Cool Japan: Urban Development

■Cool Japan: Urban Development

NHK Cool Japan: The "Community Development" episode.

A town where everyone can continue to live – that's not something that's simply there; it's something that's built up through the accumulated will and culture of the people who live there .

These kinds of Japanese towns are now being featured in many posts on social media and are receiving high praise from foreigners.

"Underground power lines, aging infrastructure"

Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Tsukiji, Hamamatsucho—Tokyo is a super-metropolis where many towns and cities converge.

Redevelopment is currently underway in various cities.

It is also a rare city that has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt since the Edo period due to major fires, earthquakes, and air raids .

hastily rebuilt for the 1964 Olympics , and half a century has passed since then, so it's time for maintenance and rebuilding again.

Furthermore, in recent years, a formidable challenge has emerged: torrential downpours caused by global warming. This necessitates new countermeasures such as underground rainwater harvesting tanks.

Maintenance used to be done with hammers, but from now on, we'll be rebuilding things using new technologies like IT, drones, and AI.

"Toshima Ward Disaster Prevention Park"

Japan is characterized by its high level of safety and security, but with the increasing frequency of natural disasters, awareness of disaster prevention is rising even further.

Creating a "city where people can continue to live" requires a balance between safety and security and the economy. It's important to have a cycle where people gather, the economy thrives, money is invested in disaster prevention to ensure safety, and then people gather again.

Urban development centered around disaster prevention parks could serve as a model.

"Making high schools more attractive"

High schools tend to have a stronger local focus than universities.

High schools represent their communities in sports such as baseball, soccer, and brass band competitions.

And they are more mature than middle school students, and they are able to initiate things themselves.

This program has previously covered the fact that Japanese schools have many unique and thriving extracurricular activities.

Younger generations are now showing more interest in social issues than in economic issues.

Using that power would be very effective in solving local problems and revitalizing the community. It seems likely to spread.