdf">in 2030</a>. The good news is that Plan Melbourne sets a target for renewables of 40% of electricity generation by 2025. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177251/original/file-20170706-15136-1k4b1j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a decarbonising city, mothers ride electric cycles with babies and shopping on board.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lesson 5: Prepare to age with dignity</h2>
<p>Along with declining emissions intensity, Tokyo’s population is likely to start shrinking. The population of central Tokyo is expected to rise from 13.5 million today and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9519203/Tokyo-population-to-halve-in-next-90-years.html">peak in 2020</a> before declining to 7.1 million by 2100. The population of Greater Tokyo is expected to <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/tokyo-population/">peak around 38.5 million</a> about the same time. </p>
<p>The population of Australian cities will plateau at some point, as in Tokyo. The next lesson would be <a href="https://theconversation.com/japan-offers-us-many-lessons-in-embracing-longevity-51913">how to deal with an ageing demographic</a> and potential population decline. </p>
<p>As recently argued <a href="https://theconversation.com/home-ownership-remains-strong-in-australia-but-it-masks-other-problems-census-data-80068">based on the census</a>, a result of declining home ownership is the likelihood of couples deferring the decision to have children. A knock-on effect could therefore be a more rapidly ageing Australian population.</p>
<p>The Tokyo of today is certainly no utopia, due to its vulnerability to earthquakes and other <a href="http://www.bousai.metro.tokyo.jp/foreign/english/">natural disasters</a>, high house prices, homelessness, rising inequality, a lack of multiculturalism and a proportion of housing as rental accommodation that dwarfs Australia’s (<a href="http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/chiiki/Welcome.do">47.9%</a> compared to <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/2071.0">30.9%</a>).</p>
<p>Yet the largest settlement on the planet offers useful lessons – <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-worlds-biggest-city-the-past-offers-lessons-for-surviving-the-future-59619">historical</a>, present and future – that can guide the urban policies of other countries. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Is Australia Full? series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/is-australia-full-39068">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan F.D. Barrett is affiliated with the UN Global Compact Cities Programme based at RMIT University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marco Amati receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australia-Korea Foundation, Horticulture Innovation Australia and the Federal Government's National Environmental Science Program. </span></em></p>
Tokyo has experienced extraordinary population growth but is among the world’s most liveable cities. Just how has it managed the pressures of growth?
Brendan Barrett, Senior Lecturer, Program Manager, Masters of International Urban and Environmental Management, RMIT University
Marco Amati, Associate Professor of International Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/59619
2016-06-17T23:52:36Z
2016-06-17T23:52:36Z
In the world’s biggest city, the past offers lessons for surviving the future
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126465/original/image-20160614-18068-tl8i89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 17th-century folding screen depicting the early Edo period on the site of modern-day Tokyo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B1%9F%E6%88%B8#/media/File:Edo_P.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A major campaign, “Cool Japan”, is underway to promote the nation as a “cultural superpower”. As part of a resurgence of interest in the Edo era (the name for Tokyo between 1603-1868), we want to suggest that “Edo Japan is Cool!”</p>
<p>Today, the Japanese have an insatiable appetite for all things Edo. This goes deeper than the daily long lines outside the <a href="https://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/en/">Edo-Tokyo Museum</a> or the very popular historical dramas on TV every Sunday evening.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/azby-brown-98565">Azby Brown</a>, author of <a href="https://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins/2014-12/knowing-what-just-enough-azby-brown-japans-edo-period-part-one">Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan</a>, believes current anxieties about the state of the world are driving interest in the Edo experience.</p>
<p>At the beginning of the Edo period, Brown argues, Japan faced ecological collapse from deforestation, erosion and watershed damage. New conservation practices were introduced in response to this crisis and to promote <a href="http://www.springer.com/us/book/9784431000075">Satoyama landscapes</a>. This brought about a sustainable interaction between nature and humans. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1D7qc8nc2Ng?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Azby Brown explains the lessons of the Edo period for sustainable living today.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is supported by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Totman">Conrad Totman</a>, author of <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520063129">The Green Archipelago</a>. Totman argues that the Edo government (Bakufu) responded to these ecological threats by introducing new technologies. Complemented by a combination of social and cultural value changes, this led to Edo becoming a sustainable city.</p>
<p>What lessons can growing, developing-country cities learn from Edo?</p>
<h2>Edo’s global relevance</h2>
<p>With a population of <a href="http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/CD-ROM/">38 million</a>, modern Tokyo is 13 million people larger than the world’s second-largest city, Delhi. While Tokyo’s population is predicted to decline slightly, Delhi’s is still growing and the two cities will be the same size in the next 15 years. </p>
<p>In 1721, Edo was also the world’s largest metropolis with a population of around one million. The next-largest city was London with 630,000 people.</p>
<p>London’s growth was limited, in part, because it couldn’t efficiently dispose of sewage. This problem wasn’t solved until the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_sewerage_system">invention of Victorian sewerage pipes</a>. Edo dealt with this problem by collecting and disposing of night soil.</p>
<p>The intensity of Edo’s agriculture gave the city a crucial advantage. Rice farming required smaller plots of land than grain or animal husbandry, so it could be closely woven into the fabric of the city. This, in turn, reduced the effort and cost of transporting night soil.</p>
<p>Agriculture also buffered flooding from typhoons, giving the city a clean and stable water supply. As for food, such was the primacy of urban agriculture, fruit and vegetables were <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02513625.2010.10557086">named after the Edo suburbs</a> known for producing them.</p>
<p>The first lesson from Edo was therefore to develop and maintain a unique home-grown technological solution to urban life. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=740&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126469/original/image-20160614-12948-tuxlw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The traditional sento, or public bath house, promotes sustainable water use as well as communal values.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/45873442@N04/13235762603/in/photolist-maAK6v-m2bKJ1-4fGzw7-6BiWse-g57owT-9pbRkE-6BobV1-4YCYNX-6Bj3uH-6goHvE-4rWbF7-c7SUgJ-6Bj2xV-6BiSX6-5QqZ6-6Bj2FM-5PtTvp-978cEo-aixBX2-uaXqGC-aiApZQ-m6i5z1-6BiVsD-aixCSe-6BiXUZ-6Bo6Yb-aiApnJ-6Bo6iq-H6GSu-aixBKM-m6i6HJ-6Bo3Nq-6BodsL-6BiSJ6-6Bo8em-6BodwU-uqdrqd-6BiWGc-6BobCj-aixD4c-6BobMo-6Bj1D4-6Bo3xh-aiAqiE-6Bj3cg-6Bj1tP-6BodmY-6Bj36H-6BiZXx-6BiWh2">Rosewoman/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, efficiency was central to the Edo economy and daily life. Rather than have a bath in each house, co-operative bathing in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sent%C5%8D">sento</a> became an essential place for socialising, while saving on water and firewood for heating. Clothes were maintained and mended, ceramics repaired. Whole industries were built around recycling and resource recovery. </p>
<p>The people of Edo understood the meaning of a <a href="http://zerowasteworld.org/zero-waste-faq/">zero-waste society</a> well before the term was invented. Edo teaches us the value of looking carefully at planning solutions that are developed in a particular context. It also shows us that, for cities such as Delhi, West is not necessarily best.</p>
<h2>Ethical but not utopian</h2>
<p>The second lesson relates to the ethical framework of the citizens of Edo. Their worldview was informed by an ethic of life and interaction. </p>
<p>Brown suggests that the people of Edo understood the “big picture”. They recognised that they needed to run their city, economy and lives within the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-edo-japan-can-help-fukushima-recover-16017">limits of the natural world</a>. This is something most people struggle with today. </p>
<p>We live as if we are free to <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/1259855">ignore ecological limits and planetary boundaries</a>. For most people today, a life lived within limits easily equates to impoverishment and austerity. This constrains our imagination of what it <a href="http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/japan-as-the-new-normal-living-in-a-constrained-economy">may be like to live in a constrained economy</a>, as in Edo Japan.</p>
<p>Edo was by no means a utopia. It had a rigid class structure of samurai, peasant farmer, artisan, merchant and untouchables. You were born into your position and could not move between classes. The samurai lived in gated communities and the average merchant or artisanal family lived in cramped conditions with few possessions.</p>
<p>Yet, knowing your place in the community extended out to knowing your place in the city and the natural world. This was a key mechanism to help citizens understand the right thing to do and live an ethical life through codes of honour, loyalty and a sense of duty. </p>
<p>While this might jar with our modern values, it raises the question of what rights, if any, we would be willing to give up. And what responsibilities would we be willing to accept for a truly sustainable future?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126467/original/image-20160614-29216-nv5ejb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Citizens of Edo knew their place in the community and in the natural world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett/Edo-Tokyo Museum</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Edo and the future of Japan</h2>
<p>The third and final lesson derives from a dystopian prediction of our ecological predicament.</p>
<p>One of the most forceful advocates for reassessing Edo is the Japanese author <a href="http://www.japanfs.org/en/edo/index.html">Eisuke Ishikawa</a>. In his 1998 book, 2050 is the Edo Period, he argues that Japan is undergoing a “slow crash”.</p>
<p>The book traces the decline of Japan through the memories of an old man in 2050. Society has declined <a href="https://theconversation.com/japan-offers-us-many-lessons-in-embracing-longevity-51913">and aged</a>. The economy has stagnated for decades. In 2050, according to Ishikawa, 99% of the population will be living rural lifestyles and the big cities of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka are derelict.</p>
<p>In the West, this dystopian Japanese vision of the future is paralleled by James Howard Kunstler’s “<a href="http://kunstler.com/books/the-long-emergency/">long emergency</a>” and his engaging novel, <a href="http://www.worldmadebyhand.com/">World Made by Hand</a>. Kunstler depicts small-town US after the collapse of the global economy and modern society. It is a world where we have to live with less – no electricity, no running water, no health services, no government and so on.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Kunstler <a href="http://kunstler.com">writes about Japan in his blog</a> and comments on the nation’s two-decade economic malaise, as the population shrank and its debt climbed. He suggests that all this is “getting to them [the Japanese] in a deep, major way” and “they perhaps secretly long to get back to something like an older traditional Japanese society” – the Edo era. </p>
<p>It would be impossible for Japan to revert to that time, but we can profit vastly from Edo’s experience. In the words of Azby Brown:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The challenge that faces us now is to redesign our production and our consumption so that they share the virtues of their Edo-period counterparts, to link our sophisticated technical systems to the kind of mentality that those prescient forebears displayed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the Japanese government promotes a “soft power” campaign of “Cool Japan”, it should embrace a larger and more nuanced view of Edo’s contribution to human progress.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Edo, which gave rise to Tokyo, was also the world’s largest city three centuries ago. Facing ecological collapse, Edo developed a culture and practices that supported sustainable living.
Brendan Barrett, Research Fellow, RMIT University
Marco Amati, Associate Professor of International Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52957
2016-04-07T00:34:33Z
2016-04-07T00:34:33Z
Lessons in living heritage from Tokyo to Adelaide
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116571/original/image-20160329-17832-swuvhy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The size and pace of activity in Tokyo can be overwhelming, but at the human scale the city has an incredibly rich layering of experiences built over generations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Architects, urban planners and government policymakers often aspire to make Australian cities <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08111140903108572?journalCode=cupr20">more like Copenhagen</a>. But, for issues of heritage and conservation, we could broaden our view and learn a lot from Japan.</p>
<p>When you think about Japan, you probably think of cherry blossom, kimonos, sashimi, sumo, gardens, bathhouses, neon lights or space-age toilets. What you might not think about is the rich and complex layering in Japanese cities.</p>
<h2>In support of organic evolution</h2>
<p>Tokyo is a city that most visitors remember as being bustling, if not overwhelming, in every sense of the word. The pace is frenetic. People are packed together like sardines.</p>
<p>But, at the human scale, Tokyo has an incredibly rich layering of experiences. </p>
<p>The towers of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjuku">Shinjuku</a> sit alongside the tightly packed informal streets that inspired the movie Bladerunner. Tourist meccas and shopping malls co-exist with open street markets and questionable boutiques. Pockets of traditional houses sit in a strange tension with the megastructures of the heaving metropolis.</p>
<p>The complexity of Tokyo has emerged organically; it could not have been designed. Master planning has a place, because a city needs structures and guidelines for development. But, like planting a seed instead of designing the flower, accepting that cities can evolve organically means that they won’t bow to the will of a single architect or reflect just one moment in time.</p>
<p>The constant state of flux denies the singular and encourages the pastiche. Working in flux requires a shift to thinking of cities as organisms rather than as objects in need of completion. This shift allows each generation to add their chapter to the story, rather than constantly trying to “finish” it.</p>
<h2>Weighing ‘progress’ against ‘heritage’</h2>
<p>Adelaide is in many ways the opposite of an organic city. It was planned according to a <a href="http://www.amw.org.au/register/listings/william-light-collection">regimented grid</a> that permits little deviance. However, it has organically retained many heritage buildings and a range of architectural styles. </p>
<p>While we might like to think of this as deliberate, much of this preservation arguably happened as a result of South Australia’s <a href="http://www.britannica.com/place/South-Australia/Government-and-society#toc42542">comparatively slow economic growth</a>.</p>
<p>The phenomenon of buildings being protected by economic rationalism rather than cultural idealism is amplified in Japan. Many of Japan’s most interesting urban areas are full of seemingly mismatched buildings, which combine to tell a complex story of their place. </p>
<p>While these areas are celebrated for their diversity and historical significance, many remain because of cancelled construction projects (during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan)">economic contraction of the 1990s</a>) rather than a deliberate preservation agenda.</p>
<p>Economic growth is not necessarily bad for heritage, and Adelaide doesn’t need another <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/inside-the-state-bank-collapse-of-1991-that-crippled-south-australia/news-story/c1db0600ac89985cdd126315dbbc20fb">State Bank collapse</a>. But historically slow growth has left the city with a built environment of incredible cultural value.</p>
<p>Adelaide’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Terrace,_Adelaide">North Terrace</a> strip is an obvious example of this. Yet, much like Melbourne in neighbouring Victoria, the South Australian capital is starting to see the value of some of its “less beautiful” parts. The transformation of unloved buildings into thriving small bars demonstrates how buildings of little economic value can have immense urban and cultural value.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117434/original/image-20160405-13530-zodo28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While economic hardship largely explains why Adelaide’s North Terrace (pictured here circa 1940) has been well preserved, it is now treasured as the city’s living heritage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Terrace,_Adelaide#/media/File:North_Terrace,_Adelaide,_1940.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Thinking in terms of living heritage</h2>
<p>Instead of ascribing value to buildings simply because they are old or rundown, we need to develop a way of assessing and understanding value. “Living heritage” is a concept that encourages us to think more deeply about the value of buildings through the contribution they make to their surroundings.</p>
<p>Since Marcel Duchamp put a urinal in a gallery and <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573">called it art</a>, we have understood that objects are defined by their surroundings as much as by their own design. In a living heritage evaluation, the role of a building in defining and anchoring its context can be as important as its stylistic details.</p>
<p>Buildings normally represent a single moment in time, but the urban environments around them continually evolve. If we understand the contribution a building is making to the story of its surroundings, we can make decisions that go beyond preserving historical facades to foster opportunities to protect, and add to, the stories and layers of the past.</p>
<p>To take this concept further, we could considering whether the ardent preservation of streetscapes as museum pieces is actually holding back the development of cultural identity. Perhaps rather than trying to freeze parts of our cities as examples of the past, we could look at supporting appropriately designed (and scaled) new developments. If done well, these interventions build on and enhance the cultural narrative of place.</p>
<p>Heritage will always be a complex issue, but our understanding needs to go beyond aesthetics to consider cultural (and environmental) dimensions. Contemporary architectural interventions are challenging for any urban area. </p>
<p>But if carefully crafted, good architecture can create an abstract continuity that adds a new layer to the story of a place without compromising its identity and integrity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Davis travelled to Japan with a grant from The Rymill House Trust Fund to investigate the concept of 'living heritage'.</span></em></p>
The concept of living heritage can help us make decisions that go beyond preserving historical facades to protect and add to, rather than freeze, the stories and layers of the past.
Aaron Davis, PhD Candidate in Architecture, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/53698
2016-02-19T16:02:35Z
2016-02-19T16:02:35Z
From paragons to melting pots: the changing role of cities in the world of fashion
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112164/original/image-20160219-25876-1fokc24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Style on street. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/51528537@N08/8540466216/">fervent-adepte-de-la-mode/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New York, Paris, Milan and <a href="http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/News/LFW-Dates">London Fashion Weeks</a> are some of the most important and influential dates in the style calendar. But while internationally renowned models and designers gather to present the <a href="http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/News/LFW-Dates">Autumn/Winter 2016</a> collections to select celebrity audiences, it’s easy to think that fashion descends from the domain of elites, to be mimicked by the masses. </p>
<p>But history shows us that what we wear on the street doesn’t simply trickle down from the catwalk. Take London, for example: during the 1960s, the city rose to become a paragon of style. Designers like <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/m/mary-quant/">Mary Quant</a> epitomised the boutique culture of the swinging sixties, while renowned fashion editors such as <a href="http://www.dianavreeland.com/">Diana Vreeland</a> turned to London as an inspirational symbol of style.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://fashionandpower.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/subcultural-power.html">London’s subcultures</a> – such as the Mods, Punks and New Romantics – were also starting to gather force. Their style was the antipathy of fashion: they were a resistance to the mainstream. Unlike typical trends such as mini skirts and jeans, Punks were identified by their penchant for bondage trousers, ripped t-shirts, safety pins and Mohican haircuts, while Mods were often known for sporting suits and riding scooters.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112183/original/image-20160219-25891-eqk25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112183/original/image-20160219-25891-eqk25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112183/original/image-20160219-25891-eqk25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112183/original/image-20160219-25891-eqk25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112183/original/image-20160219-25891-eqk25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112183/original/image-20160219-25891-eqk25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112183/original/image-20160219-25891-eqk25c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mods rocking suits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/5130733677/sizes/l">brizzlebornandbred/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These subcultures paved the way for <a href="http://www.tedpolhemus.com/main_concept6%20467.html">street style</a> to become a global fashion phenomenon. Street style turned the tables in fashion: rather than being dictated by the major labels, trends bubbled upwards from these alternative groups. Street style is, in essence, a visual mode of self expression within urban environments. </p>
<p>So, as the fashion crowd arrive, the focus will not just be on the catwalk shows, but on the streets themselves. Areas such as <a href="http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/style-tribes/index.html">Hoxton, in London’s East End</a> are seen as hotbeds for unique and original style. Rather than presenting a coherent, distinctive “London” style, these streets offer a space for creative expression, defined by the individual wearer. </p>
<h2>Let’s get digital</h2>
<p>These days, the democratising influence of street style has found another outlet. While fashion week was once the exclusive domain of the invited fashionista, the rise of social media – and specifically fashion bloggers such as <a href="http://stylebubble.co.uk/">Susie Lau of Style Bubble</a> – has shifted the spotlight towards the style of supposedly quite ordinary people. </p>
<p>Vogue’s website is awash with <a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/street-chic">street chic images</a>, featuring the unique and original style of individuals, either on their way to London Fashion Week, or just out and about on the town. And since Scott Schuman launched <a href="http://www.thesartorialist.com/">The Sartorialist</a> in 2005, a vast array of independent fashion bloggers have also set out to capture street styles in cities around the world. </p>
<p>As a result, style today has become both individualistic, and universal. As globalisation brings about the mingling of different cultures, cities are becoming melting pots of style. Through the power of the internet, the plethora of fashion blogs have helped to capture both the uniqueness of, and the similarities between, urban trends across the globe. For example, while <a href="http://easyfashion.blogspot.co.uk/">Easy Fashion</a> portrays the essence of Parisian chic, <a href="http://istanbulfashionaddict.blogspot.fi/">Istanbul Fashion Addict</a> focuses on global street style.</p>
<h2>A world of fashion</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112181/original/image-20160219-25888-1clgn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112181/original/image-20160219-25888-1clgn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112181/original/image-20160219-25888-1clgn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112181/original/image-20160219-25888-1clgn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1050&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112181/original/image-20160219-25888-1clgn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112181/original/image-20160219-25888-1clgn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112181/original/image-20160219-25888-1clgn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Best of both worlds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shutter_b_/16446883632/sizes/l">shutter_b_</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of these developments, a host of cities beyond London, New York, Paris and Milan have started to appear on the fashion world’s radar. Indeed, last year New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology <a href="http://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/global-fashion-capitals.php">held an exhibition</a> which celebrated the growth of new fashion capitals across the globe. A well as more predictable locations such as Copenhagen, Berlin and Shanghai, there are a number of cities surprising us with their up and coming style.</p>
<p>In Helsinki, Finland, the style for sneakers and asymmetric layering reflects the city’s <a href="http://globalfashionbloggers.fit/#/martina-m/">culture of comfort and friendliness</a>. Meanwhile in Mumbai, style blog <a href="https://wearabout.wordpress.com/">The Wearabout</a> presents a different view of India – one which is not defined by the usual tropes of class or poverty. The style depicted on this blog is heavily influenced by the culture of Bollywood, but also reflects India’s interest in Western fashion.</p>
<p>In Lagos – Africa’s largest city – fashion and style is a way of life, reflective of a vibrant culture where it is <a href="http://www.lagosstreetstyle.com/">important to be well-dressed</a>. Indeed, the city’s relatively new <a href="http://lagosfashionanddesignweek.com/w/">fashion and design week</a> is placing style high on the cultural agenda, while allowing up and coming designers to have their stuff strutted on the catwalk. </p>
<p>Voted <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/melbourne/why-melbourne-is-australias-fashion-capital-plus-our-top-10-trendsetters/news-story/3ddfb27243cdaef0554e6e61b5dd47c6">one of the top 15</a> most fashionable cities in the world, Melbourne’s style represents a fusion of European and Asian cultures, reflecting the city’s international and creative vibe. <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-22Nylon-22-Global-Style-Nylon/dp/0789315017">Nylon magazine</a> described Melbourne a city of eclectic style, explained by the fact that it bridges many different cultures.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112175/original/image-20160219-25891-17oz2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112175/original/image-20160219-25891-17oz2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112175/original/image-20160219-25891-17oz2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112175/original/image-20160219-25891-17oz2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112175/original/image-20160219-25891-17oz2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112175/original/image-20160219-25891-17oz2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112175/original/image-20160219-25891-17oz2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dressed to the nines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaybergesen/239953634/sizes/l">jaybergesen/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Asia, Tokyo has its own unique and distinctive street style <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/j/japanese-street-style/">focused around subcultures</a> such as the Gothic Lolitas and the Harajuku girls. These group styles are mainly played out by teenagers who frequent the different areas of Tokyo. Here, style is inspired by the fantasy worlds of Cosplay and Manga, providing escapism from the regimes of a more uniform culture.</p>
<p>Cities are playing an increasingly important role in the realm of fashion. But rather than showcasing geographically isolated trends, they’re providing space for the celebration of individuality. So, as the fashion crowd descends, remember that true style doesn’t have to come from DKNY or Dior – it can also be found on the streets of your city.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Braithwaite does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As models hit the catwalk for London Fashion Week, how do these trends actually relate people on the streets?
Naomi Braithwaite, Senior lecturer, Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/39101
2015-03-20T06:32:26Z
2015-03-20T06:32:26Z
How should we remember violence? Lessons from the Tokyo sarin attack
<p>Twenty years ago, I stepped off a plane as an excited teenager ready for a year’s exchange at a Japanese high school. Just a few days later, I was caught up in Japan’s worst case of domestic terrorism. Twelve people were killed and thousands affected when members of religious sect Aum Shinrikyō <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18455007">released toxic sarin nerve gas across Tokyo’s underground network</a>.</p>
<p>The attack did not appear out of nowhere. The leadership of Aum had orchestrated a campaign of violence for years against opponents both within and outside the sect. Just nine months before the Tokyo attack, Aum members had released sarin in the city of Matsumoto, which killed seven. Police mistakenly focused on one of the victims, a man named Kōno Yoshiyuki, whose wife fell into a coma from which she would never recover.</p>
<p>After the subway attack, police finally turned their attention to Aum, arresting several dozen members – <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15815056">13 were ultimately sentenced to death</a>. We often think of the US as the democratic outlier in still using capital punishment but Japan also retains the death penalty, <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/09/death-penalty-japan">hanging several people each year</a>.</p>
<h2>The voices of victims</h2>
<p>Some victims of the Tokyo attacks, like Takahashi Shizue, whose station worker husband was killed, supported the death penalty for Aum’s leaders. She <a href="http://www.academia.edu/274511/Mourning_as_Global_Politics_Embodied_Grief_and_Activism_in_post-Aum_Tokyo">said on one occasion</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I think of my husband, I feel that I want [the perpetrators] to inhale sarin and die. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>She has also spoken out to oppose appeals for clemency and, despite expressing concerns about how victim memory could be used to justify wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has worked with pro-war 9/11 victim groups and spoken alongside US government officials in Japan who placed the subway gassing alongside 9/11 in a single ahistorical narrative of terrorism.</p>
<p>Takahashi’s anger is understandable. However other victims, such as Kōno, have taken a different position. He has <a href="http://www.nippon.com/en/nipponblog/m00033/">spoken out against the death penalty</a>, including to the Japanese branch of the international organisation Murder Victims Families for Human Rights. He has also worked with those wrongly convicted of crimes under Japan’s criminal justice system, including <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/world/asia/14japan.html?_r=0">Sugaya Toshikazu</a> who was falsely imprisoned for 17 years for the murder of a young girl.</p>
<p>Kōno has also been a prominent critic of the vigilantism against Aum members that was all too common in Japan in the years after 1995. Some local authorities denied access to public facilities like schools for Aum members and their families, and some members were forcibly driven out of homes and communities, despite the fact that most members had no idea what the sect’s leadership was up to. <a href="http://www.religionnewsblog.com/2259/yoshiyuki-kono-we-have-no-right-to-banish-ex-aum-followers">Kōno said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a victim of the Matsumoto sarin gas attack, I personally see no difference between the violation of human rights of [Aum] followers and the way society wrongly accused me of a crime I did not commit.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite the real pain of false accusations and the long illness and ultimate death of his wife, Kōno’s post-terror life has been one of trying to build the world he wants to live in, based on his ideas of fairness, justice and respect for difference. That has also carried over into his personal life, as he struck up an unlikely friendship with Fujinaga Kōzo one of the perpetrators of the gassing that killed his wife.</p>
<h2>Justice and memory</h2>
<p>So what are we to take from this? After years of waging “war” on terror, it is clear that responding to violence with violence doesn’t work – whether through hangings in Tokyo or the use of tragedies like 9/11 or the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/sydney-siege-shows-the-rise-of-a-new-form-of-extremist-35494">Martin Place incident in Sydney</a> to justify more military adventurism in the Middle East. These actions are often justified through a reference to victim experience or to honouring the memories of the victimised.</p>
<p>This reflects a tendency to think of victim memory as constant, uniform and unchangeable. But that is clearly not the case. Philosopher Matthias Fritsch <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WvhRI4j5hZkC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=memory+can+easily+lend+itself+to+the+oblivion,+or+even+justification,+of+violence+inflicted+on+others%E2%80%94in+the+past+as+well+as+in+the+present+and+the+future.&source=bl&ots=_A51zFJt3I&sig=L2MoHOfoLsAEjQLm01_xKIm0pWs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3xYLVcr4C86uPNbUgKgF&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">has argued</a>: “Memory can easily lend itself to the oblivion, or even justification, of violence inflicted on others — in the past as well as in the present and the future.” We can see that in some Japanese responses.</p>
<p>I am no longer that excited teenager from Brisbane caught up in events beyond his control. My experiences that day, along with the work I have done to understand the aftermath, suggest that the lesson from the Japanese experience is that memory is a resource for politics; but it is not memory itself that matters, but the frameworks through which people make sense of their experiences.</p>
<p>Paul Ricoeur <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RoVbjzBQXTUC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=%22it+is+justice+that+turns+memory+into+a+project%22&source=bl&ots=Tl7sms84an&sig=zjDIjeUgack294_XanddUtjPNVk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gRcLVcWgB8TaPNqygHA&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22it%20is%20justice%20that%20turns%20memory%20into%20a%20project%22&f=false">argues</a> that “it is justice that turns memory into a project; and it is this same project of justice that gives the form of the future and of the imperative of the duty of memory”. The imperative to remember can easily be inward-looking and reactionary – justifying violence and vengeance. Equally, it can form the foundation for imagining shared futures and, potentially, help realise those futures. </p>
<p>The key is what frameworks of justice we deploy. For me, thinking about justice in ways similar to Kōno is a starting point towards an understanding of justice that can acknowledge the experiences of those affected by random violence, but resists the understandable but ultimately counter-productive urge to respond in kind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Pendleton has received funds for this research from the Australian Research Council and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology. </span></em></p>
Twenty years after a sarin gas attack killed 12 in Tokyo, some victims are defending the human rights of the killers.
Mark Pendleton, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.