Other Research Topics
(1) Growth Management Policies in the United States
(Compact City / New Urbanism / TOD)
In 1987, I visited the United States for the first time, joining a survey team on resort city development led by Professor Hiroshi Mimura. What struck me then was that in large cities such as Atlanta, mid-sized cities like San Francisco, and even small towns like Aspen (Colorado), people were earnestly and urgently working on something I had never heard of before: Growth Management Policies.
Upon returning to Japan, I investigated further and found that very few researchers in the field of urban planning were addressing this issue. At that time, only Mr. Teruyuki Ohno, then an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and his group had also visited the U.S. and were introducing the importance of these policies to Japan through their papers and books.
Fascinated by this, I encountered New Urbanism, a design movement at the forefront of these policies, and studied the theory of Transit Villages, which provided a theoretical foundation for urban restructuring. The ideas that later came to be known in Japan as the Compact City concept and TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) in the 21st century were all born out of these experiences in the United States during the late 1980s and 1990s.
(2) Preservation, Design, and Exhibition of Architecture and Facilities
I originally entered an architecture program at university with the dream of becoming an architect. Until the summer of my third undergraduate year, I was devoted to the drafting board (this was before CAD) drawing design plans. However, after encountering many cultural heritage sites in Kyoto and Nara, and becoming interested in the conservation of historic settlements and townscapes such as Taketomi Island and Shirakawa-go, I chose to pursue urban planning focused on preservation—and my drafting board began to gather dust.
Yet the desire to design never left me. Whenever opportunities arose, I engaged in design projects, albeit only a few. I have recorded cases where I was involved in new construction and landscape design within historic districts, the repair of cultural properties, and the design of museum exhibitions.
(3) Singing Sands (Naki-suna / Nari-suna)
When you walk along certain beaches, the sand squeaks beneath your feet with a “kyu-kyu” sound. In Japan, such beaches have long been cherished and called naki-suna or nari-suna (singing sands).
My involvement began in 2000, when I was asked by the Japan National Trust Foundation to conduct a conservation and utilization survey of Anego-no-hama Beach in Nijo Town, Fukuoka Prefecture (now part of Itoshima City). This project led me to pursue research on singing sands.
Our survey provided a foundation for later designations under Japan’s Cultural Properties Protection Law. Today, two beaches are nationally recognized as Natural Monuments: Kotobiki-hama in Kyotango City (designated in 2007), and 十八鳴浜 (Kujukurihama) and Kukunarasu Beach in Kesennuma City (designated in 2011).
