Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan 9789811571671, 9811571678

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Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan Lesley Crowe-Delaney

Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan

Lesley Crowe-Delaney

Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan

Lesley Crowe-Delaney Faculty of Business and Law School of Marketing Tourism Research Cluster Curtin University Perth, WA, Australia

ISBN 978-981-15-7166-4    ISBN 978-981-15-7167-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Mikio Ouchi This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

To Dennis, my love. Thank you for your long-standing and patient relationship with me… and ‘the book’.

Preface

The academic literature on Japanese culture is vast, counterbalancing the popularised literature from journalist viewpoints through to economic advocates for balancing trade since the 1980s. Since my childhood I wished for bridges to be built between Australia and Japan, and to ‘better understand’ about what my forefathers were exposed to as a result of World War II. Nonetheless, as a teacher of Japanese language, a trainer of teachers in Japanese and foreign languages in the field, then postgraduate study to a PhD, I faced many surprises of discriminatory comments from my non-second-language-trained peers. Dr Alison Broinowski has often claimed that Australia has yet to understand the differences of the nations of Asia, where it sees all alike with little understanding. For me, Japan was one of those nations which has been avoided in Australian research in the geography discipline unless in terms of cultural or developmental studies, save for the lectures of Roy Jones, now Emeritus Professor. As a teacher, I found in both primary and secondary education that some of my colleagues questioned, ‘Why Japanese?’ when it came to foreign language study and geography. Many of these arguments came forward in regional educational settings where I trained teachers how to teach foreign languages in 2006–2007. Certainly, funding allocation contributed to these educational sectors, but less so for European languages. vii

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Discriminations included characterisation of Japan as a country of caricature, a teaching method to engage primary students onwards, and history was war and samurai. Alison gave me sage advice in 2008 at the Australian National University in a Transmission of Academic Values workshop. In response to my aim to change the Australian academic and education discourse of Japan, she advised, ‘Just do it’. I had faced so much academic and social exclusion in writing about and discussing Japan. I decided to go ahead and change things on hearing these three simple words. Australia, as with many countries with extensive coastlines, has much in common with Japanese coastal geographies; overdevelopment and overprotection, building too close to sand dunes and unstable coasts, pollution and fisheries, the list is endless. Both nations now face ageing populations, climate change, regional and rural economic stresses, and myriad other factors in the era of the impact of Anthropocene; we can learn and work with each other. In terms of tourism, Australia’s comparatively new tourism industry has been a relatively stable one with good growth as well as a sustainably domestic one (see various countries’ dashboards UNWTO 2020). This book was written initially to add to the research in tourism and coastal geographies. It aims to add to the human geography understandings of both human and coastal relationships. Its objectives are to highlight how both historic and progressively innovative these relationships can be in terms of stakeholder value, but how also remnants of the highly constructed Japanese coastline can be made sustainable and in as natural a form as possible by committed community role players. Howell (1995: 5) argues that it is best to give an example of the way that systems change and function by providing a detailed example; hence Hyogo Prefecture as choice for this study. It is the only non-peninsular prefecture in Japan that is bordered by two separate seas. As a human geographer, the luxury of a comparison-style PhD was only too tempting: a focus on the exciting prefecture of Hyogo, the sister state of Western Australia, Himeji city, because of Curtin University’s sister institute, the Himeji Institute of Technology (now University of Hyogo), and Kasumi, a town whose community called for a solution to its declining fishing industry, tourism and coastal development.

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While this tourism and coastal study was well received by my Australian-based supervisors, this was not the case in Japan initially. Considered a strange study, tourism was not then an academic platform in Japanese university education. Some academics believed that better places to research ‘sightseeing’ included Kyoto. Their understanding mirrored the period of change for Japan regarding its tourism industry. It was not part of a serious discipline, rather a leisure activity that did not create growth for the Japanese economy. Development for tourism purposes, however, did provide the construction industry to remain one of the nation’s sectors to remain profitable. For tourism then, the Japanese academics were right to a certain extent. Tourism is not an industry that can be a stable and reliable one. It is seasonal, and those experienced in the business know such trends. Tourism, hospitality and accommodation (THA) and the associated industries depend on myriad human systems that, when everything is working together, functions exceptionally well (MacCannell 2013). The tourism industry is vulnerable in terms of international travelling activity. Disease, war, industrial disputes, politics, economic changes, popularity of destinations, language barriers, cultural disputes, local dissent spreading via media networks all contribute to the vulnerability of the THA industries (Liu et al. 2020). In Japan, hospitality is the key feature of the tourism experience, and was overlooked as part of the touristic whole. What adds weight to tourism industry sustainability is a ‘full package’ of hospitality, gourmet, experiential as well as other types of tourism opportunities. This is pertinent in Japan, where much of its natural attributes have been re/de/constructed or destroyed since the Tokugawa era, or are not safe to access. Japanese culture and its hospitality are major tourist attractions. When combined, these offer the visitor a reason to stay, spend, experience and come away laden with great recommendations for others. This includes all types of tourism from sightseeing, extreme tourism sports, industrial and contents tourism. Even so, the whole THA is a dynamic industry in itself and where the major players in the field will change teams. Examples include brand changes and marketing through to selling property once profits have been optimised in relation to a period of time, function, management and administration and sponsorship. At the ground level for staff, this

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can often mean changing employment for self-promotion to seek further advancement. Attraction to branding and social network sites influence and play their roles in the most rapid timing. The staging of THA is one that equates with good, acceptable service, accommodation and food commensurate to the guest’s perception of value and budget. In the twenty-first century, it is also safety, health and insurances, promises and expectations of money well spent. In the Web 2.0 generation, it means transferring the best of possible touristic scenarios in the tap on a mobile device to relay ratings to friends and family (Xia et al. 2018). Social network sites are opportunities to be noticed and admired, conveying much more than the postcards that our grandparents who could afford to travel did so in the last century. Location is key and popular tourist destinations are staged by all who benefit, from the providers, the participating tourists and to the ‘silent’ followers beyond the real stage, voyeurs in the virtual world of touristic experiences (Liu et al. 2020). The promise of what is to come is a huge task for those who have to provide all these services. For rural and regional, small towns and cities, this often accompanies disincentivised production of the main industries in situ, no longer sustainable (Crowe-Delaney 2018) and are further geographies of tourism industries and touristic behaviour that have yet to be explored (Liu et al. 2020). The study of these various mobilities is often best viewed then through the lens of the disciplines of various geographies’ platforms. They lend themselves not only to methodologies of ethnography, participant observation and anthropological approaches but also contribute to the discovery of hard data and enrich the story for the reader. As Botterill (2007) argues, ‘situated voice contribute a richness to tourism research’, and including it still remains a criticism as much as using the emotional context of the first person in research. Botterill recalls the ‘“God trick”, where researchers claim to see everything, but themselves remain unseen’. He refers to Ateljevic and Westwood among others, that ‘the situated voice better captures the fractured, contradictory and context-rich world and that epistemology humanises the research process’ (Botterill 2007: 194–196).

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Such then is the relevance of the understanding of the background and the political, economic and cultural histories in tourism in Hyogo, their roles in rural and regional coastal tourism policy. The littoral holds a distinct place in Japanese development due to its geography, economy and industrial growth. It is also where myths of the seas arise and the necessity to make fisheries productive and the industry sustainable in a dangerous environment. To bring this discussion to a full loop, while Australia can learn about better management of its coastal fisheries and the oversights over other nations, Japan, coming late into the international tourism arena, can learn from other countries’ experiences not just that of nature-based tourism, such as in Australia. We can also approach learning and understanding about cultural and economic differences through the discipline of geography, and we geographers know this only too well. Human geography now takes up so much of the issues and impacts of tourism that it would be remiss not to use geography as a platform. Why? This is because geographers are known for their all-round, yet considered, approach. In 2016, at the International Geographers Union Conference in Beijing, the call for the Australian research institute, CSIRO, acknowledged that geographers were needed in ‘hard’ science to afford the humanities balance. Geographers ask the broad and difficult questions that science-­ driven questions by its very nature can avoid. We can contribute to the critical tourism studies. This book challenges the ‘well established notions’ that disagree with core and periphery approaches of study (Howell 1995: xii). It recalls Yi Fu Tuan’s theories of Topophilia, and Space and Place, which have not been used, until now, to assess Japanese tourism policymaking geographies, and which contribute so much to this intriguing area. These are the geographies and histories of travel and tourism in Japan. They include clear and distinct directions of pilgrimage, and later enforced travel to the capital for over 200 years, routes unchanged until the disruptions ranging from major freeways of the 1960s, and the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake to Japan’s highly centralised administrative and political systems. These and myriad other factors allow us to observe the tourism and hospitality challenges in rural and regional settings, and in sophisticated

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urbanised systems faced with ageing communities. All these impact tourism and coastal development in Hyogo Prefecture Japan.

 Note on the Discipline of Geography A in Japan Late twentieth- and twenty-first century Japanese social or human geography, mostly written in Japanese, has focussed on the use of spatial science and hard data for coastal settings, or addressed urban issues as they arise. Research conducted by Japanese scholars has often taken a scientific—deductive—approach (Hiwatari 2001: 22). This is partly a reaction to the hegemony of government and philosophers using the social sciences to drive the early twentieth-century Japanese nationalism. Recently, there has been a change towards subcategories of geographies. However, there has also been a national scholars’ call for much research to be written again only in Japanese as a protest of English language hegemony in academic literature. While here is not the platform for this discussion, this has led to smaller research in social (human) geography again, while expanding specific components of physical geography and the spatial sciences, quantitative data of the human element, such as the mismanagement of disasters like the Daiichi Nuclear Plant at Fukushima or earlier examples of coastal mismanagement (Uda 2010). Here then, local journalism, coastal engineering and the like try to take up the research to expose local issues. Perth, WA, Australia

Lesley Crowe-Delaney

Bibliography Botterill, David. 2007. Chapter 8—A Realist Critique of the Situated Voice in Tourism Studies. In The Critical Turn in Tourism Studies, ed. Irena Ateljevic, Annette Pritchard, and Nigel Morgan, 121–129. Oxford: Elsevier.

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Crowe-Delaney, L. 2018. Deconstructing the Staged and Existential Authentic of Rurality in Japan. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology (IJTA) 6 (3). https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTA.2018.093291. Hiwatari, N. 2001. The Enigma of Mr. Koizumi: ‘No Sacred Cow’ or ‘Just Plain Bull’. Social Science Newsletter of the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo,19–20. Howell, David L. 1995. Capitalism from Within: Economy, Society and the State in a Japanese Fishery. Berkeley: University of California Press. Liu, T., J.  Xia, and L.  Crowe-Delaney. 2020. Tourism Information Diffusion through SNSs: A Theoretical Investigation. Sustainability 12 (1731): 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051731. MacCannell, Dean. 2013. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Berkeley: University California Press. Uda, T. 2010. Japan’s Beach Erosion: Reality and Future Measures. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd. UNWTO. 2020. International Tourism Growth Continues to Outpace the Global Economy. https://www.unwto.org/international-tourismgrowth-continues-to-outpace-the-economy. Xia, Jianghong, R.  Adriano, Z.  Prude Carcausto Zea, Lesley Crowe-­ Delaney, Y. Liu, K. Holmes, and Z. Chen. 2018. Are We China-Ready? Chinese Tourism in Western Australia.

Acknowledgements

This book is a result of the cross-discipline research and fieldwork, from anthropology-based approaches for my geography PhD dissertation. Coming at the end of the Australian era of studying Japan-as-flavour of the month, and the beginning of a second wave of misunderstandings of ‘area studies’, Japanese language departments contracted, amalgamated under broader subdiscipline departments, or disappeared altogether. In 2020, this has not changed. Living and studying at the time from the most isolated city in the world, Perth, Western Australia, was also the most fortuitous. With the most enthusiastic of Japanese language staff, in an equally passionate School of Social Science and Geography department, I was presented with the last of the extraordinary opportunities of postgraduate exchange programmes between Curtin University and Himeji Institute of Technology (HIT; now University of Hyogo). Still, this was also a time when I met one of the most generous professors of HIT, chemical engineer Professor Mikio Ouchi, who assisted me with my connections into tourism due to his student exchange outreach, to which he had committed much of his personal time and money as well as to the bridging of our two countries—a passion we both still share. Together with the teaching, mentoring, coffee and karaoke support of the late Mr Motoyoshi Uno, Curtin University, I was able to commit to the intensive fieldwork in Himeji and Kasumi, Hyogo Prefecture. xv

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The staff of Shinzaike HIT campus were immediately receptive. I remain friends with Dr Yumi Hasegawa, who endlessly helped with Japanese translation, writing and IT and by just being a friend and who remains a dear one; her mentor (and my Japanese supervisor), the late Professor Reiko Kinuhata, was generous beyond duty. Yumi and I miss her terribly to this day. I also thank now-retired Dean Professor Kihara, Professor Masayoshi Kiyohara (president of University of Hyogo), who as then international co-ordinator introduced me to students of minority groups and opened my eyes wider to the academic philosophies and issues of countries of the Asian region. The are many people who, for privacy reasons, I cannot readily identify. These are the people, the community members of Kasumi who, even for a brief unplanned return in 2019, took me back into their homes as though I was family. They helped me immeasurably in my fieldwork, made me feel accepted and took so much time out of their days to help me. I say thank you too, to the president of the International Exchange Co-operation Komai-san, for his sanctioning of my project for the community. Special thanks go to former town planner Tanioka-san. I also thank the Hyogo Prefecture Government, its international department and the directors of the Hyogo Coastal Engineering Department, the director of the Tajima Fisheries Association and the staff of the Tajima Fisheries Research Institute who allowed me access to their offices every day. Special thanks go to the institute’s then director Dr Shimamoto Nobuo for his tireless support; he assisted me in the understanding of the importance of tourism and fisheries to the Kasumi community. I thank the president of the Fisheries Cooperative Association who provided data and information support. Of course, I thank my former thesis supervisor Roy Jones, now Emeritus Professor, who patiently supported my goals and fought for a large thesis. Together with Dr Yasuo Takao’s judicious Japanese language support, they were there to attend to my calls which were by then offcampus and across the nation as I completed my thesis. I also offer thanks to Professor David Edgington (University of British Columbia) whose critical feedback was of immense value and who supported the conversion of the PhD to a book.

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The book however, had to be written. Finding support from Japanese and tourism disciplines was difficult, but when I asked outside these disciplines, there was support. Thanks go to my long-enduring friend Ms Noni Crowther, whose meticulous eye to detail for contents, indexing and referencing should become her new profession. I thank Associate Professor Jianhong (Cecilia) Xia (Spatial Sciences Curtin University) and her Masters student Heng Zhou (Frank) for helping me create my map of Japan. Thanks obviously go to Senior Commissioning Editor Joshua Pitt of Palgrave Macmillan, who has had faith in the project from the beginning and the Springer Nature staff who have patiently waited for the final manuscript. These are the people who have supported my efforts to bring what has been my goal—to provide a book about the culture of tourism and coastal development using a human geographical lens and anthropology-based research methods. This has not been an easy monograph to write. The exclusion of many facets or to take a chronological approach would change the overall position of tourism policy management for Hyogo Prefectural government role players of the time period. The book’s supporters here, from both Kasumi and Himeji, have expressed the joy of their community, of pride in their locales’ heritage and history. This is what holds them to their Space and Place. Notes: the use of the macron is only where the word is not commonly used in its English form or where the author’s name requires it in romanised Japanese.

Contents

1 Nature, Networking and Coastal Tourism in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan: An Introduction  1 2 A Distinct Geographical Setting: Contrasting Coastal Development in Hyogo, Japan 33 3 Idealising Nature, Rurality and Staging Authenticity: The Foundations of Tourism Policy in Japan 71 4 Hyogo Prefecture and Hard times: Making Strategies and Changing Tourism Policies, 1990–2017115 5 Rejuvenating Coastal Japan: An Uneasy Mix of Tourism and Heavy Industry in Himeji155 6 Coastal Tourism in Rural Japan: Issues of Fisheries, Heritage and Culture in Kasumi217 7 Raising Hope with Promises: Unfulfilled Strategies for a Sustainable Rural Tourism Industry263

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8 Economic Rejuvenation: Discussing Tourism for Regional Japan311 9 Epilogue. Optimistic Communities in Himeji and Kasumi: Still Waiting for Long-term Tourism Growth331 Index349

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 2.3 Fig. 2.4 Fig. 2.5 Fig. 4.1 Fig. 4.2 Fig. 4.3 Fig. 4.4 Fig. 4.5 Fig. 4.6 Fig. 4.7 Fig. 4.8 Fig. 5.1 Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3 Fig. 5.4 Fig. 5.5 Fig. 5.6 Fig. 5.7

Inbound and Outbound Tourist Trend 1985–2005 3 Main islands and the regions of Japan 38 Kasumi and Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture 45 Himeji coast and ship channels pre-1868 46 Himeji coastline, 1893 47 Japan, its railway system in 2019 and the Tōkaidō Megalopolis 54 Reconstruction of the Port of Kobe 127 Hyogo, Kansai Japan 131 The Hyogo Phoenix symbol in 2001 135 A performance centre North West of Himeji 144 Log-style accommodation. Artists/Performance Centre, North East Himeji 145 Muraoka, Hyogo michi-no-eki148 Michi-no-eki in Kasumi incorporating historical buildings 148 Michi-no-eki, outskirts of north Himeji, Hyogo 149 Himeji City Tourism and Culture Promotions 158 Himeji Port district 1993 161 The coastline and ports under the Port of Himeji Authority 162 Himeji 1888 before and after amalgamations in 2006 165 The nine subdivisions of Himeji-shi 166 The City of Himeji 1993 167 Autumnal Himeji. Locals and visitors alike cycle, stroll and photograph the castle’s paths 172 xxi

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Fig. 5.8 Fig. 5.9 Fig. 5.10 Fig. 5.11 Fig. 5.12 Fig. 5.13 Fig. 5.14 Fig. 5.15 Fig. 5.16 Fig. 5.17 Fig. 5.18 Fig. 5.19 Fig. 5.20 Fig. 5.21 Fig. 5.22 Fig. 5.23 Fig. 5.24 Fig. 5.25 Fig. 5.26 Fig. 5.27 Fig. 5.28 Fig. 6.1 Fig. 6.2 Fig. 6.3 Fig. 6.4 Fig. 6.5 Fig. 6.6 Fig. 6.7 Fig. 6.8 Fig. 6.9 Fig. 6.10 Fig. 6.11 Fig. 6.12 Fig. 6.13

List of Figures

Himeji Castle view from Himeji train station, 2019 Himeji Port Renaissance 21 Plan Himeji Century 21 Plan excerpt of coastal zoning Himeji City’s emblem Himeji and Kobe throughput in Yen value The heavily redefined coastline of the Port of Himeji Port district Mega Port green belt and Shikama electricity tower Poor jetty maintenance in Nada Port of Himeji offices and Port-Side Hotel, Shikama Shikama Port, Himeji, 2000 Mega Port, brownfield Himeji Mega-Shirahama flood gates Multiple uses of Himeji Port, 2002 Urban-village. A car park on Matogata groynes The master plan for the preservation of the littoral and beach of Harima Coastal development in Matogata and Nadahama village Ōshio golf driving range Abōshi Nigasa Community Park Disused monorail track, 2001 Himeji tourism map 1951 Himeji tourist guide 2000 Kyū Kasumi 2019 Kasumi Bay, early Meiji period Kasumi Port, 1939 Takeno village, 2001 Kasumi Eastern and Western ports, 2019 Kasumi foreshore, 2001 Kasumi levee across the Yadogawa A modern housing estate adjacent to a levee and agricultural land, Yadogawa east Streetscape Kasumi, 2001. This street heads north from the station to the beachfront Traditional house, shuttered shopfront and street front, Kyū Kasumi Fishing village housing in Kyū Kasumi Heike mountain housing overlooking Kasumi Bay Housing above the Yadogawa

173 177 179 183 186 188 189 190 192 192 194 194 197 198 199 200 201 202 209 210 211 221 223 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235

  List of Figures 

Fig. 6.14 Fig. 6.15 Fig. 6.16 Fig. 6.17 Fig. 6.18 Fig. 6.19 Fig. 6.20 Fig. 7.1 Fig. 7.2 Fig. 7.3 Fig. 7.4 Fig. 7.5 Fig. 7.6 Fig. 7.7 Fig. 7.8 Fig. 7.9 Fig. 7.10 Fig. 7.11 Fig. 7.12 Fig. 7.13 Fig. 7.14 Fig. 7.15 Fig. 7.16 Fig. 7.17 Fig. 7.18 Fig. 7.19 Fig. 7.20 Fig. 9.1 Fig. 9.2 Fig. 9.3 Fig. 9.4 Fig. 9.5

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New development in Kasumi 235 The Gateway of Daijyōji Buddhist Temple 236 The population shift in Kasumi, 2001 237 The population decline, 1994–2001 237 An elderly woman pushes dried fish in a converted baby stroller239 Fisherwomen of Kasumi 241 Women predominate in the fish processing area of this factory 242 Late Meiji postcard tourists relaxing in coastal Kasumi, ca 1890s 266 A small island north-west of the TFRI 269 Kasumi beachside recreation, 1955 270 The unsheltered jetty, Eastern Port for the San’in Kaigan tour boat 274 Fresh fish retailer and bus tourists adjacent to Western port 276 Women wait for the boxes of first catch crab that they will push on the yellow trolley 278 Kasumi soup competition, 2001 279 A forklift gains access to the road as traffic is flagged to stop 279 A crowded car park adjacent to a seafood market 280 Coastal Sangyo Road is quiet the day after the crab festival 281 Stylised calligraphy on minshuku brochure 284 Marketing for the budget conscious 2005 289 Promoting seasonality, spring in Kasumi 290 The R-Plan 292 West beach of Western Port Kasumi 294 The R-Plan Kasumi Beach 295 The Kasumi resort zone in 2001 298 Land resumed from a local business, 2001 301 The Kasumi Bypass 303 Imamura Inn and its view overlooking Kuroshima Island, north-west of Sea of Japan 307 Himeji shipping transit lane to marinas with improved visual access for all boat users 336 Himeji Port Authority offices 337 Tugboats in Himeji marina. Sports dome and the Shinkansen track is in the background 338 Recreational and working boats marina 339 The working Port of Himeji 2019 339

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Fig. 9.6 Fig. 9.7 Fig. 9.8 Fig. 9.9 Fig. 9.10 Fig. 9.11 Fig. 9.12 Fig. 9.13 Fig. 9.14 Fig. 9.15 Fig. 9.16 Fig. 9.17

List of Figures

Port of Entry, Himeji Cement manufacturers greeting cruise tourists The new and well-connected transportation hub, Himeji A new place for statues Tourists disregard safety and respect of the castle walls to take photographs The staged authenticity of rickshaw driver pausing as the authentic is staged for a photographic memory The path from Kasumi station to the beach road The grassed flat ground behind the beach buffer—site of the R-Plan A gourmet meal for a fraction of the price of crab A section of the board walk made into a beach protection buffer A sculptural map of Tokugawa Kasumi Bay Sunday evening supermarket on one of the many canals in old Kasumi

340 340 341 342 343 344 344 345 346 346 347 348

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Gokaidō in order of importance 38 Table 2.2 A summary of Okpyo-Moon’s urban–rural dichotomies 65 Table 4.1 Summary of main themes of tourism policies and plans: Hyogo plans concurrent with national plans, 1986–2010 134 Table 5.1 Himeji chronology of main events and developments 160 Table 5.2 Himeji: Changes in population and area before and after amalgamations164 Table 5.3 Himeji city and castle visitors, 1991–2016 175 Table 5.4 Summary of Himeji Century 21 Plan: Features, objectives and initiatives 182 Table 6.1 Challenges facing the fishing industry of Kasumi in the twenty-­first century 252 Table 7.1 Infrastructural and cultural challenges for Kasumi tourism industry273 Table 7.2 Kasumi and Tajima Day and Overnight Visitors 305 Table 8.1 A comparison of Himeji and Kasumi industries for the period 2001–2002 315

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1 Nature, Networking and Coastal Tourism in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan: An Introduction

In their submission on sustainable development for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific–Agenda 21, the Japanese government acknowledged that research into sustainable tourism development was in its infancy and the central government was only beginning to recognise inadequacies in its provision for sustainable development, particularly in relation to its coastal areas and tourism (Ministry of Environment 1997). Although Japan was not alone in pursuing a realignment toward a focus on environmental and tourism sustainability, the case studies here highlight the need for Japan to address the issues of sustainable tourism management seriously against a background of degraded regional environments and a depleting population. Tourism in its earlier form, travel and pilgrimage, is not a new phenomenon in Japan (Hall 1937: 377; Ivy 1995). It would be reasonable to expect then that given the country’s cultural and physical assets that the Japanese domestic tourism industry in Japan would be a successful one. This could also be claimed despite its economic slump beginning in the 1990s, in real economic terms from 5.1% in 1990, down to −2.5 in 1998 © The Author(s) 2020 L. Crowe-Delaney, Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1_1

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and with only a slight rise entering the twenty-first century of 0.2% in 1999 (Tajima 2001: 25; Harootunian and Yoda 2006a), and its position as the second largest industrialised economy in the world (GDP at market exchange rates) until overtaken by China in 2010 (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2014). This is not an outsider’s idealistic call. In 2005, Prime Minister Koizumi declared that the Japanese tourism industry, both domestic and international, failed to match Japan’s global economic status (Koizumi 2005). His announcement to promote the tourism reforms of 2002 (Koizumi 2003) relied on the premise for tourism to relieve widespread economic stress in Japan, ‘stimulating the national economy, promoting exchanges among people, revitalising regions and communities by promoting local industries and creating jobs, promoting international friendship, and contributing to world peace’ (MLIT 2002). In 2012, the Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Law acknowledged that  the stagnation of the  young domestic tourist market remained an issue. Comparative statistics for the period 1985–2005  in Fig.  1.1 (Japan Tourism Marketing 2015) illustrate the trend of, and contrast between, inbound and outbound tourism of Japan, the latter figures tripling the former. This first  chapter introduces the book’s broad theoretical discussion through to the case studies of rural and regional tourism and coastal development. Earlier literature by Knight (1996, 2000), Guichard-­Anguis and Moon (2009) and Moon (1997, 1998, 2002) led the way along with Kerr (1996, 2001) setting the scene  on Japan’s  tourism and development in inland, mountainous terrain and agricultural locations. Chapter two focuses on the historic division of coastal uses grounded in theories of geography of place by Tuan (1974, 1977). Chapter three discusses the need not only to stage an ‘authentic’ Japan to move into the twentieth century international arena, driven by Meiji reformists  of the late 1800s, but which allowed a sense of nationhood into the following century for Japanese after being led to hellish warfare by the Taishō (1912–1926) leaders. Tourism policy for international visitors bridged these upheavals. Throughout these changes of administration and political leadership from the Tokugawa era (1603–1867), the mobilities of travel and pilgrimage contributed to the appreciation of the archipelago. By the Meiji

1  Nature, Networking and Coastal Tourism in Hyogo Prefecture… 

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20000000 18000000 16000000 14000000 12000000 10000000 8000000 6000000 4000000 2000000 0

1985 1990 1995 1997 2002 2005 Inbound Outbound

Fig. 1.1  Inbound and Outbound Tourist Trend 1985–2005. By 1997, 16 million Japanese per annum were travelling abroad

era (1868–1912), elsewhere  tourism was an international pastime and Japan was on some wealthy tourists’ itineraries. Between the wars of the twentieth century, tourism policy for inbound visitors was inserted into periods of peace, for Japanese  in public service their touristic roles included international reconnaissance and enforced military placement, while government propaganda extolled the wonders of an industrialising and modernising Japan to the rest of the world powers. Against this backdrop, chapter four presents the prefecture of Hyogo’s tourism policy history including the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake disaster. Therefore, rather than re-examining Kobe as a modernised city and broken terribly because of the earthquake (Edgington 2011), chapter five follows the path of the tourist castle attraction of Himeji, once much closer to a natural harbour centuries earlier, and the questions the reasons to develop a tourism destination on a highly polluted working port, plans of which were included in the Hyogo redevelopment  policy of 1993. The sixth and seventh chapters highlight local community issues

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of rural-­coastal Japan. The result of a lone message on a municipal government website of Kasumi, a small fishing town on the Hyogo north coast, these chapters follow-up on the questions raised of the sustainability of its fishing industry and the promise of tourism to revitalise the fishing community’s economy. Kasumi then became a large and multifaceted research component in the discussion of core–periphery, dichotomised uses of Hyogo coasts and the human component of this quiet and relatively unpolluted section of Japan. Solutions thrust at this coastal town, like Himeji, comprised of the construction industry among other associated ministry portfolios. Chapter eight draws conclusions and creates discussion particularly on environmental issues and women’s roles in Japanese fisheries. It calls for great understanding of coastal management and sustainability arguments. Lastly, to do this research justice, and for the communities that kindly offered their space and place to be tested against such academic observation, the final chapter provides an epilogue. In the midst of the forthcoming (now deferred to 2021)  Tokyo  Olympics  games and the novel Coronavirus COVID-19, the chapter briefly looks at the current tourism strategies for Japan. For once, Japanese tourism policy seemed to have got things right, kicking all the right goals to showcase Japan, and then the world kicked right back. Although the time frame of this project is focused on the mid-­twentieth century to the early twenty-first century, it is the economic development of the late Tokugawa, Meiji and Taishō periods that was instrumental in defining the regional landscape of the contemporary Hyogo Prefecture. Political and administration strategies emerged to create a consolidated civil society, the type of economic and industrial/production bases on which the current municipal governments depend for their income. Thus, there is a highly complex organisational structure of government based on continuing urbanisation in a country that has been urbanised since the 1700s. Such urbanisation and the ensuing industrialisation have created the broader context in which recent and contemporary tourism development has taken place. The time frame then is a difficult one and sure to be criticised for not being more recent. However, while there is an overall history of tourism in the literature, it is the implementation of tourism policy in this time frame that now becomes more useful to

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examine when under periods of economic recession and incredible disasters of great and long-lasting magnitudes. That such observations of tourism under stressful global conditions, in 2020, in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic that we may learn from Japans tourism policies applications.

A Tourism Case Study Unfolds Winter is the peak season for the harvesting of snow crabs in Japan. Along many pristine sections of the northern coasts of Japan, tourists visit fishing grounds to taste the first of the season’s catch, to experience winter breaks in steaming, hot springs and to perhaps stay overnight in lodgings where they feast on several courses or kaiseki of the prepared crab; wrapped in comfortable yukata gowns, it is gourmet tourism at its most pleasurable. Winter is also popular for snow sports. In the warmer and less snowy Pacific coastal regions of Japan, Japanese partake of winter cuisine and take advantage of the various holidays. Yet, in 2000–2001, 16.5 million Japanese travellers exited Japan for international holidays, annually spending ¥315,300 (US$3082) while 59 million domestic travellers spent one-third less per person at ¥105,900 (US$1036). Per-activity spending trends revealed Japanese tourists who travelled internationally spent ¥197,000 (US$1927), while domestic tourists only spent ¥ 30,000 (US$ 294) (Tajima 2001: 270–271). Tourism policies were not making effective inroads for tourism itself. The use of tourism to boost rural economies in Japan, particularly rural coastal communities, is a critical area of tourism strategising, but has yet to have an in-depth study from a human geography perspective. Japan is one of the first post-industrial countries in the world to experience the effects of rapid population aging and depopulation, causing many social and economic stresses in rural communities, on labour resources, medical care as well as labour depletion. Rural and regional areas are also affected by outmigration. Hyogo Prefecture experiences negative net migration. One national government strategy is to encourage tourism to rebuild economic and social capital.

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Historical development and settlement, tourism, transportation features and cultural perceptions play out in regional and rural coastal development in Japan. At the time of this research’s fieldwork (1999) and to the time of this publication, the coastal realm of Japan has not been assessed as such in a comparative manner, nor have the issues of regional and rural in terms of perception of space and place. Moreover, the role that the fishery industry plays in coastal development and tourism has not been explored. This book aims to contribute a discussion as well as case studies. Gourmet tourism, fisheries and coastal development play extraordinary roles alongside busy and dangerous working ports, as well as exposure to extreme environmental hazards. The coastlines of the world, unless flat, sheltered and with a climate conducive to human habitation, can be hazardous areas to take a holiday! They are certainly the most dangerous of locations in which to live (Kron 2013). However, risk factors aside, these places also attract tourists. Japanese, historically, have inhabited the coastal areas of the archipelago, while the land beyond the hinterland has been interspersed with inland settlements only where arable land permits sustainability and geographical safety (Witherick and Carr 1993). Japan’s coastlines in contrast to its inland seas and rivers have been the most productive for fisheries. Nonetheless, faced with tsunami, flooding, earthquakes and landslides, hazard reduction remains a factor. Much of Japan’s coastline has been redeveloped, industrialised and converted to multinodal transportation hubs; the rest is unusable due to sheer cliff faces  and landslides. Real estate on the arable coasts is tightly held by generations of families, until moved by the forces of industrial innovation or rampart resort development opportunism. Regional and rural coastal communities are at risk, not only from environmental hazards, but also from the elements of the Anthropocene. Worse, as in some cases, they face being ignored; falling populations were not well addressed by central government strategies. Herein tourism made an entrance, the panacea to cure all ills of economic decline. Tourism, however, is not a cure-all. Tourism policies implemented at the national level are difficult to enact at the municipal level, but more so for rural coastal townships due to myriad factors.

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This study, in a geographical context, offers the understanding of Japanese tourism and tourists, amidst a scenario of policies and cultural perceptions. Importantly and not common in a human or cultural geography approach is the methodology, incorporated here because it indicates how participants in both locations communicated their understanding and acceptance of tourism, their community expectations and their community contributions. Connections, networking and research design all contribute to present here a rare opportunity to observe tourism and coastal issues in a prefecture of Japan, initially the basis for this author’s PhD.

 Geographical Context of Hyogo, Japan A and Its Tourism Past Japanese geographical research on Japan’s coastal development has largely focused on coastal geomorphology based on the narrow scientific research style. Research on coastal development and its construction should be  a given considering Japan has 16% arable land. Therefore, development must make use of coastal flatlands and deltaic areas. The consideration of any further development in these geologically unstable areas of coastal morphology is often due to the historical settlements of fisheries and harbours, which over time have remained valuable establishments of economic production as well as hubs of established fishery culture. The research here explores everyday features of two local communities, their industries, and the long-term goal of cultural and community sustainability and survival in terms of tourism policy implementation. In a human geography framework, this book’s discussion and analysis of data and collection of maps authoritatively contextualises an argument that refutes previous ones where Japan’s Pacific coastline was only developed intensively for imperialist expansionism from the Meiji era onwards. Instead, here is a focus on Hyogo Prefecture, where a clear division of land use was initially driven by pilgrimage, then compulsory travel along the Tōkaidō as well as existing early artisanal industries. This is conceptualised using Yi Fu Tuan’s Theory of Space and Place (1977).

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Hyogo Prefecture, as a case study, is a unique one and an ideal location for comparative research, since it is the only non-peninsular prefecture to be bordered by both the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. The two comparative areas are in the extreme north and south of the prefecture. Kasumi, a fishing town to the north, is centrally located in a former quasi-national park known as the San’in Kaigan (designated a world geo-­ tourism park in 2008). Himeji, an industrial city with an extensive fish processing industry, is the major southern port of the prefecture after the Port of Kobe and is located on the Seto Inland Sea, which opens out to the Pacific Ocean. Both Kasumi and Himeji experience labour outmigration and changes in their production-based economies. Furthermore, following the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and mad cow disease outbreak circa 2000, the temporary decentralisation of port administration and food production led opportunistic and desperate attempts by Himeji and Kasumi municipal governments to redirect prefectural, national government and private sector investment. This was to make permanent the various emergency changes and short-term growth of their respective local industries for the temporary economic duties for support port throughput (Himeji) and forecast increased aquaculture production to replace beef (Kasumi). Both locations did not receive permanent industry change; instead, they continued to implement tourism strategies for economic regrowth, while abiding to central government-driven amalgamation policies in order to increase funding support to their existing communities and economies. With only the beginnings of a shift to the promotion of international tourism policy to incorporate more of the Kansai region, the period from 1995 to 2003 was intended to evolve into local governments’ decentralising, taking on the responsibility of developing foreign tourist plans. Yet this has led to policy strategies and their implementation dates overlapping, confusing initially not only to a foreign researcher, but also to those Japanese who worked in public sectors that daily bridged policy administration between prefectural and local government directions, tourism infrastructure and port management.

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The political stage of the Junichiro Koizumi era (2001–2006) was expected to produce great legacies for Japan. The elections heralded the arrival of a new style of this charismatic prime minister with promises of political and economic reform that included tourism. Institutional change also consisted of the introduction of transparency in government documents, policies and projects, clear and concise paths for public sector development. This was a period of complex departmental planning and revising, where local government was in a state of flux as the new national government made its transitions, and its presence felt due to expenditure cuts. Departmental rearrangement also meant overhauls of the many departments involved in tourism construction projects. From their inception to their delivery, there had been conflicts over timelines, actual project management and myriad start dates. It needs to be noted here that funding for tourism development has been and still is, influenced by many development initiatives which have been pursued by the various ministries of the Japanese national and prefectural governments  in conjunction with  the ministerial  relationships fostered by developers. Since neither funding nor policy detail was transparently available at the time of this book’s  fieldwork, this research relied to a large extent on the access to extensive sets of plans and official documentation, as well as the evaluation of the actual projects at various stages of (non)completion  and roleplayer interviews. Therefore, the research here found it relevant to investigate early tracks of the development history of these two local examples of Japan’s coastal development of Hyogo Prefecture and the role players who were involved. Additionally, it re-examines the historical and political understandings of coastal development in order to provide a new perspective on the evolution of the Japanese coastal built environment. Therefore, this book also focuses on the impacts of tourism strategies and initiatives on a rural coastal community and identifies the challenges that beset these coastal environments and the coastal communities in terms of tourism development in contrast to a city community that at times was able to get exactly what it wanted, tourism development.

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 he Terms of Tourism, Tourists, Regional T and Rural It is appropriate here to offer a definition of tourism and to consider how this is interpreted and operationalised in the Japanese context. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), in the last years of the twentieth century: Tourism is the set of activities of a person travelling to and staying in places outside his/her usual environment for less than one year and whose primary purpose of travel is, other than the exercise, an activity remunerated from within the place of travel. (Smith 1998: 36)

Considering that for Japan tourism development peaked in this period (prior to the development for the 2020 Olympics), this definition is apt for the time period of this book. While the twenty-first-century version rightly expands to include sustainable tourism (Department of Economics and Social Affairs 2015), the definition reflects the time period where the then WTO (UNWTO) also subcategorised ‘travel’ for, amongst others, religious purposes and where tourism and travelling was  outside 80–160 kilometres from the tourist’s usual environment. Definitions such as these can be problematic as a traveller’s usual environment can be questionable depending on who defines the boundary (e.g. the tourist, the supplier, the government and its various agencies). Incredibly, the Japanese Tourism Agency published this discussion as a problem for its tourism policy as late as 2013 (Japan Tourism Agency 2013). This is not a Japanese-only experience. Tourism Australia as well has adjusted its terminology and has found unreliable data in the terminology changeover period to be problematic (Tourism Australia 2017). However, in this context and for clarity, it is the Japanese person who travels outside his/her everyday living and working environment and who is, thereby, a domestic tourist. ‘Travel and tourism can be thought of as a search for difference’ by the tourist (Rojek 1997: 52–74), and as a relief or respite from the everyday work/life experience (MacCannell 1976: 34–35). For the Japanese businessperson, like many others globally who travel for business, this may constitute precious hours of leisure time.

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Japanese domestic tourism policy, however, uses both the concept and the perceived reality (authenticities) of tourism not only as economic contributions to financially support local economies, but also as a means of cultural enhancement; imagery creation or re-creation of what is ‘truly’ Japanese (Vlastos 1998: 1–16). This provides policymakers with a tool to expand their objectives not only for tourism, but for nationalism.

The Tourist In the period of this research through to the period of writing this book, the definition of a tourist in data categorisation of the Statistics Bureau of Japan (excel sheets in Japanese) are ‘visitors’, international and domestic (from other localities other than the place that is visited). This can include visitors from other prefectures, municipalities, towns and villages. The reference to ‘outsider’ is culturally explicit, noticed and used in detail in a host village and understood by its locals, distinguishing dialects, clothing, mannerisms, vehicular registrations or the type of activities undertaken, and restaurants visited. The visitor, as outsider, may now be a tourist, short- or long-term resident, businessperson, or religious pilgrim or in the vicinity as part of a courier or similar business activity.

The Research Scenario Japanese domestic tourism has largely been directed by national tourism policies directed at foreigners travelling to Japan (Funck and Cooper 2013), and policies since 1859 have been delivered with the purpose of introducing Japan globally (Soshiroda 2005: 1111). The plans set up in the period from 1987 to 1996, were to encompass the revitalisation of the Kansai area following the 1995 Hanshin earthquake and to improve a domestic economy reeling from economic stresses, but they retained remnants of policy modelling adopted from the end of World War II. With only the beginnings of a shift to the promotion of international tourism policy to incorporate more of the Kansai region, the period from 1995 to 2003 was intended to become the period when local

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governments would take on the responsibility of developing foreign tourist plans. Hospitality and accommodation models inherited practices from much earlier times. Touristic behaviour in its earlier form of travel, pilgrimage and sightseeing therefore is not a new phenomenon in Japan. Since before the 1700s, amongst the various Japanese travellers were writers, poets and artists who depicted rural Japan and the local foods and the cultures and religious sites that they had visited on their travels. Village entrepreneurs living on or near travel routes learned to appreciate early marketing tools and used signage and flags (still popular forms used today) to advertise local fare and attractions such as hot springs (onsen) to attract feudal lords who were fulfilling the demands of compulsory travel to the capital city of Edo, later Tokyo (Ivy 1995: 32). By the 1800s, Japanese travellers, still as pilgrims but increasingly as early tourists, sought popularised natural landscapes and destinations, partaking of the local hospitality and produce while escaping the lifestyles of the densely populated cities, such as Osaka, Kyoto and particularly Tokyo, which was by 1785 the largest city in the world (Hall 1966: 218). Kobe was part of this urbanisation as was Himeji in Hyogo. Hyogo Prefecture’s unique double sea border meant that my university’s sister University of Himeji, location of Himeji, would provide a suitable contrast study, due to its prominence as a tourist destination, home to the internationally renowned Himeji Castle, also known as Shirasagi or Himeji-jo. Japan was still reeling from the effects of the 1995 earthquake. At this stage there was little or questionable evidence that the Japanese economy would continue its downward spiral. Its boom period of the 1980s had encouraged extensive tourism resort construction and some ongoing coastal development along formerly pristine, though hazardous, coastal environments as well as second home ownership in regional and rural locations. Theme parks mimicking foreign town scenarios, fun parks such as Tokyo Disney and Universal, Osaka, were just a few of the domestic tourism attractions that also were  being marketed to the international tourist. This book’s fieldwork was accepted by locals to take place in their peak season of fishing in Kasumi between the months of early November to

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the end of January. For Himeji, the fishery industry was not integral to its tourism, but the development of its port area was integral to its tourism revitalisation. Himeji had a mature tourism system in place in the former port hinterland. This was initially a geographically coastal location, but since the 1800s land reclamation led to the coastline expand south out  to sea. Twentieth-century Himeji was facing competing demands and changes to its economy. Its newer tourism development turned became a coastal focus. The aim was to transform it from a highly polluting industrial location to an attraction for domestic and international visitors.

 ack to Nature: Objectives of Regional B Tourism Policy In a move to commit mid-twentieth century Japan to forward-thinking regional and city growth, planning included incorporating tourism into various national policies reintroducing nostalgia and tradition strategies for regional rejuvenation (Ivy 1995: 35; Robertson 1995: 90–91, 101; MLIT 2003; Soshiroda 2005). Japan’s urban and industrial development is heavily concentrated on the Pacific Ocean side of the nation, particularly on the main island of Honshu. In areas where issues such as depopulation was  occurring, the expectation of development in tourism to improve regional economies was (and  remains) problematic (MLIT 2003). In the case of Hyogo, its municipalities have been the warning signs for Japan, canaries in the coal mine. The national tourism policy of the 1990s and early twenty-first century was affected by the end of the Japanese economic boom period of the 1980s. Despite advances in technology, the acquisition of imports and heightened levels of consumerism, Japan failed to maintain its aggressive level of economic growth and moved into a recession. Tourism was regarded as an economic tool but had yet to be used efficiently. Faced with waning industrial production and sluggish domestic consumption, Japanese policymakers still looked to tourism and its development to revitalise many flagging municipal economies and construction businesses.

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At the tail end of the economic boom in the late 1990s, development policies reliant on construction were still in progress, mostly to prop that industry (Schebath 2006: 81). Public consumerism, meanwhile, gave way to frugality in terms of domestic tourism. Broader national economic policies attached  with domestic tourism strategies aiming to attract Japanese to the outer areas of Japan where attractions had been overlooked by many Japanese tourists. For the previous two decades, they had been encouraged to become outbound tourists under a national policy directed at balancing foreign trade deficits, particularly with the United States. By 2005, more than 17 million Japanese travelled abroad annually. In changing and declining economic circumstances, however, Prime Minister Koizumi (2005) now expressed his wish for them to stay and visit their own country (Soshiroda 2005: 115).

Cultural Perceptions of Tourism National-based tourism policies immediately prior to the Koizumi government had focused on Japanese nature (shizen) and on human connectedness with this nature (fureai). These policies contrasted with the earlier construction fixated Resort Laws of the 1980s (Rimmer 1992, 1998). These had focused on resorts and equipment-based, structured leisure pursuits such as golf, skiing and fishing. Instead, strategies now aimed at farm visits, coastal sightseeing experiences and a renewed focus on the mountainous countryside and on utilising existing infrastructure as opposed to building new ones. It was a ‘back to nature’ approach of being in the rural outdoors while using local amenities and small businesses (Hyōgoken 1998; Department of Planning Management and Statistics Administration Bureau 2001). However, each ‘new’ tourism policy phase could include pre-existing strategies (Soshiroda 2005: 1110, 1114). These strategies were for international tourism, but Hyogo local government documents revealed that much of the international tourism strategies had been combined with domestic tourism plans since 1993. These short stopovers were reminiscent of historical touristic behaviour of early travellers such as pilgrimages with short stays of two to three days (Graburn 1983). This layering of the

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use of space and place from past uses typifies Tuan’s Topophilia Theory (Tuan 1974, 1977). However Japanese tourists had a different perception since the 1980s becoming used to Western styles of tourism, hospitality and accommodation (Soshiroda 2005).

Tourism as Tradition In 2000, a summary statement made by the Keidanren, the Japan Federation of Economics (Keidanren Japan Federation of Economic Organisations 2000) argued that the tourism industry in Japan was ‘simply a matter of sightseeing’ with little relational contribution to the wider economy. As such, they claimed that the Japanese tourism industry had fallen behind those of the rest of the world in terms of its potential contribution to international regional development and international understanding. Their summary of the advantages of tourism was utopian, elevating the impacts of tourism to a remedy which could settle issues ranging from family to global conflicts through to local regional revitalisation. Their summary was also myopic. Its aims for development and improvement in both Japan’s domestic and international tourism were incorporated within a series of tourism policies whose objectives assumed that improvements in local tourism in the domestic market would also address the international tourism policy agenda. In turn tourism would further improve Japan’s smaller regional economies. However, for those regional, small towns off the tourist maps and whose citizens as a community have been encouraged to embrace the tourism industry in order to supplement their incomes from declining local primary production, tourism development is not always a solution. Political rhetoric frequently offered the perception that when Japanese regional revitalisation is married to the international tourism market, improvements in both central and peripheral tourism destinations will occur. Large-scale coastal developments to attract visitors to the seaside, local themes such as ‘one place-one product’, theme parks and convention locations were piecemeal. Given Koizumi’s policy overhauls following the period of construction, such plans were at risk of politicking. Changes in national (and prefectural) governments and the power struggles of politicians ensued (Mulgan 2002: 73–91).

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 nravelling the Networks: Fieldwork U and Research in the Coastal Environment of Hyogo Japan Administration and governance both in Hyogo prefecture and at the national level in Japan was complex. Koizumi’s government reform, not only in the form of decentralisation of certain  responsibilities to local municipal  levels, but to greater transparency in decision-making processes in the future, did not eventuate until well into the Abe era. This remained a challenge for a system of national, prefectural and municipal governance that was put in place in the late nineteenth century to enact centrally controlled policies of industrialism and expansionism, despite constitutional reforms of from 1946. For the fisheries and the tourism, hospitality and accommodation (THA) industries, these were particularly conservative sectors, where members fostered the connections of family and friendships, or konne. This was the background from which I conducted fieldwork in participant observation. Participant observers cannot ‘study the social world without being part of it’ (Atkinson and Hammersely 1998: 249). My research office was located in the scenic Kasumi coastal public offices the Tajima Fisheries Research Institute. This beautiful setting also provided  a serendipitous situation where on several occasions I also assisted in office duties. This allowed me to observe and participate in the inner workings of a fisheries research facility in Japan. Likewise, my aim to  travel throughout  the Kinki (Kansai) and Keihanshin (Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto) regions was to observe, understand and contextualise the competing tourism industries and, essentially, behave like a tourist, to take photographs and to diarise my experiences. The essence of being a tourist is being an outsider observing the unfamiliar, partaking in the holiday or travel experience, away from home and the familiar (Williams 1998: 7). These two roles of participant and observer allowed for self-reflection as an academic researcher and to develop questions for key stakeholders and role players. While I was a foreigner researching Japan, I had a similar industry background with some stakeholders in the Japanese  THA and

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construction industries; we had commonalities. For better understanding of  the fisheries coastal engineering and  marine sciences, I conducted extensive research along with the geography and community workings of Kasumi and Himeji both in Australia and Japan. A rapid appraisal can provide a researcher with impressions which can be used to develop rapport (Atkinson and Hammersely 1998). What Atkinson and Hammersley do not discuss is the experience that the researcher brings with her. The induction method of research enquiry too, provides interviewees a flexibility to share information and to feel included in the research. Throughout the fieldwork interviews, participants’  contributions of documentation were generous. The qualitative approach to interviewing and induction methods meant that communication tactics and verbal negotiation could manage this cultural communication where a quantitative-only approach would not ‘realise the explicit’ (Kerlin 2000). This research was not aimed at an investigation of tourists and tourism as an activity. It was to observe the workings of the tourism industry and tourism destinations in the Kinki region in order to gain a greater understanding of the aims and outcomes, impacts and failures of Japanese tourism policy as implemented from the national, to the prefectural and municipal levels. These provide insights not only into Japanese tourism, but how policy directs Japanese touristic behaviour. My extensive experience in the tourism and hospitality industry, and particularly with Japanese businesspeople and hospitality staff in my homeland of Australia, together with my retail property development exposure, supplied a well-informed, background from which to ask questions about the THA industry. Not only did such experience inform the framing of the original questions, but also how to frame and redirect questions mid-interview when government and other officials would try and steer questions away from my foci of inquiry; namely the tourism power brokers in private and public sectors. This experience was also useful in interviews with the minshuku owners, business owners and managers in order to lubricate the flow of conversation. Objectivity and subjectivity must be recognised in the process (Cloke et al. 2004: 129–130) and so too understanding the significance of what is important to the members of the community (De Walt and De Walt 2011: 56). As this book will explore, it is clear that while an outsider

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cannot determine a successful or unsuccessful tourism destination, attraction or activity on mere observation and that government statistics can be misleading when publishing selective data, in the end it is often the local community that tells the authentic story in terms of regional issues.

Introductions and Networking So, where the studies come from has little to do with scholars’ concerns in their research. What is most important is what kind of questions a scholar asks (Narita et al. 1988: 82).

Throughout the entire process of the fieldwork, intrinsic to its success were the connections that took place. I was well trained about the role of power in human networks and connections in and across Japanese organisations between the major stakeholders and roleplayers. This is particularly evident where interviewees while offering support in participation to the research, can connect the researcher with like-minded participants, and therefore skewing the findings. However, on the other hand it was also necessary to get to the heart of local problems and to access documentation that otherwise would not be available to the public or outsiders. During a series of negotiations, beginning at the University of Hyogo, then the Hyogo International Association, government acknowledgements, introductions and, finally, the acceptances and promises of support from the Tajima Fisheries Research Institute, my  interviews and observations of tourism sites had already begun throughout the prefecture.  Having this first-hand knowledge  prepared me for further interviews with local politicians’ nuances. The snowballing effect (Curry et al. 2001: 112) of these early connections from the director of the International Relations Division of the International Affairs Bureau of the HIA in Kobe facilitated interviews of the Fukuchiyama tourism director of Japan Railways, Fukuchiyama Division (north east Tajima was originally part of its tourism administration), and the director of the North Kinki Tourism Organisation (NKTO). The NKTO was the tourism administration body that represented the north of two prefectures: the regions of Tajima, Tango and

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Tanba (Hyogo) and Wakasaji (Kyoto) and funded by the Hyogo and Kyoto Prefectures and tourism companies within the region. The second chain of networks developed within the fishery networks of the Tajima Fisheries Association, the Tajima Fisheries Research Institute, in Kasumi, along  with official sanctions for my research from the Hyogo Prefectural Fisheries. This included all the arrangements for research requirements of office and living accommodation. The director general of the Tajima Fisheries Research Institute disclosed that this research project was well regarded as a positive academic implementation for the town, in which he felt that Kasumi, its industry, local people and major stakeholders would be treated respectfully and with a dignity that he felt was often lacking in foreign research about Japan. This recognition allowed me access to the town and its industries, since I was seen as not just reporting on the negative impressions of Kasumi.

The Validity of Government Publications ‘Doing research in Japan’ is beset with a deep and complex set of processes that must be dealt with before the issues at hand can be researched from a social scientific perspective (Bestor et al. 2003b: 1–70).

Searching tourism documentation was a frustrating process, where various government websites regularly edited the online English versions of their policy overviews, particularly in the  Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism (MLITT). In 2010, the Japan Tourism Agency, a department of the MLITT claimed that it was difficult to determine comprehensive comparative statistics on the spatial distribution of domestic and foreign visitors. For reliable statistics, depending on the source of the information at the time, information could only be accessed after something had taken place. Fortunately, I was witness to the beginning of the Koizumi ‘Plan Do See Policy’ and the crucial changeover of department management and policy implementation in the period of 2001–2002 at the grass-roots level. Some Japanese academics were surprised at the suggestion that recreational development was still being planned for the Himeji coastline, a

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proposal within the Hyōgo 2001 Plan. In fact, they were unaware of the plan. The local version of the plan, promoted by the Himeji municipality, featured marina and recreational port facilities adjacent to Himeji’s industrial district. According to one academic, the general promotional material for Himeji City was little more than propaganda (senden). An interview with a Himeji Port Management executive revealed that he, too, was initially unaware of these development plans. However, with a little office searching, he found that a marina complete with retail outlet and restaurant facilities  (known as umi no eki or sea station), had also been mooted. He then offered me a copy of the latest government initiative for the development of Hyogo Prefecture, called Hyōgo Vision 2010 (Hyōgo-ken sangyōrōkube to nōrinsuisan 2001), a Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery publication that superseded the Hyōgo 2001 Plan (Hyōgoken 1998). At the time of its first edition, the Hyōgo Vision 2010 Plan (in Japanese) had much broader and less detailed aims and objectives than its predecessor. For government departmental agendas such as those of the Tourism Division, it described few of the future intentions for tourism development in Hyogo and focused more on the expectations of the government for the general improvement of the infrastructure of the prefecture. Plans such as Hyōgo Vision 2010 reflect the policy of the national government of the day. The prefectural government’s senior public servants draft overarching mission statements in accordance with the national plan while, at the same time, trying to progress local development projects already under way under the guidelines of previous plans including, in this case, the Hyōgo 2001 Plan. However, such plans can be made obsolete, postponed or terminated mid-building stage, according to the demands of any new national government. A major theme in this book therefore becomes apparent, the nation’s regional imbalance and the complexities within participant departments involved in construction projects. It unravels some of the complex departmental planning documents from a time when local government was in a state of flux as the new national government transitions were felt in expenditure cuts at local levels. Official document sources also revealed some interesting challenges for public service roleplayers disseminating tourism policy development directives. There were many departments

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involved in tourism projects from their inception to their delivery, and that conflicts over timelines could arise due to various dates for the beginning of projects. Information then could be difficult to access for the roleplayers  depending on the source of their information and at the time of the fieldwork, often reliable and accessed only after project completion. Such ‘unreliability’ extended beyond construction projects.  As late as 2013, the Japan Tourism Agency (2013: 8), a department of the Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism, claimed that determining comprehensive comparative statistics on the spatial distribution of domestic and foreign visitors had remained difficult. The agency did not supply a reason. Nonetheless, I was given access to primary documentation for my research.

A Few Last Words: Stereotyping The concentration of mid-twentieth-century urbanisation on the Pacific coast of Japan and the issues that accompany such concentrated development have dominated western and Japanese literature on Japan’s coastal development. Due to such population concentration, human geography (or social geography in Japan) research and literature, therefore have concentrated on urban environment issues, climate and pollution, politics, economics and demography (Witherick and Carr 1993; Shapira  et  al. 1994; Nagatani and Tanaka 1998; Edgington 2004). Large city development, their histories and their impacts on their surrounding peri-urbanagrarian communities (Kato 1990; Cybrisky 1991; McClain and Osamu 1999) have focused on the strongholds of politics, power and development commensurate with the Tōkaidō belt. Geography journals in Japanese published case studies and drew conclusions from local issues only for those villages and small town case studies such as in Senri, the human geography journal of Japan. However, since the time of the initial research, much has  changed in the direction of understanding coastal environments (Jones and Phillips 2010).  This has included the major disasters that impact safety such as the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear energy following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the devastation from further earthquakes and severe weather such as Kumamoto, on

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Honshu. More recently geographies of gender (Yoshida 2019) and politics (Nunn and Betzold 2018) contribute to twenty-first century discussions. In this end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, Japanese scientists are now realising that there are extraordinary consequences to ecosystem degradation, coastal manipulation and a previously held concept that things will ‘be alright’. Examining the perspective on Japanese coastal development that has previously not been grounded in human geography can contribute much to human geographical research about Japan (Manzenreiter and Wieczorek 2008). In turn the Japanese example can provide an international understanding, of cautions and successes in understanding the plights of ecosystem collapse and the risks of development in coastal environments, many of which are vulnerable to rising sea levels and climate change. The antipathy towards studies of Japan and its geography, guided by its early aggressions and economic growth in the twentieth century and the attached global politics may be possible reasons for such aversion. However Japan’s tourism development is also one from which younger markets can learn. It has been argued that theory has stalled in tourism studies, (Wall and Mathieson 2006) and that research on coastal development too, particularly in and of Asia, has its gaps in ‘synthesis and discussion’, dominated by the natural, environmental, engineering sciences (Uda, San-nami et al. 2005; Nunn et al. 2006: 141–142; Uda 2010) or hospitality and management perspectives. In particular, Professor Uda, in a personal 2010 communication, was concerned that science and engineering required social science such as geography to assist in avoiding the same research and development errors mistakes. His call was less than 6 months before the Tōhoku earthquake  and Fukushima  disaster of  2011. So then, it is here that the  theory of Topophilia where Yi Fu Tuan was also conceptualising space and place in Asian geographies, was one used to ground this geography research of Japan, moving past the many reconnaissance-­styled hegemonic discourses of early and mid-twentieth-century western geography. Nonetheless, the issues of peripherality, marginality and the attachment to space and place in tourism (Wigen 1995; Karan 1997; Sorensen 2002; Funck and Cooper 2013) have contributed to this books research.

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Tuan’s theories (1974, 1977) work well in a Japanese setting, and while it is acknowledged that some of his ideas may be seen as outdated, he too questioned some aspects of his own theories and of Topophilia (Tuan 1977), arguing that research in human geographies is a dynamic process. Tuan’s theories provide a different perspective and contributes to the little researched area of rural coastal tourism, development and the roles played by the powerful custodianship of the fishers of the coastal environment. Topophilia, and space and place, and have resurfaced along with biophilia (Kellert and Wilson 1993; Kellert 1997) in  study of the Anthropocene (Tidball and Stedman 2013; De-nin 2016; Larsen and Harrington Jr. 2019). This is timely.

Sato-yama Sato-umi: Another ‘Tradition Resurfacing’? The science-based explanations attributing old stereotypes have re-­ emerged, now in the guise of Satoyama and Satoumi, the care of the divisions of land and sea, ‘typifying’ the Japanese cultural connection to nature (Duraiappah et al. 2012: xxv–xxx). It is not just this author who is concerned with this potential  issues of recurring stereotyping from within and outside Japan (Gjerde and Onishi 2000; Fawcett 2001; Morris-Suzuki 2001; Liddicoat 2007) of the nihonjinron theory (Mouer and Sugimoto 1986, 1995; Morris-Suzuki 1998b). The latest effort of ‘academic-based’ strategies harks to the ‘old traditional practices’ of ‘Satoumi and Satoyama’ (SS), to reattach community with the environment using historical, but loose concepts of nature, to reverse sub-standard environmental behaviour. Satoumi is controversial at best, as one academic interviewed in marine biology lamented, where ‘We Japanese’ have yet to change the past, polluting habits of older generational behaviour in peripheral coastal regions. This brace of past research understandings, then, begins to understand strategies through the lens of human or social geography, also bracing the researcher in the face of the problematic twenty-first-century resurgence of stereotyping based on few case studies from international and Japanese research. As the chapters on dichotomy and staged authenticity argue, such stereotyping resurfaces to signify convenient Japanese cultural identifiers for the

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world stage of ‘appropriate’ development for tourism of the regional and rural coasts and their revitalisation. Stereotypical (and controversial) discussions of the uniqueness of Japanese behaviour and this ‘new’ aspect of Japanese environmental management of S.S., recalls earlier strategies of the need to decentralise Japanese to their countryside environments, but this time to protect the national biodiversity. Morris Suzuki’s (1998a, b) assessment of the early twentieth-­ century Japanese academics who used the disciplines of geography and philosophy to define Japanese culture, and how they could be used to ‘apply and interpret’ modern Japan, seem to remain in the twenty-first century. As Huddle, Reich et al. (1975) argued all those years ago, new explanations to address old hazards come after the event. This book seeks to redress this discipline’s susceptibility to such cultural imperceptions. The  Hyogo  case studies therefore present examples of realistic measures for local dilemmas involving negotiating change. Himeji, Hyogo’s second largest city after its capital Kobe, is a historic one, renowned for its inhabitants’ castle town pride, acknowledged for its industrial development and national company capital investment in the steel and other heavy and polluting production industries. These industries have evolved into heavy-duty recycling industries, together with inner-city local enterprises. Its ports receive raw materials, such as wood chips and bauxite from Australia and is the location for fresh fish processing from the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan. By contrast, Kasumi is a town with a declining fishing industry whose locals acknowledge a ‘stubborn pride’ with reference to its fisheries and related industries including its tourism. From the late 1980s onwards, despite the various national government reforms seeking to encourage decentralisation and rural repopulation, Japanese rural towns continue to battle the odds. Therefore resurgent whims such as S.S. may not fit into individual community settings. In administrative and planning terms, therefore, Hyogo prefecture is a unique geographical situation for a comparative study because, while both coastlines have the same prefectural government and administration, they have experienced different trajectories of cultural and historical development. This book discusses the effects of prefectural and national government policies on tourism and coastal development in terms of their impacts on the local people in the peripheral setting of Kasumi and

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in the more dominant, both economically and financially, coastal centre of Himeji. All up for Hyogo, national and prefectural policies designed to increase tourism in Japan have often proved problematic when applied at the local and municipal levels, and as such they cannot always improve local economic conditions. Intrinsically, successful policy implementation is constrained not only by land-use conflict, but by different perceptions of local landscapes. This includes the local community ‘perspective’, the tourist ‘perspective’ and what drives national-level policies.

Background Reading To complement the reader’s opportunity to gain a broader understanding of the administrative cultural and organisational systems associated with Japanese urbanisation, construction and tourism, I invite you to enjoy geographic urban policy and growth (Edgington 1993, 1994, 1998, 2011), and in particular The Making of Urban Japan (Sorensen 1999, 2002, 2003), for details of the city and urban planning from the 1600s to the twenty-first century and to elucidate the complexities of industrial development; the construction triangle in Japan and the implications following the reconstruction of Kobe (McCormack 1996; Edgington 2011); and a comprehensive collection of Japanese Tourism and Culture (Guichard-Anguis and Moon 2009); as well as the nation’s history (Totman 2000) and of course the works of A. G. Mulgan (1998, 2002). For a more in-depth history of Hyogo Prefecture, refer to The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Japan, Kodansha or the four volumed The Encyclopaedia of Hyōgo-Ken circa 1980 [in Japanese]. The system of networking and connections, konne (also known as nemawashi), is not unique to Japan, but much has been written about this component of Japanese culture (Dore 1971; Nakane 1973; Hendry 1993; Reischauer and Jansen 1995; Sugimoto 1997). Additionally, Japanese ideology of uniqueness and contrived tradition-making (Bestor 1989; MorrisSuzuki 1998a, b, 2001; Rimmer and Morris-Suzuki 1999; Bestor et al. 2003a; Harootunian and Yoda 2006a, b) have clearly contributed to the development of tourism in Japan. Other publications discuss tourism in

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Japan  in a broad sense of culture and geography (Soshiroda 2005; Francks 2009; Gordon 2009; Guichard-Anguis and Moon 2009; Funck and Cooper 2013) and a highly interesting discourse on Japanese hospitality (Guichard-Anguis 2009). For a strong background in tourism studies, the reader is directed to any of the C.M. Hall publications and, of course, the seminal work of MacCannell’s The Tourist (2013).  Of course, as book publishing is an extended process, the internet provides the latest of scholarly research.

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———. 2003. White Paper on Land, Infrastructure and Transport in Japan, 2002. Tokyo: Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport. Moon, O. 1997. Marketing Nature in Rural Japan. In Japanese Images of Nature: Cultural Perspectives, ed. A.  Kalland and P.A.  Asquith, 221–235. London: Curzon Press. ———. 1998. Is the Ie Disappearing in Rural Japan? The Impact of Tourism on a Traditional Japanese Village. In Interpreting Japanese Society: Anthropological Approaches, ed. J. Hendry. New York: Routledge. ———. 2002. The Countryside Reinvented for Urban Tourists: Rural Transformation in the Japanese Muraokoshi Movement. In Japan at Play: The Ludic and the Logic of Power, ed. J. Hendry and M. Raveri. London: Routledge. Morris-Suzuki, T. 1998a. Becoming Japanese: Imperial Expansion and Identity Crises in the Early Twentieth Century. In Japan’s Competing Modernities, ed. S.A. Minichiello, 157–180. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. ———. 1998b. Re-Inventing Japan: Time, Space and Nation. New  York: M.E. Sharpe. ———. 2001. A Descent into the Past: The Frontier in the Construction of Japanese Identity. In Multicultural Japan: Paleolithic to Postmodern, ed. D. Denoon, M. Hudson, G. McCormack, and T. Morris-Suzuki. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mouer, R., and Y.  Sugimoto. 1986. Images of Japanese Society: A Study in the Social Construction of Reality. London: KPI Limited. ———. 1995. Nihonjinron at the End of the Twentieth Century: A Multicultural Perspective. In Japanese Encounters with Postmodernity, ed. J. P. Arnason and Y. Sugimoto. London: Kegan Paul. Mulgan, A.G. 1998. Agriculture and Fisheries. In The Japan Handbook, ed. P. Heenan. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ———. 2002. Japan’s Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reforms. Canberra: Asia Pacific Press. Nagatani, K., and A. Tanaka. 1998. Perception Gaps: An Introduction. In Japan and the West: The Perception Gap, ed. K.  Nagatani and D.W.  Edgington. Hants: Ashgate. Nakane, C. 1973. Japanese Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. Narita, R., T.  Morris-Suzuki, and Y.  Souchou. 1988. Zadankai: On Cultural Studies, Japanese Studies, Area Studies. Japanese Studies 18: 73–87. Nunn, P. and C. Betzold. 2018. Geography of GCC: Asia-Pacific—Human and State Security. United Kingdom: Routledge. Nunn, P.,  C.T.  Keally, C.  King, and J.  Wijaya 2006. Human Responses to Coastal Change in the Asia-Pacific Region. In Global Change and Integrated

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2 A Distinct Geographical Setting: Contrasting Coastal Development in Hyogo, Japan

Introduction: Settlement Patterns and Regional Development Historical and cultural factors have contributed to the distribution of settlement patterns in Japan. This is clearly exemplified in Hyogo Prefecture and has in turn influenced contemporary local economies. Spatial segregation of primary and secondary production, pilgrimage, travel for the alternative residence system and, later, tourism have impacted the roles of Hyogo’s municipalities. An alternative approach to the general settlement theories of economic geography, but still using a theory that is geography based, is used here to reconsider the continued land use patterns in this prefecture of Japan. This has led to influential business groups remaining in the regional areas of the prefecture. Many theories contribute to the clarification of the Japanese early settlement patterns, such as Myrdal’s theory of cumulative causation process, where ‘like attracts like’ (Witherick and Carr 1993). It does not fully

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explain the distribution of contemporary economic development in Japan, despite the contribution of Japan’s physical geography to such patterns (Totman 2000: 477). Research has concentrated on urban development following the expansionist policies of the early and mid-­twentieth centuries (Alden and Abe 1994; Edgington 1994; Rimmer 1998; Shapira et  al. 1994), with Sorensen best explaining the details of the history of Japan’s urbanisation (Sorensen 2002). Other village conurbations that grew into townships and small cities away from the Tōkaidō megalopolis have received less attention. Such land use patterns exist outside the explanation of historical factors and attractive local economic and labour opportunities. Japan’s settlement and development features are discussed here, reintroducing the theory of Topophilia and space and place, by Yi Fu Tuan (1974, 1977, 1996, 1998, 2009). A zoom-in approach is then used on Hyogo Prefecture to detail how land use and communities can be segregated. By the time this fieldwork was in progress, the generalised theory of Topophilia and its sequel Space and Place was already being replaced by various other theories of space and place but still based on American and British theoretical discussions. Subtexts of geographies explain myriad human settlement patterns and connections to space and place; the use of space ranging from biophilic design (Kellert et al. 2008) to a more targeted psychological approaches to place attachment (Morgan 2010) and every discipline in between. As geography fieldwork in the region of Asian countries such as China, South Korea or Japan dwindled, or focused on development geography for the rising nations of Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia, American-styled geography dominated. While Tuan clearly had focused too on this influence on his early geographical study, he had progressed in a chronological manner in his discussions beyond this focus and had gone on to clarify the extent and usefulness of his theory. Topophilia and Tuan’s space and place provided an understanding that allowed me to formulate the questions that revealed people’s attachment to their built, spiritual and natural, environment of Japan. As Tuan (2009) later explains, his own life experiences that enriched his earlier theories gave multiple cultural understandings to provide various perspectives from which to draw. To enquire a more broader view of human geographies than one from an anglo-centric one, and to be attentive to the non-verbal clues of communities other than the

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researcher’s own. As such, in the case studies here, historic clan connections and settlement and the acceptance or development of small business practice, mean that community profile is retained and is also a form of brand (Kemp et al. 2012), a cultural border. The brand concept has been a continuous one through Japan’s tourism policy but this is a topic for a future publication on tourism in twenty-first-­century Japan. Of course,  there will always be a critique to the comments here. Topophilia though not novel, is novel in this way of understanding Japan’s development, not just a measurement in terms of arable geographic location. It gives understanding, not just of the broad scope of urbanisation, which  Sorenson does (2002), but of  the enclaves of villages and townships beyond the major cities; places which have played vital roles in Japan’s economy. Hyogo prefecture has amalgamated to the extent that officially it does not have any villages, yet the village community is still ‘at the heart’ as the case study Kasumi shows. The original village of Kasumi-ku, or Kyuu Kasumi in local dialect, is the central location of the administration, fishery culture and history perhaps since before 1600, when nearby Shibayama was a port in the sea route of the Sea of Japan (Frederic 2002: 254). Himeji, the other case study, still holds court as a castle town, and there is an aura of pride in locals who choose to live in these two places. Moreover, Topophilia illuminates the discussion here of the  dichotomy of development in Hyogo, Japan and the ‘layering’ of its land use within the prefectural administrations over time. This has been done in two dimensions: 1. Political institutions, which have contributed to the urban landscape and the rural coastal scapes 2. Community connectedness to place and space Tuan’s  geography of space and place, though written years earlier complements the well-contested discussions of Japanese stereotyping (Mouer and Sugimoto 1986, 1995; Befu 2001). Unlike sociologically and anthropologically based literature on Japan (Reischauer and Jansen 1995), Topophilia is geo-philosophy-based contributing to revealing geographies of Japan  such as by Witherick and Carr (1993) and  Trewartha (1927, 1965). However,  using a cross-discipline  approach in fieldwork  with

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induction methods is important to understand the processes of the human geographies of  coastal development and tourism, where such social sciences ‘reasonings have been called upon to play an integral role to discover the  various government departments’ contributions  to coastal  development in Japan into the twenty-first century (Uda et al. 2005). Taking up, as Uda argues where coastal engineering and its politics leave many issues unresolved. As mentioned earlier, Hyogo is geographically unique in Japan. It is the only non-peninsular prefecture where both coastlines share the same prefectural administration and planning. Hyogo also has distinctly different trajectories of cultural and historical development. Therefore, there are different impacts and consequences from prefectural and national government policies in terms of tourism and Hyogo’s coastal development. This is the geography chapter, where we get to investigate in detail the development of Japan from this unique prefectural perspective.

Developed Environment Initially, the constraints of Japan’s physical geography confined settlement to the arable lowlands, familiar to many deltaic constraints. The climatic conditions of the central Japanese mountain ranges made habitation difficult; thus, agricultural and fishing settlements only extended slowly either inland from the deltaic areas or outward as coastal protection and reclamation techniques developed (Trewartha 1965: 140). Even in the twenty-first century, with improved engineering technology, living near or within mountain ranges presents significant challenges with heavy snow or rain creating landslides which can block transportation routes between towns and cities. In September 2018, a Hokkaido earthquake had shaken soil and rock from its mountainsides, crushing villages and hamlets. In response to the physical landscape, early settlement patterns developed a core–peripheral relationships around the villages and later central townships established on the coastal deltaic areas (Witherick and Carr 1993: 39). Settlements of the climatically inhospitable area of the northern coasts were rendered subordinate and relatively inaccessible by the

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unstable geology of the mountainous regions. As Japan’s economic infrastructure developed, so did the sophistication and complexity of its social structures, stimulating further commercial and industrial development in and around the core centres, while the peripheral economies, feasibly, remained mostly based on agricultural, forestry and fishing industries (Totman 2000: 256, 478, 501). In terms of both cultural and administrative structuring and restructuring, dichotomies developed in governance, regionality, language dialects and cultural distinctions. Geographically, such delineations in the island of Honshu, west of Kyoto (considered the ‘middle of Japan’), relate to two sections that are divided by the line of its Chūgoku Sanchi mountain ranges, a watershed that travels east-west. This separates the Sanyo or ‘sunny side’ of the south and the San’in or ‘shady side’ of the north, Japanese descriptions mostly based on weather conditions. The Sanyo coast of the Pacific Ocean and Seto Inland Sea connects a dense conurbation extending to Tokyo (Trewartha 1965: 543, 556), thus linking the Pacific Belt built-up area to the country’s political and economic control centres (Fig. 2.1).

Population and Mobility of Japan This section gives an overview of the population concentration and the clusters along historic and favoured growth corridors along the Pacific coast. The growth has followed the alternative residence road network of the five roads (Gokaidō) connecting to Edo (Tokyo) in order of importance (Table 2.1). There were other official and unofficial routes as well, designated for merchants’ travel (Frederic 2002: 253). Population distribution has reinforced these core–periphery delineations, contributing to the dominance of cultural values both ‘inherited’ and engineered from these southern ‘core’ areas of governance. From 1700, urban population distributions became an administrative concern and early planning was considered for increases, while various economic and political instruments were used to stabilise or redistribute populations as needs arose (Totman 1981: 190–192, 195, 197). By 1873, Tokyo’s

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Fig. 2.1  Main islands and the regions of Japan. Current Pacific Belt in pink (Compiled by author) Table 2.1 Gokaidō in order of importance Roads

Number of Waystations

Tōkaidō to Kyoto Nakasendō Koshu kaidō, Ōshuō kaidō Nikkō kaidō

53 68 44 27 21

population had fallen to 576,000, due to the decline of the Tokugawa regime and the Meiji government’s administrative policies that dispersed the samurai who at the time represented 30–40% of the city’s population. By 1920, with Japan’s population close to 56 million, Tokyo recovered

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from the outmigration and in less than 50 years its population was over 3.4 million people, the peak of its natural increase (Hall 1966: 218, 220). Yet city (shi) populations only represented 18% of the total population as 82% remained in the regional and rural (gun) areas. By 1940, of Japan’s 73 million people, 12.4 million lived along the Pacific coastal belt in the four major cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka (Totman 2000: 476). Interestingly, 38% lived in all shi, but 62% lived in gun. Post–World War II urbanisation saw emigration to those cities with populations over 300,000. In the period or rapid regrowth through industrialisation in 1965, the population of the old Tokyo ward and its newer outlying suburbs increased to approximately ten million. This growth too was driven by net prefectural emigration, by those seeking employment and educational opportunities as well as smaller municipal amalgamations (Hall 1966: 218, 220, 221), so that by 1970, the population was divided with 72% living in shi and 28% in gun. Industrial development offered income levels not found in rural areas (eStat 2019b). Village administrative and local government units continued to consolidate rendering local population growth and change trends difficult to record or analyse. Concurrently, industrial growth in the larger cities was facilitated by liberal planning laws (Jacobs 2004: 255, 257). Later twentieth-century government policy objectives were designed to decentralise businesses and stimulate outmigration from Tokyo. These objectives, however, rationalised private and public sector construction development in only the outlying wards of Tokyo (Hall 1966: 230–233) so that by the 1990s 11 cities had a combined total of 25.3 million people mostly in major settlement nodes along the Tōkaidō megalopolis sprawling from north of Tokyo to west of Osaka (Totman 2000: 476). All shi had 78% and all gun 22% population dispersion (eStat 2019b). The case study population figures in 2001 for Hyogo prefecture was a total of 5,550,574 (eStat 2019a), Himeji city, 476,000 and Kasumi 1350 (Tajima 2001: 60; Municipality 2001).

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 overnance and Image Creation: G Tokugawa Period Japan’s settlements was mostly dispersed, but as ruling classes featured more prominently in unifying Japan, so did the increase in urbanisation along the Pacific coastline. The political geography and governance of each ‘regime’ however contributed to the maintenance of this pattern in the growth of urbanisation around castle towns. The consolidation of feuding clans into the beginnings of a united society during the Tokugawa period resulted in containing civil unrest and the establishment of governance and  urbanisation  (Sorensen 2002: 12–15). This ruling class put strategies in place to curb civil obedience and to promote development in the economy, culture and military. Castle towns were built along rivers and highways to facilitate communication lines, provide hubs of administration and further utilise established deep sea ports (Karan 1997: 20). It was these factors that led to the location of the early travel routes and the privileging of some settlements over others. Increased urban consolidation brought about a linear settlement and transportation pattern eventually known as the Tōkaidō megalopolis (Trewartha 1965: 155). Features included the following: • The predominance of castle towns and the development of five major roads (later  highways) leading to the seat of Shogunate power in Edo (Tokyo) • The spread of commercial enterprise and the differentiation of occupational classes amongst those other than farmers • Sub-highways that were later built to connect developing areas of specialised production and mercantilism • The transfer of national governance and administration to Edo from the early capital city of Kyoto in central Honshu. The Tokugawa shogunate demanded that feudal lords (daimyō) participate in the alternative residence system (sankin kōtai) (Traganou 2004). This meant they had to maintain a base in Edo as well as in their own

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prefectural fiefdoms. The centrality of governance was powerful, aiming to curb internal conflicts and maintain an imperial control over the daimyō and their fiefdoms. Edo’s population increased (Vaporis 1997: 25). The daimyō were required to spend alternate years living in Edo and in their hometowns, but their families were required to remain in the capital, a form of hostage. The daimyō and their entourage would travel along the Tōkaidō (central road) to the new de facto capital of Edo. The formal capital, Kyoto, remained an important artisanal and cultural centre. Other important southern cities such as Osaka and Kobe were also linked by this road (Traganou 2004: 13) and other main roads with registered posts or stations. By 1785, Edo had become the world’s most populous city with 1.4 million people. To compare, London’s population was 900,000 (Hall 1966: 218, 220). The centralisation of Edo, (Tokyo) as the supreme capital city, its industrialisation, control of administration and government led to a central capital city with power, dominance and prestige, the core of class distinction. Select folk industries were revived, and, together with the artisans, were relocated into the capital’s royal courts (Suzuki 1910: 533–549). Core towns and cities, peripheral hamlets, smaller towns and small cities were established alongside, or distanced from villages depending on shogunate support and favouritism in the early days of containing civil unrest. Commitment to all villages and their administration was often due to the long-standing, established clan and religious obligations of these communities’ members. Travel was allowed for samurai, the ruling classes and merchants. However, earlier labour roles and social class distinctions were a result of those who could or could not travel ‘freely’ throughout the country (Walthall 1990). From the Meiji period, although Japanese were able to travel freely, such roles would still impact ‘free’ travel. As part of the management for civil and international conflict, domestic political negotiations favoured particular regions for development (Traganou 2004: 12–13). The consolidation of Western Japan’s domination in  local clan and international warfare led to the establishing the Kyushu ports (Suzuki 1910: 533–549) and their subsequent naval bases in the early twentieth century, in order for Japanese ships to control Korean and Chinese waters (Yamamoto 1910: 218–230). Osaka had

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already expanded as a commercial port from the late Tokugawa period (Suzuki 1910: 533–549). Many ports and harbours around Japan were in use during this era as fishing boats and small Japanese ships still needed to transport commodities to other coastal cities and towns of nearby prefectures, crossing land routes where possible as early shipping in the south west was prone to piracy. Establishing central rule to control civil unrest was the core of Tokugawa governance and the notion of centrality emerged. The capital city became the cultural and aesthetic hub, its importance reinforced nationally, exemplified in the action of its relocation from Kyoto to Tokyo in the Meiji era. This process directed a national consciousness, and the citizens’ cultural understanding of central rule, of a national unified image and of a singular form of government and decision-making (Traganou 2004). Japan’s central/lineal pattern of development was already established before the periods of the Meiji and Taishō industrial and urban development. One of the earliest established administrative prefectures was Hyogo prefecture as it was earlier known as Harima (and smaller area) before the earlier amalgamation between its northern and southern coasts.

 yogo Prefecture: History, Geography H and Government Organisation Hyogo Prefecture has had a prosperous political and industrial history. Yet, from the mid-1980s like many redeveloping industrial prefectures in Japan, concurrent with a slowing economy at some local levels, the diversion from heavy chemical industrialisation began. As well, reliance on large mechanisation and human labour changed over to robotics, with the aim for environmentally  cleaner industrial practices. Furthermore, ‘dirty’ and expensive industries for Japan were relocated offshore to countries with cheap labour and less stringent environmental policies. While Hyogo’s capital, Kobe, was also showing signs of slowing, surrounding tracts of land were being earmarked for redevelopment projects, from retail to housing development, but most of these coastal projects

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were now on a replacement or  enhancement needs-only basis. By the early 1990s, financing such projects began to slow as the economy was moving into what is now known as the ‘bursting of the economic bubble’. In hindsight, it was a ‘leak’ rather than a ‘burst’ analogy. The prolific economic expansion, starting from the 1970s, was also being propped up by various ministerial projects particularly to sustain the construction industry (McCormack 1996). Such industry sector subsidisation found its way into tourism (hospitality and leisure) policies and included the development of golf courses, resorts and marine activities  the coastal environment planned for the 1980s–1990s. The coast is a location where tourism development has been used to enhance and rejuvenate Hyogo’s municipal economies. Hyogo prefecture is Japan’s only non-peninsular prefecture to be bordered by both the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. Since the 1960s  until one of the latest census, 2014, 121,357 hectares of Hyogo’s 8396.13  km2 land area has been designated as  12 natural and city parks, the sharing with three prefectures as  fourth largest park allocation in Japan  (Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2014). In contrast to Japan’s population density of 338.13  persons  per  km2, Hyogo’s density was 664.82  persons  per  km2 (Frederic 2002). At the beginning of the twenty-first century, 91% of Hyogo’s 5,410,000 population was living in the KobeHanshin, Higashi-Harima (East Harima) and Nishi-­Harima (West Harima) districts or the  Hyogo  Pacific coast, where steel, shipbuilding and other heavy industries have been located since the late 1800s (Hyogo Prefectural Government 2001). Although in the 2012 census, the population of Hyogo was 5.572 million, in 2010 statistics it was 5.588 million. This population figure has been relatively stable due to in- and outmigration as well as natural increase, until as with  the national natural change (−0.7%) became a negative one (Hyogo −0.9%) (Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2015; eStat 2019a). Situated on the extreme north and south borders of Hyogo are Kasumi and Himeji, the case studies of this book. The village of old Kasumi is situated on the northern coast of the prefecture where the historic centre

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of the town radiates from the coast southwards approximately 10 kilometres in a V-shape into the mountainous and valleyed hinterland. The entire northern Hyogo  coast is the San’in Kaigan, a geo-tourism park. Directly south 128 kms away  on Hyogo’s  Pacific coast, is the city of Himeji. The Port of Himeji is on the Seto Inland Sea and opens out to the Pacific Ocean through the Akashi Straits past Awaji Island, the epicentre of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. From the prefecture’s capital city of Kobe, the stretch of coastland to Himeji, is a dense urban landscape which changes markedly north along the number 13 tollway, where, except for clusters of towns and villages clutching to this access route, a rural landscape quickly transforms the highways and railways (Fig. 2.2). The Kakogawa suburbia north-west of Kobe opens up into larger blocks of land. From the north of Kobe to the south of Kyoto prefecture, the freeways are bordered by industry, office buildings, retail, cafes and restaurants, which support the weekly workers who also short stay at hotels and love hotels. The northern  landscape eventually reverts to country-side agriculture beyond these major conurbations.  Save for renovations and redevelopments, this building footprint has changed little since the year 2002. In contrast, the landscape changes sharply at the northern border of the municipality of Himeji. The rural landscape starts north of the east-­ west freeways along the railway line, reverting only to an industrialised though smaller urban setting at Toyooka, the capital city of the northern region of Tajima. Small landholdings in this landscape include agricultural plots of vegetables, rice and floriculture. While Fig  2.2 gives the perception of a distance between Toyooka and the sea, the topography is such that glimpses of the sea can be seen as the train travels down mountains, before stopping at Toyooka station, which sits on the wide mouth of Maruyama River. This is the exchange station for Kasumi, historic Kinosaki to the west or northern Kyoto to the east. The western coastal outskirts of Toyooka become a rural-coastal landscape north, east and west.

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Fig. 2.2  Kasumi and Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. (Reprinted with kind permission Hyogo Prefectural Government 2001)

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Geography of Himeji and Early Coastal Development The municipality of Himeji (Himeji-shi) has a coastline of 62,781 ha on the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai), and is quasi-national park designated in 1934 (Environment Agency 1994). The islands of Shikoku and Awaji ‘divide’ the Seto Inland Sea bay to the east, the location of the large ports of Kobe and Osaka. From the year 800, these islands have provided the three cities with a safe shipping harbour in what was known as the Harima district (Fig. 2.3). From the 1600s, the district was developed for trade and domestic transportation (Takokoshi 1930: 359), and an industry for iron nails (matsubara) production was developed from the 1700s for the further expansion of the castle. From the late Tokugawa period began the regular optimisation of the safe Himeji harbour with more formalised coastal redevelopment of land reclamation, an infill procedure known as horikomi. As shipping improved and increased, sand dredging from nearby islands led to the further coastal infill of sand banks and river mouths along the Seto coast with other engineering practises to build artificial islands out into the bay grew despite the area designated as a national park. From the Taishō period, the iron nail industry evolved into iron chain production for shipping. In 1939, the Nippon Steel Corporation extended the Western Port of Himeji into the Abōshi district for iron and steel

Fig. 2.3  Himeji coast and ship channels pre-1868. Himeji Castle is the centre orange block and Kobe far right. (Author’s copy provided by Himeji Port Authority)

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Fig. 2.4  Himeji coastline, 1893. The blue areas highlight early river canalling and proposed Aboshi coastal infill bottom left. The red line is Hirohata port. (Author’s copy provided by Himeji Port Authority)

manufacture (Public Relations Section Planning Bureau 1993: 25) and ancillary industries followed. The Japanese government’s expansionist policies of 1912–1926, and again in 1938–1939, saw the extensive infill of Hirohata harbour (Fig. 2.4) for easy access to plentiful waterways, ‘cheap land and seclusion from foreigners’ (Erselcuk 1947: 125). The Kawanishi aircraft assembly plant, its feeder rail yard to the southwest and its two military bases were located on the coast, targeted by Allied bombing in World War II (A-2 Section XX1 Bomber Command APO 234 1945).

Geography of Coastal Kasumi The coastal township of Kasumi is nestled in a c-shaped bay of a larger indented shoreline central to the Hyogo prefecture’s northern coastline (see Fig. 6.6). While the coastal area runs along approximately 88 kilometres, the Kasumi municipal land area in 2001 was 137.14 square kilometres. The entire north coast of Hyogo Prefecture is also the northern region of Tajima-shi, a remnant administrative prefecture of the Tokugawa era which was later amalgamated with the Harima province (south) to become Hyogo. When much of coastal Japan has been altered due to various restructuring of its landscapes, an early geographical description of the northern coastline remains relevant today; ‘rocky (and) precipitous … due to steep

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marginal down warping of mountain land’ (Trewartha 1965: 37). As such, Hyogo’s coastal hinterland has limited alluvial soils. Steep mountains close to the coast create a gradient for orographic rainfall. Deepwater offshore trenches stop abruptly at the shore. In winter, the region is inhospitable due to the Siberian winds, heavy and prolonged snowfall and below-freezing temperatures. Three other seasons are quintessential images of rural Japan: cherry blossoms in spring and the autumn colours of exotic deciduous fruit trees (persimmons originally from China) growing wild among the dense pine trees and bamboo and turning green again in summers averaging 28 degrees Celsius. The limited hinterland is unsuitable for extensive development, restricting industrial growth and making the Kasumi harbour unsuitable in the dangerous wintertime for large ships. While Japan is approximately the size of New Zealand or the state of Victoria in Australia, crossing from this end over the Japanese Alps to Himeji or Kobe can make car travel unfeasible in winter. Roads and train lines can be blocked from snow, ice or landslides, and vehicles and trains have been tossed like toys by the winds. Tunnels, major toll collection points and roadworks can further restrict car travel from 6 hours to 12 hours. Despite these conditions, ski enthusiasts make their way to the snowfields of the alps. From Kasumi, trains run west to Tottori prefecture and east to Toyooka interchange. There is a direct train service between Kasumi and Himeji as well as a major toll way connecting central Tajima (in Wadayama) with Kobe. Toyooka, approximately 30 minutes by car south east of Kasumi. It is a business, retail and industrial centre. Its population in 2015 was less than 82,000. Built mostly on the western side of the Maruyama River, Toyooka city is a transportation hub for shipping, trains, buses and roadways. These connect across this northern Honshu city within the municipality of the same name, Toyooka and then route south to the prefectures and cities of Osaka and Kyoto. While most of Tajima’s roads are sealed and connected to villages, they are based on the former agricultural tracks and farms that abut the roadsides. Many non-arterial roads are narrow, allowing one car at a time to pass as concreted and canalled kerbs fall a metre off to the rice fields below. The major tollway is therefore the preferred road to travel on, especially in the snow season. It has a by-pass to Tottori.

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Further south inland, Tajima’s rural tourism industry consists of hot springs (onsen) and snow skiing resorts. Other rural tourist attractions include farm visits based on the major livestock production of Tajima beef. The coastal tourism activities of Tajima include water sports, fishing, camping in summer, family accommodation, minshuku (Japanese-­ styled bed and breakfast), searching for local produce and gourmet cuisine. Kasumi, a former major producer of fish, is one of three towns along this Hyogo section of coast that can offer all of these activities. As a note, following the twenty-first-century amalgamation with three other smaller municipalities (by populations and economies), the municipality of Kasumi had a name change to the municipality of Kami-cho. The coastal town area, which is focused here, is still known as Kyū-­Kasumi of the local dialect and not the more general Kasumi-ku. The other amalgamated municipalities are inland in the mountains. This municipality is within the ‘shire’ of Mikata-gun in the regional district of Tajima-shi of Hyogo Prefecture. The municipal town administration centre, the town hall or yakuba, remains in Kasumi, (though moving inland  since the amalgamation), indications of its prominent administrative power in the region. Kasumi and Tajima’s coastline of the San’in Kaigan and the coasts west in Tottori and east in Kyoto were designated a quasi-national park in 1963. They were later elevated to the status of a Japanese geopark in 2008 and then a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2010 (UNESCO 2019; Secretariat San’in Kaigan Geopark Promotion Council 2019).

Government Organisation in Hyogo To understand the role of the government organisation in Hyogo is to have a general understanding of Japanese governmental organisation. It follows the central system of government in Tokyo and the tiered government system. Himeji is a castle town, and together with Kasumi, there are remnant traditional practices arguably from the Tokugawa and Meiji eras (despite the late 1940s American remodelling of the Japanese administration systems). This is particularly so in Hyogo’s coastal administrative organisation, for coastal and fisheries  administration. Although most scholars of Japan have a strong understanding of the government

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organisation, this overview considers such remnants in light of Hyogo’s coastal development. Since the Meiji Restoration, municipal administrations, especially in regional areas, have experienced amalgamations, divisions and boundary changes, often in periods of economic slumps, depopulation and for political reasons. Yet from the 1600s, Hyogo is one of the few prefectures that benefitted from the strong military leader Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who supported the Tokugawa rule which in that time, led to the unification of central Japan. This resulted in a sustained stability after the reconfiguration and amalgamation of Harima into what is current-day Hyogo Prefecture (Frederic 2002: 331–332). Amalgamations, however, are difficult to arrange. From the mid-twentieth century, the merging of municipalities and towns in order to save on funds, to build local economic and population stability and hedge against outmigration, is met with resistance from communities. Such mergers can be confusing, create fear of loss of status and are disruptive at the local level such as in Kasumi. The legacy of such government organisation has resulted in a Japan, as Edwin Reischauer wrote (1978: 261), that is: divided for purposes of local government into prefectures (then) cities, towns and villages, with the largest cities being further subdivided into wards. The prefectures, which continue from the pre-war system unchanged in size, are actually four theoretically distinct categories (of ) one metropolis (to), Tokyo; one circuit, (do), Hokkaido; two municipal prefectures (fu), Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 regular prefectures. (ken)

Until 1926, the prefectures of Japan also had subdivisions known as gun (similar to counties). This form of subdivision was then abolished and the village (mura) came under the direct control of the prefectural government. (Gun remains a categorisation of generally the rural.) A prefectural government then in turn was under direction from Tokyo (Embree 1939: 22). Generally regarded as a consolidation tool for the forthcoming war effort, the oligarchic leadership at this time was concerned that the central–periphery relations had become less intimate than had been the case under the Tokugawa feudal system. Villages, local governing bodies and other organisations were therefore developed to act as branches of the state apparatus (Ōkuma 1910).

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Hyogo’s favoured position also played a role in the national government from 1910. Already historically a centre of commerce and ‘very much resembled the free towns of Germany’ (Shimizu 1910: 326), Hyogo, along with other similar prefectures, became rich and prosperous in the early decades of the Meiji restoration and offered the often financially exhausted national government pecuniary assistance, thereby obtaining the ‘grant of exceptional autonomic privileges’ and an advanced right of self-government in Japanese terms (ibid., 1910: 327). Its early textile industry development was extended to heavy industry by the 1960s (Trewartha 1965: 546–547). The ruling class power and support of the Tokugawa era and the economic development of the Meiji and Taishō period were thus instrumental in defining the regional landscape of mid-twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century Hyogo Prefecture. The type of economic and industrial/production bases created the current municipal government’s dependence on taxable income. This has created a highly complex organisational structure of government based on continuing urbanisation since the 1700s. Such urbanisation and the ensuing industrialisation have also created the broader context in which recent and contemporary tourism development has taken place. The encouragement to attract new innovation was also a feature of industrial Hyogo, though it had competition from coastal Osaka, the Tōkaidō western neighbour to Tokyo and the artisanal heart of the historic ruling heart of Kyoto.

 he Contribution of Industry, Railways T and Image to Coastal Development The role of the railways must not be underestimated in this phase of the Tōkaidō–Pacific Belt growth. Early Meiji projects included the modernisation of Japan’s transportation systems linking earlier industrial sites with new ones (Sand 2003: 132–133). Facilitating industry needs, transportation networks led to the spatial segregation of food production systems. This confined traditional cultural practices in primary production to regional areas, ranging from the outskirts of major cities for small rice

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production to remote islands for fisheries and midlands for raising cattle (Trewartha 1965). Multinodal ports initiated in the late Tokugawa era were still in their infancy by the Meiji period. However, these multiple function nodes for various modes of transportation (Hoyle 1996) meant that shipto-harbour-to-manufacturer movements, in close proximity to the Tōkaidō ports, rapidly facilitate the period’s industrial growth (Free 2008). Meiji- and Taishō-era foreigners were restricted to the city precincts and discouraged from travel into rural areas. This was done by way of travel guides such as Terry’s (1927) and the train system itself. Train networks were built using Scottish methods of trestle bridges, but where innovations such as safe tunnelling was yet to be used in geomorphologically unstable Japan (Free 2008). Therefore, the development of the railways network further contributed to a division of rural and city locations, first merely due to geography and transportation technology, and then, later, due to access by intentional planning of the Taishō leaders. The dichotomy of the prefecture was a division between industrial and rural areas intended to prevent external scrutiny of the unrest in the rural sector where, increasingly, farmers and fishers were under cultural, financial and production pressure. Meanwhile, trade unions, collectives and similar movements in regional areas were opposing this concentration of the benefits of modernisation. The modernisation of Tokyo was seen by the nation’s leaders as a focus for the creation of a progressive Japan in an international context (Totman 2000: 299–301). By the early twentieth century, the Taishō militarist leaders realised the ‘wide scope in the Southern Ocean for Japanese commerce’ (Kondo 1910: 461) expanding and intensifying heavy  development on the already  established Pacific coast. Earlier, the coastal areas of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kobe had been further developed for both the growth of military and merchant navies established between 1868 and 1891. The navy ships had been  sailing to ports in Europe, Australia, North China to Vladivostok, Shanghai, Bombay, Hong Kong and San Francisco. Local steamships had been travelling from Kobe. Railways along the Tōkaidō were constructed from Tokyo to Osaka in 1870 and, by 1896, had been extended North West to Kyoto and North East to Aomori through the construction of numerous tunnels and bridges (Kondo 1910: 461; Inouye 1910: 424–446).

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Trains, Fresh Air, Tourism and Urbanisation Marketing Between 1872 and 1910, railroad companies opened up areas for the earliest of planned suburbs between Tokyo and Yokohama (Sand 2003: 132–133). Similarly, the rail network in Osaka and the Kansai region remained privately owned, allowing the railway companies to grow and to dominate the local industrial economy, expanding as their technologies advanced. With a divide occurring between the Osaka–Kobe ‘West’ and the Tokyo-dominated ‘East’, the independent railways turned to imagemaking, promoting famous sites and developing tourism destinations to encourage and increase passenger use. Eventually, this led to the creation of an urban/leisure/tourism lifestyle—the ‘urban domesticity fostered by the government’ of the period. Rural tourist points were redeveloped by visionary entrepreneurs with some becoming major attractions such as the Takarazuka ‘All Girl’ Revue in Kobe (Stickland 2008). The railway companies encouraged suburban housing and department store development contributing to the urban sprawl of these conurbations. ‘Railway companies thus had become cultural entrepreneurs’ (Sand 2003: 133). Railway network development offered government leaders a simultaneous opportunity to develop a zone of Japan that was modern and international while culturally and practically segregating it from its rural hinterland (Murayama 1994: 87). Increased industrial coastal pollution inspired  entrepreneurial efforts to open up resorts and spas north of Tokyo and the Sumida River for leisure boating. Such ‘regional’ spaces were used in times of disease epidemics, as plague led to the cordoning off of Kobe and Osaka. Cholera outbreaks in the cities encouraged urban dwellers to pursue outdoor recreation activities further north, such as German-inspired hiking and mountaineering, whilst contemporary romantic novels encouraged tourists to visit spa districts in the northern Kantō region (Sand 2003: 142–143). Japan’s transportation system then,  has largely been confined to the same routes, with additional links being constructed only in areas for new industrial development and where technology and innovation have come to grips with an unstable geomorphology. Well into the twentieth century, the railway system had both linked and separated Japan and, despite rural links, urban and industrial development remained concentrated in

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those areas well served by large rail networks (Murayama 1994: 100; Karan 1997: 20). With Japan’s decreasing population and increasing urban density, mobility in Japan is a constant challenge for twenty-first-­ century policymakers beyond these railway networks (Fig. 2.5) with links being serviced by private and public bus companies.

Fig. 2.5  Japan, its railway system in 2019 and the Tōkaidō Megalopolis (Compiled by author)

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 he Implications of Industrialisation T on Twentieth-Century Pacific Coastal Development The core–periphery that was formed during the Tokugawa period established strong traditions of urbanisation and of city development and centralised planning continuing into the mid-twentieth century. Rapid growth in the capital city, the ensuing problems concerning public facilities and the environment led to Tokyo, in 1888, becoming the first for a long period to be the only Japanese city to enact planning ordinances despite not having legislative power to effectively curb concentrated development (Abe and Alden 1988; Alden and Abe 1994: 14). Instead, such urban development followed a strategic political trajectory and brought about a concentration of cultural influence and furthering Tokyo’s centralisation and internationalisation (Sorensen 2003; Abe and Alden 1988: 436). This has resulted in creating a highly urbanised culture whereby the late twentieth-century generation grew up with little or no connection to rural lifestyles and attractions (Zetter 1994: 31; Gordenker 2004). City port settlements and development was reinforced during the Meiji restoration era. The port roles expanded and varied to include international and domestic trade gateways for imports, exports and local throughput as well as central points for food distribution and processing, notably from fishing. Major Pacific ports became destinations for cruise ships and tourism. Unlike their European counterparts, Japanese ports, prior to the Meiji restoration, were not multicultural nodes due to the Japanese government’s foreign exclusionist policies for 200 years—except for Nagasaki and, post-exclusion, Kobe and Yokohama until Captain Perry’s negotiations (Totman 1981). Osaka had been a commercial centre from the fourth century, a designated port from 1655 and a centre of the Meiji industrial revolution (Callies 1997: 67–68). From 1870, planned industrial development led to Osaka also becoming a manufacturing centre (Miyakawa 1990: 50). Nearby Hyogo Prefecture’s capital Kobe was the premier foreign port in Western Japan other than the most western port of Nagasaki on Kyūshū. After 1900, Kobe’s industrial port expanded to include the historic

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Himeji port district, the locale for textile manufacture and then heavy industry and metal processing (Trewartha 1965: 538, 546). Unfettered heavy industry was common as smaller industries, housing and various service infrastructures grew around the planned industrial developments. These giant, industrial developments on the coastal precincts were the precursors of the combination-style industrial enterprises (konbināto) of the 1960s. Steel, non-ferrous metal refining, ceramics, petrochemical, oil refining and thermal power industries were built on land that had been reclaimed from the ocean as early as the 1700s (Trewartha 1927: 547, 549). There were two principal methods of this coastal expansion: ‘the infilling of coastal indentations and the horikomi method of excavating deep-water areas’ (Takahashi 1979 cited in Vigarie 1981: 25). These processes occurred in both coastal areas of Hyogo. National policies for rail development were integral support systems to drive Japan’s industrialisation and furthered growth in coastal locations along the established network system of the Tōkaidō for twentieth-­century expansion. For the coasts of Hyogo Prefecture, such growth policies contributed to an imbalance of development and set a precedent for the future of coastal development strategies. It has therefore proved difficult to improve the coastal imbalance through the implementation of development initiatives at the municipal level for small, non-Pacific towns in Hyogo Prefecture. Managing budgets, population concentrations and depopulation add to the challenges to distribute development throughout the prefecture. Additionally, issues to development management are the powerful network connections of generations of families, their industry and social history that attach people to their place, not wanting to leave, but inadvertently placing additional strain for municipal management.

Coastal Urbanisation in the Twentieth Century Such complex history, geography and the nation politics of master planning consolidated the dichotomy of coastal development in Hyogo. With an economy broken from the military expansionist efforts and the consequent retaliation following the Pacific War and Japan’s role in World War II, there was only one way to redevelop.

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Reconstruction saw most land reclamation and growth for industrial purposes in the Pacific Coastal Belt due to pre-existing use of space, close proximity to deepwater harbours for heavy materials transportation as well as safe harbour protection (Shapira et al. 1994). However, land was also reclaimed beyond the industrial belts. Rivers were diverted and lowlands drained to house employees of the local industries and to encourage population redistribution beyond the Tōkaidō Megalopolis into regional areas. Himeji is a good example of this development. Areas that had been designated industrial and/or heavily populated prior to World War II bombings were also redeveloped in the post-war push for economic modernisation and growth (Sorensen 2002). Earlier planning legislation from 1919 for the rapid industrialisation of Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, Yokohama and Kyoto did not control the rapid growth around these cities. Urban density continued into the 1950s and 1960s following rapid economic growth and its employment opportunities. Beyond the city boundaries, there was little control relating to location and land use. There remained a lack of urban infrastructure planning. Only in 1967 did more decisive guidelines begin for developers, and in 1968 The City Planning Act introduced Urbanisation Promotion Areas and Urbanisation Control Areas, which aimed to prevent urban sprawl around these city areas (Sorensen 2002; Alden and Abe 1994). Previously in 1961, the national government initiated The Pacific Belt Concept, a regional plan to join, into one super zone, the four major industrial zones of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kitakyūshū, where 85% of the newly built factories, 88% of new factory sites and 70% of all public investment would be concentrated to generate 87% of national industrial production. Its aim was to concentrate public investment efficiently and to concentrate Japan’s economic growth. This led to an unprecedented concentration of population whereby, over 25 years, 10.7 million people migrated to the Pacific Belt, 5.7 million of whom moved to Tokyo (Abe et al. 1994). This ‘regional’ development however, privileged the already populous cities along the Tōkaidō. Strong criticism from peripheral prefectures of the ‘Concept’ led to an update and the First Comprehensive National Development Plan of 1962. This was aimed to foster regional development hubs and decentralisation of industry and circumvent further city

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expansion while improving regional development (Alden and Abe 1994). Instead, these economic strategies only led to further industrial development and urbanisation in the Pacific Belt region, attracted further laws and policy initiatives to confront or prevent problems (Alden and Abe 1994). By the 1970s, Japanese city planners recognised the severity of regional depopulation due to outmigration from villages and towns to nearby cities, as well as the industrialised ‘big’ cities (Shapira et al. 1994: 35, 37). This expansion induced major projects for the Tokyo to Kobe regions such as the shinkansen (high speed train), new highways and further port industrial complex development. The population of the Pacific Belt grew from 40 million in 1960 to 70 million in 1990; growing into a kyodai-toshi, the megalopolis Gottman coined for mid-twentieth-century urban expansion for the American eastern seaboard (Hebbert 1994: 70) (see Fig. 2.5). Based on their historic transport facilities and the evolution of their multinodal and multimodal  facilities, megalopolis’ ports became the most strategically appropriate nodes for transportation of both imported raw materials and processed product exports (Crowe-Delaney 1997: 29, 31). Conversely, many fishing villages and their ports and harbours, particularly on the northern coastline and away from the major historic ports, continued to experience variable and often downward economic trends from the mid-twentieth century despite their roles of providers of food to the nation. As we shall see in a case study, they just could not provide enough.

Fisheries, Coastal Use and Politics The preservation of fishing practices in regional locations paralleled the Tōkaidō industrialisation. Regional fisheries have provided seafood to the urban populations from the late 1800s into the twenty-first century. Although fisheries were located on coastlines throughout Japan, they became concentrated in areas of little or no industrialisation other than value adding to their produce in small processing plants of manual labour. Despite the reorganisation of Fisheries Rights Laws during the occupation (Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers 1946; Seidenstecker

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1951), localised fishery administration roles maintained the established and traditional administrative systems. Meanwhile, as fishery technologies became more advanced, optimising such technology led to fishing grounds being exploited particularly in the period of the 1960s and 1970s, and a further growth in technology gave a last thrust of access to fisheries before the introduction of the 200–nautical mile economic exclusion zone. Hyogo Prefecture’s northern coastal villages managed important fishing grounds and were integral communities of the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century to both the national economy and food provision. Despite amalgamations, historical factors have led to some fishing communities in maintaining their importance and roles of influence within the administration and regulation of fisheries. As such, governing bodies such as the Fishery Co-operative Associations (FCAs) and their communities continue to play strategic roles in coastal environment management in the twenty-first century. Such factors however raise questions about the following: • The various historical and political structures that have shaped fishing villages • The importance of the fishing culture and its influence on image-­ making in an industrialising Japan • The power that fishing villages have, or lack, in controlling their own industries’ destinies • The influence of the three factors listed above on the provision of prefectural and national government assistance for fishing villages into the twenty-first century

 istoric Precedence of Fisheries H and Coastal Administration Over the 250 years of the Tokugawa era, fishing villages’ feudal authorities established economic, political and social ties, which facilitated their transition into the Meiji period. Rather than fishing territories developing because of commercialisation, the fisheries had developed in an ad

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hoc manner as a result of the exclusive rights granted to local fishers and farmer/fishers. Since some fishing organisations had predated the Tokugawa period, other less entrenched primary production sectors (such as agriculture and forestry) and their administrative practices were targeted for Meiji reforms before the fishery organisations (Kalland 1995: 147). Thus, the administration of the fishing village territories and their rights remained under the control of fishing village communities and their  decision-making on most  changes within their own bureaucratic institutions. As such, border issues were resolved between the villages’ tight-knit co-operatives, and this remained the situation until the Meiji Restoration. For example, in twenty-first-century Kasumi, there is a memorial rock with a plaque commemorating a fishery war between Kasumi and another village in the 1800s. The roles of small-scale coastal fisheries in major fish production, and their communal rights and ties, played integral and powerful roles to maintain village unity and coherence (Shibusawa 1958: 363). Initially, the Meiji reforms included the restructuring of the fishing industry while recognising this powerful community role. In a step to control such as powerful sector of the agriculture, forestry and fishery production, the government in 1868, established an Industrial Bureau to control and increase yields. In 1875, the government declared offshore waters to be public property. Additionally, enforced payments for fishing permits led to a divergence from previous traditions and customs of passivity. The results were violent resistance from fishing communities. This led to an amendment in 1876 which granted public fishing rights only where offshore waters remained as government property, with management and control remaining with the local fishers (Ōkuma 1910). Nonetheless, the government was determined to institute greater control and established in Tokyo: • The Marine Products Society (Suisansha) 1880 • The Japan Marine Products Association to consolidate local fishing societies 1882 • The Marine Bureau 1885

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• A fishery training school where graduates were offered important positions in the Japanese fisheries, contributing to the diffusion of pisciculture 1889 • A Marine Products Examination Office where all Japanese fishery activities were examined, from marine animals to tackle 1893 • The fishery regulations of 1901 The Meiji government promoted the use of new, more efficient methods of fishing including strategic invasions to secure better access to neighbouring Asian fisheries (Chen 2006), even though initially the traditional fishermen were unwilling or unable to adopt these innovations (Murata 1910). By World War I, however, small-scale family businesses had maximised their exploitation of coastal fishing grounds (Totman 2000: 379). Increased fish yields after 1939 were the result of the inclusion of pelagic (upper layers of the open sea) fishing and, later, the introduction of offshore cannery boats. Interim to Japan’s entry prior to World War II saw 90% of the catch consumed domestically, yet already-imported fish products were exceeding the yield of the Japanese fishing fleet (Totman 2000: 379) despite fishing methods now including the use of large dragnets, which required the use of trawlers at sea or up to a hundred people in organised groups on land (Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers 1946).

Fishery Co-operative Associations Between the fishing right riots of 1875 and 1933, fishing unions developed their political strength and fought the national and prefectural governments to maintain control over their fishing grounds. In 1933, the fishing unions were classified as industrial unions with the right to manage their own fisheries. This was believed to be the reason why traditional fishing village organisations remained intact up to the occupation of the Allied Forces. Despite the reconstruction of the various fishery systems, considered feudal by the occupational forces of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Partners (SCAP) (1946), the Fisheries Co-operative

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Association Law of 1948 granted these fishers improved rights to catches but prohibited the system of subleasing these rights (Seidenstecker 1951: 185). By 1950, little overall change of power and income distribution resulted due to the remnants of the dominant feudal-based role which the owners played in the decision-making processes within these Fishery Co-operative Associations (Seidenstecker 1951: 187). This led to the perpetuation of a powerful organisation. FCA systems based on ‘traditional fishery rights’ remain managing the fishing seasons quotas, species caught, fishing methods, processing and markets of Japan (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2002: 5; Secor et al. 2002: 18). In the twenty-first century, although FCAs have been amalgamating across Japan since the ‘Law to Promote Mergers between Fisheries Cooperative Associations’ was passed in 1998, amalgamation targets had not been met forcing the government to extend its amalgamation deadline to 2008 (Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries 2002: 5). This was despite the co-operatives’ financial situations continuing to decline due to worsening fishery catches (Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries 2003: 43). Remnants of these early fishery association systems have been incorporated into the current structures of the Japanese FCAs, and there remains strong voting powers for the larger international co-operatives. The FCA’s roles have been translated, broadened and perpetuated by modern governments in Japan. Fishing communities have been encouraged to take on broader roles related to coastal management, tourism, fishery environment integrity, aquaculture and other rural economy-­ building strategies while negotiating the national government’s policies of maintaining traditional fishing village cultures, but also responding to diverse policy directives originating from various ministerial departments.

Discussion This chapter has highlighted the concentration of settlement patterns, influenced by the safety for settlement in a deltaic topography within an extreme physical environment which simultaneously confined and defined Japan’s industrial growth. It was an expected consequence for

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communities, their leaders and, eventually, governments to maintain settlement and industrial development and to cement their authority over the powerful warring clans. Geographic, historical, political and economic factors have contributed to the evolution of coastal land use in Japan, commencing with the contribution of the late Tokugawa period to large city development, including the use of the Tōkaidō road, its urbanisation and its predominantly linear industrial and consequent urban development. Over many centuries, therefore, government policies have contributed to the core– periphery nature of culture and development in Japan (Morris-­Suzuki 2001: 90–91). The Tokugawa governance played a major part in the development of one of the earliest urbanised societies in the world, where the development patterns resulted in particular dichotomies. Core and periphery strategies led to a concentration of industrialisation, urbanisation and heavy transportation development on the Pacific coast. This contrasted with the preservation of fisheries on the remote/rural coastal areas specifically on the Sea of Japan. Tokugawa policy direction influenced Meiji development in both a complementary and a reforming way  in many sectors. The results were reactionary responses from fishing communities, and  while industrialisation and urbanisation grew on the Pacific Belt, much of the fishing industry became confined to the peripheral regions, while traditional distribution channels such as the Tsukiji in Tokyo were fostered. Spatial discrimination in terms of core and periphery still existed in post-modern Japan. Into the 2000s and various cultures experience social and economic marginalisation. Japanese identification of the peripheral extends to the undesirable. As late as 1996, for example, laws restricted victims of Hansen’s disease (Leprosy) to isolated rural towns on islands and in mountainous areas, away from the Tōkaidō, and even in the early twenty-first century, 700 mostly elderly patients, remained isolated (Miyasaka 2003; Kitano 2002). The enclaves of eighth-generation Koreans too still bear witness to this type of community separation. However, one of the courses of action to encourage a labour force into the megalopolis and, at the same time, to facilitate urban development has been to encourage the role of tourism. Later in the twentieth century,

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just as tourism policy began to move towards being an ‘independent industry’ from the 1960s on the international stage, it fell into a secondary use to stimulate economic advancement even in the peripheral areas. Japan’s ‘back to nature’ or rural idyll approach and its efficacy as a tourism strategy for regional economic growth has since been tested. For Hyogo, historic ties to modern  travel, Japan’s  early  enforced travel, sightseeing and pilgrimage, have merged with the international concept of tourism. The reticence to leave past policies behind and the use of nature to authenticate traditions for the purpose of utilising tourism for regional economic development play out in the following case study chapters. As Castree (2008) illustrates, place is made of players, causes and effects, where one does not exist without the other. At the same time then, role players too make the place as their own. This makes for community and one that is very much exemplified in Japan. Lastly then for consideration is the role of space and place in creating these delineations of progression; that of the city and the concept of rurality of an ‘old’ Japan. For policymakers, the concept of connectedness to nature has been the use of the bucolic and natural environment, in its place in rural and regional Japan. Okpyo Moon’s urban–rural dichotomies (2002: 241) and their accompanying descriptors, summarised in Table 2.2, is an anthropological concept, but engenders Tuan’s Topophilia and the sense of space and place associated with human geography. The rest of this book is dedicated to coastal tourism strategies as well as its implementation in two communities in Japan and where the sense of place of the nativist remnants of the attachment to nature, has been used for coastal development growth. This re-created ‘authenticity’ is a far cry from the historic rurality, of agrarian providers subservient to hegemonic classes. For rural coastal Hyogo, its nation’s transition into a global economy led to many changes  at the local levels. Mostly concerned with local power retention that, Hyogo leaders had played in the past directed the roles for future stakeholders and prefectural identity for tourism, hospitality and accommodation. For Hyogo coastal development  however, hegemonic forces were retained in both city and rural spaces.

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Table 2.2  A summary of Okpyo-Moon’s urban–rural dichotomies Modernisation and Urbanisation

Idealisation of the countryside

Urban (rural) Developed (backward) Prosperity (poverty) Sophisticated (rustic-inaka)

Rural (urban) Nature (culture) Heart-kokoro (materialism) Furusato (hometown familiarity and city, unfamiliarity) Humane living (crowded, polluted) Sacred (secular) Communal spirit (individualism, capitalism) Authenticity (alien) Japanese-ness (Western-ness) Rediscovery of cultural and regional difference (idealisation of the countryside) Distinctive Japanese culture (perceived traditions embedded in the bucolic)

The succeeded (the failed) Science (superstition) Rationality (irrationality) Civilisation (ignorance) Modernity (tradition) Western-ness (Japanese-ness)

Towards homogeneity of culture (urbanisation, modernisation)

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Shapira, P., I.  Masser, and D.W.  Edgington. 1994. Planning for Cities and Regions in Japan. In Planning for Cities and Regions in Japan, ‘Town Planning Review’ Special Studies No. 1, ed. P. Shapira, I. Masser, and D.W. Edgington, vol. ix, 203. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Shibusawa, K. 1958. Japanese Life and Culture in the Meiji Era. Tokyo: Oobunsha. Shimizu, S. 1910. Local Government. In Fifty Years of New Japan, Kaikkoku Gojuuen Shi, ed. S. Ōkuma. London: Smith, Elder and Co. Sorensen, A. 2002. The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the 21st Century. Nissan Institute Series. London: Routledge. ———. 2003. Building World City Tokyo: Globalization and Conflict Over Urban Space. Annals of Regional Science 37 (3): 519–531. Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. 2014. National Parks and City Parks by Prefecture 2014 (都道府県別自然公園及 び都市公園 平成26年) todōfukenbetsu shizen kōen oyobi toshi kōen. In Japan Statistical Year Book 2016. Tokyo: Statistics Bureau of Japan. Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. 2015. Chapter 2 Population and Households. Tokyo: Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/ nenkan/66nenkan/1431-02.html Stickland, Leonie. 2008. Gender Gymnastics: Performing and Consuming Japan’s Takarazuka Revue. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press. Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. 1946. Fisheries Education and Research in Japan. Natural Resources Section, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers General Headquarters. Suzuki, J. 1910. A Resume of the History of Japanese Industries. In Fifty Years of New Japan, Kaikkoku Gojuuen Shi, ed. Okuma. London: Smith, Elder and Co. Tajima, M., ed. 2001. Japan Almanac 2002, The Asahi Shimbun Almanac. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun. Takokoshi, Y. 1930. The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilisation of Japan. London: Routledge. Terry, T. Philip. 1927. Terry’s Guide to the Japanese Empire including Korea and Formosa. Handbook for Travellers. Boston: Mifflin. Totman, C. 1981. Japan Before Perry. Los Angeles: University of California Press. ———. 2000. A History of Japan. Edited by R.I. Moore. The Blackwell History of the World. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Traganou, J. 2004. The Tōkaidō Road: Travelling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan. London: Routledge Curzon.

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Trewartha, G.T. 1927. Japan: A Physical, Cultural and Regional Geography. US: Methuen. ———. 1965. Japan: A Physical, Cultural and Regional Geography. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1974. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes and Values. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ———. 1977. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ———. 1996. Cosmos and Hearth: A Cosmopolite’s Viewpoint. Minneapolis, US: University of Minnesota Press. ———. 1998. Society in Time and Space: A Geographical Perspective on Change. Geographical Review 88 (3): 444–445. ———. 2009. Who Am I?: An Autobiography of Emotion, Mind, and Spirit. Madison, US: University of Wisconsin Press. Uda, T., S. Toshiro, S. Masumi, and F. Kou. 2005. Beach Erosion in Japan as a Structural Problem. In 14th Biennial Coastal Zone Conference. New Orleans: Louisiana. UNESCO. 2019. San’in Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark. http://sanin-­ geo.jp/en/. Vaporis, C. 1997. To Edo and Back: Alternate Attendance and Japanese Culture in the Early Modern Period. Journal of Japanese Studies 23 (1): 25–67. Vigarie, A. 1981. Maritime Industrial Development Areas: Structural Evolution and Implications for Regional Development. In Cityport Industrial Development and Regional: Spatial Analysis and Planning Strategies, ed. B.S. Hoyle and D.A. Pinder. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Walthall, Anne. 1990. The Family Ideology of the Rural Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth Century Japan. Journal of Social History 23 (3): 463. Witherick, M.E., and M. Carr. 1993. The Changing Face of Japan. Kent: Hodder and Stoughton. Yamamoto, G. 1910. The Japanese Navy. In Fifty Years of New Japan, Kaikkoku Gojuuen Shi, ed. S. Ōkuma. London: Smith, Elder and Co. Zetter, J. 1994. Challenges for Japanese Urban Policy. In Planning for Cities and Regions in Japan, ed. P.  Shapira, I.  Masser, and D.  Edgington. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

3 Idealising Nature, Rurality and Staging Authenticity: The Foundations of Tourism Policy in Japan

Chapter 1 illustrated, as a geography should, that all the politico-­ economic and physical geographic background are components that impact policy decision-making (Gregory 2009). Tourism literature on Japan rarely uses geography discourse to explain the sociocultural tenets of tourism politics, policy, strategies and projects, and not in a case study context such as Hyogo. Temporal, spatial and place attachment, of cultural, sociological and political histories draw a geographic illustration of tourism policy and how this has guided tourism development, strategies and grass-roots projects in Hyogo. Many components are discussed here, but reflect the complexity of multifaceted backgrounds that have contributed to the culture of tourism policy for twenty-first-century Japanese governance, where the idealisation of nature and rurality are based on political hegemony and where tourism-based format has played a role both for domestic and international markets.

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Introduction The nation’s domestic tourism policymaking is clarified taking the political culture of Japan in a historic context because of the following: (1) on a macro level, concepts influencing development of and sustaining Japanese traditions and notions of heritage; (2) at a micro level, the scale of the contribution to Hyogo Prefecture’s coastal development and; (3) the impact on the future of the prefecture’s fishing and tourism industries in coastal areas. While this chapter broadly contextualises the implications of the strategies that were introduced for Hyogo’s tourism and the ensuing case studies between 1997 to the second decade of the twenty-­ first century, it is equally important to reassess how pilgrimage, early travel and sightseeing played significant roles for this modern tourism. For Japan, tourism did not grow just as a leisure activity, an alternative to heavy industrial urban living, or an individual ministerial portfolio. It grew to play many roles attached to and intersect with a variety of policies as the government evolved into a centralised model. As the following chapters will then identify, such a political culture determined Hyogo’s early contrasting coastal uses, directing its future tourism development despite tenacious input at the local municipal level. To begin with, however, it is necessary for those readers unfamiliar with, or who have been influenced by, media and other portrayals of twenty-first-century Japan. Like many advanced economies, most components of past traditions and associated cultural practices have been affected by accompanying modernisation to achieve economic success. Much of these include improvements such as in areas of national health, or infrastructure aiming for economic stability, future growth and global exchange. As such, traditional practices that hinder such growth may be excluded ranging from clothing, transportation modes through to social mores. Image-making for the global stage has been important for Japan’s international acceptance since the Meiji Restoration due to the closed-­ door policy of Japan to the rest of the world for 200 years. Traditions therefore have been maintained, manipulated or culled for the rapid move into the modernised world in the late 1800s. Such changes have been accepted or rejected by twentieth-century philosophers, mostly

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around the concept of ‘westernisation’. Maintaining traditions has led to their staging such as festivals, commemorative days and public celebrations. These however have become, at times, confused with what is truly ‘Japanese’ and what is not, both in Japan and from the external gaze of tourists and Japanophiles. An example is The Firefly Lyrics put to the Scottish melody Auld Lang Syne to maintain the traditional Japanese songs (Nakano 1983). Some Japanese who learned this primary school song, believed it to be a Japanese melody (Interview 2002 of a three-­ generation family). Performance, exhibitions and the use of culturalisms (Keene 2002; Fawcett 2001; Lindström 2019) define twenty-first-­century Japanese national identity to past cultures (Ben-Ari 1986), though mostly dominant ones persist due to government policy inclusion, such as the use of standard Japanese, but at the cost of losing strong dialects and the cultures associated with these (Moon 1998, 2002). A contradictory positioning, however, is the display of right-wing pro-nationalists/antiforeigner campaigners who wear black western-styled suits when they protest. Arguably and not the platform here to explore, the cultural genocide of the Heike Clan by the ruling class of the Genji and one which rules Japan today is one such instance worth further reading by Conrad Totman (2000), among others. Lastly then is the staged photography in tourism advertising and marketing where Japan is mostly presented as Kyoto-styled kimono-wearing women, or a temple-visiting nation. These aspects do remain, particularly in Kyoto, but it is the tourism advertising industry that promotes this iconic and easily recognisable image in brochures, websites and other media, supported by Japan Tourism Bureau (JTB). If there is anything traditional in all this idealising of Japan, it is that the ‘traditional’ contained within the tourism industry perpetuates a staged authenticity, whereas these historic images actually perpetrate a historic and wealthy Japan, featuring dominating behaviour over women installed as an international tourism propaganda since the Meiji era. This chapter gathers such various themes to illustrate how they have all contributed to the foundations of tourism strategies found in Japanese policymaking. It deploys a number of themes prompted by the theory of Tuan’s Space and Place and Morris-Suzuki’s Reinventing Japan, in order

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to understand the foundations, and they are broad, of tourism policy in Japan, thus contributing to a range of economic factors to drive two vastly different uses of its coastline and development. The tourism industry too deploys a number of strategies for a sustainable industry; pertinent for the Japanese context is authenticity. This chapter begins with understanding the role that authenticity has played in Japanese tourism, and at its end discusses contrived cultural themes steeped in history for how Japanese tourism policymaking has contributed to the tourism industry, but until 2005 had little impact on the Japanese economy.

The Authentic Experience The terms ‘authenticity’ and ‘authentic’ have been captured for tourism discourse since 1976 (MacCannell 2013), initially referring to an object that is genuine, original of ‘what is claimed’. As an adjective, authentic describes the ‘realness’ of a thing or experience. Several definitions of ‘authentic’ include a true representation, or reproduction, as well an actuality or real fact. Its etymological origins are Latin and Greek and include the now-outdated meaning of the English ‘authoritative’, nodding to a master of knowing, such as an academic! Extending from this is ‘author’, someone who creates something, or where ideas originate. Synonyms include ‘bona fide’ and ‘genuine’ (Merriam-Webster 2019). The antonyms of ‘authentic’ are more telling. In relation to twenty-­ first-­century ‘fake news’ is the representation of a cultural construct to this current ontological understanding, a theory about the existence of a being’s essence or nature, human or otherwise, of objects and environment. Therefore, ‘counterfeit’, ‘false’ and ‘fake’, and similar terms, indicate something or someone as (being) inauthentic. The use of ‘authentic’ then can be powerful, its use harkening to its etymology. In touristic behaviour, the visitor is in search of an authentic world outside their own (MacCannell 2013: xxiv; Larsen and Urry 2011). Can the authentic experience be one where a participant is involved in or a bystander of a cultural or workaday activity? Does the experience need to be one of genuine practice of familiarity and understanding?

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There is a reality versus the ‘backstage’ of life and daily performance found in the tourism experience (MacCannell 1976). MacCannell (2013) then argues that the reality of everyday-ness becomes less of a genuine activity as fewer like-minded actors participate in an activity of the backstage scenario. I extend the premise that an authentic touristic experience is as purposeful as the aim to share the activity. This is an existential viewpoint (Crowe-Delaney 2018). Accordingly, there is a requirement for the provider of tourism and hospitality to conduct the experience. This argument includes the processes of making a living from tourism and associated industries, volunteerism, or perpetuating a craft or skill to future generations by means of all participants contributing (experiential tourism) while improving the skills of a future artisan. Therefore, the repurposing of a past tradition into a touristic experience is authentic because it is an existential experience belonging both to the tourist and the provider. The minimum experience can be one-sided, such as observation, rather than complete participation, but still an experience which exists for the tourist. Is there an optimum experience? Is it gauged in terms of touristic success? I answer yes, due to the example of Japanese domestic tourism, founded on the activities of travel, sightseeing and pilgrimage and its integration throughout Japanese policymaking (Crowe-Delaney 2018). Unfortunately, equality and power (-lessness) in the touristic processes are nonetheless Foucauldian, expressed in inequalities of power and manipulated gazes (Urry 1990) or financial success. The tourism relationship process is hierarchical from and across various levels, creating complexities of policy, power and place (Hall 1994). Another more pertinent, though equally complex, concept is that of existentialism. Merriam-Webster (2019) defines it when a human is grounded in ‘being’ or the experience of being (existence) and not determined just by the laws of nature. Clever variants of existentialism have been discussed (Golomb 1995), and more recent research suggests that this too has variables especially with the role of social network sites (Liu et  al. 2020), but Reisinger and Steiner (2006) illuminate the roles of authenticity and existentialism in the manipulative practice of tourism planning and marketing.

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Under this relationship, frameworks for useful tourism planning are essential (Reisinger and Steiner 2006). The authentic experience becomes a staged performance and has the potential for compromising cultural integrity and heritage. Tourism and traditions are as authentic as they are allowed to be according to contemporary social mores, and the desirability and opportunity to participate. Components of traditions are retained, and are useful to complete aesthetic attractions, such as the unique beauty of the geisha of Kyoto. In contrasting scenarios, however, are the conflicts arising from the retention of burdensome cultural customs. In an interview with an informant (name and date remain anonymous), some fishing communities practise the alienation of recently bereaved fishers’ widows and menstruating women on or near the fishing boats and fishers. The fishery industry is reliant on women’s labour, including sales of fish to tourists, and as such the women are often senior; the manipulation of the authenticity of women in tourism and fisheries creates cultural undercurrent of conflict and exclusion. Therefore, rather than in a national, social and cultural authenticity, constructs are embedded in the history of tourism policy, its planning and its development (Soshiroda 2005), as much as in the local-level cultural behaviour and, as Tessa Morris-Suzuki (1998b: 28–34) argues, in temporal and spatial concepts of progress (and the ‘other’). In addition, then, there have been significant factors contributing to the development of Japanese tourism strategies. While it can be argued that some factors are happenchance, in a broad sense on a national scale, tourism planning is not by chance but by design often to support projects in other ministerial portfolios. Furthermore, the practice of Japanese tourism (Kankō literally sightseeing) is a heritage in itself. This is in the form of traditions being practised, superseded by new ones, added to older ones and consuming new ones, including the encompassing of the religions of Shintō, Buddhism and Christianity. For Japanese tourism and its policymaking, it is as authentic in itself as with its remnant connections to nature, religion, politics and its pilgrimages. All of this is an authentic experience for the domestic or international tourist. Tourism in Japan provides a validation of positive surviving elements of Japanese culture and traditions, no longer considered by all as religious, but practised as pilgrimage and community engagement, just as

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are the gentle acts of ‘sightseeing’ or the excited observation of festivals. Regular lifestyle practices include shrine visits and commemoration of special days and of life itself. There are celebrations of childhood to old age throughout the year to celebrate gods, emperor, national importance and the myriad small village cultural practices used by Japanese to bring forth and sustain cultural heritage and practices as they suit. Such observances are supported and exploited by the national government in tourism policy, in urban, countryside settings and coastal settings. Under such policy, cultural tourism practices vary as much as the dialects, proximity to natural phenomena and storytelling. These cultural remnants however can vanish with the control of more powerful ones, the loss or diminishing of a community. Those left may practise traditions as habit rather than as commitment. Token authenticity then finds its stage into touristic behaviour. Early Tokugawa travel rituals included travellers returning with (omiyage) reciprocal gifts of meibutsu to those in the hometown who had perhaps earlier sent them on their way with money and food (Rupp 2003). Meiji-­ era souvenirs were produced also for the foreign market such as Kyushu’s Satsuma pottery and cheap-to-produce, non-perishable items such as scrolls, local effigies and photographs. The domestic market was offered expensive, non-perishable treasures, some surviving wars to be inherited as items displayed in twenty-first-century display cabinets both home and abroad. Following World War II, tourism language grew beyond the terms of junrei (pilgrimage) or tabi (travel) to incorporate the Meiji sightseeing term kankō (touring and looking for entertainment or tourism) and kenbutsu (pointedly looking at things or places of educational or historical interest). Such reciprocal behaviour of the past transformed into tourism industry items and expected practice in the future. As respect to family and friends, and later as business culture grew in the mid-twentieth century, souvenirs were given by travellers to those who remained behind. Initially, souvenirs were brought home by the traveller. As postage and couriers were introduced, the famous thriving Japanese delivery industry benefitted from souvenir deliveries. Omiyage retain a complex set of rituals that vary throughout Japan, not to be confused with the general practice of souvenir shopping for reminders of places visited (Rupp 2003).

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Though souvenir giving has become a familiar activity for Japanese, a contemporary activity is for the tourist to eat local food in the best restaurants and inns, stay at accommodations and enjoy hot springs (onsen), according to budget, in  locales known for their local deity and scenic beauty. This authenticity is of now rural Japanese tourism in its entirety— the complete aesthetic of tourism, hospitality and local experiences. A social construction of halcyon remnants was constructed, as well as of cultural image creation reminiscent of travelling and pilgrimage and accelerated in an era for nationalistic reform, encouraged by poets’ pilgrimages (Bashō and Keene 1996).

Idealising Rurality and Nature Japanese tourism has a foundation in the attachment to place and space, spiritual practices and nationalism, a connectedness to the natural environment, coastal beauty and local hospitality (Ichijo 2019; Vaporis 1997). The concept of nature in Japan in nationalistic politics reinforced the importance for Japanese to appreciate their culture and the strategies to maintain it. Tourism has then been used to transform and assist the Japanese economy, post seclusion, disaster and war. The background to this is the concept of nature and nationalism, the impact of defining such  ideologies  and  the purpose of their introduction (Morris-Suzuki 1998a: 177). Not all impacts are ideology based, but debatably ideas associated with bespoke ideology in order to gain stakeholders and public acceptance  are made  in order to drive specific outcomes. Such is the nature of politics and the politics that drive the discourse of nature. Looking back over the period of their rule, Tokugawa leaders combined the earthly and otherworldly elements of the past into a ‘new’ knowledge of nature (Marcon 2015). The many elements of earth and the mystical were incorporated into a nature-concept, written into the nation’s philosophy, family and community structures and in the top-­ down (pyramidal) model of government. A set of unifying features over time have directed decision-making using the concepts as love of one’s hometown (in the future as furusato), to give a sense of citizen responsibility, something that has remained useful for future governments.

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The analogy of weaving is useful here as it illustrates how Japan’s tourism strategies have been threaded, often entangled and split to connect several newer elements and where like thread, fraying and eventually weakening, expected to be strengthened again by being joined by other thread, just as in the weaving process to obtain a satisfactory cloth.  Tourism strategies from central government to the municipal level have become complex in terms of their application. For the international stage, the use of tourism grew from the mid-1800s where since then, various political measures and policies have been woven together with the thread of pilgrimage and travel, and the culture of hospitality and sightseeing integrated from the past. All of this was woven disparately throughout government strategies, incorporating touristic practices to encourage economic, cultural and nationalistic growth as well as international recognition. This chapter follows this thread, unravelling the concepts of nature, politics, the rural-coastal space, nationalism and ocean culture. These competing expectations of tourism and its industry has too, demanded more than tourism industry stakeholders and role players can provide (Soshiroda 2005), and in turn  are taken up by other entities and their policy strategies, at times emboldened with new, though in most instances repeating unconnected results, as the following chapters describe. This is important to note because twenty-first-century tourism policy on the international stage has become more sophisticated and formalised. For advanced economic nations and their tourism destinations, global and collaborative actions are now being discussed in terms of impacts and consequences of tourism (Wall and Mathieson 2006; Oklevik et al. 2019; Abe et al. 2019). These include sustainability of heritage, culture, local amenity and the environment. These are European constructs of tourism policy which, into the century’s second decade, drive decision-making by many nations whose tourism hotspots are now experiencing ‘overtourism’ (Oklevik et al. 2019). Now tourism policy in the twenty-first century is grounded in European and Scandinavian input which sculpts policy development wherein then other nations make their own contributions. Japanese role players are now guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to create national tourism policies (UNWTO 2019). More powerful nations create notions after which the rest follow (Hooson and Takeuchi 1992). However,

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tourism in Japan, began in a completely different form than in Europe. The global context of the SDGs for tourism is emphasised here because of the role of past European perceptions of nature and tourism. For the most part of the last three centuries, it has driven the concept of rurality, the rural idyll and world tourism as a leisure and recreational activity (leaving aside exploration and colonialism) for the international stage.

Conceptualising Nature in Japanese Travel European tourism, a driving force behind tourism strategies, in its early stages had been guided by concepts of dominance over nature and the connection with travel to the countryside and of rurality as a place of healthy lifestyle acquisition, food and entertainment provision. The Grand Tour for the wealthy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Craik 1997: 119) was an early form of tourism in the industrialised nations led by philosophical thought for worldliness and personal growth. It was expanded by aesthetics and science, broadening the understanding of touring, for the tourist and driven by the holistic studying of nature (Wulf 2015). Later, as the late 1800s hailed the introduction of new ideologies and sciences, touristic recommendations came from business leaders, doctors and others associated with the health of workers to also travel to the countryside. This stage of tourism was to reconnect with, and participate in, nature as a relief against the pressures of industrialisation, urbanisation and pollution (Bunce 1994). Bucolic representations of the rural idyll were found in art, music and literature. Paintings depicted the concepts of control of hunting, agriculture and deforestation, over what remained in the ‘wild’ of forests and rivers. Some works of art became representations of escapism, romance and pleasure of the countryside, unrecognisable from the rural hardships in earlier works such as in a Rembrandt Van Rijn or a later Jean-François Millet. Industrial revolutions of various nations include the perception and ability to control or manipulate nature (fire, steam, wind) in order to create materials (steel, textiles, bricks) for a ‘modern’ world. For those wealthy enough, relief from this industrial urbanism led (back) to countryside

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estates, punctuated by stopovers at friends and associates’ estates or rest stops served by their own staff from hampers made up prior to travel. The more budget-constricted traveller would stop at an inn. As the industrialisation of the world grew to include mass transportation of goods, so too did the increase in human mobility. The industrial labourer however was encouraged by some nations’ growing medical policies, to travel with a packed lunch a few hours by foot or horse-drawn cart to enough fresh air to reinvigorate the body for the next round of work in a highly polluted city factory. All these are examples of the beginnings of European tourism (Bunce 1994). With the introduction of train travel, tourism became a business. The introduction of train travel in Japan was commensurate with the restoration movement of the Meiji era, domestic regional growth and new industrialisation in the era of the height of nineteenth-­century world travel. Nature in Japan began to play various roles for various concepts. The modern Japanese word for nature is shizen, coined in the nineteenth century from the Chinese language (Marcon 2015). Following on from the Tokugawa era, the Meiji cultural reforms included manageable and communicative language, the simplification, elimination or replacement of multiple words with one. A standard language was developed for the whole nation despite many remaining dialects (Thomas 2002: 170). Shizen, a single term for nature, was one such word. It had replaced terms that were  rich in meanings of the environment, instead  harnessing a whole cultural sensibility of the earthly and spiritual of the animate and inanimate world into one term for manipulation with  political intent (Thomas 2002: 171). Classical Japanese language studies of the Tokugawa and Meiji eras means that such language transformation has led to modern Japanese language now having a quite alien precursor, with nuances that seem to have disappeared from the everyday cultural language. Opponents of the condensation of such linguistic cultural richness were later vindicated. Japanese-ness and nature were expanded into concepts to inspire early twentieth-century Taishō Japan. Taishō ultranationalist militarist leaders used the essences of nature in language to drive imperial doctrine and expansionism. This type of dramatic redaction continued into the twentieth century such as in history textbooks. Equally, leisure activities such as hiking, associated with Prussian and later German ideology and taken up as healthy outdoor activities for Japanese youth in

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the World War I era, too were excluded after World War II. Hiking was reintroduced in the late twentieth century as a healthy activity in rural nature in Japan and popularised in many outdoor and leisure magazines to bolster rural economies after the economic decline of the late 1990s. It has yet to regain its image as a non-stigmatised activity, and now often left to fundamentalist outdoors types who seek risk and adventure! Important arguments over Japanese cultural gymnastics not only highlight the complexities in Japanese political thought but also underscore the role ambiguity plays in cultural consciousness. While shizen is incorporated as required in political and marketing rhetoric of the twenty-first century, 100 years earlier it was used to conceptualise nationalism with Shintō, gathering religious-cultural evocations for empiricist reasoning and purpose (Hardacre 1989). Following the reforms of the occupation by SCAP of the Japanese constitution, Shintō-ist nature changed context and became a peaceful abstract within Japanese culture. Nature itself remains a concept resolved, reinvented again to ‘sell’ the next depiction of Japan, (Morris-Suzuki 1998b; Asquith and Kalland 1997; Eisenstadt 1994) a tourist mecca of traditional trope or quirky, animated icons, environmentalist tautologies for twenty-first-century Cool Japan branding. In twenty-first-century Japan, the reconceptualization of nature includes the use of the rural-coastal and mountainous space in the reconstructed  ideology found in current literature on Satoyama-Satoumi (Duraiappah et al. 2012). Just as in nineteenth-century European ones, the twenty-first century Japanese bucolic farming landscapes have been transformed into the guardian spaces for nature, an intermediary of the totemic, religious and other rituals associated with taming nature such as animal husbandry, agriculture and genetic modification for human needs. This (tamed) rural environment was no longer just (untamed) nature but had became a constructed element as a nature-conduit, transformed into a separation or boundary, the periphery of urbanisation and industry. Similar contrasts are also found within nature as ‘wilderness’, a North American cultural concept akin to mountainous, uncontained and mostly uninhabitable geographic regions (Hayashi 2002). Often driven by city-­ based policy-makers,  farmers, fishers and foresters, those closest to the environment (working with or taming nature), therefore  have become custodians of remnant rituals and traditions as the urbanscape changes.

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With ocean warming and climate change, the Japanese government is actively concerned about Japan’s coastal biodiversity and the protection of the marine environment. The keen call is to safeguard the ‘rich blessings’ of the sensitive ecosystem of the coral reef, but with a commercial objective to sustain the Japanese food production system and its tourism industry (Ministry of Environment 2017). In the Japanese context, land-­ based nature is useful, something to be ‘worked with’ depending on its type and location, mountainous and hostile, or green and nurturing that is feeding a nation. One example of the roots of this relationship with nature is when fast-growing pines for rapid construction were introduced following the extensive deforestation of multi-special native forests in the Tokugawa era. Other more recent examples include the controversial concretisation of the coastline of most of Japan, the shoring up of river systems and dam construction. Coast and ocean spaces within shizen also feed a nation; their maintenance is nurtured by human beings in the reconstructed and reinvigorated concept of Satoyama-Satoumi (Berque and Matsuda 2013). Although the latest strategy evolving to revitalise rural Japan, holistic land management practices have yet to be proven successful in twenty-­ first-­century Japan to improve modern life and revitalisation (Takeuchi et al. 2003; Anon 2019). Japan is a highly urbanised nation with a reluctance for hard labour especially in harsh coastal environments and dangerous bamboo forests  except from the enthusiastic alternative lifestylers  (Kerr 1996). While Satoyama practices have been useful in their infancy in some foreign developing economies, Satoyama-Satoumi practices involve manual labour and farm-to-consumer sales. Japanese alternative lifestyles need to be accepted or will be discarded. Hobby farms and second homes in rural towns and villages are abandoned when the attraction subsides with the hard work of land management and community responsibilities begin (Kerr 1996). The concept of Japanese environmentalism, therefore, is a convoluted one. It is bombarded by various external influences becoming a palimpsest of political theories of incumbent governments. Definitions are problematic where foreign terms are incorporated. Ministry pundits in 2005 coined the term ‘eco-tourism’ as ‘economic tourism’ and not ecologically sustainable tourism for the natural land and community conservation

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(Department of Environment and Science 2019; Crowe-Delaney 2015). Yamamoto’s (2013) explanation of the basic principles of nature in some ways clarifies the need for the inclusion or rich concepts in languages. ‘Nature’ is wild, dry and rough (kouya荒野) and a term now often not used. Paradoxically, ‘protected wilderness’ (gensei-hogo 原生保護) is a conservation area for wild and primitive flora and fauna to roam ‘freely’ in controlled spaces. These are just a few of the linguistic dilemmas Japanese policymakers wrestle with in maze of terminology created from European and other world-leading constructs (Moyer 2003) of SDGs for Tourism (UNWTO 2019). For the local Japanese tourism provider, exposed to world news and social media, additionally there is the execution of discharged policy driven by the central government, filtered through the municipal processes and based on an “authenticisation” (counterfeiting) of rural and traditional Japan, but where older authentic traditions and cultures have been cast aside. It can therefore be argued that for Japan, its natural environment is the result of many endeavours to control space, place and nature, where nature ‘serves’ humankind, or where humans can ‘value-add’ to their space and place. Nonetheless, while concepts of ‘nature’ are characteristically multifaceted (Hayashi 2002), where  green fields are depicted  as ‘safe’ and mountains as ‘dangerous’, nature is a place in which there is a notion of improvement, a ‘step up’ as an identified human intervention in order to create a liveable and useful environment. It is a place from which humans can measure world-affecting changes, and where the role of construction and development is to  contain, control and redirect nature. For coastal Japan, this is demonstrated such as in the concretised development for the prevention of disastrous high-tide inundation or a simple fishing jetty out to sea.

 etting the Cultural Stage S for Nationalistic Tourism Between the beginning of the Tokugawa era and the end of the Taishō period, three main themes are noticeable that can be considered to have influence on coastal tourism planning for development, tourism industry

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strategies and marketing of tourism. Unifying space and place for Tokugawa nationalism, delineating touristic spaces pre-twentieth century, and propagating ocean culture for the Taishō era. These three factors are nuanced throughout mid-twentieth and twenty-first-century tourism policy strategies. The foundation of tourism policy is based on an authenticated Japanese culture, and is due to remaining rural and countryside geographies, where those who live are expected to be custodians of ‘traditional culture’ including land, coast and sea management. This is a big prospect. Yet policies’ strategies for regional Japan vindicate this. The underpinnings of regional Japanese tourism policy are also entrenched in places where a variety of traditions existed or to some extent still exist in this once culturally and politically separated group of islands with difficult to traverse  mountainous and non-arable terrains. Coastal and hinterland environments provided agriculture, forestry and fishery practices (Witherick and Carr 1993) and associated cultural traditions. Tokugawa maps illustrate that the Seto Inland Sea of Hyogo had several safe natural harbours improved by early forms of sand dredging, facilitating passage between Shikoku and Honshu. The Tokugawa policy Sankin kōtai correspondingly led to the establishment of a central government authority (Totman 2000). By the end of the Tokugawa era, travel restrictions began to ease, permitting travel along established routes and allowing merchants and the transportation of goods from increasing industrial production. Life in general was changing (Keene 2002). However, more recent research (Marcon 2015) argues that the division of space was demarcated in terms of spiritual connection of nature and community history, where gradually over the Tokugawa period populations were encouraged to move to more arable areas. Certainly, the example of the Heike descendants in mountainous northern Hyogo refutes this; though  they were forced to retreat from the marauding twelfth-­ century Genji clans to these mountains, their few descendants desisted repatriation to the lower coastal grounds and remain there in honour of their courageous ancestors (Interviews 2002). Japan’s difficult geography did contribute to place attachment, and a sense of place in these alluvial coastal areas was reinforced by community, clan and religious connections, where hundreds of disparate district communities competed for

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space, resources and sustaining identity and solidarity. The interrelatedness with space and place (Tuan 1974, 1977, 1993, 1999) are factored in with the establishment of communities and the subcommunities of agricultural and fishery cooperatives and commerce groups, created by a system of commitment to place and family and pioneered by their ancestors as much as by hierarchical peasant and landlord systems. The attachment to space and place has contributed to ideological use of tourism over three centuries in Japan. The sociocultural vehicles to establish this unity of connection to place were religion, authority and the use of geography and nature in political and philosophical discourse (Vaporis 1997). Travel, culture and, in time, Japanese nature feature in the implementation of governance and nationalism, exploited by a central authority (Marcon 2015: 16). While Tokugawa Japan reinforced this sense of place, at the same time amalgamating the archipelago’s warring communities, local histories such as in Kasumi demonstrate that connection to place is as important as hierarchical dictum of authoritarian governance, despite during the period 1603–1868 where a sense of place was driven, not for individual local villages, but for the whole of Japan to grow a nation. Such unification strategies built Japanese nationalism (Ichijo 2019). The roles that travel, pilgrimage and tourist-like behaviour played contributed to the concept of the uniqueness of Japanese culture and nature and threaded into government policies for subsequent centuries. Mobilising people over long distances led to sightseeing, taking up accommodation and discovering other villages and towns. These actions enabled a culture transfer throughout the region and the cities (Vaporis 1997), essential tools for future Japanese philosophers to fix, share and proselytise nature, nationalism and nihonjinron and eventually unification. Politicisation of social philosophy and geography, by Japanese academics to direct policy and ideology in government in the Taishō period of the early twentieth century (Kondo 1910: 447–464), unification and policy formation again reinforced Japanese nationalism (Morris-­Suzuki 1998b; Mulgan 2000; Marcon 2015; Minichiello 1998), and, by the end of the century, continued to do the same in peaceful cultural heritage identifiers of nationalism (Fawcett 2001; Knight 1994), as discussed shortly. However, national identity linked to tourism is not confined to Japan; it forms the basis in many nations, characterising ideologies to create distinction, anchoring

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notions of a national identity while attracting visitors to touristic destinations (Shields 1991; Shaw et al. 2007: 3, Hall 2007: 45). Such branding of authentic history and culture is an attraction point. Ichijo (2019) presents clear evidence that nihonjinron became part of Japanese philosophy, and then a propagandist Japanese cultural ‘uniqueness’ in early Tokugawa era. This is not to be confused with its prominent use in mid-century Japanese and non-Japanese studies literature (Mouer and Sugimoto 1986, 1995; Sugimoto 1997; Kowner 2002: 169–170; Morris-Suzuki 1998b). The elements of Japanese nationalism in the era of internationalism, and therefore tourism, accelerated in the eras of Meiji and Taishō (1912–1926). An example of such propaganda is from  Ōkuma Shigenobu (1910) political party leader, finance minister and, finally, prime minister (1914–1916) who edited the book Fifty Years of New Japan. A pre–World War I compilation, military stakeholders of the Japanese forces contributed to the two volumes set. A commemorative edition was presented to King Edward VII to seek Britain’s support for Japan’s acceptance into the global economy. The snowball effect of the book’s general release was that earlier and contemporary Japanese and foreign literature was gathered and studied. This reinforced an early international typecast of Japanese ‘cultural behaviour’. Nihonjinron become an accepted stereotype in academic and popular literature. It was not until the late twentieth century, when finally the ‘theory’ was put to rest in the foreign studies of Japan (Mouer and Sugimoto 1995). Yet nihonjinron remains in tourism policy as a culture of ‘Japanese-ness’, which is probably reinforced by Japan’s own mid-­ century obsession with researching its cultural self. It is used by policy and marketing pundits for Brand Japanese in the twenty-first century for both the international and domestic markets. Image-remaking for tourism however comes at a cultural cost. Defining ‘the Other’ too remains firm in Japanese tourism cultural creation. Clammer argues that while the ambiguity of religious boundaries blurs the borders of the ‘cultural Self and the cultural Other’, they have nonetheless framed nationalism and cultural hegemony. Cultural spiritual practices of Shintō were embedded in a ‘very sophisticated form of animism’ (Clammer 2001: 13). Management of the external environment included the distancing of geographical and politico-central cultural

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representations. By the early 1930s, the role of Tokyo reflected not only its political and governing history and centrality, but that regional Japan was ‘outlying and barbarous’ (Embree 1939: 15). This propagation of countryside and the urban landscape in terms of the other ascertained space and place as both a dichotomised stage and an identity (Moon 1997, 2002). From the mid-twentieth century, various forms of media still perpetuate the modernist centralisation of identity (Iwabuchi 1994). Ideological centralisation is disseminated by the national public broadcaster, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), which transmits most of its programmes out of Tokyo with little opportunity for local station content. Meanwhile, the three major national newspapers, with a total circulation in excess of 20 million, are all edited in Tokyo, two of the major book and magazine distributors are based in Tokyo, and, due to time delays and other editorial constraints, localised writers/publishers often cannot get published within Tokyo deadlines. Compounding this ideological centralisation is the nationally based education system that discourages the practice of local dialects (Sugimoto 1997: 64). Cynically, Sugimoto notes that ‘outside the capital, local situations only attract attention as sensational news stories, or as provincial items satisfying the “exotic curiosity” of the Tokyo media establishment’. Cynically perhaps, we can say then that political centrality maintains ‘the other’ only so that it can be seen to preserve or take action to sustain cultural heritages even though they are found in the peripheral geography of Japan.

Nationalistic Politics, Traditions and Tourism The coastal and internal boundaries contained cultures and peoples divided by civil war until Tokugawa ideologies of unification led to a relatively peaceful, although controlled, era for Japan. Tokugawa governance had a complex administrative structure. At the top of this hierarchy were the major cities of Edo, Osaka and Kyoto, and other core and castle towns had direct governance. Yet, non-ruling class districts were able to retain identity without a self-governance model but still a responsibility to community leadership (Walthall 1984). Cities and villages developed commercially and culturally according to past activities (Ben-Ari 1986).

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The concept of pre-tourism activity in Japan is found in earlier travel and pilgrimage in the 1600s (Graburn 1983) and perhaps even earlier if palimpsest-type maps are an indication due to layers of cartographic authorship. Journeys to religious sites and other reasons for travel before restrictions consolidated the practice of hospitality and accommodation. Tokugawa compulsory travel meant nature and aesthetics, sightseeing, hospitality, accommodation and the tea ceremony practice, which gained position in entrepreneurship and culture (Traganou 2004). As nationalistic discourse grew in Japanese everyday life, the culture of nature, Japanese culture and less familiar lifestyles were publicised by travelling poets such as Bashō (1644–1694), who described the places and experiences, often highlighting the full experience of travel, sightseeing, local food and hospitality (Bashō and Keene 1996). The aesthete of food, art, travel and accommodation had developed. Aside from this ideological reconfiguration of culture and language for national growth, the mechanisms of this early ‘tourism’ industry in Japan are identifiable acknowledged in the commercial and hospitality structure provided for the travellers (Robertson 1995; Siegenthaler 1999). Local hospitality was the Japanese essential feature of travel and an expectation for later tourism (Graburn 1983; Leheny 2000) (Funck and Cooper 2013; Guichard-Anguis and Moon 2009). The compulsory travelling and accommodation at registered posts led to a variety of options for most budgets contributed to the dichotomy of Japanese development as well as hospitality in the rural and the urban sectors (Wigen 1995; Francks 2009). Village innkeepers were expected to welcome travellers along the designated routes of the Nakasendō and the Tōkaidō and the routes to Edo (Rupp 2003). Reputations were important, leading to more business or avoidance for poor service (Guichard-Anguis 2009). Timelines, bookings and other requirements led to attentive hospitality. Attachment to place was established from agrarian times and historical connection to place fostering strong settlement patterns and community (Tuan 1977). In contrast to connection to place is its abandonment. Kerr (1996) expands this concept arguing that the lack of connection to place is the reason to leave it, and not support it even with return visits. Mechanisms contained in social class structures reinforce lend to the reinforcement of locational connections. Touristic return visits are not

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enough to create a sense of place connection, to community or allegiance thereof. Aside from the political and physical geography constraints, deep cultural ties also created attachments. Confraternity, villages and their communities’ sense of place strengthened the notion of place, as did businesses’ networks, and in rural villages, the role of local authority. Village communities were based on the connection of family and neighbourhood, the spirituality of nature and geographic connection to townships. Communal rituals honouring animistic deity was practised in communities of villages, towns, and small and larger cities. This reinforced community identity and connection to where the ancestors dwelled and took pride in the village. Confraternity was the network of a village held together by worship of a deity, local geographic and work-related or filial link before and after Buddhism had been established (Walthall 1984) alongside Shintō. The indigenous religion of Shintō—the animate and inanimate of nature with a connected spirit—upheld traditional practices based on ritual cleanliness and the ‘inner’ and the ‘other’. This provided future leaders opportunity to manipulate Shintō according to the basic tenets of purity and impurity, emperor and ancestor worship, ceremonies and festivals, life and death. Place worship, such as for mountains, and other geological formations, animals that are gods and so on are a topophilic connection which derive sense and responsibility from place and nature (Bellah 2003). This provided a solid justification for nationalism based on such concepts of nature, a mandate to be ‘Japanese’, and was reinforced by propaganda, politics and reasoning of right and wrong, being part of a community (inner) or rejected (other) and other contrived rationalisations (Gavin 2000; Wigen 1995). Although not considered a religion, Shintō nonetheless, like many other religions, allows for a platform for control and power (Holloway and Valins 2002; Tuan 1974, 1977, 1998). Strict recording of historical records and family lineages were often in response to the needs of urban governance to ‘establish control over their environment and the future, they tried to give shape to their world, in the process creating an ideology’ (Moriyama 2013; Walthall 1990: 466). Previously warring clans identified filial ties based on territorial spaces.

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Conservative commerce practices, unequal local policies based on a peasant system and taxation rules had existed before the Tokugawa era. This meant that aside from agricultural, forestry and fishery practices, a range of commerce had developed to contribute to meagre household incomes. For those who had the savings to invest, entrepreneurship was encouraged through necessity as much as want. Transforming to an international status in the Meiji era, rural villages were developing into the locational home of traditions (Fukutake 1980). Urban and city fringe villages, while trying to retain cultural identity (Bestor 1989), were absorbed into rapidly the changing nation of political, ideological and industrial change of Japan. The effect of Tokugawa-designated travel eventually gave way to increased travel for business and pilgrimage through still guided by government  restrictions. Echelons of society were instructed according to their hierarchy, and it was mostly men who travelled. Japanese mercantilism, however, could exist within its own set of rules within this top-down system (Francks 2009). By the 1860s, women of wealthy rural entrepreneurial families travelled for business, and to experience other local foods, peoples, landscapes and cities. Travelling within their own confraternity, women could incorporate worship at different shrines and travel with friends and a male escort (Walthall 1990: 473–474). Persuasive political scholars and philosophers of the Meiji era developed ideology with ‘new meaning to inherited ideas’ using confraternity and  reconstructing nature to align  with nationalism (Morris-Suzuki 1998b: 9, 59). Meiji policy became more centralised, while village, town and cities, commercial and farming roles, and institutions remained intact (Sorensen 2002: 36–37). These only changed later to suit the national drive for industrial and global expansion. Meiji policy of cultural expansion reinvented a cultural heart, the centre of government administration, political power and regal deity. Cultural imaginaries led to various distinctions and foundations of Japanese city/rural images and dichotomies (Robertson 1998; Wigan 1998: 235–242) and particularly idealising rurality and farmers (Morris-Suzuki 1998b: 25). A further sense of attachment was constructed and negotiated within the discourse of the Taishō leaders. Nature and place were not only part of village life but had become philosophical trope for economic growth

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and expansionism (Thomas 2002). Similes of nature and nationalism included reintroducing samurai philosophy (bushido) and extolling the cherry blossom (sakura), a so-called Shintō construction of the power of the fleetingness of life over death. ‘Connections to nature’ were blurred for political culture, citizenship and use in everyday life (Morris-Suzuki 1998b: 37). Domestic tourism maintained and sustained the use of traditions, cultural aspects providing a conduit to continue grass-roots traditions increasingly encouraged in the rural space due to the need for farming and fishing for the contemporary militaristic needs. With the Japanese military invasion of China and Korea, domestic tourism authenticated national pride in progressive industrialisation, while maintaining traditions. This served as a contrast in the Japanese government’s pit against Korean and Chinese culture (Ruoff 2011) while encouraging expatriated Japanese to travel to in these now-militarised annexed zones and contribute in a reconnaissance style of touristic travel. For the world stage, tourism had become a vehicle for the military ruling class to advertise Japan’s ‘peaceful economic endeavours’ (Ōkuma 1910), and policy reflected that. Foreigners were directed to the country’s delights (Leheny 2000), sightseeing from foreign-designed trains (Inouye 1910) en route to peripheral urban villages and alighting into new Victorian architectural–styled railway stations. While the Japanese government was marketing its economic modernism to the world (Inouye 1910), disjunctive economic strategies included poor rural villagers forced to sell their daughters to work in silkworm factories (Molony 1991). The propagandist historic trope accentuated image creation and included cultivating an ‘ocean-going tradition’ of Japanese sea culture for this diplomatic mission. This is key to the distinct coastal uses of Hyogo Prefecture and the types of travel led that are provided in the twenty-first-­ century tourism. By way of these planned travel routes, a national pride had been established initially for an elite ruling class (Totman 2000; Vaporis 1989, 1997), and later other wealthy and merchant classes. The farming and fishing classes of ‘unclean’ labour continued to fare differently.

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Ocean Culture Obāsan, asked the child, was it always our way to wear kimono to celebrate all Japanese girls’ 20th birthdays? No, my child, answered the grandmother, only when we stopped wearing kimono every day, did the government strongly encourage young women on Coming of Age Day to wear the Japanese kimono for that day only; to always remember that we are Japanese. (Based on author’s account with her homestay mother)

Taishō nationalism had an imperialistic, adaptable ideology (Wilson 2002: 1–3). Like its predecessors, it aimed to build pride in Japanese uniqueness while showcasing Japanese academic, literary and artistic echelons and specific, sophisticated components of past traditions. This was displayed through publications designed for the international market. At home, school curriculum was redesigned to incorporate traditional elements into disciplines such as music, art, geography, history and classical Japanese language (Gluck 1985; Nakano 1983; Robertson 1995). Constructed cultural and traditional images were embedded in Japanese culture and society. This meant that coastal fishing village communities held a specific role associated with national identity and necessary food production for economic growth. Seafaring traditions of Japanese as ocean-going people were mined from oceanic mythology of Japanese as seafarers, skilled in ocean warfare and fishing. This ancestry included ‘legendary…children of the water, their descendants …born sailors’ (Murata 1910: 594). This illusory truth effect (Hasher et al. 1977) was maintained through contemporary practices when in the Manchurian Occupation, boasting that Japanese ‘soldiers (would) fish just for amusement’. (Many were also short of food supplies.) This same ‘truth’ of Japan’s ancestral oceanic heritage constituted its naval prowess. ‘Her sailors (had) been trained for victory by centuries of servitude on (the ocean’s) bosom’ (Murata 1910: 595). But these seafaring illusions are refuted by historic records (Kalland 1995), a contrast to the Ōkuma volumes (1910) propaganda. Fishing was an unfavourable and outcast occupation. Fishing was confined to the coast, inland seas and rivers due to the Tokugawa closed-door policy.

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Seaworthy ships were banned, limiting sailing experience in deep, far-off oceans. Feudal lords’ fishing grounds were protected by map demarcations associated to coastal clans and inheritance (Kalland 1995; Ruddle 1987). Offshore fishing rights under a corvée system allowed villagers to fish only in the proximity of their villages. Fishers had wider fishing areas only if fish was a major, national food source, but not in deep seas (Shibusawa 1958: 363) (Kalland 1995: 147). By the Taishō period, each province had individual villages with particular fishing techniques. Fishers were reactive to change until the acceptance of advanced technology with increased catches into the twentieth century (Seidenstecker 1951). Deep-sea fishing was extremely hazardous due to unsuitable boats and unskilled fishers in seamanship (Yonemoto 1999: 171).

Discussion In each era of Tokugawa, Meiji and Taishō, contemporary academic efforts to maintain tradition and modernise Japan have a similar thread, repeated into the twentieth century (Gluck 1985, 1998). Keeping traditions were useful, such as those connected to food production and smoothing transition for political means. Travel, sightseeing and local hospitality have been the vehicles for such change of cultural authenticity. The early 1900s were resolutely inspired by western notions of bunmei (civilisation) where development was construed temporally rather than spatially; ‘backwardness’ rather than ‘foreign-ness’. Therefore, it was possible to envision a single national community, representations of core and periphery not created from separate histories but as positions along a ‘timeline of a single historical trajectory’ (Morris-Suzuki 2001: 90–91). The central (urban) areas of Japan became representations of modern forms of Japanese society, while the periphery (regional) depicted those of ancient linguistic and social structures. Such concepts provided a blueprint for future economic and heavy industrial development along the Pacific coastline. Aside from Fukuoka and Niigata, cities and towns along the Sea of Japan were encouraged to focus on fishery-based economies with little diverse industry unless centrally dictated. The concentration of urban development rather than

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decentralisation reinforced Tokyo and its role in central political control (Sorensen 2003). This spatial concentration of development contributed to the unchanging nature of regional economies and communities. Government policy not only discouraged progressive economic diversity in many regional rural areas, but through maintaining primary production this fostered the rural to retain traditional, images of ‘Japanese’ authenticity. Though stylistically celebrated nationally, these local economies had been hidden from the international gaze, diverted to more aesthetic destinations. The images of labour-intensive and value-added rural coastal industries such as fish pulping, seafood drying, fertilisers, sericulture and so forth were undesirable for both domestic and international visitors. If there was local onsen, it was used by domestic visitors to the regions. Other famous ones, desirable by their history, famous visitors and natural geographic beauty, were patronised according to accessibility of wealth and transportation. Tourism guides of the late 1800s and early 1900s for the international market illustrate this delineation. Kyoto was the only historic artisanal destination for train travellers who only caught glimpses of ‘rural’ Japan beyond the last station. International travellers were restricted to modern destinations or those of important historical and powerful significance; wandering ‘off the beaten track’ was discouraged. While these strategies delineated and directed foreigners’ gazes, national identity was formed to manage the cultural changes, to preserve what had been maintained for the last 200 years while moving forward to accommodate the reintroduction to the world stage (Harootunian 2002: 302; Schnell 2005; GuichardAnguis and Moon 2009; Funck and Cooper 2013).

Imagined Community and Identity for Twentieth-Century Tourism Terminology can always be controversial. At times, space limits an explanation other than to refer elegant literature about Japanese uniqueness (Dale 1986; Mouer and Sugimoto 1995; Morris-Suzuki 1998a, b; Morris-Suzuki 2001). Since the late 1900s, throughout the strategies of Japanese tourism policy, ‘Japanese-ness’, its ‘uniqueness’, ‘cool’ and

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myriad other contemporary descriptors are used in international marketing. For domestic travellers since the Edo era, localised attributes to towns, villages and particular points of interest have gathered legend, from mythical stories of romance to be found after praying at particular shrines, health-bearing qualities of certain onsen, best hospitality, best food and most famous sake. Across the archipelago, Japan has something for everyone at its best, famous and ‘unique’. But it is all ‘Japanese’, all culturally ‘Japanese’ and, when explaining in English, Japanese tour guides and locals alike will inevitably use the term, “We Japanese”. I illustrate here that tourism policymakers (and image creators of Japan pre‘tourism’) have fostered nihonjinron for authentic effect and for tourism. Japan is unique and so is Australia, my home country. As Shields (1991) describes, many tourist destinations create an image based on authenticity, which can over time is validated as truth (Hasher et al. 1977). Japanese policymakers ‘attesting to genuine cognitive difference that distinguished Japanese from others’ pertain to culture, things and aesthetics’ have used these tools for policy direction and public acceptance (Harootunian 2002: 302). Nihonjinron as a Meiji hegemonic tool of nostalgia referred to 60% of a population working in agrarian labour (Robertson 1995: 94). It is interesting to ask as to why this theory of uniqueness perpetuates. Already one of the most urbanised countries of the period, policymakers feared losing Japanese identity, many features which remained and associated with the pre-industrial ‘rural’. This powerful social context under the Meiji restorers was politically motivated. Domestic tourism provided a conduit between the new Japanese national identity, the concept of what constitutes being Japanese in the Tokugawa period, and the Meiji restoration (Harootunian 2002: 310–311) and moved into the next two centuries under different guises. This is enough discussion of national identity, but actually tourism policy pundits again found it to be useful. Even prehistoric artefacts have been used to authenticate Japanese local and national cultural origins and identity in domestic tourism and in educational curricula to direct the future adult tourist through tourism policies based on archaeological findings. From the late 1960s and early 1970s, the national government has used such sites as symbols of a ‘new Japanese identity’ of a long historical and national significance (Fawcett 2001: 60–62). Such ‘ancestral’ villages too, have become further

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constructions of symbolic images of ‘the countryside, together with all its values of ‘tradition’, ‘harmony’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘groupness’ exoticised by those living in urban surroundings (and) hardly conducive to group surroundings’ (Moeran, 181 cited in Fawcett 2001: 65). Paradoxically then, it is a ‘western’ Foucauldian concept (Cheong and Miller 2000) which can illuminate the reason for such advancement of regional Japan. The growth of rural and regional tourism centres is now supported by higher government stakeholder power. This contests the perceived development process which lends support to traditional local power brokers and stakeholders and their protestations against change while at the same time wielding power. Fawcett describes the development of a large tourism centre on an archaeological site which was funded by the National, Prefectural and other stakeholder groups (Fawcett 2001: 67). Later, the Ministry of Construction (now Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT)) provided simultaneous local community and archaeological groups’ appeasement by funding improvements to village infrastructure, better management of the site and larger surrounding preservation areas as a tourism information centre. Although also a construction-driven project (McCormack 1996), Fawcett identifies this as ‘an example of the use of history by the government’ as a justification of the ‘home of the Japanese nation’s heart (Nihon kokumin no kokoro no furusato). Despite ‘efforts of post-war archaeologists to rid ancient history of nationalist ideology’, the local tourism industry has been based on the preservation of the area (and vice versa), reconciling the locals and generating tourist profits (Fawcett 2001: 69). By emphasising historical sites and cultural properties, they focused on the ‘new’ archaeological sites, museums and exhibitions to ‘create a sense of local identity’ (2001: 73). The concept of twentieth-century furusato stemmed from the opportunity to use this national identity of the old hometown or family village and draw tourists in Golden Week holidays back to their family towns to revitalise those flagging local economies. Simultaneously, through nostalgic propaganda, tourism was aimed to improve population and agriculture and fishery labour led by the new railways of the late 1880s. The nationalistic agrarianism contained within the ideology of nōhonshugi, to rally the already-hardworking farmers of pre–World War II Japan

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(Totman 2000: 475), was ironically replaced in the 1990s by the concept of the comfort furusato (its introduction is undetermined but occurs in Meiji classic texts). Arguably, this concept of national agrarianism and old country hometown could really only touch those families which had emigrated from the rural to an urban life at the turn of the twentieth century. The furusato strategy outcomes have been least forthcoming and this is understandable. From the late 1990s, those counter-urbanite, alternative-lifestylers who had rejected big city urbanisation were just as disassociated with and dissatisfied from the rural environment as the urban. These alternative lifestylers were as problematic to the incumbent farming community as severe depopulation. Seeking a new lifestyle, the counter-urbanites quickly became unenthusiastic new landholders who had poor farming and land management practices with little community mindedness. The strategy to improve rural areas through tourism-induced counter-­ urbanisation for economic revival of the countryside was generally an anachronism (Rea 2000; Totman 2000: 475). Therefore, furusato is a ‘pervasive, nostalgia-driven ideal…representing whatever is felt to be lacking in contemporary industrialised society’. The concept of furusato has become an imaginary for an estranged new generation of urban tourists that recent and current policies struggle to reach (Schnell 2005: 201–208). While furusato is used as an archetype, for thousands of urbanites to travel to on holidays and weekends, nature and tradition are concepts that have been commodified by government policymakers in many tourism strategies. In the 1980s, the Ministry of Construction’s Seacoast Division considered that, for the future mid-1990s, areas of ‘less polluted’ Japan would be developed due to the diversity of fisheries, their tourism and leisure potential. Ironically, plans were also drawn up to redevelop polluted land into tourist and leisure destinations for regional and rural locations in Hyogo. In 2005, then prime minister Koizumi (2005) publicly called for a national tourism policy aiming to attract a younger generation to regional and rural Japan where, he purported, lay the true identity of Japanese culture and nationhood. He believed that the Japanese identity was in the rural heart of furusato. Young Japanese urbanites were disenfranchised

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from their Japanese culture. Koizumi’s tourism policy incorporated a regeneration of youth nationalism. Japanese leisure and tourism research were influenced by his call for nationalism and citizenship, for Japanese to understand their unique culture or nihonjinron. It is not hard to answer then how and why national identity, its uniqueness and heartland connections are perpetuated in Japan. Furusato may have an additional, more meaningful concept to attract Japanese ‘millennials’ to the twenty-first-century rural idyll. In line with global distress of environmental sustainability and climate change, there has been a reintroduction of Satoyama-Satoumi (S-S) (a connection to the mountains and sea). More to do with land and coastal environmental management, S-S is popularised as a strategy to revitalise rural and regional Japan based on the peri-urban connections of forestry, the built environment and the connection between local inhabitants of both areas as well as the guardianship by humans over the forest (Duraiappah et al. 2012). Popularised by current Japanese and non-Japanese academic research, its efficacy is at best in developing nations rather than in Japan. In the 2019 Satoyama Consortium sponsored by The Japan Times, Satoumi (relating to the coast and its hinterland) was not included in the forum (Anon 2019). Into the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, like many industrialised nations, the rural has been reconstructed and commodified as a place of better, simpler or grander times. They are precursors to researchand innovation-driven sectors of modern agriculture, forestry and fisheries. In order to correct long hours, hardships and demanding physical work are now downplayed. Rurality and themes of conscience are a fodder for television melodrama and movies to entertain urban viewers (Crowe-Delaney 2018). ‘As a modern Japanese man, I could not think of anything further from my lifestyle than fishing for a job or living in a fishing village in the north. I would think that most of my age group are the same’ (2003 author’s interview with a male in his 30s from the Tokyo ward).

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The Rural-Coastal: Gourmet Tourism or a Fisher’s Life The reinvention of a nationalist cultural image is not unique to Japan; thematic settings can be recreated anywhere (Shields 1991). They can be encouraged to maintain authenticity in culture, history and heritage, just as the expectation of a city is perceived to be modern, innovative, sophisticated and economically progressive. Facing out to the global theatre, the regional and rural is presented with the backdrop of this staged authenticity of quaint, thatched rooves in Gifu, or cheery-faced four generations of a farming family smiling happily for tourism brochures for rural Tajima, Hyogo. In the Japanese urban context, however, the rural is conveyed in a chronological context where this ‘other’ is static, tabled earlier in Chap. 1. Progress and technology are rejected as symbols of rurality, despite advances in technology for fisheries, agriculture offsetting the impacts of aging and declining populations. For the rural coastal, the ‘other’ is not only in terms of location (rurality), but because of fisheries as non-­ acceptable occupation, a history of lower cast and impurity (heta). While northern ports and harbours were used for access to the San’in (dark) seas, the southern coasts were used as working districts and access to the San’yo (bright) seas. On both coastlines, competing uses led to entangled zones due to the impost of a multiple layering of differing governing policies each with its own aims and objectives that disrupted different sections of the coastal regions with pre-existing uses. The inheritance of Tokugawa political principles and management practices, the peace-making of disparate clans, and the national practice of district and prefectural amalgamations left cultural legacies for the modern era, despite the Macarthur overhaul of Japan’s administration (Sorensen 2002; Totman 2000; Seidenstecker 1951). Essential to this multiple use, however, were powerful stakeholders such as Fishery Cooperative Associations and business stakeholders which had vested interests. Policy directed from three levels of government and the overarching, hierarchical layers of centralised development strategies (Sorensen 2002; Shapira et  al. 1994), urban planning and coastal development policies, combined with historic cultural

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complexities, form the bedrock on which the coastal-scape is now defined. It has been moulded and remoulded as it accommodates the needs of the twenty-first century, and this has included one of the largest industries in the global economy, tourism. For tourism, it is possible to sustain a relationship of interdependence after the original use of a place has changed. Without this relationship, the rural as ‘other’ does not exist and the ‘central’ has nothing with which to compare itself to visit or to dominate (Cristini 2019). The marginal/ rural space offers the touring Japanese urbanite an expectation of primary produce and the necessary ‘natural’ environment for ecologically aesthetic experiences underpinned by traditional Japanese hospitality. These experiential relationships are illuminated by tourism. However, tourism has been used in an influential role. In turn, image creation and staging the authentic have allowed tourism to contribute to the retention of national cultural heritage. Role players and stakeholders may set the stage but tourism under the directives of policymakers, such as government decision-makers, use various tools requesting an authentic representation. When requesting authenticity, this can be a powerful notion from the decision-makers particularly where there are expectations of staging national culture. Therefore, history plays a role in determining the culture to be staged, and policy will determine what is to be omitted. Promotion of the particular attributes of the locales is directed by various sources. For Japan, this too has a historic component with needs attached. The conceptualisation of power relationships explains governing behaviours of tourists in various tourism systems. ‘Power manifests itself in different localised settings with their own rationalities, histories and mechanisms’ (Cheong and Miller 2000: 376–377). In terms of the (subordinate) targets (or places and people) and tourism go-betweens, the latter become the primary instruments of change and thus can become ‘responsible for repression or exclusion’ (ibid., 2000). This process is prompted by pecuniary interest. Therefore, the touristic experience is the manipulation of a gaze, instigated by marketing and by deliberate inclusions and exclusions of imagery. From the 1990s, we see the Japanese central government’s enthusiasm to foster certain regional localities for tourist attractions as a means to improve local and rural economies. For

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Japan, however, this was not a modern concept and is prefaced by a history of clever marketing. Examples are found in early Japanese advertising and marketing. From the 1600s, various advertising media attracted the upper echelons of travelling Tokugawa Japanese (Francks 2009). Famous actors, locations and charismatic local business people were depicted on paper lanterns, flyers, parasols, woodblock prints and banners or in the works of classical writers and poets (Bashō and Keene 1996). Various businesses and obligatory stopovers at registered posts were promoted and included in the specific Tōkaidō route maps (Gordon 2009: 23–27). The Meiji period contributed to the consolidation and expansion of an established yet changing industrial economy (Francks 1992: 24), modernising the nation for the twentieth century (Takao 1999: 213). As with the major cities, development of the major ports provided the conduit for the global image. By the late 1880s, foreign travel guides, written in English, German and Russian, plotted various routes, based on cruises, train travel and optimised scenic routes and highlighted particular cultural attributes immortalised in poetry, stories and artists’ paintings and pottery to showcase specific places of interest, beauty, religious visitation and exceptional hospitality, reminiscent of the style of the earlier travelling poets and artists (Bashō and Keene 1996). The advent of the railway system led to the further promotion of tourism destinations, many based on the earlier Tōkaidō routes. These were again specific; separating daily domestic travel routes from those for international tourism. Terry’s sets of guidebooks of the period signify these separate uses. Similar in format to the British Bradshaw guides, they detailed trains, stations and local attractions for the international touring train traveller (Terry 1927). Timetables were also published, and as railways rapidly expanded, these timetables became highly complex volumes in Japanese detailing railway connections and times for all of Japan. Much smaller and simplified ones were made for foreigners. These discouraged visits to underdeveloped and undesirable areas such as those of dirty industrial sites, fisheries, and agricultural poverty and other similar  locations which developers  considered as unsuccessful (Francks 1992: 48).

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Existentially Authentic The validation of such Japanese representation, like most tourists’ experiences, encompassed an embodiment of ‘being there’, a real experience, seemingly authentic, devoid of external staging, and therefore an existentially authentic experience. But this was not the case, because the foreign tourists’ gaze was directed away from the ‘everyday’ and toward the historically beautiful and aesthetic, equally gazing at, and contrasted with the modern. Meiji period tourist attractions included newly constructed bridges with trains stopping at contemporary Victorian-architectural railway stations of Tokyo, Yokohama and Kyoto. While package holidays it seems were not a policy strategy for international visitors, the concept of a holistic ‘touristic’ experience was an expectation due to the culture of travel for the Japanese domestic traveller. The tourist guides, written by government organisations such as the early Japanese Travel Bureau, provided ‘essential’ routes. The role of food in the travel experience of course is important for sustenance, as is accommodation and hospitality. The role of the Japanese fisheries, however, played many roles other than for food production. It became a cultural asset based on myth, history, clan and village ‘common’ law. A strong and powerful membership of association that survived the constitutional reforms of the Meiji and occupation eras, the fishery sector has played an integral role in the development of coastal fisheries. It has exploited and has been exploited to command a post in coastal development, coastal tourism and gourmet tourism and regional revitalisation.

Coastal Industry Dichotomies The entrenchment of nationalism in food production intensified rural/ urban dichotomies and disparities in administration as the Tokugawa government functions evolved. Fisheries are separated due to the very nature of the  resources and cultural status. Coastal fisheries became further segregated due to political and strategic expansion including industrial development on the Pacific Belt of the Tōkaidō (Trewartha 1927). The Meiji Land Policy was a functional hierarchy of ‘consumption-­spectacle

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and production-industrialisation’ (Traganou 2004: 85). Exposure to the south-eastern oceans, Perry’s forced implementation of trade access with the United States in 1854, and excellent harbours and shipping lanes all contributed to the Pacific Belt dominance. Specific industries both new and artisanal were selected for export. In 1874, a subsidised export company was established in Tokyo, encouraging the rejuvenation of older craft businesses by locating them alongside newer industries. Experimental craft factories were also set up in Tokyo. (similar to the system of artisan concentration created in the Tokugawa period). The 1877 World Industrial Exhibition was first hosted in Tokyo and again in 1885, showcasing the fine arts, trades and marine institutes all of which were concentrated along the major section of the Tōkaidō from Tokyo to Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka (Ōkuma 1910). This development pattern set the precedent for further urbanisation and industrialisation into the Taishō (1912–1926) and mid-Shōwa (1926–1989) periods. Except for the sericulture factories in northern Honshu (Totman 2000: 300, 335), new industry was characteristically based in Tokyo and the peri-urban outer wards. This led to the decline of some older and unneeded industries in non-metropolitan Japan from the early 1920s. Other regions along the Pacific coast were home to military manufacture expansion and ports such as Kobe and Himeji maintaining their domestic port functions expanding later for military and commercial use. The Pacific Ocean ports were re-established as entrepốt for foreign power interactions and trade since the arrival of Perry (Totman 1981). To be globally attractive with the government’s decision to expand global allies, these ‘new’ gateways, the ports of Yokohama and Osaka, needed to be impressive according to the politician and defence leader and, later, prime minister (Ōkuma 1910). The impacts of such a thrust for development into the Pacific, at the same time, stultified industrial development on the Northern coastline on the Sea of Japan. Enclaves of concentrated northern development focused on Japan’s access to China, Korea, Manchuria and Russia. This difficult coastline was a historic, natural geological barrier from invasion into Japan as well as few safe natural harbours along the coastlines except for Fukuoka on Kyushu. It also reinforced the north-west coast’s role as a fishery grounds to feed a growing nation hurtling into an industrialised and politicised twentieth century (Chen 2006: 5–8).

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In its many guises, travel and eventually tourism has provided Japanese to travel the archipelago to worship, sightsee and take advantage of local hospitality. Local townspeople quickly took pecuniary advantage of the opportunity to provide these passers-by with food, beverages and stopover accommodation along the way (Vaporis 1989, 1997). Early forms of advertising of rural and ‘traditional’ Japan came from poets and artists who were inspired by the special landmarks and local features found on their travels. These literati recorded their experiences and responses to the local traditions of villages which characteristically engendered a national pride in the most urbanised country of the eighteenth century (Totman 2000: 244–245). It is from these early beginnings that domestic tourism took shape in Hyogo Prefecture. From this and later alongside, tourism policy contributed to select and retain cultural heritage, grow nationalism and determine what is decided as ‘authentic’. Hyogo Prefecture is one of the few prefectures in Japan with authentic historic tourism attractions, it has had to manage these however with centralised, city-focused, central government policies based on perceptions of what is authentic for Japan.

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4 Hyogo Prefecture and Hard times: Making Strategies and Changing Tourism Policies, 1990–2017

Introduction By 2006, Wall and Mathieson had produced their second edition of the broad issues and impacts that tourism creates. They questioned the role of sustainability and tourism development and the place of tourism in other industries that are suffering setbacks. Coincidently for this book, they mentioned the fishing industry and its challenges. They also noted the role of feminism in tourism, and whether a touristic subject should become an object in the name of tourism (Wall and Mathieson 2006: 290–291). The UNWTO announced in 2020, just prior to the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, that international tourism growth up to 2019 had outpaced the global economy with a cautious forecast for 2020 predicting 3–4% growth. This is the same year that UNWTO will celebrate the ‘Year of Tourism and Rural Development’ (UNWTO 2020). As this chapter and the following case studies highlight, Japanese tourism policy had grown convoluted, with aims within tourism strategies having always held an element of sustainability, to retain specific heritage and cultural features for political, construction and the general economy © The Author(s) 2020 L. Crowe-Delaney, Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1_4

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objectives, including various modes of production and industry. For the rural sector, this has included traditional cultural elements. Furthermore, for example, the cultural ‘heart’ that is Kyoto, components of its tourist attractions are questionable that of kimono-clad women and the business culture connected to the geisha industry (a culture of staged authenticity) should continue. This is a hegemonic  consortium of businesses where visual bravado and associated status-making is sought by customers who network with those same decision-makers for the tourism industry. Wall and Mathieson (2006: 292–293) too question the need for sustaining certain traditions that pose exploitation. However I diverge. This chapter examines Hyogo Prefecture in the context of its tourism and regional development policies within the Hyogo 2001 plan in the period 1995–2007. It also highlights the interplay with the national Welcome 21 Plan, which is based on inbound tourism. These dates, however, are not the beginning of plans of projects, nor are they the end of the projects. Rather these dates are a focus of this research due to the disruption caused by the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 and interruption of twenty-first-century politics in the era of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, 2001–2006. The epilogue chapter will briefly discuss what remains of these tourism projections. Hyogo once declared itself as a miniature Japan, where everything that the nation has and does is found condensed into this one prefecture (Hyōgo Prefectural Government 1993), and many features of Japanese political history are reflected here. That includes the overwhelming impact of the earthquake disaster, the deep political relationships that lubricate industry and government, coastal development, tourism and rural policies, and the intrigue associated with major stakeholder power; the list could go on, but this book is only one volume. Prior to the 1995 earthquake, the south coast city municipality of Himeji was earmarked for regional revitalisation and included strategies for tourism growth. The small town of Kasumi in Hyogo’s northern district of Tajima had also called for development and rejuvenation of the town’s rural fishery economy as early as 1976. Tourism projects supported by the construction industry were the features of the era for Japanese economic growth, and these municipalities had not been excluded. To put the role of tourism in a national perspective, in terms of both locational and cultural settings, many Japanese prefectures have experienced

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the same impact that the larger tourism cities have on their regional tourism locations. Tokyo-to (the prefectural district that includes the capital city of central Tokyo and its 23 wards), Kyoto-fu (fu is an older honorific term for ‘prefecture’) and the popular snow regions of Nagano and Hokkaido are Japan’s major tourism destinations. This means that these internationally recognised, inbound tourist destinations dominate advertising and marketing budgets and tourist expenditure. The secondary destinations of the tourism strip include Yokohama, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and business destinations along this Pacific Belt to Fukuoka. Business travellers, international and Japanese visit local restaurants and, time permitting, visit local attractions, buy souvenirs, and access entertainment. In 1996, Gavin McCormack (25–76) demonstrated the networks between the then Ministry for Construction, the (construction industry) developers and politicians’ pork-barrelled government projects. While it is not proven in this book’s fieldwork of the early 1990s corruption of which McCormack argues, nonetheless the patterns of development networks remained the same and tenders being questioned due to favouritism. What the field work and research into primary and secondary sources between the period of 1997–2007, did reveal, was a background of various stakeholders and other local entities taking advantage of government strategies which considered tourism as a benefit for regional prefectural  economies, as well as  preferencing  some locations over others. Together with the following case study chapters, the reader will be able to conceptualise how the municipal governments have had to negotiate their local plans simultaneously with the workings of often-prioritised prefectural and national government policies and projects to fulfil the demands of separate ministerial portfolio projects, while protecting their municipal community’s needs. In this scenario, and also concurrently, are the demands and negotiations of the local community business stakeholders, committed town planners and mid-management role players dealing with top-down agenda from the national government policy updates due to election promises. This makes for a complex web of policymaking and use, fed by a business and government culture based on revolving-door, post-retirement government jobs in associated private sector industries (amakudari, or jobs from heaven). This business-public sector  pattern of connections was represented in the national tourism policies  1997–2007, at the municipal levels and in Hyogo’s tourism

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strategies, vestiges of which McCormack had described not only as the ‘leisure state’ (1996: 78–106), but a circle of connections where the god of construction still holds sway. Hyogo’s tourism industry, therefore, is a multifaceted one, similarly attracting multifaceted strategies and policies which foster growth in construction and development, particularly in this tumultuous period for Hyogo Prefecture. Before discussing the impacts of the 1995 earthquake on the tourism industry of Hyogo, it is appropriate to put tourism in context in terms of regional development for the prefecture.

 lace Identification, Location and the Intrinsic P Significance of the Regional for Tourism In Japan, a city, a town or a village is termed ‘regional’ (chiiki no) in geographical and cultural understanding due to their distance and hierarchy position to larger cities and their prefectures. Tokyo and Kyoto are the major cities administratively, culturally and historically and, of course, Osaka and Kobe in the Keihanshin politico-geographic organisation. In a cultural context of the twenty-first century, Japanese consider their understanding of centrality, regionality and rurality of Japan, in terms of a sociocultural context where Tokyo as the capital city, is the centre of administration, modernity and sophistication and the central focus for the 2020 Olympic Games. Kyoto, the historic city and former capital, is now perceived as the artistic centre of Japan. Kyoto is the picturesque advertisement of Japan and depicts the historic and artistic of a foregone era (Lonely Planet 2019). Tokyo and Kyoto have engaged in providing tourism activities because they are centres of attraction; centres for administration and art, modern and historical locations. Since the introduction of tourism for foreigners visiting Japan from the late nineteenth century, these two prefectures and their namesake cities have held prominent positions in national government tourism planning, later incorporating budgets and funding focusing on international image-making with the elements of sophisticated marketing strategies based on a propagandist style. Other touristic locations included Nagasaki, Yokohama, Osaka and, since the 1990s, Nagano and Hokkaido. These contrasts of modernity with the traditional

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elements have a strong literature base (Robertson 1995; Moon 1996, 1998, 2002; Rausch 2008; Robertson 1991; Sahara 2012). For Tokyo and Kyoto, however, they have also been able to capture tourism funding designated for regional development; ‘regional’ is used to refer to their outskirts or outer wards and all that such focus derives (Aristimuño 2002; Arnason 2002; Clammer 2001). For government assessment of tourism visits, there is a hierarchical categorisation that attracts terms of provincial (chihō 地方出身), castle town, or rural, and therefore can rank destinations in terms of popularity, visitor numbers and visitor spending (JNTO 2018). In the twenty-first century, this assessment is available in well-organised excel sheets online, but in the twentieth century archives, it is categorised according to the city ranking of population and presenting prefectural data only when municipal data (by survey or car registrations) was accessed. These major city destinations maintain their representation of the Japanese tourism landscape for marketing purposes. Like Sydney’s Harbour Bridge or Melbourne’s  Flinders Street Train Station, which maintain iconic images in advertising and marketing for Australian international tourism, a recognisable symbol or image sustains and attracts an even greater number of visitors and  known as the Matthew Effect (Hospers 2010: 31). Therefore, promoted by tourism agencies and associated organisations, the focus on large city tourism leaves inexperienced and underfunded regional destination stakeholders having to compete with major tourism destinations, not only for attracting tourists and their expenditure, but also for tourism industry support from private entrepreneurs, academic and entrepreneurial research, local and national government representation and funding. This applies to many countries’ regional tourism dilemmas. Strategies for Japan’s regional revitalisation have always included tourism as an annexure to other strategies until it became an individual portfolio, albeit in a formative stage at the beginning of the twenty-first century due to Koizumi’s reforms. Just when it appeared that tourism may have gained a ministry of its own in his era due to its recognised importance in the global economy, ‘tourism’ remained within the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) until in 2006 and the word ‘tourism’ was added as MLITT. Since then, this industry, while being recognised as an important industry for Japan’s economy  and

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internationalism, remains under the MLIT (with a ‘T’ added or not, in websites and publications) and therefore its role abiding by the connections with the construction industry. The initial research on Hyogo was to explore the prefectural dichotomies of coastal development in Himeji and Kasumi. As my investigations progressed, it became evident that these provincial locations had to deal with other aspects that affect  their municipal economies. Community stakeholders and government role players have  had to contend with Tokyo’s role as a primate city. It dominates administration, cultural status and innovative sophistication as a world standard city, at the time, self-­ identifying with Paris (Koizumi 2005). At the prefectural level, there was the same hierarchical dominance to negotiate: the capital city of Kobe, the second largest city of Himeji, and then both in small size and in distance, Kasumi. What became more difficult to manage for Himeji and Kasumi, however, was an earthquake. Japanese have historically experienced living with such natural occurrences, Japan is in one of the most unstable geological locations; 1995 was a major disruption to all systems in Japan, let alone Hyogo.

 isaster: Earthquake and Economic Disruptors D to Tourism This disaster would only have had received brief attention here were it not for its impact on the case study areas and the accompaniment of a convolution of plans that had began before the disaster such as the Hyōgo 2001 Plan, while expectedly, others were created during and after the disaster. The Hyōgo 2001 Plan was for general development for the prefecture. It included and intertwining of tourism plans incorporated under the overarching tourism statement of the national Welcome 21, which focused on international tourism. The  following versions or updates of the  Hyōgo 2001 Plan also included the role of reconstruction projects and tourism (re)development alongside the Hyōgo Phoenix Plan, the post-disaster plan. Such amendments led to  repercussions for the rest of Hyogo’s municipalities trying to improve their local economies through growing their own tourism industries.

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In hindsight, an examination of the understanding of the severity of a disaster such as the magnitude of the 1995 earthquake and the behaviour of modern Japan  governance, was that there had been little or no elements of disaster management, mitigation and risk planning that could cope with such an outcome. Earthquakes that create the greatest impacts are relative to their effect not only in relation to the devastating human toll, but also on the economy from local, nearby and national standpoints. This assessment of, and inclusion for, future disaster plans was again tested in the Fukushima disaster after the 2011 earthquake (Takamatsu 2011). Results were that disaster management plans neither mitigated the death toll and the long-term pollution of the environment, nor regenerated the ground zero location effects for  the local communities. The Great Hanshin Earthquake changed not only the pattern of tourism in Hyogo Prefecture, but also the prefecture’s economy. The results for Kobe were inordinate (OECD 2006: 16). From the earthquake’s epicentre in Awaji Island, damage extended north to populous Kobe and caused great disruption to Hyogo and Japan. Rescue efforts, the reconstruction of Kobe’s and Awaji’s transportation, commerce and administration systems and disaster management strained the prefectural and national economies and influenced policy (Edgington 2011: 7) for more than a decade. Yet, as Horwich (2000: 526)  observes, ‘while the Kobe earthquake damage of US $114 billion was 2.3% of Japan’s 1995 GDP of $5 trillion, it was only one-third of that or 0.8% of the capital stock of 3 × 5 = $15 trillion’. Clinically, he argues, ‘it is not surprising that Japan’s vast, integrated, and price-directed markets would be able to compensate quickly for a single region’s loss of some of its physical and human capital’. Following the 1995 Great Hanshin or Hyogo-ken Nambu Earthquake of 1995 and the officially named Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake Disaster, various post-disaster plans have been developed and initially some of these were considered piecemeal across Japan, mostly much localised. It was not until as late as 2011 that the Japan Tourism Bureau (JTB) announced its Tourism Crisis Management as Business Continuity Plan (BCP) six months after the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear power plant collapse following the damage from the Great Eastern Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami (Takamatsu 2011). JTB incorporated a Tourism Crisis

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Management Consultant to oversee, plan and put into action strategies including risk management and BCP. The Japanese nation was taken by surprise at the intensity of the 1995 earthquake and the devastation to the Hyogo capital city of Kobe (Edgington 2011). The economic recovery meant that for the first time Japan’s global economy had been severely affected making the immediate ports, multimodal and multinodal transportation links inoperable. Communities connected to the nearby working nodes were affected by the razing of housing and buildings and by the breakdown in utilities and services; those building remaining in the earthquake belt were subject to demolition or closure until made safe. Populations initially decreased due to outmigration from Kobe and Hyogo, east to Osaka and west to Okayama prefectures.

The Phoenix Plan Interruption to the Hyogo Economy Like its mythical namesake, the Phoenix Plan was intended to resurrect the Kobe economy and infrastructure. Inserted alongside the Hyōgo 2001 Plan, it was a construction plan aimed for new projects to be completed within ten years. Many projects did not come to fruition, while other projects had taken over 20 years with varying results. One of the reasons for the delays is that Japan had begun its economic recession following the halcyon days of the bubble economy of the 1980s and before 1995 (Horwich 2000; Okuyama 2015; duPont et al. 2015). Prior to the 1995 earthquake, net-migration indicators for Hyogo were fairly steady with an average of 0.24% increase between 1989 and 1994 and from 1996 to 2002 an average increase of 0.12% but for 2003 and 2004 began a negative net migration rate of -0.02. In the earthquake year, Hyogo had a negative net migration rate of −1.2% or 60,000 people. Therefore 1989 and 2004 (the figures compiled from the Statistics Bureau of Japan) Hyogo’s in-migration from other prefectures decline from 133,228 to 106,023. Following the earthquake, a temporary rise occurred in 1996–1997 in Hyogo’s per capita Gross Regional Product, but slumped again between 1998 and 2000 similar to the 1995 levels, while the Japanese total Gross Domestic Product continued to rise until 2006–2007 (Okuyama

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2015) at end of the Koizumi period. (For a deeper analysis, see Okuyama 2015.) A temporary buoyancy was attributed to the (re-)construction industry capitalising on funds available for not only rebuilding Kobe, but other towns and cities claiming reconstruction needs. Since then, there is conjecture as to whether more of Hyogo’s projects, particularly tourism-­ driven ones, may well have been able to run to their potential had the Great Hanshin Earthquake not occurred (duPont et al. 2015; Horwich 2000; Okuyama 2014). The following case studies will signpost those  impending economic downturns, but at that moment in time the nation had to reorganise ports, trade flows, budgets and policies to concentrate on quickly rebuilding Kobe, Japan’s second largest throughput port to that of Osaka (Edgington 2011). Immediate actions to restore the basic amenities to locals, saving lives, re-establishing connections to hospitals, transport links locally and to the outside world took precedence. Prior to 1995, Kobe had become one of Japan’s earthquake-safe cities, targeted for decentralisation strategies for private companies  to relocate, meaning that the Hyogo government’s strategies for tourism development  for economic revitalisation was not a priority, with.

Hyogo Rebuilding Itself From the 1970s, Japan was already experiencing outmigration from smaller towns to larger towns and cities. As regional levels of depopulation continued, so did the impacts on labour sources for the local industries as well as care for the remaining communities. In rural and outlying areas, issues of ageing populations can also equate with the need for living with assistance. Aged care facilities were just beginning as lifestyle alternatives to the Japanese extended family system  in the outer regions. Household breadwinners, mostly male, took on second jobs in rural and small regional areas, or, if possible, whole families would migrate to urban centres. Those farming and fishery families who stayed could afford to do so being landowners and often with small to medium enterprises attached to their primary production. For the larger regional centres, the global output of production associated with heavy industry was also changing.

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Other impacts came from the US trade imbalance and Japanese manufacturing moving offshore. The 1980s resort development boom began as quickly as it declined. The popularity of local resort tourism fell as Japanese consumers became aware that the Yen had better value overseas, and turned there to historic and interesting tourism experiences and destinations. Furthermore, in this same time the Japanese national government pressured by the trade imbalances with the United States, encouraged Japanese to travel to internationally to offset the US deficit. Domestic tourists replaced overnight stays in regional locations with prestigious international travel, spending on luxury goods that were unaffordable in Japan. The contrast with the Japanese resorts was obvious. Out-of-place furusato marketing themes for architecturally bland resorts in regional and rural areas did not offer many Japanese tourists a point of interest and could not compete with the attractions of Paris, Barcelona, Hawaii or Sydney. These same resorts were not attractive to international visitors. They were expensive, designed on mass tourism concepts in undesirable locations and  with little or no nearby local attractions. Some dining rooms were like university cafeterias. Alternative accommodation such as Ryokan (guest houses) and minshuku (Bed and Breakfast accommodation) could be  equally  expensive, of unrated quality and depended on reputation and word of mouth recommendations. The Japanese styles of accommodation were not popular at the time, often run down or quaint and  ‘country-styled’, and not popular with  Japanese tourists who were seeking shining examples of ‘new’ western accommodation and tourism. All these factors contributed to Japan’s tourism imbalance and earning an international reputation as an expensive tourist destination with limited facilities. The MLIT had  aimed to invest funding into 33 locations throughout Japan to improve tourism destinations and to support travel agencies relationships with advertising agencies. This was the tourism industry scenario up to the 1995 disaster. Kobe city’s eligibility for the MLIT tourism funding together with it being heavily funded by the Phoenix Earthquake charities, agencies and the like, led to the linking of pre-1995 projects with new tourism and leisure attractions within its reconstruction, making for modern and innovative facilities that would attract international tourists, conventions and

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business events  (Hyogo Prefecture/ Kobe City 2001). This led to local tensions within Hyogo as rural municipalities watched on while intensive construction focused on Kobe beyond its initial losses. As noted earlier, like the rest of Japan from the 1970s the economies of Hyogo and Kobe despite being multifaceted, began to experience population stagnation, and outmigration to larger cities or prefectures. Land was being made available in Kobe through to Himeji by clearing mountains and hills, dispersing leftover soils to land infill on their coasts, then left barren if unused or used for temporary purposes until the next stage of urban and industrial growth. Kobe had already initiated its own growth plan, the New City of Kobe Master Plan of 1993 with projects aimed for completion in 2025 to include a ‘high amenity city’ under the plan of an Urban Resort City. This was later included under the amended construction proposals introduced first in 1986 with amendments and versions post-1995 in the Hyōgo 2001 Plan ending in 2001 (Okuyama 2015). Aside from Kobe and Awaji Island, initially no other area in the prefecture was included in the reinvestment of ‘Phoenix Hyogo’. Outposts such as Kasumi continued to face economic anguish, and Himeji quickly returned as a secondary port in the prefecture’s revival. Both these municipalities and business communities had been directed from the national and prefectural governments to provide support as Kobe was rebuilt; fish catch throughput and international trade were dispersed among these and other ports due to their historic roles. From the time that redevelopment had started to approximately when Kobe had reached 80% of its pre-earthquake economic growth (dates range from 2002 to 2012) (Okuyama 2015), other municipalities in Hyogo had already attempted to restart some pre-1995 planning projects. However, old systems remain. Under various ministerial or departmental administrative directives, projects could only continue if they aligned with national or prefectural projects and works under construction, whether  existing or new. Therefore, higher government developments took precedence and  could override municipal ones at any moment. The more powerful negotiating municipalities had more leverage in these matters than the smaller, rural ones. Meanwhile, some construction was on the borderline of being reconstruction or opportunistic projects. Fund management meant that the

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earthquake epicentre area of Awaji Island, but with the least damage costs, included a proposal to build an industrial park claimed in the Phoenix plans to improve the Awaji Island’s economy. Although this did not proceed, instead the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, Awaji Kaikyo Bridge crossing the Awaji straits, and only partially constructed, was rebuilt with funds from its original proposal, government funds and from other sources and completed in 1998. Additionally, a tourism opportunity which amalgamated with scientific research strategies, led to the housing of land that had shifted some metres and a new museum dedicated to the study of earthquakes, as well as providing shelter for visitors to observe the geological shifts. A new horticultural industry for Awaji was also a co-project with tourism. The government aim for both Kobe and Awaji’s reconstruction was to provide both cities with infrastructure for future and continued economic growth improving prior pre-1995 declines (Okuyama 2015: 635). For Kobe, this was a decision for complete reconstruction rather than just restoration, with public funds from the central government of US$ 58 billion (OECD 2006: 18). Within two years, Kobe had regained its stature as a busy port, but did not regain its national or international status. Meanwhile, Kobe city and Hyogo Prefecture had also set up the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster Reconstruction Fund, which incorporated donations and funding support for victims of housing loss, and other restoration projects. The allocation of such funding was controversial as it allowed for new construction projects to proceed ahead of housing for victims still living in temporary dwellings. The reconstruction for Kobe had a ten-year plan, but the Hyogo government exploited the Phoenix theme (Hyogo Government 1997; 2001) (Fig. 4.1) with locals complaining that their input was disregarded. Japanese expect the reconstruction of their communities with similar street elevations prior to local disasters (using the latest disaster-resilient strategies). However, the Kobe residents as well as other Hyogo residents questioned the extraordinary developments to other development projects (explored in depth in Edgington 2011). The district now includes retail and direct factory outlets, plazas for evening festivals and retail promenades.

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Fig. 4.1  Reconstruction of the Port of Kobe. (Hyogo Prefecture/ Kobe City 1997. Reproduced with permission of the Hyogo Government)

 he Construction and Government Relationships T in Action The research for this book’s case studies and the way the tourism policies were used did discover the reasoning and purpose for policy crossovers in various departments and ministries. The interdepartmental use of tourism strategies was to be expected to assist the fruition of external departmental projects of other levels of government. Such crossovers were intersections where works were combined, with ministerial role players negotiating, and interdepartmental communications occurring. Construction projects could be found under tourism policy aims across many ministerial portfolios. As Okuyama (2015: 638) colourfully quips,

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the process to ‘hang on to your plan’ meant that going forward, for the reconstruction of Kobe business stakeholders’ pursuit to fulfill past ‘ready to proceed’ construction projects for the prefecture created a burden on most of Hyogo’s local governments’ fiscal planning. The issuing and paying out of city and prefectural bonds and the length of time for Kobe’s recovery had tested the fiscal planning. Reconstruction seemed unending beyond the expected finalisation in 2005. By 2015, Kobe’s population growth remained compromised and uneven. Therefore, from the rebuilding of Japan in the 1950s, as with other ministerial portfolios for redevelopment, tourism development had been defined by construction and development companies. The lack of transparency in Japanese tourism policies, their strategies, planning and projects created an opportunity for construction connections and networks between various ministry portfolios (McCormack 1996). While it was difficult to uncover tangible connections and networks for this research of the construction industry and government players between the period of 1997 and 2002, or concise financial information of the construction sector growth, including the overdevelopment of the coastal built environment, it has since been possible to connect certain completed government projects with private companies since 2002. While evidence was difficult to find in Hyogo  other than historic ones, various companies have since been more transparent  under new government regulations, such as the examples of  connections with private universities to  large development and construction companies. Planning documents for coastal redevelopment certainly contained the names of the various government bodies and private stakeholders associated with the projects, but few if any private companies’ names. It was evident that the Koizumi approach to transparency was much needed to try and better understand the underpinnings of Japan’s domestic economy issues and the associated construction. To some point transparency eventually took hold in successive governments as the economy continued to slow. Naming companies is not enough. The Abe government in its second round from 2012 had yet to manage the pressure and resistance from the construction sector. While such organisation and business systems of continued subsidisations, and  the possible nepotism and the roles of the construction

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industry have now become a Japanese phenomenon, such business ‘ecosystems’ have their ramifications. In 2013, a report investigated the need for the Abe government to spend approximately US$107 billion on Japan’s infrastructure over the next 15 months. The report questioned that this small-in-area country, ranked 61st in the world and faced with a rapidly decreasing and ageing population, already having  the world’s fifth-largest network, with 1.2 million km of roads, 680,000 bridges, 10,000 tunnels, 250 bullet trains and 98 airports (Janowski and Kaneko 2013), needed any more road networks.

 yogo Policy and Plans 1990–2017: H The Tourism (Re)construction Phase The scenario of the residual impact of the earthquake puts Japan’s construction industry in context to better understand then what regional and rural municipalities in Hyogo had to contend with in the period of declining economies alongside the occurrence of disaster. The disconcerting practice of construction projects which could be left in a semi-­ constructed state or abandoned altogether was one industry behaviour that Koizumi wanted to address. This also applied to tourism policies and plans. For Hyogo, industry pundits had the option to reconsider the economic viability of a project particularly where government funding could no longer be increased for that project. Depending on tourism themes and their popularity in other locations, municipal-level tourism planning however could retain such themes even if they had become outdated. With disaster, however also comes opportunity. Though the funding for Kobe’s redevelopment allocated by the Hyogo government was at a level that media called far more than necessary (Johnston 2005) nonetheless, new construction overtook reconstruction and community rebuilding, and certain rural revitalisation projects were put on hold (Olshansky et  al. 2005: 36). The mayor of Kasumi in 2001 complained that the earthquake caused more than the destruction of Hyogo’s capital city; it redirected funding diverting much needed projects from the prefecture’s rural and remote areas to the reconstruction of disaster-affected areas. More importantly however, was that the whole of Hyogo had became a

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focus for the prefectural government driven projects to be incorporated into various developments under the overarching Phoenix Development Plan (RMS 2005: 6–7). With large amounts of funding, tourism was expected to benefit from the resurgence of the  development  of new roads and highways, state beautification projects and rural repopulation plans including roads into central Hyogo, where in the town of Wadayama large cement manufacturing plant is located (Fig. 4.2). Furthermore, municipality senior executives could apply for further funding to complement existing projects or seek options for other local projects. This too, however, could be altered if national policies did not incorporate local-level strategies in the next version of central government policies or plans and where industry pundits could withdraw or call for changes as a project became unviable or unpopular. For example, just north of the cities of Himeji and Kobe, rows of boxlike entertainment and accommodation centres were built along freeways and  into  rural areas north of the municipality of Himeji-shi. The construction companies were paid, but the buildings were quickly underutilised. The research for Hyogo in this period identified difficulties in locating when these  and other tabulated policies were mooted and  established. Some older Hyogo policies often did not have publication dates; rather, they were built on time frames for future completion, such as five- or tenyear options. Completion dates were also difficult to find in government plans and blueprints. Discussions with public servants at the municipal and prefectural level were more forthcoming, and completion time frames could be between one to five years, depending on reprioritising of job lots. Projects were logged in separate registers depending on the organisational skills of the project managers and the importance of the projects. At the prefectural level, the organisation of projects was complete and accessible. At the municipal level, organisation and management of plans could be more casual. Prefectural and local government plans of Himeji meant that as new tourism strategies or plans were made, they were added to a list of ongoing plans from the previous era of plans, with some never coming to fruition, but which were still published as forthcoming in public government documents. To overcome such ambiguity, network prioritisation and funding sources, the Koizumi initiative of ‘Plan, Do, See’ called for transparency and completion of construction projects. This

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Fig. 4.2  Hyogo, Kansai Japan (Reproduced  with permission of the  Hyogo Government) (Hyogo Prefectural Government 2001b)

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included guidelines to instigate the audit of construction earnings and contract completions, due to the various versions and extensions to finalisations of development across many departments. The projects in these case studies did not have Koizumi’s guidelines between 1997 and 2000, but this policy brought much bearing in 2001. Therefore, the examination of the Hyogo and national tourism policies for this period was not an easy task. The difficulty was compounded due to Kobe, the Hyogo economy and the infrastructure in the 1990s. So while it may be questioned why the Phoenix reconstruction plans were included for the study of the Hyogo Plans, they had great effect. In fact, they had quickly become integrated into many of the projects planned in preceding prefectural statements, but which had not begun by 1995. This was particularly so for Himeji-shi, the municipality which would have gained the most growth aside from that of Kobe, pre-1995 and expected further growth post 1995. Neither of these happened. Instead as, Okuyama alludes (2015), Hyogo may have been the economic version of the proverbial warning, of ‘the canary in the mineshaft’. Japan’s economy had already begun to stall much earlier, but statistics and financial statements were not forthcoming at the time  in the late 1980s. The evidence is in the Himeji example. Its economy was dependent on the heavy industry sector but which was already in decline while the promising innovative Nishi-Harima Technopolis Plan, the Harima Science Garden City and various science projects, which had been built but were slow to be accepted. The inland construction for the Harima synchrotron, the SPring-8, construction plans were  aimed for a 1989 start, but had broken ground in 1991. The Garden City residential development, planned for permanent national resident scientists and international visitors, had slow growth after first stage completion with vacant blocks remaining between the newer housing. The synchrotron has been popular, but several versions built in other countries means that while it has a specific purpose, it now has competition and scientists can access these normally long-wait-listed laboratories closer to home. The tourism impact, an initiative  included for this science city is user specific and remains conditional to visitors’ time frames often associated with work commitments.

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One Set of Campaigns 1986–2010 Table 4.1 summarises a set of policies for tourism development that ran concurrently. It incorporates the Hyogo and National policies in place for the research period that directed project development. Some are called ‘plans’, but they are overarching strategies, mostly in Japanese and with some public summaries in English. Some were taken down quickly from the websites as new ones were released and some versions were in hard copy only. Other copies were provided by the Hyogo government officials in several departments for this author’s use. The compilation in the table demonstrates how tourism policies across national and prefectural ministries can cross over for the purpose of tourism sites and destination development for regional revitalisation but with little policy directives to their productive-ness following their construction. The initial Hyōgo 2001 Plan quickly became obsolete as the urgency of disaster management was prioritised. Redevelopment followed the series of Phoenix Plans. The evidence of the aims of the Hyōgo 2001 Plan and the Welcome Plan 21 endure in the buildings constructed and in projects both completed and incomplete in Himeji and Kasumi. The 2001 Hyōgo Bijon (Vision) appeared to be a standby option. At the local municipal level, it was actualising projects that had been allocated a budget that were the focus for both Himeji and Kasumi ports’ public servants. The Hyogo Phoenix Plan included future disaster management, mirroring a newly introduced national disaster planning (Rimmer 1998: 165). The Phoenix sentiments were thread into other prefectural plans, in advertising and marketing and for other projects throughout Hyogo in areas less affected by the earthquake, creating ideals to ‘Live in Harmony and Create a Warm-Hearted Hyogo’. The logo was used on local advertising such as for ‘What’s on in Hyogo’ and in brochures, for ‘Getting connected with nature’ (fureai), which promoted music performances in the town of Sanda, 20 kms north of Kobe (Fig.  4.3). Using the Phoenix symbols throughout Hyogo was a strategy, albeit a token one, to placate critics that all focus was on Kobe.

Hyōgo Phoenix Tourism Plans

General Hyogo tourism Rural revitalisation development revitalisation through tourism plan for Hyogo. inspired by Kobe via MAFF, not Tourism elements and the MLIT. of the Welcome marketing of Revitalisation of the Plan 21. ‘resurrection’. farming, Post-1995 Incorporating mountain and included the general fishing villages; incorporating redevelopment Volunteers to of the Phoenix with new support the rural. Disaster Plans tourism Tourism specifics with the earlier development. include Tajima— 1990s projects. product branding, Connecting local foods, urban to rural. attracting people to the local nature and coastal culture. Tourism for the purpose of agri-business.

Hyōgo 2001 Plan Begun 1986

Hyōgo Vision 2010 (MAFF prefectural division) Focused on the low increase in domestic travel of 0.02% from 1999 to 2000. Nature-­based themes. Domestic tourists encouraged by way of ‘low cost pastimes’ such as nature sightseeing, festivals and inexpensive activities. Visit traditional Japan: focus on Okinawa, Aomori, Hakodate and Nagano. Increase foreign and domestic tourism through movies (NHK supported), special travel tickets and better internet service.

White Papers MLIT 2000–2003

Yokoso Japan International MLIT 2001

Green Tourism. Incorporate regional Tourism Action Interconnections tourism Plan, between urban development to international and rural increase tourism income. peoples Improve international Regional fisheries. inbound tourism. revitalisation Introduce ‘Vision’, a precursor and encouraging Satoumi/ to ‘Real’ and ‘Visit’, all tourists to Satoyama in Koizumi’s domestic travel 2003 policy nationalism throughout and rural Japan: revitalisation. successful elements skiing in Hokkaido and Niigata.

White Paper MAFF 2002

A New Vision 2000–2001, Real Japan & Visit Japan 2001–2002 MLIT

Table 4.1  Summary of main themes of tourism policies and plans for regional revitalisation: Hyogo plans concurrent with national plans, 1986–2010

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Fig. 4.3  The Hyogo Phoenix symbol in 2001. A freely dispersed and public brochure celebrating music, fureai and community

 onnecting the Regional and Rural-Coastal C for Hyogo Tourism While Kobe’s reconstruction meant a focus to Hyogo’s east, nonetheless tourism planning in Hyogo had to go ahead elsewhere and was  also incorporated into the many versions of the Hyōgo 2001 Plan (Hyogo 1998b). The Hyōgo 2001 Plan focused on revitalising its municipal economies through various development  initiatives, many of which were

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based on domestic tourism or to facilitate tourism. Later versions were to promote landscape aesthetics and aspired to the general development and rejuvenation of the entire prefecture, rather than building projects. The Welcome Plan 21 was the national plan which focused on inbound tourists. In the economic downturn, its main objective was to encourage prefectural governments to be more autonomous and take responsibility for their local tourism development including funding. These plans intersected at the construction of tourism facilities and therefore, unsurprisingly, here too was the process of overlapping tourism strategies for coastal development (MLIT 2004). As noted earlier, by the 1990s tourism, or more likely the development for tourism, was  regarded as instrumental to  create a more equitable spread of economic development for regional Japan. Not only would the tourism destinations, service sector and hospitality sector benefit, but jobs would be created and money circulated due to the  construction of  tourism  industry facilities. Kansai business stakeholders promoted their region acknowledging that the growth of the Tōkaidō megalopolis had contributed to heavy pollution in Kobe and Himeji. Idealistically, they claimed that the decline in the economy had allowed Japanese to  reassess and come back to appreciating nature ‘instead of desiring wealth, (where) people (could) dream of a life filled with diversity and abundance’ (anon 1994: 100–101). This was a post-industrialist propaganda, a self-imposed stereotype of nihonjinron, in this case for business growth, a hyperbole,  promoting the  concept of nature-loving Japanese willing to return to the ‘farm’. Financially supported schemes by the national government, used to reignite furusato sosei, the creation of hometown identity, and to rally communities to revitalise local towns (machizukuri), were vetted by an associated prefectural department. This allowed for lobbying by municipal stakeholders made up of a group of government and business community representatives in order to compete for block grants for projects (such grants schemes had begun in 1989). This highly competitive funding was awarded  based on the population figures of the municipality; however, successful applicants were those who showed leadership and creative policymaking to solve local problems (Thompson 2003: 94–95). The recognition of rural Hyogo which had been ‘largely ignored and

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forgotten in the headlong rush to promote further economic growth’ was now a ‘priceless asset’ to be ‘shared by all’ (anon 1994: 101). The Kansai industry leaders also acknowledged Tajima, the largest regional division within Hyogo located on the north coast of the Sea of Japan, for the beauty of its natural environment. The Tajima district showed promise for tourism growth. Counter-urbanisation goals could be achieved, it was thought, when tourists experienced the opportunity to recapture what city life had taken from them; ‘the simple life led in farming …and fishing villages…being re-evaluated and better appreciated.’ Plans boasted of the connection for the North-South road with the opening of the Tajima Airport to encourage mid-week travel. Hyogo would pioneer a new way of healthy living and appreciation of the simple life of living and working in farming and fishing villages for primary production and would tout harmony as a way of ‘showing the world how to lead a better life’ (anon 1994: 101). Such hopes for rural revitalisation and counter-urbanisation, or the yūtārn (u-turn), have been played out in similar tourism initiatives into the twenty-first century based on green tourism, but had yet to be evoked, and perhaps cynically by this author, regarded as just  another ‘fashionable’ precursor to another, resurgent theme, that of Satoumi and Satoyama for the future of environmental sustainability (Duraiappah 2012; Yanagi 2013) and tourism. The immediate focus for Hyogo however had become one of practicality over idealism, utilising infrastructure already in place, that of transportation.

Infrastructure in Place: Tourism and Transport Links Domestic tourist travel within Japan is supported by various modes of transportation, which is well-utilised and updated within the prefectural and national government tourism development strategies. Historically, the railway companies have  promoted destinations and attractions with essential stops; points of locations of tourism interest advertised accordingly. This practice continues and train-travelling tourists can visit local attractions in towns and cities, buy local produce, souvenirs, seek accommodation or make other transport connections within short distances of train stations.

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In the past some of the railways and the attractions have been owned by these governments. Until the early 2000s, JR, or Japan Railways, had been gradually privatised, with smaller rail companies bought out by larger ones, but still well supported by the national government. JR held a certain amount of influence in development projects, including those for tourism, but this is how the Japanese government functioned. Hyogo’s rail system reflects that of the larger national system which is a highly efficient, public and private transportation service of daily use to transport Japanese. It is also used by groups, families, couples and individuals for long- and short-term tourism. Local trains run alongside fast trains, while the shinkansen tracks are often raised and are distanced from the other trains. At the Port of Himeji, public buses are used for day trippers who, after alighting from ferries from the Seto Inland Sea islands of Ieshima and other nearby islands, travel into central Himeji to work, shop and see to other daily needs or go on day tours to Himeji’s attractions before returning south to the Port and to their island homes. Three types of trains are in use at the Himeji station’s precinct: diesel, electric (fast and slow) and the shinkansen. Kobe’s restored system is the same, except on a much larger scale. The ferries travel east within the Osaka Bay region. In contrast in Kasumi, diesel trains are used to travel to and from Kasumi and like other rural and small regional towns in  Hyogo’s  whole outer region  without train services are accessed by buses, though much less frequent. Like elsewhere in urban Japan, it is a familiar experience to alight from one train to the next, with only a few minutes wait. The connections are seamless, with an infrastructure that is committed to an efficient rail transportation system. Buses serve to make better inter-connections at the major transportation hubs to well-used destinations and can be as seamless as the urban trains. They are less well connected in residential areas in out-of-peak periods, an hour wait for a bus is not unusual. In rural areas, train transport is equally reliable, but less frequent, reflecting the size of local populations. Various train services (public, private and shinkansen) are used to travel along the southern coasts of Hyogo and Osaka Prefectures and inland to Kyoto. Popular tourism routes are also travelled by luxury coach. Central eastern Hyogo (onto Osaka) from Himeji has various networks of roads,

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from large 12-lane carriageways, to single-lane roads whose sidings riskily drop down to the rice fields below. For nationally observed holidays, hotels, travel agents and restaurants offer accommodation and transport packages and all modes of travel are troubled by congested access Reservations for accommodation, restaurants, transport and some tourists’ destinations are essential. Kobe, Himeji, Kasumi and many other cities, towns and villages are locations for weekend trips, day trips and overnight stays. Kobe’s redevelopment became an attraction for Hyogo people to enjoy a city break, an alternative to Osaka, Kyoto or Tokyo, where holiday costs are expensive and often include accommodation, car parking fees, public transport costs and the like due to distance, highway tolls and the time taken up by travel. Kobe has discount shopping centres, sports attractions, and international entertainment, as well as the historic quarters, and is a short car trip across the bridge to Awaji Island to visit its earthquake museum and other attractions. A ferry trip on the Akashi Strait is an experience of the swirling Naruto whirlpool. Visiting parks, gardens and just strolling are activities that visitors enjoy as much as the theme parks, cafes and restaurants. Viewings of sake breweries and other industry-based tourism contrast with Kobe’s Mt Rokko. It has a traction tram which edges its way up the mountain to the restaurant at the top with spectacular views across the Osaka Bay day or night. These attractions and facilities however were not enough to foster tourism growth nor keep those Japanese outbound tourists from visiting international attractions such as Hawaii.

A ‘Warm Heart’ Between City and Coastal Hyogo From the 1950s, tourism projects incorporated policy directives led to an avalanche of project documentation. Later the administrative White Paper system was adopted but which still incorporated past policies and overarching plans building into future development visions. In hindsight, by the late 1980s and early 1990s, the impetus of ideas and additions in the  MLIT, MLIT and others’ White  Papers indicate that  the Japanese government was beginning to show alarm at the direction the economy was taking, regionally indications were from the 1970s. It was a matter of

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putting many strategies to the test and for one to take hold and become successful. Vigorous feasibility studies and projection  assessments  for future developments was not a practice; rather statistical forecasts based on population projections (growth), disposable income (ten-year growth only) and the anticipated success of counter-urbanisation (and decentralisation) policies guided developments that in the end were unsuccessful measured by the rejection of participation by the targeted urbanites and businesses. Resort strategies became concurrent with counterurbanisation strategies. The national construction and development laws and decentralisation development plans reflected the boom economy of the 1980s, especially the Resort Law of 1987 (Rimmer 1998: 162; McCormack 1996: 44–65). Meanwhile, from the late 1980s, the national government encouraged cashed-up Japanese to spend their tourism money in international resorts (to balance the trade deficit  with the United States). Then, when the government realised the economy was stagnating, they called on Japanese to be frugal; they came home and stopped spending. Again, it was regional Japan which felt the impact of creative fiscal policy. The MLIT National Tourism White Paper 2001 (MLIT 2000) (developed in the late 1990s) outlined the need for regional and rural economic revitalisation and incorporated a revised tourism agenda into a rural repopulation strategy with the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF 2000: 61). Simultaneously from the early 1990s, and taking from earlier national umbrella policies, the Hyogo government had redeveloped a list of projects to improve facilities throughout the prefecture, several of which were to encourage its own urban citizens to appreciate rural/regional landscapes and environments as tourists and/or counter-urbanites under the theme ‘Warm Heart of Hyogo’ (Hyogo Prefectural Government 1993: 24, 1998a: part 1). These ‘warm heart’ projects included highways linking north to south and east to west connecting major towns and smaller cities and other multimodal transportation links. As of 2005, the Harima Airport and the Yumura Heliport had not begun construction. Larger projects such as the inter-prefectural traffic networks across Hyogo connecting Kyoto and Tottori in Northern Hyogo and the north-south interchange in central Hyogo at Wadayama had been completed as had Kobe and Kansai airports.

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One project aimed to link the Sea of Japan coast with the Seto Inland Sea. The beautification of streets, highways and rivers was planned. Transportation routes alongside cherry tree–lined rivers would stretch from the Nihonkai to the Setonaikai, encouraging urbanites to enjoy the countryside. Rural delights of summer retreats from the city heat, autumnal delights for the aesthetic and nostalgic, intoxicating spring festivals under heavily blossomed cherry trees and the chance to soak in hot springs after a wintry day on the mountainous, snowy slopes were the marketing tools used (Hyōgo Prefectural Government 1993: 21, 1998a). This strategy of ‘Warm Heart of Hyogo’ was affixed to this, the last version of Hyōgo 2001 Plan, to take Hyogo redevelopment into the twenty-first century. Its continuing objectives were to reinvigorate Hyogo’s flagging rural economies. The ‘warm heart’ was in fact connecting the Northern Kinki region of Tottori, Hyogo and Kyoto, where urban townships such as Himeji were encouraged to connect (fureai) with any northern towns in that region as city-rural ‘cousins’, not unlike the international model of sister-city connections. This included the peripheral coastal regions where rural villages and small towns could be assisted along with their larger regional towns and small cities, promoting local industries and encouraging rural relationships to attract counter-­ urbanites’ loyalty to place. The set of Hyōgo 2001 plans had become longterm multistaged planning strategies with a projection into the mid-­twenty-­first century, although they would be replaced before they had seen out their term. After disaster mitigation statements had been included and several re-evaluations led to reductions of projects and changes to time frames, policymakers included themes for rural revitalisation and green tourism. Meanwhile, the practicalities for the Port of Himeji, before and in the interim following the earthquake, were for port management to negotiate strategies for  disaster management and mitigation. A concurrent plan included construction projects for Hyogo’s fisheries and ports along the Port of Himeji’s administration zone at Shikama Port and on the Sea of Japan at Kasumi. Government role players then awaited new plans and instructions to be issued from the Prefectural Port Management based in Kobe and Himeji. The Port of Himeji had early preparations in place for the level of disaster awaiting to occur in 1995.

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The promotion of Hyogo Prefecture, such as  improvements to  lifestyles and other initiatives, have been themes within themes for several different plans. The overarching statements of the Hyōgo 2001 Plan incorporated issues of addressing an ageing population, the distribution of affluence throughout society, the environment and pollution, urban planning, and free time and relationships. These targets were an overall reassessment of the condition of the prefecture, coloured by Japan’s economic growth in the 1980s, the following economic slump, and disasters of the 1990s. The resurgent focus on these values incorporated throughout the Plan versions was used as a catalyst to encourage counter-­ urbanisation, to foster rural revitalisation, while attending to the issues listed above  including the protection and rejuvenation of  the natural environment. In 2001, one later set of strategies was added, like an appendix, to the list of the previous ones. Although titled ‘Hyogo’s 2010 Vision for Rural Revitalisation’, which proposed guidelines  for agricultural, forestry and fishery industries and their communities (Hyōgo-ken Sangyōrōdōbu to Nōrinsuisanbu  2001), the management of the Port of Himeji saw this regional-rural plan as having promise. Himeji though not a regional town, but a designated city and only would participate, if at all, in prefectural fishery throughput is, however ‘regional’ in terms of distance from central Tokyo. On closer examination, the short-lived Hyōgo 2010 Vision provided similar strategies to that of the Hyōgo 2001 Plan, updated and one of a line of forthcoming strategies which incorporated disaster response programmes, but still aiming to  connect the urban with the rural, life in the city and the country, the furusato.

Tourism, Fisheries, Fun and Furusato Tourism and fisheries held a joint role in the Himeji Port, a feature aim in the Hyōgo 2010 Vision document, to maintain community identity while anticipating the growth of populations in Hyogo’s major cities. Of course, guidelines for improvements in transportation and other infrastructure were also mooted to improve regional lifestyles and to maintain rural populations. Domestic tourism continued to play a key factor in

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this ‘vision’, with reference to good food, local culture and community, day trips, camping, sightseeing and visits to a variety of ‘mura’ (village) -themed destinations. The expectation was that tourism remained a key contributor for rural revitalisation (Hyōgo-ken Sangyōrōdōbu to Nōrinsuisanbu 2001: 83, 92). Other strategies for regional growth were aimed at attracting foreign-­ affiliated investment into the prefecture from as early as 1986 (Hyōgo Prefectural Government 1993). Again, 65 projects were identified for growth including the tourism industry such as a resort development in the Tajima district at Kasumi, the Himeji train station redevelopment, the Himeji Port Renaissance 21 project (the redevelopment of the Shikama Port section) and the Harima Airport in northern Himeji (Hyogo Prefectural Government 1993: 16). These projects too were further disrupted by the 1995 earthquake. In 2001, 35 projects, most of which were expressways (pertinent here are those of Tottori, Hyogo (Tajima)-Kyoto and Wadayama in Central Hyogo), remained unfinished (Hyogo Prefectural Government 2001a: 18). While it can be argued that what appears to be a fair distribution of projects into the regional areas of Hyogo, the projects from the strategies of the ‘Future of Hyogo’ stalled. By 2002, Hyogo did not have the north-south transportation (highway of freeway) corridor, the Tajima Airport became a ‘white elephant’ with flights not only reduced, but with unreliable timetabling. Other projects in the north Tajima region were already in place, but were listed due to further ( but uncompleted) improvements, or were funded largely by the local business community, particularly the Tajima Mari-culture Centre in Kasumi, which locals considered unsuccessful as Chapter will illustrate. The themes of respecting well-being, enhancing social welfare and promoting mutual respect were reflected in getting back to a simpler tourism experience, of observing and enjoying the traditional and modern industries that ‘keep Japan going’ (Hyōgo Tourism Association 1999: 20). By 2000, the ‘Warm heart of Hyogo’ (Fig. 4.4) now carried themes of furusato, depicting developments that gathered people together, drawing urbanites to outer regional areas north of Himeji to now-floundering performance centres and Swiss-styled accommodation (Fig. 4.5). More cost-effective project developments included summer camps with furusato themes targeted at the children school holiday market.

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Fig. 4.4 A performance L. Crowe-Delaney)

centre

North

West

of

Himeji.

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Advertising flyers delivered to letter boxes and inserted in newspapers featured manga images of children and cute animals having fun in the ‘old hometown’ experience in a natural, outdoors environment and log cabins. Similar projects of revitalisation programmes grew throughout Japan (Rozman 1999). More contemporary cultural references include the promotion of the countryside or mountainous areas with the appropriate campaigns featuring mascot and anime  characters (Lindström 2019: 2). The Hyōgo 2001 Plan (and its executive summary aptly titled Towards the New Age of Hyogo) (Hyogo Prefectural Government 1998b) was an overall vision, highlighting projects, tourism-based or otherwise, to be undertaken in a designated period of time. These plans did not provide periods for completion dates; rather, the time frame was for commencement within an approximation of eight to ten years of the publication. Completion dates were in the hands of the project managers at municipal and prefectural levels. The result was that many projects were open-ended

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Fig. 4.5  Log-style accommodation. Artists/Performance Centre, North East Himeji. (Photograph: L. Crowe-Delaney)

in scope, could be mismanaged or abandoned if unsuccessful and sometimes remained semi-developed when funding was redirected elsewhere. In interviews, the major role players in the public service, fisheries, tourism, municipal leadership and administration did not use the Hyōgo 2001 Plan and considered it unimportant for their duties. The demands and the practicalities of the individual projects were central to their attention. The project documents were bound in similar fashion to old texts of folded paper, and then hand threaded. Used copies were notated in pencil with various extra instructions pertinent to convey instructions for stages and completion. Yet, according to the senior representatives of the Himeji Tourism Department and the Hyogo Ports and Harbours, a targeted location in the plan was Himeji City’s and it was the big business families, many of

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whom were members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who directed the nature, number and timing of the tourism projects for Himeji. These representatives claim that  it was this same group which also contributed to restricting tourism growth beyond the municipality. These are examples of the connections and networks Doken Kokka (McCormack 1996: 25–77), which could lobby at the national level through prefectural connections to fund projects at the municipal level and similarly for Japan’s urban development (Sorensen 2002). However, while it must be understood that there was the extended and unexpected length of time for the prefectures recovery and Kobe’s redevelopment, it can be argued too that this era also provided for opportunistic reprioritisation of projects, bringing out  other projects that had been shelved and, revamping funding schedules under the guidelines for newly prioritised geographical safety measures. Senior executives of the Port of Himeji, Kasumi Port and the Hyogo Ports and Harbours explained that where coastal development projects involved tourism, the boundaries between the various Plans became indistinct. This was due to major projects being continued or were discontinued by the port management authorities instead focussing on development elevated for coastal reclamation, new harbours, jetties, marinas and coastal concretisation. Therefore, between 1997 and 2002, various projects in Hyogo  had been finalised, added for further improvement, omitted, or left dormant. Excluding the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, there are myriad reasons other than these various changes to investigate, including their questionable feasibilities. Many reports, discussions, hindsight reflections and even Hyogo models of disaster (mis)management following the earthquake now offer some explanations as to why these projects were left to wait, many indefinitely. This is also how the system worked in the urban environment planning (Sorensen 2002: 333–357); throwing everything at a problem to possibly alleviate it. This approach had been viable for the construction industry in the bubble economy of the 1980s, in a pretence to grow small local economies in rural locations through tourism development projects, and Hyogo was not an exception. As one set of plans were coming to their final timing, other plans were already being introduced. Projects that could be started were taken up by available construction companies as other projects were in the finalisation

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processes. Other projects were overlooked, or reduced within major construction stages, resulting in buildings partially constructed, pulled down and leaving behind vacant, cleared or paved land.

 yogo: A Central Design, a Central Theme, H a Development Opportunity One major project of the national based Real Japan campaign, initiated by the central government’s  MLIT was  aimed at contributing to the improvement of tourism facilities in remote towns and later regional city outskirts and known as the michi-no-eki. By 2001, Hyogo Prefecture had established 25 such roadside stations with ten more to have been built by 2018 (All Nippon Michi-no-Eki Network 2018). Literally ‘street station’, these waysides are designed to be managed by locals to sell local produce and to promote the local area’s tourism attractions and offering a goodwill and hospitality experience for the tourist’s stopover (Fig. 4.6). They are aimed to encourage tourists to venture further into the local landscapes or for those that had, were the last stop to pick up last-minute souvenirs and provisions. The downturn of the economy meant that car trips were a cheaper travel alternative, popularised by rural revitalisation promotions and household budgeting measures (Fig. 4.7). While many in Hyogo feature a typical layout as in the campaign  plan, research revealed that local authorities have characteristically been involved in façade redesign with scope for local architectural variance. Located on main highways into the inland or in coastal towns, they also provide meals ranging from the rural-themed to the cafeteria-styled (Fig. 4.8). Their local hospitality and service are variable, rural employees can be rather shy and are not entrepreneurial, tending to wait for customers to approach them (Japanese as well as foreigners). At the other extreme, larger multilevel establishments at larger tourist destinations, such as the snowfields in peak times, can be crowded and dirty with unfriendly service for the Japanese customer. The michi-no-eki has its coastal counterpart, the umi-no-eki (The Sea Station Network Secretariat 2014). The template for the coastal versions

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Fig. 4.6  Muraoka, Hyogo michi-no-eki. (Photograph: L. Crowe-Delaney)

Fig. 4.7  Michi-no-eki in Kasumi incorporating historical buildings. (Photograph: L. Crowe-Delaney)

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Fig. 4.8 Michi-no-eki, L. Crowe-Delaney)

outskirts

of

north

Himeji,

Hyogo.

149

(Photograph:

designed in the late 1990s does not have the same features as its land ‘cousin’, having different priorities, but still uses tourism as a component of its design description. They are managed by the Japan Marine Recreation Association, National Association of Fisheries Infrastructure, Japan Marine Industry Associations and other recreational associations. Although initially pertaining mostly to passenger terminals, they are now found in many smaller ports including fishing ports where leisure boating is accommodated or planned but with varying tourist information services. The aim of the MLIT for umi-no-eki (originally seaside oases) was to ‘create hubs of exchanges’, for multiple modes of transportation  to travel from multinodes of road, port and coastal areas, and passenger ship terminals and to provide active exchanges between communities for the revitalisation of regions (MLIT 2001: 44). Like all tourism strategies in Japan, unless there is a direct and transparent audit of profitability and success of these tourism development outcomes, these developments of roadside and coastal stations are retained

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until they no longer function, pulled down and replaced with another construction. In  some rural areas,  michi-no-eki  are  underutilised and understaffed. This has lead to exploiting the good nature of local volunteers who attempt to rescue their diminishing communities by providing free labour. Michi-no-eki do not attract tourists to locations as the World Bank report strongly suggests (Yokoto 2006). Rather, like many of the central government-based utopic visions within the various tourism policies, they will remain their attraction being their utility to the public and a retail outlet for last minute purchases. They are not representations of the local town or village located nearby. As they are located on good roads or on bypasses, and with tourist coach parking as well, michi-no-eki are used instead of going into the small towns and villages. The national and prefectural tourism policies in the Hyogo example are no different in this context. International harmony, blending with local Japanese communities and their country-driven urbanites are admirable qualities for tourism policies, while improving regional and rural towns and cities, but they do not always equate to visitors touring in rural and regional locations. Inextricably intertwined, tourism policy became caught up in the reconstruction process for the devastated areas of Kobe,  aiming for a future of economic development beyond simple reconstruction (Okuyama 2015: 639), where the phoenix plans incorporated tourism development. This was evident in regional Hyogo, but policy criticism (and remediation) in 2015 was 20 years too late for rural municipalities such as Kasumi, now Kami-cho. The next two case study chapters will examine how these policies have  played out in the regional-urban and rural-coastal contexts of Himeji and Kasumi. Lastly, research, Business Continuity Plans, Corporate Social Responsibility and the adoption of Social and Environmental Impact Assessments are measurements taking their place in the global tourism and hospitality sectors where governments try to address the effects of mass mobility of visitors in the twenty-first century. Along with the rest of the world, Japan’s tourism destinations, attractions and natural areas are now prone to threats of terrorism, rapidly increasing changes in climate and disease and until 2019 tourist visits are historically at their highest levels since tourism became a popular travel activity. Other impacts feature the

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sites themselves where the sheer number of visitors change the street and landscapes for local inhabitants as well as visitors creating myriad impact on heritage and natural tourism destinations. Other factors will include localised disease control and management, waste disposal, and sustainability strategies resulting from various tourism and hospitality impacts. The Hyogo prefectural government will need to implement these policies, as much as its desire to draw visitors to its countryside.

Bibliography All Nippon Michi-no-Eki Network. 2018. Michi-no-eki Official Website. https://www.michi-­no-­eki.jp/stations/searche?prefecture_id=28. Anon. 1994. The Kansai. Kansai kosaido Co. Ltd. Aristimuño, I. 2002. The Cognition of Landscape as a Tool for Rural-Urban Planning in Japan. Ritsumeikan Journal of Industrial Society  (Ritsumeikan Sangyōshakairon) 37 (4): 79–99. Arnason, J.P. 2002. The Peripheral Centre: Essays on Japanese History and Civilisation. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press. Clammer, J. 2001. In Japan and its Others: Globalisation, Difference and the Critique of Modernity, Japanese Society Series, ed. Y. Sugimoto. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press. duPont, W., I. Noy, Y. Okuyama, and Y. Sawada. 2015. The Long-Run Socio-­ Economic Consequences of a Large Disaster: The 1995 Earthquake in Kobe. PloS one 10 (10): e0138714–e0138714. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0138714. Duraiappah, Anantha K. 2012. Satoyama-Satoumi Ecosystems and Human Well-­ Being: Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes of Japan. ed. Anantha Kumar Duraiappah, A.  K.,  K.  Nakamura, K.Takeuchi, M.  Watanabe, M.  Nishi . New York: United Nations University Press. Edgington, D.W. 2011. Reconstructing Kobe: The Geography of Crisis and Opportunity. UBC Press. Horwich, G. 2000. Economic Lessons of the Kobe Earthquake. Economic Development and Cultural Change 48 (3): 521–542. https://doi. org/10.1086/452609. Hospers, G.J. 2010. City Branding and the Tourism Gaze. In City Branding: Theory and Cases, ed. K. Dinnie, 27–35. London: Palgrave Macmillan Limited.

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Hyogo Prefectural Government. 1993. Hyogo Prefecture: Today and Tomorrow. Kobe: Hyogo Prefectural Government. Hyogo Prefecture/ Kobe City. 1997. Phoenix Hyogo:  Reconstruction from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake for Hyogo in the 21st Century. Kobe: The Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Reconstruction Fund. ———. 2001. Phoenix Hyogo 2001: Creative Reconstruction from the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Kobe: Hyogo Prefecture. Hyogo Prefectural Government. 1998a. Hyogo Plan 2001. Kobe: Hyogo Prefectural Government. ———. 1998b. Towards the New Age of Hyōgo. ———. 2001a. Hyogo Prefecture: Today and Tomorrow. Kobe: Hyogo Prefectural Government. ———. 2001b. Kansai Japan, Hyogo: A Treasured Past, An Exciting Future. Kobe: Hyogo Prefectural Government Tourism Division. Hyōgo Tourism Association. 1999. Miru, Shiru, Fureru, Megutte Tanoshii! Hyōgo no Sangyō Kengaku (See, Learn, Experience, Enjoy Exploring! Hyōgo, Observation Tours of Hyōgo). Kobe: Hyōgo Tourism Association [in Japanese] Hyōgo-ken Sangyōrōdōbu to Nōrinsuisanbu. 2001. Hyōgo Nōrinsuisan Bijon 2010- no Jidai o Tsukeku Nōrinsuisangyō . Nousangyosonzukuri (Hyōgo’s Vision for Rural Revitalisation: the Time to Build Up Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Industries and their Communities). Hyōgo Prefecture Ministry of Labour and Industry and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Kobe: Hyogo Prefecture Government. [in Japanese]. (trans author). Janowski, T., and K.  Kaneko. 2013. Analysis: Japan’s mission impossible: to spend $100 billion in 15 months. Reuters, February 22, 2013 World News. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-­japan-­construction/analysis-­japans-­ mission-­i mpossible-­t o-­s pend-­1 00-­b illion-­i n-­1 5-­m onths-­i dUSBRE9 1K1BM20130221. JNTO. 2018. Japan Tourism Statistics: Visits to Regions of Japan. Japan National Tourism Organisation. https://statistics.jnto.go.jp/en/graph Johnston, E. 2005. Cost of Kobe Memorials Irks Some Critics. The Japan Times Online, no page numbers. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-­bin/ nn20070118a4.html. Koizumi, J. 2005. Conference Speech. World Tourism Student Summit, 2005 Ritsumeikan University, Beppu Oita Prefecture, Japan, November 15. Lindström, K. 2019. Classic and Cute: Framing Biodiversity in Japan Through Rural Landscapes and Mascot Characters. Popular Communication 17 (3): 233–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2019.1567735.

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Lonely Planet. 2019. Kyoto: Is a Walk in Mysterious Places. Lonely Planet. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/kansai/kyoto. MAFF. 2000. Annual Report on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas in Japan: Part 1 Trend of Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas FY 2000 (Summary). Edited by Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries. Tokyo. McCormack, G. 1996. The Emptiness of Japanese Affluence. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin. MLIT. 2000. Kankō hakushyo, Heisei 13 (Whitepaper on Tourism, 2001). Tokyo: Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport. MLIT 2001. White Paper on Land, Infrastructure, Transport in Japan: Challenge for Reform- Toward a New Administration of Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport for the 21st Century. Part 2. Chapter 3, 43–44. Tokyo: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. https://www.mlit.go.jp/english/white-­paper/mlit01/2_03.pdf MLIT. 2004. Welcome 21 Plan. Tokyo. Edited by Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport. Tokyo. Moon, O. 1997. Marketing Nature in Rural Japan. In Japanese Images of Nature: Cultural Perspectives, ed. A.  Kalland and P.A.  Asquith, 221–235. London: Curzon Press. ———. 1998. Is the ie Disappearing in Rural Japan? The Impact of Tourism on a Traditional Japanese Village. In Interpreting Japanese Society: Anthropological Approaches, ed. J. Hendry, 117–130. New York: Routledge. ———. 2002. The Countryside Reinvented for Urban Tourists: Rural Transformation in the Japanese Muraokoshi Movement. In Japan at Play: The Ludic and the Logic of Power, ed. J.  Hendry and M.  Raveri. London: Routledge. OECD. 2006. Japan: Earthquakes. In OECD Studies in Risk Management. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Okuyama, Y. 2014. Disaster and Economic Structural Change: Case Study on the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. Economic Systems Research 26 (1): 98–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/09535314.2013.871506. ———. 2015. The Rise and Fall of the Kobe Economy from the 1995 Earthquake. Journal of Disaster Research 10 (4): 635–640. https://www.fujipress.jp/jdr/dr/?vpage=2 Olshansky, R., I. Kobayashi, and K. Ohnish. 2005. The Kobe Earthquake 10 Years Later. Planning; Chicago 71(9): 36. https://www-proquest-com.dbgw. lis.curtin.edu.au/docview/206697567?accountid=10382

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5 Rejuvenating Coastal Japan: An Uneasy Mix of Tourism and Heavy Industry in Himeji

Introduction Case study research excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research (Soy 1997: 3–4)

By the time tourism policies in the 1990s were used to reinvigorate regional economies, factors were already at play to make such national and prefectural policies difficult to implement at the municipal level. In the second-last decades of the twentieth century, tourism policymaking had become complex, being involved in many sectors of the Japanese economy. International and domestic tourism policies too had became entwined. This was useful for heritage tourism sites’ maintenance, but difficult for the potential benefits of tourism growth to be shared throughout a municipality. New entrepreneurs entering tourism and hospitality in the municipality of Himeji were frustrated in this period. Encouraged by national and prefectural policy, they were stymied by local and experienced stakeholders not willing to pool resources. Himeji tourism © The Author(s) 2020 L. Crowe-Delaney, Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1_5

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management was challenging for those in administration having to deal with competing needs at the grass-roots levels. The focus in this chapter then is on Himeji tourism planning strategies for the period 1993 to 2005 including the impact of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. Himeji had gained an international reputation due to the attraction of its historic castle. It remains a major drawcard of the region and certainly the major one for the municipality. Himeji’s history, its tourism and coastal development have played an intrinsic role in the region’s development, laying the foundation for its current status. An overall examination of it provides an understanding in the contemporary perspectives of coastal zone use. Late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Japan experienced a combination of national low economic growth and local unfettered coastal development. Various government planning objectives, prioritised both vertically and hierarchically, were further complicated by intricate networks of economic development with tourism appended sometimes seemingly as an afterthought. History, geography and the natural environment along with such muddy policy planning can create a confusing chronology. Therefore, this chapter is organised with this background; Himeji’s development history is a complex though intriguing one, and like Hyogo Prefecture, contains overlaps, document destruction, project failures and disruptions as well as national politics always incorporating construction opportunities. For Hyogo Prefecture, with such an expansive coastline, a quieter, pleasant three out of four seasons north coast with national and prefectural environmental strategies in place, a relaxed style of tourism and now a geopark established, it begs the question: Why coastal tourism at all for the capital city Kobe’s ‘cousin down the road’, Himeji? History begins the tale.

The History That Makes a Castle Town In the twenty-first century, to Japanese ‘outsiders’ a castle town community connotes conservative approaches to development, and an air of confidence of generations of family connections steeped in tradition. These same family networks have contributed to intractable ideals for Himeji’s tourism development. In other words, overt stakeholder interest has

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played a role in Himeji’s development for coastal tourism and opportunity for construction. Castle towns hold significance in Japanese early planning in that settlements were developed in zones around the castle itself (Sorensen 2002: 15–25). Already listed in 1972 as a national treasure, Himeji castle Himeji-jo (or Shirasagi-jo, the white egret castle) gained UNESCO World Heritage listing in 1993 (Himeji City Tourism Association 2000a: 3). Its immediate surrounds are a fine example of castle town planning including gates, moats, walls and the township all of which feature in its future development. Since its opening in 1972 as a tourist destination, however, only twice have annual visitor numbers exceeded one million: 1.5 million in 2009, and 2.8 million following its reopening after restoration works in 2015. Just over 500,000 domestic and international tourists annually visit the castle. Himeji has gathered iconic significance (Fig. 5.1). It is the only original castle in Japan that has remained intact after withstanding civil wars, the fire-bombing of Himeji city in World War II and the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. Himeji castle was used as a military base between World Wars I and II (Terry 1927: 663), and its general maintenance is carried out by volunteers, paid staff and, at times, by the Himeji section of the Japanese self-defence force. Himeji historic and reconstructed samurai villages and gardens are nearby the main castle and together have been the site locations for many Japanese historic film productions. The castle gained international exposure in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice (1967), while the Last Samurai (2003) also used Engyoji temple, located some kilometres north into the mountains of Mount Shōsha. Himeji is at the western end of the Tōkaidō megalopolis, the historic industrial conurbation whose growth spread along the Pacific coast, arguable peaking in the early 1990s, but possibly earlier. Distinctive political, administrative and planning systems at the local municipal level has been exploited by local businesses in an effort to demand tourism development policy alongside heavy industry growth on the Himeji coastline. Himeji’s early history as a fishing harbour, a shipping port and later its industrial role in Japan’s early twentieth-century growth and later the Pacific War effort, signifies that this castle town held sway in roles of

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Fig. 5.1  Himeji City Tourism and Culture Promotions. (Himeji City Tourism Association 2000b. Reproduced with permission of Hyogo Prefecture)

regional power. Even early domestic tourism became embedded in this industrial regional development scenario to encourage a labour force to attend to the aims of Meiji and later Taishō industrial expansion. At the turn of the twenty-first century, such business culture remains. It is attached to development and instrumental to retaining a tourism industry. However, by 2005, rather than a focus on improving and sustaining the quality of attractions and services already in place, individual and influential stakeholders in local businesses have aimed to grow Himeji’s

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tourism and development along its coastline corridor. A history of entitlement is a contributing factor here. Himeji has pivotal moments in its history, celebrated in the post-­ industrial era by castle enthusiasts and tourists lauding the world-­ recognised, heritage-listed Himeji castle, a prize rewarded for successes in past political conflicts. The early castle fort and its grounds were given to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598) for his contribution in the Tokugawa unification of the Japanese clans and provinces in the Battle of Echegaray in 1581. He contributed many legacies to the Tokugawa era including the only class of samurai who could carry arms, the tea ceremony, land taxes and surveys, maritime law and international trade links. Toyotomi Hideyoshi also instigated the execution of the 26 Christian martyrs of Kobe. The castle was later given to Ikeda Terumasu due to his commitment for the rule of this father-in-law, Tokugawa Ieyasu. In what was then known as Harima Prefecture, the castle, located on the San’yo (light) Pacific side, was ruled by this charismatic and prestigious second-ranked (fudai) daimyo. The San’in side of the northern Harima region (of Tajima and Kasumi) was ruled by a lower daimyo. Harima, later to become Hyōgo (Hyogo) Prefecture, maintained economic development which was historically eventful and significant until the mid-Showa period, following Japan’s defeat in 1945 at the end of the Pacific War (Table 5.1).

Coastal Reclamation Following 1945 Until the introduction of the railways in the 1860s, Japanese manufacturing relied on water for industrial processing due to its limited coal resources, the transportation of a labour force, product sales routes and various other activities. This eventually led to the establishment of hazardous, heavy industry along its coast initiated by private business conglomerates (zaibatsu) and government organisations (Itosu 1995: 156). Early port configuration of jetties and safe harbour gave way to extensive coastal development and reconfiguration from the late 1800s. Since then, Himeji’s coastal reclamation has been financed by heavy industry,

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Table 5.1   Himeji chronology of main events and developments Year

Events

1185

Taira (Heike) and Minamoto (Genji) clans battle in the Chugoku alps of present-day Hyogo Kobe was capital of Japan Himeji fort first built by Akamatsu Sadanori on Hineyama, later to be rebuilt as Hineyama castle Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598) granted Himeji-jo and remodels it; Kobe Christian execution Himeji-jo transferred to Ikeda Terumasu for success in the Battle of Sekigahara. Himeji-jo reconstructed by Ikeda Terumasu Himeji, a port since the eighth century; coastal reclamation commensurate to castle town status Iron nail industry, Himeji Kobe port re-opened to foreign trade The districts of Harima, Tajima, Awaji, Tanba and Settsu amalgamated as Hyogo Prefecture Kobe Electricity won national innovation awards for shipping and electricity technology Kobe Steel won a national innovation award for technology Modernisation of the Hyogo Pacific military and heavy industrial zones Nippon Steel works established at Abōshi The bombing of the Hyogo coastline during World War II; Himeji castle was not bombed The rebuilding of housing, businesses and industry UNESCO awards Himeji castle a place on the World’s Heritage Treasure listing The Great Hanshin Earthquake Himeji Castle restoration

Twelfth century Fourteenth century 1581 1600 1608 Fifteenth to sixteenth century 1700 1868 1870 1901 1905 1912–1926 1939 1945 1950– 1983 1995 2009–2018

Compiled from Totman (2000), Frederic (2002), Fairbank et  al. (1978) and Odagiri (1996)

municipal, prefectural and national funding. Land reclamation into and extending out of river mouths and surrounding land area or horikomi has led to a heavily reconstructed coastline (Fig. 5.2). The redevelopment of Himeji (as elsewhere in Japan) under the occupation of the Allied Forces and their rewriting of the constitution included disbanding the zaibatsu and its organisational control of industry. Nonetheless, steel production was re-established on the former sites in

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Fig. 5.2  Himeji Port district 1993. The (blue) canals are former rivers redefined since 1893. The yellow line is the 1949 coastline. Adaptations Lesley Crowe-­ Delaney. (Map used with permission of Himeji Port Authority)

Himeji as did other manufacturing; its bay still accommodating associated shipping. Companies’ names of the disbanded zaibatsu were retained, such as Mitsubishi. Himeji remains a traditional manufacturing city with an industrial evolution that typifies a Maritime Industrial Area (Vigarie 1981: 25). To put this development in the context of twentieth-century national coastal reclamation, since 1947 the Japanese coast has been planned, developed and managed on a ‘sector-by sector’ model by government departments at both national and prefectural levels for economic growth (Itosu 1995: 160). Often without consultation and co-ordination with associated departments and important role players and stakeholders such as the Fishing Cooperative Associations and other municipal administration, this has led to a ‘patchwork’ of coastal projects that conflict, overlap or negate each other’s efficiency (Uda et al. 2005: 1, 5). Between 1969 and 1989, as a result of the Public Waterways Act (Itosu 1995: 160), the total length of Japan’s coastline had expanded from 27,792  km to 34,386  km despite only 15,952  km deemed to require coastal erosion protection (Itosu 1995: 156). By 1993, only 45% of Japan’s coastline had remained ‘untouched’ (Environment Agency 1994).

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Yobe

kyokuyou

Aboshi

Otsu

Minamiotsu Aboshi Aboshinishi

Hirohata

Hirohata

Hirohatadaini

Itohiki

Shikama Shikama Mega

Shirahama

Nada Yagi

Matogata

Oshio

Fig. 5.3  The coastline and ports under the Port of Himeji Authority. (Reproduced with permission of Hyogo Prefecture)

Twentieth-century changes include the concretisation of waterways, harbours, increased road and rail and development, schools, small medical centres, post offices and retail, leading to a coastal zone of densely developed coastal facilities. For Himeji, this resulted in its ordered coastal zones, of a green belt, delineated, multimodal and graded set of working seaports and riverside recreational boat jetties. However, this also resulted in a confusion of subdivisions, due to both industrial-driven horikomi and the subsequent village mergers, which resulted in joined names, eradicating others while naming new borders. A jigsaw of several smaller ports and jetties came under the one Port of Himeji Authority. From west to east are the following: Abōshi (heavy industry), Hirohata (utilities such as electricity generation and compatible industry), Shikama (cruise ships and recreational), Nakashima (fish processing, cold storage and auctions), Mega and Shirahama (small industrial and recreational fishing boats, jetty fishing and recreational space) and Nadahama (as part of Shirahama town), the LNG storage port (Fig.  5.3). The immediate coastal zone of Matogata, a relatively undeveloped area, is still named as a port due to a jetty built for recreational fishing. In 2018, the Ōshio golf course and grounds in Nada was extended down to a recreational beach area. There are plans to recommence development of a multistorey fishing centre on the nearby site of Matogata. Shirahama and Matogata coastal areas are now small hamlets of mid-twentieth-century housing, replacing fishing village styles. However, Shirahama west is also planned to be further developed for heavy and light industry. The amalgamation of Shirahama with Nadahama and Matogata towns have led to

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convoluted town names. This reflects the community’s connection to their historical identity and clan heritage, significant because they survived earlier amalgamations including those of the Meiji era.

 unicipal Administration: Amalgamation, M Status and Population Throughout its history, Japanese amalgamations have flexed, stretched and bulged social networks and connections, but certain organisations by their very nature of association, retained remnants of networks (Seidenstecker 1951; Delaney 2015: 268). Prefectural and local municipality amalgamations were historically significant strategies of the Tokugawa era and the Meiji reformers. However, many mergers circumvented power groups by reforming associations as well as agrarian and worker unions and included prefectural mergers. Government administration amalgamations became powerful tools for political control. However, by 1948 despite disbanding the zaibatsu and reforming the powerful clans of fishery and farming associations under the Allied Occupation, powerful roots remained of these old organisational structures in Hyogo and Japan. Amalgamations can also support population growth. An initiative by Meiji leaders to populate regional prefectures for rapid industrial growth industry, Hyogo was a major location for labour force growth for the development of heavy industry, land reclamation projects and future expansionism. However, despite various measures for population and industry growth over the twentieth century, including the 1990s national decentralisation of businesses and labour initiatives, substantial population growth has been difficult for Himeji to sustain. This includes the contrived population growth tactic of municipal amalgamations and increasing land area, more than doubling to 166.40 km2 by 2009 (Himeji Public Relations 1990: 6). In 2006, the national government designated Himeji-shi as a core (municipal) city (one with a population ≥300,000). (See Table 5.2 and Fig. 5.4.)

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Table 5.2  Himeji: Changes in population and area before and after amalgamations Year

Population

Area km2

1888 1940 1946 1950 1967–1975 1975 1989 1999 2009 2018

25,487 140,000 190,000 212,100 Inland and Coastal Amalgamations 436,086 453,586 485,857 536,070 531,881

3.03 106.69

273.09 274.31 534.35

(Himeji Public Relations 1990; Statistics Bureau 2008)

Mid-twentieth-century municipal amalgamations aimed to incorporate underperforming communities with more powerful and financial ones was a national strategy to decrease the number of municipalities. Encouragement tactics included better population ranking and thus access to financial support from prefecture and national funding. This also risked the threat of the less significant communities’ losing political influence, unique culture and traditions. For some municipalities throughout Japan, this has been the reason to reject mergers. For Himeji, this has allowed well-connected families with old community ties and associations to remain alongside other connected and historic industries, some established since before the Meiji restoration. They form formidable alliances and have been obstructive to progressive local government administration for inclusive development and tourism growth.

 imeji Local Government, Planning H and Zoning Municipal council meetings, propose, discuss and agree upon matters related to items such as city regulations, annual budgets and amalgamation issues, coastal construction projects and the like. City council

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Fig. 5.4  Himeji 1888 before and after amalgamations in 2006. Himeji Central outlined in red. (Reproduced with permission of Hyogo Prefecture)

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Josai

N

Joken Nozato Jonan

Joto

Senba

Hayashida

Higashi

Joson

Funatsu Ise

Yamada Yasumurohigashi Mineal Sosa

West

Toyotomi

Tohori

North

Hiromine Oichi

Hakucho

Masui

Yasumuro

Mizukami Aoyama

Johoku

Takaokanishi Takaoka

Mikunino

Middle No.2 Arakawa

Katsuhara Yobe

Aboshi

Agaho Hirohata

Hirohata

Minamiotsu Aboshi

Aboshinishi

Tegara

Joyo Shigo

Otsumo kyokuyou Otsu

Hirohatadaini

Takahama

Tuda

East

Hanado

Middle No.1

Yawata

Taniuchi Tanisoto

Shikama

Bessho

Itohiki

Shikama Mega

Shirahama

Nada Yag

Matogata

Oshio

Fig. 5.5  The nine subdivisions of Himeji-shi. (Reproduced with permission of Hyogo Prefecture)

resolutions are executed through the mayor, the deputy mayors, chief treasurer and the large body of municipal managers. Meetings are held at the town hall offices located in the town administration sector near the public transport centres located in Middle No. 2 on the border of historic middle 1 in central Himeji (Fig. 5.5). Middle 1 includes the castle, business and retail hub and shares its name with the entire municipality, its identity due to its historic castle town status. Himeji Middle 1 (Fig. 5.6) also has an extensive transportation hub and network.

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Fig. 5.6  The City of Himeji 1993. (Reproduced with permission of Hyogo Prefecture)

The central train station has a tourism information centre and has underground shopping malls, as well as corridors to public transport that were busy in 1997 but, by 2005, were quiet and empty of shoppers as train upgrades interrupted business for extensive redevelopment. Bus stations, taxi ranks and the central shopping district as well as multilingual hotels were on the perimeter of this disconnected hub, aimed to mobilise tourists as well as local commuters. This area was ripe for redevelopment and modernisation, and well overdue with the modernisation of Kobe and Osaka. Between the central and coastal districts of Tegara in Middle 2 are several large retail centres, supermarkets, fast-food and retail outlets, and restaurants catering to international and Japanese tastes and budgets. In 2000, the retailer Sanyo in downtown Himeji featured market stands of regional and rural produce and regularly sponsors art exhibitions from museum and private collections. It is in this district that the major

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business families own property as residences, businesses including their restaurants, hotels and vacant or leased real estate. The Himeji concert hall, Parnassus Hall, built between 1972 and 1989 with a seating capacity of over 1600 has been host to international opera companies to local productions; its construction was supported by the Himeji Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Hyogo (and Japan) is also well known for its eki-ben, boxed morsels of food served on trains and at the stations. Originally, vendors sold them through train windows as the trains pulled into the stations, then adding fast, hot noodle soup in stand-up kiosks in addition to the station-­ purchased food that can be eaten on the train (Maneki Foods 2018). Himeji was the first to establish this type of business in Japan, which was introduced in the Meiji period soon after the introduction of trains. Within the urban zone of Middle 1 and 2, amongst large family real estates some of which house multiple generations, are apartments (manshon), a plethora of retail, medical, schools and other services scattered throughout the southern areas of the castle’s old moat precinct. There is a Roman catholic church and girls’ school and Anglican Church, and many small community shrines. Larger shrines ‘belong’ to the older local families who regularly pay for their upkeep. Real estate agglomeration by the few old families has meant that with the appropriate government intervention and connections, rezoning has been made possible. Meanwhile, until such redevelopment rezoning occurs, vacant land is left fallow and overgrown, home to stray cats hunting vermin. Most main roads converge into Himeji central and the Otemae-dori, the straight road leading north to the Himeji castle. From there, as housing development technology improved for landslide safety, high- and medium-density housing extends into the mountainous, urban perimeters of several University of Hyogo campuses accessed by winding roads and small streets as well as main thoroughfares. Heading further north and inland, the land use changes to farming villages clustered with market gardens. Some of these villages are home to small museums, large

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performance centres or multiple-use halls and other local attractions in villages. These settlement patterns radiate into the western and northern sectors of Himeji. The east sector has the same development density and pattern until closer to Sannomiya and Kobe, where density increases commensurate to a capital with approximately 1.5 million. Urban development north into the hinterland beyond the castle was not an early option due to centuries of settlement around the castle, restricted to agriculture. The unstable hills were prone to landslides and flat alluvial plains prone to flooding. Development into this area is still treated with caution due to geological instability of the hills. They are covered in thick bamboo and pine forests, which can contribute to the prevention of slippage disaster and, at the same time, also harbour wild pigs. The options for population growth included apartments in safer, though perhaps undesirable, districts further east near industry and the proposed solar energy estates of Shirahama and Nadahama. However, the need for housing a growing population was and is still not an issue for Himeji. From the central district, heading south to the coastal areas, the urban district transforms to older housing interspersed with small businesses and vacant land, awaiting development. Since 1946, Himeji heavy industry has been generally redeveloped in similar lineal belts. From the mid-­1990s to the mid-2000s, coastal zoning planning graduated from heavy and chemical industry and utilities, to light manufacturing industry, small green belts, then to prefabricated, box-built retail and service outlets and recreational use (such as pachinko parlours and bars), and to urban housing towards the castle. This demarcated zoning is a vestige of the castle town zoning pre-Meiji, although rebuilt after 1945. In 2001, remnant rundown housing for the earlier industry labour pool, was interspersed throughout the heavy industry zones, while small family businesses served the larger, coastal businesses, run from their homes. This systematic planning has its roots in the castle’s fortress moats, while the mixture of land use within the moat remnants is attributed to local enterprises bound to connections with larger enterprises. This is a geography study opportunity at its best!

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Systematic Planning From 1333, Himeji castle was initially built as a fortress on Himeyama Hill, significantly remodelled with fortressing in 1581 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1618, it was last remodelled by Honda Tadamasa, then abandoned when the samurai system was disbanded. It was the only main structure in Himeji saved from the Allied bombings and later restored after 1945. Since the Meiji restoration and the beginnings of new global relationships for political and economic growth, the coastal Harima district, now an administrative municipality within Himeji-shi, led to opportunities for growth of its economy, industry and labour force. Several strategies to achieve such outcomes included the construction of railways, amalgamations with other townships and coastal reclamation in preparation for the surge in economic growth for the nation. The coastal Harima district included the Himeji Port and harbours, the basic settlement pattern of Meiji period Himeji-shi, with the northern hinterland as agriculture and remnants of the castle moats and walls defining the central city of Himeji. A rail system connected to the coastal zone was an early example of multimodel transportation, building on from the original port district of fish, primary product and silver transportation. Roads leading to and from the north, transported goods by horse and human drawn carts to the ports, which then had to be shipped by sea to other parts of Japan. With the introduction of railways, the port areas expanded east and west as throughput increased. In 1871, Himeji and neighbouring Shikama amalgamated along with other small prefectures in the far-reaching northern districts including Tajima to become what now is Hyogo Prefecture. Himeji’s perfect position with its industrialised and modern transportation system led to it being one of the points of war machinery production. The castle survived and, as a beacon of hope, encouraged early economic restoration of Himeji’s economy. As the coast redeveloped, the castle became a tourism attraction to occupation forces. In 1946, village amalgamations occurred connecting Shikama city, the towns of Shirahama, Hirohata and Abōshi (Himeji City 2018).

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The Himeji industrial development period, driven by the national New Long-Run Economic Plan (shin keizai keikaku 1958–1962) to achieve greater economic growth, linked the New Industrial Cities and Special Industrial Districts to facilitate exports from 1962 (Sorensen 2002: 179–181) into the twenty-first century. By 1975, the Shikama passenger terminal centre was completed and further infill and construction in Nakajima began for LNG storage and other utilities. The research for Himeji tourism development here unearthed several features, but none as significant as an orderly development planning system for larger industry types. However, development policy became complex for two reasons. Firstly, the earlier exploitation of the zones by local businesses had led to areas of mixed use. There was a rush for construction development in times of prosperity between the 1960s and late 1980s. Reflecting the national tourism policies, local policy included tourism development to attract funding from every possible avenue. Marina development became a possible tourism attraction and thus could be funded because of tourism industry potential. Redevelopment of heavily polluted brownfields were potentials to attract tourism development funding as did fishery outlets, roadworks and retail outlets bordering the castle—the major tourist attraction. As the Resort Laws were introduced, so did the opportunity for future planning for Himeji coastal development, and tourism was woven into the fabric municipal plans until the earthquake of 1995. This was a second opportunity for stakeholders to realise Himeji coastal development. Major stakeholders took the opportunity to apply for funding to improve and grow the economy, leaving their legacy for the future Himeji, and showcasing marvellous destinations for international and local tourists following the earthquake.

Himeji Tourism Prior to 1995, the majority of Himeji’s tourism attractions were, and still are, found in the Middle 1 and 2 precincts (see earlier). They include parks, museums of fine art, history and sciences, the history library, a zoo and other government and privately owned tourist and leisure attractions adjacent to Otemae-dori, as well as the local hot springs. The ropeway

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station to the Engyoji temple on sacred Mt Shōsha, in the northeast zone from Himeji central, are both touristic places of Japanese attachment due to their status as pilgrimage routes and religious destination, both modernised for access and retained as a cultural heritage sites. Several other historic sites include ancient burial mounds, shrines and temples, many of which are seasonal sites for the local, former village festivals. Other amenities that have been collectively termed ‘tourism facilities’ due to their funding are used mostly by local Himeji people. These are the cultural performance hall, two swimming pools, two parks, four sporting facilities, a children’s park and play area, golf course, driving range and a recreational yacht harbour. In any season, downtown Himeji streets can be busy with locals, domestic and international tourists. Autumn (and spring) can be a busy period with enthusiasts trying to capture the quintessential castle photograph in autumnal colours for various photographic competitions (Fig. 5.7) or the perfect maple leaf to take home.

Fig. 5.7  Autumnal Himeji. Locals and visitors alike cycle, stroll and photograph the castle’s paths. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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Fig. 5.8  Himeji Castle view from Himeji train station, 2019. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

All these municipality tourist attractions and the varied tourism industry as a body are administered under a complex system by the Himeji City’s Tourism Association. This includes the castle’s maintenance, administration and facilities under the specifications of its World Heritage Tourism classification (Fig. 5.8) (Hyōgo Prefectural Board of Education Cultural Asset Protection Office 2003). The gardens around the castle as well as the moat area require maintenance. The remaining walls and gates of the inner and outer areas of the castle are under different management where some are built on roads, while others are part of private homes or the canal system. There is also an extensive volunteer programme, its housing and tasks to manage alongside public and tourist amenities bodies.

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Himeji-jo then is the city’s signature tourist attraction, yet not the main one. In 2001 from a total of 7,466,000 domestic and international tourists, only 662,000 domestic and international tourists visited the castle, while 3,776,000 visited the museums, heritage sites and other historical places of interest, including the pilgrimage listed, Engyoji Shrine (Himeji City Tourism Development Sector TRANS 2001: 3, 6). Festivals attracted 3,280,000 visitors. Tourism data that included ‘coastal’ visits totalled only 410,000, with golf, camping and marine sports as the main attractions. This information and that from a senior executive of Himeji Port were unclear whether marine sports incorporated recreational boats for fishing. Data gathered by way of municipal staff recording car registration plates indicated that mostly local people had used the beach in that period. The executive noted that visitors ‘had not found their way’ to the coastline itself, suggesting that both marketing and desirability for the coast was lacking. If we look at almost three decades of available data, where tourism was a component of regional planning, Himeji’s tourist numbers remained almost static, an undesirable position according to a senior executive of Himeji Tourism Association in 2002. Several special events over a ten-­ year period have generated spikes in tourism numbers. Between 1991 and 2000, overall tourism numbers rose from 6,265,000 to 7,466,000, peaking twice in 1993 and 1999 with the Toyotomi Hideyoshi commemoration festival and Welcome to the 21st Century celebration. These tourism figures indicate a failure to generate revenue growth (Tajima 2001: 204). Table 5.3 compares data between 2004 and 2013; the data between 1991 and 2000 includes castle and Himeji statistics, separated after 2001–2002, possibly due to the transparency policies of the government and access to past split data. It is clear to see that the total tourism numbers for Himeji is not dependent on castle visits between 2004 and 2013, and while these figures may indicate outside factors such as the impact of filmic tourism, research by Seaton (2019) argues that this is not always the reason for such visits. Unknowns exist, personal preferences and influences divide touristic behaviour.

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Table 5.3   Himeji city and castle visitors, 1991–2016. (Compiled from Himeji City Tourism Association 2000a; Hyogo Prefecture and Himeji Municipality 2018) 2014 data na

12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Tourist Total to 2003, Himeji castle only from 2004

Total tourists Himeji

As such, in 2000, the average travel expenditure per (Japanese) adult tourist (Himeji City Tourism Association 2000a) per trip to Himeji was US$382 and expenditure within Himeji was US$140. The national average expenditure on domestic travel was US$900 per adult tourist trip (Tajima 2001: 270). To take an example of the yearly official expenditure for tourism, the Himeji city draft for FY2001 budgeted ¥150,394,000 (US$1,342,620). This managed daily tourist attraction maintenance and expansion, assistance to private guide companies, tourism information centres, development and promotion of international tourism, contributions to corporate development, other tourism campaigns, national treasure campaigns, a street gallery and garden display, the Himeji Castle festival, a Noh event, a castle day and association fees (Himeji City Tourism Authority Development Sector 2001). The cost of the castle restoration during 2010–2015 was approximately US$212 million, not fully completed in late 2019.

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Volunteers In various field observations in Himeji, between 1997 and 2005, I witnessed and participated in an active and highly visible volunteer sector in Himeji. At any time, hundreds of retired and working people in their spare time contributed their labour capital for festival days, as guides, as well as for weekly street and park clean-ups, Chamber of Commerce duties, running festivals, making festival floats, paying fees for the hiring of halls in which to practise performances and tourism association duties. The more traditional style of volunteering for these tasks, was from organised groups, ranging from street communities to larger soroptimist organisations working on local tasks. As these traditional groups fade in society, there is increase in the challenges of group volunteerism (Ogawa 2009) and the management of costs to the public attractions of Himeji. With such anomalies of visitor impacts, the graph above indicates uncertain growth, in fact capping until another major event. The Olympics of 2020 may change and stimulate growth to the area, as tourism strategies propose. As with the rest of Japan until 2015, tourism growth was worrying for various governments’ planning strategies. Ageing populations and the limitations of the Himeji heritage tourism meant that planning needed innovation. The planning in the period 1997–2007 had challenges from various sectors contributing to limited successful outcomes. Planning for coastal Himeji, too, was juggled between various administrations and organisations.

Tourism Planning in 1997–2007 The flagship port of the group of ports under the Himeji Port Authority is the Shikama Port. The 1988 edition (Fig. 5.9) of the plan ‘Himeji Port Renaissance 21’ and the Hyōgo 2001 Plan (Crowe-Delaney 1997: 45; Himeji City International Relations Section 2000: 20; Ministry of Transport and Construction Section Hyōgo Prefecture and Himeji Municipality 1988: i) targeted the early 1990s for ‘Marine Town Shikama’

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Fig. 5.9  Himeji Port Renaissance 21 Plan (Used with permission from Hyogo Prefecture Government)

redevelopment of the port. This included the repurposing of the old rail yards and included port enhancement for various tourism proposals including the establishment of several passenger liner terminals. By the late 1990s, the port had added animal quarantine and a fixed-­ term contract port container storage facility to its other industrial and working port responsibilities. A larger road route was established for the container transportation from nearby Seibu Port Industrial Park (Shikama Kaiun 2005). The Himeji-Shikama Sports Dome, mooted before 1993, finally opened in stages between 2000 and 2003. With the benefit of hindsight, it is now possible to deconstruct Himeji tourism and these coastal development processes following the ‘Lost Decade’ (Ushinawareta Jūnen) of the 1990s depressed economy. Regional Hyogo’s economic growth, however, had begun to regress ten years earlier; its rural towns began struggling even earlier using outmigration and empty houses as indicator. Underperforming local economies in Japan were already considering tourism strategies to bolster local businesses underpinned by the beginning of the first and various versions of the National Resort Laws of the 1980s (Rimmer 1992). These strategies, however, mostly provided buttressing for the construction industry and

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focused on implementing tourism projects in attractive coastal zones. The Himeji industrial zone had remained, however, mostly accommodating of polluting heavy industry and associated transportation by road and sea. Therefore, the promotional strategies of the Himeji Tourism Basic Plan 2001 showcased Himeji as an inexpensive and convenient visitor accommodation alternative for day trips to the Kansai attractions of traditional Kyoto and capital Kobe and entertaining Universal Studios, Osaka. Himeji tourism’s public profile was maintained through various media of the day, of castle images on posters, brochures, maps and flyers. (Internet had limited international advertising potential, written only in Japanese for the domestic market. Social media was in its infancy.) Other goals to improve Himeji tourism focused on hospitality and city culture, local highlights of food and craftwork and the introduction of a slogan for Himeji as well as the festival of lights, similar to Kobe’s own light festival. Redevelopments of the Himeji railway station precinct and tourism information networks were also prioritised. Concurrently from 1993, the Himeji Century 21 Plan (2001) was the municipality’s future proposal for overall growth, envisioning research and development, technology and industry as the future economic base for Himeji. The new Harima Coastal Industrial Zone incorporated new residential outer zones. Within the 25-kilometre radius north of Himeji, central additional land was acquired for the Nishi-Harima Technopolis, an urban/science/industrial development, the Harima Science and Garden City and its housing complex near Hyogo private and public universities and the Super Photon ring (SPring-8) (Sabien 1995: 83–84), part of the larger Kansai Research Complex incorporating Kobe and Osaka, primed for international visitors. Figure 5.10 clearly indicates the coastal (seaside) zone remaining as an industrial space. Long-term manufacturing activities of Himeji remained: steel, iron and metal production and recycling; electrical products and machinery (including data storage research by Daicel and television development at the Toshiba Himeji Works Plant); chemical manufacture; cement

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Fig. 5.10  Himeji Century 21 Plan excerpt of coastal zoning (Himeji City 2001: 6). (Used with permission from Hyogo Prefecture Government)

industry; leather goods and tanning, textiles; foodstuffs, including boiled fish paste (kamaboko) and sake refineries; electricity, gas and fuel (including town gas, LP Gas, benzene and kerosene); other manufactures (matches, glue, gelatine, golf clubs, furniture and ceramics). By 2000, development based on the Himeji Century 21 Plan (Himeji City 2001: 6, 16), but which now included the historic castle town settlement pattern, was used by local tourism and hospitality business developers as a template and framework, respectively, to provide an attractive rejuvenated city. Applications to council and negotiation of current plans led to further complex rezoning of coastal and hinterland industrial and urban zones, and to optimise underused land. Objectives included redevelopment of reclaimed coastal land with redundant warehouses, while ‘unobtrusive’ recycling plants replaced some larger, now-­underutilised

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industrial spaces. Older construction sites were replaced with newer innovative manufacturing. These inclusions to this municipal master Plan briefly were prescribed for the Shikama Port coastal redevelopment and to convert village-urban zones to incorporate tourism for nearby Shirahama Port beach. The Plan gave token references but no detail to the extensive projects planned for coastal development. The Plan aimed for ‘systematic measures to actualise policies’ and ‘short-term specific guidelines for administrative and fiscal management to actualise projects’ (2001: 1–2) and was ahead of its time. Minister Koizumi had yet to gain office to apply his ‘Plan-Do-See’ catch-cry for metered construction development. But old habits die hard. Hyogo Prefecture development juggled new plans to supersede previous ones according to project progression (early, mid or near completion), and a project could be withdrawn, continued or abandoned. Prefectural and municipal petitioning by influential stakeholders continued. At the technical level of both the Hyōgo 2001 Plan and the Himeji Century 21 Plan, neither the main challenges were well aligned with each other’s aims nor did they include provision for master works to take place in a coordinated fashion. Both plans included tourism in their project scopes, but the stakeholders driving the projects had different objectives to both the prefectural and municipal government role players and used loopholes where possible. This resulted in protracted stalemates and, later, suspended projects as national and prefectural directives prioritised budgeting for the recession. When the Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred, both plans struggled to connect projects. Furthermore, nationalistic tourism policies were encouraging Japanese urbanites to participate in environmentalism-based tourism and eco-­ tourism to rural areas. Little or no construction was key to this approach of the back-to nature tourism, taken up formally in policy when Koizumi came to office. From then, low-cost-no-cost activities such as hiking or nature viewing were encouraged. Tourists were urged to patronise existing providers and local amenities, to travel to and spend in low-growth economic regions. For example, in Himeji, vast tulip farms were just one

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of the more cost-effective sightseeing projects along with ‘pick your own vegetables’ on farm plots, which too were suffering from low market and retail spending.

Himeji Port Renaissance Plan 21 While the Himeji Century 21 Plan (Table  5.4) prioritised upgrades to rejuvenate coastal tourism development, development under the Himeji Port Renaissance Plan 21 was compromised due to funding directed to Kobe’s rejuvenation. Together with the Himeji Tourism Basic Plan 2001, these three plans sat under the umbrella strategies of various Hyogo Prefecture policies (1993–2005) (see Chap. 4). There was even a ‘final measures plan for 2001’ published by the Hyogo government for 1998 (Hyōgo-ken 1998). In general, it seemed as though these strategies were in force at the time of strategy and policy publication. Various projects had broken ground, while others were considered started as soon as planning and approval documents were stamped, processed and bound, a general building practice in many countries. Not only were the plans bound in string for storage, but metaphorically bound by economic and disaster disruptions, and restricted by the needs for development, past and present. Approximately 300 projects were contained within the major initiatives of the first Himeji Century 21 Plan. For our purpose here, this included tourism beach development adjacent to Shirahama utilities port, including the safe in-harbour redevelopment for the adjacent busy fishing and industrial (food processing) port of Mega. The features, objectives and major initiatives led to governmental crossovers and competing priorities, a major problem for project implementation according to a Himeji Tourism Department official in 2002. The challenges for Himeji tourism development and in achieving the city’s objective of actualising these projects ‘concisely’ is what continually challenged it into the mid-­ twenty-­first century. Himeji City’s emblem at the time was based on the Roman alphabet ‘C’, ‘represent(ing) the city’s development through concise planning’ (Fig. 5.11) (Himeji City 2001: 19), but it was a challenge to fulfil its motto.

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Table 5.4   Summary of Himeji Century 21 Plan: Features, objectives and initiatives (Himeji City 2001) Priorities and features

Objectives

Citizen participation Reliable city management increases the efficiency of government and financial administration Health and safety National sports and recreation Culture and learning Create a Himeji Cultural Renaissance; utilise Himeji’s cultural traditions and heritage

Government Transparency Promote Himeji Decentralisation

Strength and vitality Stimulate local economy; promote tourism; improve rail systems; improve environment Stimulate local economy; elevate railways and improve city centre Upgrade the designated areas; build a broad-based transportation network: Harima Airport Project as well as water transportation

Major initiatives

Public relations; international exchange; improve public and private sectors Himeji as an example of Build a sports park and martial arts a healthy and safe gymnasium community Upgrade existing Local culture, tourism facilities internationalisation, including youth support educational, cultural facilities and museums, websites and traditions Industry improvement Industry upgrades and in: construction, expansion. heavy industry, city City centre upgrades, tourism revitalisation. improvements and Comprehensive additions, fishing, transportation R&D, international tourism, wholesale markets, farms for produce and tourism; improve the use of the SP-ring 8 and other science projects to be improved by PR; extensive transportation improvements in all modes; rezoning of land use around Shikama (continued)

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Table 5.4 (continued) Priorities and features

Objectives

Attractiveness and comfort Improve delineated zoning Improve landscape of urban areas; Afforestation and create waterfront environments for recreation Roads and parking; preserve existing environments and create new ones

Major initiatives Beautification of parks, city and urban-scapes; improvements in water waste management; improve river environment

Fig. 5.11  Himeji City’s emblem. (International Relations Section 1990). (Used with permission of Hyogo Prefecture Government)

Coasts, Construction, Crossovers and Conflict Alongside the competing priorities within tourism development, the issues of coastal development plagued the administration of the Himeji again due to conflicts of interest, not only with land use but its management. Different departments in both the prefectural and municipal governments had diverse and overlapping jurisdiction over various coastal waterways. In general, ministries and their departments can manage other forms of coastal development, nearby road works and foreshore tourism developments. This however, affects the timing of individual development projects and the flow of funding. Therefore, national and prefectural departmental bureaucrats that introduced or developed plans interrupted each other’s spheres of administration, especially occurring

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after political electioneering from powerful echelons of government. The 1999 A Start for New Coastal Systems (which included previous and existing reconstruction of coastal sector river mouths) was overseen by no less than five government administrative bodies at prefectural and municipal levels, under the further guidelines from several national departments (Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries 1999). Academics and engineers highlight the problems that exist in Japanese coastal management issues. They lament that planning conflicts, together with natural hazards such as precarious beach erosion, become dangerous while management issues are debated at length in a distant office often in Tokyo (Uda et  al. 2005). In the worst-case scenario, the onset of the Fukushima disaster was an indictment of such protracted (mis)management; telling case studies alerted the dangers of coastal erosion and barrier integrity years earlier, but were largely ignored (Uda 2010). Crossovers in planning responsibilities have also resulted in public and private use conflicts (Oshima et  al. 1994). For the Himeji Port management the affluence of the early 1990s led to increases in public activity on the coastline, with the consequences being competition for coastal and harbour space use between recreational fishers and boat owners with professional coastal fishers and which led to increases in licencing disputes.

Port Management and Use Himeji Port management was also a divisional model, but with less intersecting priorities. Aside from the impact of the 1995 earthquake, however, by 1997 Himeji was facing further administrative disruption. The national government mooted plans for the beginning of decentralisation. Primarily, these policies included substantial construction redevelopment projects for the coastal area to incorporate a larger Port of Himeji District (interview with Port director of Himeji 1997). Himeji as a secondary port has a large district extending east to west for 18 kilometres. Various entities manage the port operations (Public Relations Section Planning Bureau 1993: 25). All the ports, wharves, jetties and natural greenspace are managed by the Himeji Port City at

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Shikama Port. Throughput and wharf businesses are overseen by the Himeji Port manager’s offices, and were, in 2002 located in the central business district (CBD). Their authority can extend to the use of vacant land on the port district if there is no direct port use priority, which means that fish processing and the like can be developed. The 1997 expansion plan however, only led to infill with flat, reclaimed land used for open-air storage of short-term raw product such as woodchip from Australia and fertiliser alongside the throughput of heavy and dangerous cargo including LNG and other industrial materials and a shipping lane for passenger ships (Himeji Port Authority 2007). In the aftermath of the Hanshin earthquake and the ensuing Kobe rebuild between 1995 and 1997, Himeji Port had a brief respite from falling productivity with Himeji Port Authority managing part of Kobe’s throughput. After that, Himeji shipping throughput still declined from ¥446,093 million to ¥297,821 million in 2005 (Shikama Kaiun 2005). As a working port, its long-shore wharves did not provide anchorage, ranked as a port of only ‘fair shelter’ (Ports Com 2010). Meanwhile, Kobe Port quickly resumed activities, but the national economic recession of the ‘lost decade’ was reflected in both ports’ throughput value (Fig. 5.12). Remarkably, however, in 2006 the Himeji shipping industry comprised 30 companies. With the changes in global steel needs and industry shifts, so did the types of industry. One company operating since the late 1800s provided 70% of shipping chain for Japan, but with a production value of only ¥1.5–2.0 billion (US$17.6 million) in annual sales (Metal One Corporation 2006). The coastal industrial zoning remained the same and the lasting industrial footprints included vacant and polluted brownfield. Himeji port land use still had little diversity in 2019. Its planned reclamation and redevelopment were slow and largely unfulfilled. Adjacent to the industrial belt remains the small areas for recreational fishing, fish markets on Mega port and hunting for shellfish at Shirahama beach. Hyogo fisheries, like Japan, continued to decline. Licensed recreational fishing had been encouraged by the building of small jetties along the Mega-Shirahama coast, but despite potential income from licensing, this also was problematic due to unpaid fees. Therefore, some jetty

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6000000 5000000 4000000 3000000 2000000

Kobe Exports

Imports

Himeji Exports

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

Year

0

1988

1000000

Imports

Fig. 5.12  Himeji and Kobe throughput in Yen value. (Units: ¥1 million) (Compiled from MLIT and Bureau of Statistics)

developments remained incomplete due to budget controls. The Hyogo government data on the state of its prefectural fishery employment compiled here from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ excel sheets for Hyogo Commerce, Trade and Tourism Statistics in the period 1993–2003, recorded a decline in professional fishing boats from 8197 to 6872, with fishery employees numbers declining from 5016 to 4137. Until 2018, such statistics have been opaque and unreliable; figures have been often combined with value-added production as well as inconsistent categorisation by data-gathering bodies to include or withdraw fish processing and various aquaculture and seaweed production differentiation. Statistical breakdowns were not available from the individual municipalities due to amalgamation negotiations in process. The best data, therefore, were that of the boats and fishers’ employment. The Statistical Bureau of Japan had publicly drawn attention to the difficulties of compiling longitudinal data of the Japanese economy from ministerial

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records. This was attributed to a national organisational culture of the failure to understand the importance of correct and consistent data collection over time (Kitada 2010; Komagata 2010).

 Working Port Unsuitable for Coastal A Tourism: Local Considerations In 1997 and again in 2001 and 2002, a series of interviews with senior executives of the Himeji Port Authority, the Himeji Tourism Association and the Himeji Port Management elucidated the complexities of coastal planning. The difficulties lay in multiple uses of the Himeji coast, its port district and the implications of prioritisation for economic development over the management of the coastal environment. As the issues unfolded, it was evident that visits to the Himeji coast was not a touristic one, but one that should be based on day trips. Fishing on the other hand was recreational tourism, but this too had concerns. The Himeji Port Authority director identified conflicts of use between recreational and professional port users. A Hyogo government department, the director’s offices are in the building of the Port of Himeji, Shikama. With a small staff, the role oversees the daily workings of the ports described earlier, but also includes tourism of the Himeji port waterfront. Real estate agents managed the leasing of small shop spaces of the waiting areas of the ferries. In the context of tourism and port use per se, while no conflict of interest was identified, this also raised an interesting dilemma. Within local and central government tourism planning, recreation (rekurēshon) and leisure (rejā) are classified as domestic tourism, used to improve coastal economies that are based on fisheries. Therefore, in the course of improving local economies through tourism (and recreation and leisure), there is the potential for future conflicts with other coastal land uses. While ports officers agreed that there could be such conflicts, they were resigned to the port’s multiple uses. Figure  5.13 shows clearly defined uses from an aerial view. At ground level, it becomes a confusing array of harbours, jetties and wharves, the result of the amalgamations, port extensions and coastal reclamations.

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Fig. 5.13  The heavily redefined coastline of the Port of Himeji Port district. (Himeji Port City 2007)

Until the development of the Shikama Sports Dome adjacent to recreational fishing boat moorings, Himeji city zoning was well defined. It had a green belt, delineated heavy industry including gas and other utilities and the storage of hazardous chemicals and materials (Fig. 5.14), light industry, dwelling and recreational space, with the retail and urban district by the late 1990s (Crowe-Delaney 1997). As the port had taken over large components of Kobe port throughput following the 1995 earthquake, local pundits and government role players envisioned Himeji would retain the role, while preparing for future tourism and certain port growth (Crowe-Delaney 1997: 44). The potential for the multi-use of Himeji Port and for it to be further developed as a recreational and tourist location by local business stakeholders was spurred on by not only these recreational uses, but the long-term use of a free beach activity.

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Fig. 5.14  Mega Port green belt and Shikama electricity tower. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

Nearby Shirahama beach is home to family outings and beach activities such as seasonal shellfish hunting and digging for pipis. At times, the coastal zone air quality was smoggy, and the roads sizes were limited for large and heavy transportation. Brownfields were found throughout, which were barren due to severe leaching of chemical pollution. The flagship Shikama Port is the busiest of all the ports under the authority of the Port of Himeji. It has the largest capacities and throughput and includes ferry and small cruise ship services. While the management of this area seemed well organised, safety would be questionable should growth in recreational fishing and boat mooring occur, as well as a proposed hotel accommodation site. This area is next to a cement manufacturing plant that covers most of the area in a fine, hazardous dust. In 2002, interviews revealed that recreational fishers conflicted with professional fishers on all jetties and ports. The latter complained of

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reductions in fish numbers due to competition with recreational fishers and their discarded bait, fishing lines and effluent pollution. Other recreational and professional conflicts included the following: • • • •

Recreational fishing in commercially designated areas Illegal mooring Theft of, and damage to, a variety of fishing goods and equipment Disturbance of the aquatic environment by rubbish or through inappropriate boating behaviour by tourists and locals such as unkempt netting, unused fuel barrels and fishing boats with untidy nets; a clear indication of poor maintenance (Fig. 5.15)

It was difficult to collect licence and mooring fees from both fishing sectors. Harbour services for professional fishers’ licences for the working and recreational harbour in Abōshi alone were expected to contribute between ¥7 and ¥30 million per annum to the Himeji government, but their payment was notoriously slow forthcoming. Local ordinances came

Fig. 5.15  Poor jetty maintenance in Nada. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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into effect in 2002 for each small port in Hyogo to restrict pleasure boats from indiscriminate mooring. Hitherto pleasure boats had paid fees to the local Fisheries Union to moor their boats; now fees would be paid directly to the Hyogo government. Recreational fishing, as a leisure tourism industry in Himeji, was not deemed cost-effective. Furthermore, the Himeji Port Authority predicted that further development of small ports would be only for local residents. Rejā fishers and small commercial fishers would be separated into two groups based on the Hyogo laws. However, past experiences dictated that despite the new laws coming into effect, fee collection would remain difficult while boats remain unlicensed, and owners refusing to pay fees. Unclear ownership and owner transience increased these problems. By 2001, the Port of Himeji Authority’s building had many vacant office spaces with one leased to a small restaurant on the first floor and the major tenant being the port authority on upper levels. Although signage advertised that the building was a hotel, in 2002 the reception was permanently closed; the foyer was being used as a shelter for bus and ferry travellers. The passenger liner terminal was a line of coloured temporary awnings (Fig. 5.16), while the heavy industrial buildings remained. The Port of Himeji monument faces south to the Seto Inland Sea. The development of a restaurant atop a new cylindrical hotel, a ‘pro-shop’, large rectangular terminal and ‘strolling path’, extensive landscaping, car parking and retail outlets for local produce had not proceeded. In Kobe, executive staff of the director general of Hyogo Ports and Harbours were certain no further tourism development would occur for the Port of Himeji despite continuous local project proposals (interview 2002). By 2007, only inter-island ferries, small cruise ships of 103 metres and one large liner of 167 metres and 23,000 tons had berthed there (Shikama Kaiun 2005) (Fig. 5.17). Meanwhile, development aimed for other projects persisted stubbornly, considering fishery tourism consisted of fishing and marine activities. East of Shikama Port is the 5 metre–deep fishing port of Mega fishing, where fish and other raw marine products are transported from as far as Tottori, west of northern Hyogo and south from Ieshima. A large auction shed is located on Mega where wholesalers sell and buy fish to commercial, retail and local buyers. Until 1992, Mega allowed 20 tonne

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Fig. 5.16  Port of Himeji offices and Port-Side Hotel, Shikama. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

Fig. 5.17  Shikama Port, Himeji, 2000. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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ships to transport sea bream (tai) to its major distribution and processing plants. Now the preferred transport is overland by truck. The 2001 turnover for marine products such as seaweed was ¥60 million per annum and for pelagic fish, ¥100 million. This port use is managed by the Port of Himeji manager in downtown Himeji.

Non-port Activities The manager, unlike the port director, is employed by the municipal government and oversee several port-only activities, including seafood retail outlets, the fish processing tenants and government-owned marine products processing plants. Despite his department having investigated the option of a tourism project for an umi no eki (port version of the michi-­ no-­eki), there were no plans for future tourism development. As Mega was an industrial port, its district was heavily polluted and a barren brownfield (Fig. 5.18) and its waterways prone to flooding (Fig. 5.19). Despite chemical pollution, the foreshore was a working port with sheds for fish auctions and packaging, mostly redistribution of fish from Ieshima to fish processors, wholesalers and restaurant buyers. As such, it was not suitable for tourism development. However, the manager confirmed that there was potential for further recreational fishing development, east of Mega. In 2001, Mega was also home to a small but state-of-the-art fish processing factory undertaking cleaning, filleting, breading and freezing of fresh fish. Three union groups and one private company controlled the workings of the government-owned factory. As with all Himeji Port district, several small yachting harbours for medium to large-sized boats were interspersed throughout the river mouths. As was then, the distance between any of the three ports is no more 2.5 kilometres, with Shirahama industrial port being 5.5 kilometres across the bay. There was a row of beach houses along the Mega/Shirahama foreshore near the floodgates (see Fig. 5.19). In summer, some small restaurants open and some houses are rented out. If the dwellings are inherited, they may be used as second (holiday) homes.

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Fig. 5.18  Mega Port, brownfield Himeji. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

Fig. 5.19  Mega-Shirahama flood gates. Second homes are at right. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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Coastal Pollution At the turn of the twenty-first century, the population of the entire coast of the Seto Inland Sea (approximately 35 million) represented 28% of Japan’s total population. Such a degree of urbanisation and coastal development, even though there were some undeveloped enclaves, contributed to the pollution of the tidal flats and seaweed beds, resulting in a decline in all fisheries except for certain types of aquaculture. For the Port of Himeji, its main section is the west of Shikama Port is the former heavy industrial site of Hirohata West. In 2003, the final stage of its redevelopment was a new plant owned by Nippon Steel. On a section of the 600 ha, the plant recycles rubber tyres into heavy oil using a scrap melting furnace and a gasification facility. It is ranked as a core business for ‘Hyogo-Eco Town’ by both METI and the Ministry of the Environment (Environmental Affairs Division Nippon Steel Corporation, 2003: 24). (The prefix ‘eco’ can refer to ecological or economic in Japanese language contraction.) Further west again, on reclaimed land jutting into the Seto Inland Sea is Abōshi Port. Another former heavy industrial site, it is now a major industrial water treatment plant called the ‘Ace Plan’. Waste is recycled into reusable materials and achieves energy recovery. Substations throughout Himeji return its recycled water to the waterways for agricultural purposes, with the main treatment plant in the Abōshi Port precinct (Japan Sewage Works Agency 2000). The shipping of waste materials is close to the Shikama public-use recreation marina, the local ferry services, the Mega fishing port and Matogata. To this outside observer, the Matogata fishing jetty was a recreational fishing spot, but according to the director of the Himeji Port Authority, this was not a tourist attraction; instead, it was a problematic, small fishing port, deprived of an income due to an inefficient licencing system, while the fishing club car park had cars probably owned by local inhabitants. Since the 1950s, there have been dredging, channelling and the enlarging of the two channels of the Seto Inland Sea, natural seasonal fluctuations of temperature and salinity, heavy industrial development and sea transportation. Between 1978 and 1991, 1500 ha of seaweed beds and

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800 ha of tidal flats were lost from the entire Seto area, due to reclamation, dredging and development of heavy industry, fish production and storage. The ecology of the coastline was converted to a domination of artificial concrete structures. The natural habitats of living organisms and coastal processes of ‘purification of organic pollution and denitrification’ were disrupted and destroyed (Sekiguchi and Aksornekoae 2008: 88–91). This extensive pollution and eutrophication led to algal red tides having adverse effects on the marine flora and fauna. In 2000, Himeji’s coast had suffered from some of the worst-case scenarios of eutrophication in the Osaka-Kobe bay. Treatment processes included improvements in run-off from fertiliser storage and better containment of raw materials stored on the ports (Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas 2001: 63–72). In 2001, seven recreational fishing locations were identified among the heavily industrialised ports from Abōshi, the Osaka Gas site on Shirahama Port to the eastern parameters of Himeji, including Nakajima (All Japan Safe Casting Union Hyōgo Association 2001: 126–133). According to local academics, pollution along the Himeji coast of the Seto Inland Sea had rendered many fish unsuitable for human consumption. Some commercial fishers from as late as 2002 continued to fish in these waters while local people were allowed to fish (Fig. 5.20). By 2001–2002, the fishing grounds of the southern islands of nearby Ieshima and other islands of the western Seto Inland Sea were sources of less polluted fish being processed through Mega port. The Himeji Municipality had begun amalgamation proceedings with the Ieshima islands group. By 2005, Ieshima was Himeji’s only recommended recreational fishing location despite the purpose-built recreational fishing site of Nakajima jetty. By 2006, the Himeji fishery industry comprised fish transportation and processing, snap freezing and storage with coastal sales and the occasional restaurant or retail outlet nearby. It is questionable that tourism planning could include recreational fishing and beach activities taking place in such a polluted location. Ieshima, as part of Himeji, may be the recreational fishers’ answer and for good reason. Management of the coastline allows for the discharge of ‘dirty ballast’ (Ports Com 2010). This is contaminated seawater with the remnants or residue left in cargo tanks that previously carried crude persistent refined

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Fig. 5.20  Multiple uses of Himeji Port, 2002. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

oils. This action is in contrast to many ports globally which require the time-consuming dumping at sea and exchange with clean water before docking. Yet coastal tourism and its related recreational fishing projects were still being mandated by local entrepreneurs for coastal development.

Himeji Coastal Tourism As the national economy slowed in the 1990s, so too did the completion of major projects under the Hyōgo 2001 Plan. Remnants of the prefectural plans and projects were to be followed according to a basis of needs and allocated funding until another set of plans were put into place in conjunction with another ministerial portfolio. Meanwhile, according to both the Port of Himeji manager and the director, outstanding projects were to be worked on across any of the prefectural departmental portfolios as funding became available. The two areas described here had vastly different backgrounds from which their developments grew. So too, were their outcomes. The eastern end of the Himeji Port sector,

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Matogata-­Oshio, was in a stage of a government-only supported project from village-­edged, unused, vacant land. The western end was the Abōshi project with business support and industry restructuring.

Matogata and Ōshio As with Shikama, Matogata was earmarked for redevelopment as part of the ‘Model Marine City of the twenty-first Century’ (Public Relations Section Planning Bureau Himeji City Office 1993: 41). Matogata (which was amalgamated with the hamlet of Nadahama) and the neighbouring Ōshio are the easternmost ports towns of coastal Himeji. Due to their limited facilities and small populations, yet close proximity to a city, such urban-villages are described as peri-urban (Fig.  5.21). In Japan, these urban-villages are mostly surrounded by vacant land and geographic features such as rivers and mountains that can isolate them from other communities; however, they are accessible to Himeji, which is 20 minutes by car, train or bus. It is questionable whether these locals would benefit from tourism since there are no developed tourist facilities or services and

Fig. 5.21  Urban-village. A car park on Matogata groynes. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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most employment is found outside the villages. The recreational fishing is licenced and slow in these areas. Matogata, in a detailed 2001 official project document (author’s own copy/Fig. 5.22), was the proposed town for Harima Beach development of its shoreline to include a recreation zone with sandy (yellow) beaches and multi-tiered embankments aimed to reinvigorate this end of the fishery zone (Hyōgo-ken 2001: 30). Another natural beach already located on the Shirahama-Matogata seaside, it planned to have a number of smaller sandy beaches

Fig. 5.22  The master plan for the preservation of the littoral and beach of Harima (Hyōgo-ken 2001)

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Fig. 5.23  Coastal development in Matogata and Nadahama village. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

reconstructed from the tidal flats and canalised river systems to expand the main beach. The Matogata foreshore had been partially redeveloped with concrete canalling and infill earmarked for a multistorey recreational facility based on the 1990s fisharina-style development. A fishing jetty was the first stage of this development project with a small shrine dedicated to the fishers lost long ago (Fig.  5.23). Looking back west, the Shikama port is easily seen only 3 kilometres west. This infill development was now overgrown, a bog which at times was malodourous and unusable. In the nearby town of Ōshio, so named after its use as a former salt mine, is the Ōshio (formerly Shiseido) golf course, driving range and Himeji University; formerly only for women, it is now a co-educational facility. The golf course has been expanded, extending down to the beachfront with increased amenities for members and visitors (Fig. 5.24).

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Fig. 5.24  Ōshio golf driving range. A haze of green golf ball nets. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

The Abōshi Port Redevelopment—Tourism Recreational Park Alternative? The Abōshi Port redevelopment included the redevelopment of a hazardous zoned industry and the adjacent brownfields. Some of this land left unused was turned into parkland and designated as ‘recreational facilities’, and in tandem was a small recreational marina, a total coastal redevelopment project. All this was part of an upgrade and restructure by Mitsubishi of its polluting heavy industry, to one of a ‘cleaner’ recycling industry. Collaborating with the Port of Himeji, the municipality and guided by the port director, Abōshi Port was declared a domestic tourism attraction. The funding was provided by a ‘non-tourism’ ministerial department and environmental agency (recycling), the Port of Himeji and Mitsubishi. The project also incorporated a prefectural coastal agency. Therefore, not beginning as a tourism project, this coastal section of the redevelopment eventually became one.

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The pollution problems that beset the Port of Himeji did not discourage its then incumbent director’s enthusiasm for the development of this recreational fishing and tourism development in Abōshi. Of the 65 Hyogo Prefectural development projects, 24 were still pending in 2002 including general Port of Himeji redevelopment. While the Matogata and the Shikama projects were in limbo, the port director was able to activate the Abōshi development with the co-operation of a large corporation that had industrial interests in the area. The coastal area was cleared of many ground pollutants and landscaped with trees, shelters and walkways to become recreational parkland. The redevelopment of parkland surrounded by land for future industrial development had not been publicised in any of the municipal public brochures. The Abōshi industrial precinct is 2.5 kilometres from the LNG utilities port and heavy manufacturing, which was transforming to large recycling plants (Fig. 5.25). The Abōshi Nigasa Community Park is extensively paved and reinforced with concrete retaining walls, steps and platforms (Fig. 5.25). In its early stage of completion, the parkland was mostly used by locals, but was hoped that it would become a tourist destination and also be used for recreational boating.

Fig. 5.25  Abōshi Nigasa Community Park. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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The Himeji Century 21 Master Plan identified new objectives to improve the overall waterfront environment ‘for rest and recreation’ (Himeji City 2001: 8). Even so, industry maintains its primary position in the use of the coastal land of Himeji. The Shikama recreation marina and a smaller version of the original Shikama sports dome (mooted since 1980s), the Abōshi Nigasa Park were the only fully completed projects in 2002. There was a clear project direction and relatively rapid build of the Abōshi community park on this extensive brownfield site. In just six years to completion in three stages, it was overseen by the one department, the Port of Himeji Port Authority and its director and one company sponsorship. In contrast, and still on a former brownfield, the sports dome was completed just in under 20 years. Was this due to the number of stakeholders in the project as well as the proposed redevelopment of the entire working port of Shikama? The next section tells of the difficulties that the various government role players faced from a national, prefectural, local government perspective as well as the various business stakeholders played in the development of Himeji tourism.

 he Challenges for Government Role Players T in Local Stakeholder Relationships They are friends-all friends. Development is controlled by a few highly influential and well-established business families. Improving Himeji’s tourism industry has been compromised by a lack of co-operation and coordination between the various stakeholders. Himeji Tourism Department informant.

The following summarises my fieldwork of interviews through participant observation between 1997 and 2002 and continuing research of relevant secondary sources where accessible. They not only reveal how networks were established, but also provide insight of what remains of the inner workings of traditional business practices established from at least the Meiji period. The degrees of connections (conne) are intrinsic to social and business networks in Himeji’s commerce. As such, they

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contribute to the local cultural perceptions of the coast and tourism/recreation of this urban industrial setting and have played a role in  local stakeholders’ dogged pursuit of a coastal tourism industry for Himeji. Meanwhile, other factors are also at play. This included the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and national and prefectural policymaking for tourism, coastal development and associated planning. At the municipal level, the national political changes, financial instability in the period up to and during the Koizumi era, meant that it was a challenging time for Himeji government role players to manage tourism development projects. The Himeji Tourism Department had to accomplish its responsibilities as a municipal government department and negotiate with the powerful, local business community in order to effect change and sensible equitable tourism development for all local businesses in the municipality.

Community Connections Communities and social networks in Himeji range from common social interest groups to complex business networks that demand the maintenance of strong social ties in what has been described by Japanese ‘outsiders’ as typical behaviour associated with the traditions of castle town communities. For some of the local interviewee who had relocated from outside Himeji, the term ‘castle town’ was used disparagingly. They referred to the cliques, inner workings and connections of the multigenerational community networks, formed and sustained through business or long-standing family lineage in a region. The Himeji business community has strong, historical networks over five or more generations. Businesses required registration from the Meiji period, though many had been established earlier. For this author’s research, these Himeji networks, though not easy to discover, were eventually found in mayoral reports and a local history. It was a matter of working backwards. Western-model business associations were introduced post–World War II and included the ‘Lions’, ‘Soroptimists’ and the modernised Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This therefore allowed a ‘new’

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cultural platform for these family business connections to endure. Himeji council documents reveal that many business projects contain the same names of these long family and friendship ties. In the early twenty-first-­ century social settings, introductions as social and network lubricants included, ‘we went to school together’, ‘our children went to school together’ or ‘our grandparents set up business’s next door to each other’. Feedback from locals outside these cliques included a distrust of this business elite, for coastal tourism, and the need to increase tourism in the central Himeji area. It is understandable that locals’ suspicions of business interests were at the heart of tourism decision-making in Himeji above that of community welfare. They suggested that favouritism, nepotism and self-interest influenced the development of some late twentieth-­ century tourism and leisure attractions in Himeji. One such example of the longevity of networking and connections was revealed in records dating back to 1922. A Hyogo prefectural tourism development project was supported by a prominent Himeji family in hospitality, for the promotion of early prefectural tourism and the establishment of the Himeji Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Into the twenty-first century, several of these business families hold similar posts and representations. Of the over 30 committee members of that 1920s development, again these and other same family names were listed on the board of the Himeji Port Renaissance Plan 21 in both 1988 and 2001, before this port revival plan ended due to funding restrictions and the feasibility for further extensive development (Midzutsuki 1932: 157; Ministry of Transport and Construction Section Hyogo Prefecture and Himeji Municipality 1988: v; Himeji City Committee for Tourism Planning 2001: 18). Of course, then, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Himeji Tourism Association and other business associations have since been dominated by the same powerful business networks. Additionally, there are also large business stakeholders from Himeji’s industrial and coastal development history of the Meiji period. Many had an obsessive commitment to projects that would enhance Himeji’s central zone of the CBD, while developing it towards the coastal zone. These heavy industries’ pollution was offset by taxes that would in turn provide financial support for

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the various world-class public amenities that were built in the CBD between 1970 and 1990s. From 1997, there was again an impetus for coastal growth with mixed industries spurred by the 1995 earthquake. Consistently, the local power group led by the same prominent Himeji business families and supported by several closely connected families, meanwhile contributed to the upkeep and sustainable development of its traditional touristic icons, the castle, temples and gardens. They were wedded to successful outcomes as well. Since the 1950s this group had strongly supported the redevelopment of parkland around the Himeji castle (also known as Shirosagi-jo or white egret castle and Himeji-jo) against a background of resistance from other local businesses (possibly from the opposite side of the castle and its parkland). A samurai-styled house was built with a tea house and fully landscaped gardens and magnificent water features, but its profitability has been questionable as an additional drawcard to Himeji and the castle. Following a fire in the late 1990s, which also destroyed the old Chamber of Commerce buildings on the edge of the parkland facing the castle, a multistorey complex was then built on land acquired adjacent to the destroyed buildings. The redevelopment, named Egret Himeji, included an information centre for tourists and locals, local produce outlets, a library specialising in women’s issues, a gymnasium, restaurants and a centre for international exchange and performance. This concentrated the city’s tourism focus towards the central, castle area. The land and businesses at the opposite side of the castle remained undeveloped and tawdry. Local community members were suspicious of the fire, but investigation did not reveal any misdoings. The castle’s surrounding parklands were refurbished with rest stops as was the small Himeji City Zoo. Later, parkland restoration continued, and the Shirotopia Memorial Park was established, favoured for spring and autumn photography. It needs to be noted that the Himeji Castle, under such prefectural and municipal support, was successfully awarded grant World Heritage status, has become an attraction nationally and internationally and has attracted funding from such listing for its continuous preservation of Japan’s original castles. The Egret Himeji allows tourists to view the castle in the event of rain, it is a centre that holds various local and international

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events in intimate or larger stages, and its library for women’s issues was groundbreaking in its community philosophy. In 2002, there was another generation of presidents for the Himeji Tourism Association and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, maintaining a consistent line of directors from high-profile Himeji businesses since the Meiji period. While I was unable to interview family members, through my participant observation their influence and contribution to Himeji city’s tourism over several generations was evident. A comradery of ‘old boy’s networks’ at weekly and monthly meetings and their general presence at all events and festivals was palpable. Himeji government senior role players, who had to deal with such business stakeholders, found that board members and directors too, often included these family heads, powerful and experienced CEOs who were often evasive or persuasive in negotiations. The prominent government representatives as role players in tourism and port and fishery administration were at the coalface of implementing policy, and had access to gauge local community responses and reactions to tourism policies. For these senior executives of Himeji government and also the Hyogo government role players, only Himeji castle, its adjacent tourism precincts and the Engyōji Temple were suitable for further major tourism development expansion. They did not believe that any strategies earmarked for Himeji coastal tourism development were feasible; rather, a sustainability policy would better serve the tourist attractions already in place. So, for central and coastal projects to proceed beyond council proceedings, this often meant that competitive collusion could occur between various municipal councillors who had stakes in both local business and major industrial corporations. The expected results would benefit tourism and hospitality in the Himeji CBD. An example was the upgrade of the Himeji train station in 2002. Used by domestic and international travellers, the redevelopment was almost finished by 2005 and included the upgrade of a large retail centre benefitting a local leading food chain in its new strategically placed outlet and a few other established businesses. However, many retail spaces remained unleased.

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Government Role Players Battling History Those local business owners have long term financial interests in the city centre’s development. I am fighting with them now, there is a lack of co-operation from the central Himeji tourism businessmen to develop tourism routes into the (populated) countryside north. Himeji Tourism Department informant.

This informant found that meetings with the Himeji Tourism Association to co-ordinate policies and strategies were met with disruptions, delays or ‘no-shows’ from the association members, or whose objections made meetings and cooperation difficult. Such behaviour was also reflected in the competing interests within the Himeji business coterie while contributing to the public amenities of the municipality. The informant and his department had tried to instigate change, but this was challenging. Past tourism attractions added to the central castle and Mt Shōsha were examples of the unsuccessful projects and came under criticism from major stakeholders. The remnants of ideas thrust forward for the expo to make money, and those were concrete developments, had become underutilised. Ugly, unprofitable and ill-located was an aquarium in the mountains and a concrete children’s playground adjacent to the Tegarayama cemetery. Even the profitability of the Samurai garden was questioned by its associated business stakeholders. However, a notable failure was the city’s monorail system. Built for the 1966 Himeji Expo, the monorail train travelled from Himeji station through a multistoried retail centre and apartment accommodation to Tegarayama station. From its opening, it did not meet financial expectations nor functioning capacity and was finally decommissioned in 1974. Abandoned and left to disintegrate, it was to be fully dismantled in 1991, but remnants were still standing in 2002. These too were left to deteriorate (Fig. 5.26). This became a local eyesore with only several derelict columns remaining as a reminder of this unsuccessful tourism/transport project (Demery 2005). Due to be demolished in 2013, local outcry led to its reopening, and to the station repairing, to be used as a lookout and a tourist attraction for Lockheed design enthusiasts as well as a destination for industrial tourists (Pedersen 1989). It was still primed for redevelopment in 2016, but perhaps for apartments. Meanwhile, the Himeji Tourism Department had to contend with other tourism opportunities.

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Fig. 5.26  Disused monorail track, 2001. Remaining pillars are outlined in red. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

The department wanted to extend tourism routes northwest into the rural locations. This would facilitate a regional approach parallel to the national objectives for rural tourism. Again, conflicts were not an unusual experience for the Himeji Tourism Department. Senior officers sought cooperation from established businesses to support tourism expansion throughout the municipality, particularly for inclusion of the inland proprietors. By 2000, what coastal development had occurred was at the cost of northern Himeji tourism growth. Tourism planning had become difficult and fractured to manage. Conforming to the prefectural guidelines under national initiatives to improve rural economies through tourism, the Himeji Tourism Department sought to incorporate tourist attractions north and west of the city centre. Senior departmental role players aimed for fair and equitable distribution of budgets for such projects. This included objectives not only to refresh Himeji’s domestic tourism image itself, the castle and surrounding tourism facilities and outlets, but to incorporate regional abutting municipalities which needed tourism to improve their economies. Established Himeji tourism providers, however, did not want change and expansion of the traditional tourist route area. In the meantime, owners of hobby farms, horticultural plots of popular vegetables and farm visit businesses were beginning to make inroads

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as domestic tourism weekend destinations, family and small international excursions. These ‘country-side’ attractions ranged from pick-your-own flowers and produce, which supplemented friendly, small holding proprietors, to the more extensive botanic and flower garden displays on large acreage. This was particularly evident in northern Himeji’s rural and semi-agricultural areas. The established tourism and hospitality providers of central Himeji, however, fought continuously to have tourist brochures restrict advertising of these outer perimeter tourism attractions and neighbouring municipalities, which, they believed, would detract from their own operations. In 1951, Himeji tourist maps focused on many small shrines along with the castle and Mt Shosha temple complex, train stations, port developments and the castle (Fig. 5.27).

Fig. 5.27  Himeji tourism map 1951. (Himeji Tourist Association and Himeji City Office 2000: 3–4). (Used with permission from Hyogo Prefecture Government)

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Fig. 5.28  Himeji tourist guide 2000. (Himeji Tourist Association and Himeji City Office 2000: 3–4). (Used with permission from Hyogo Prefecture Government)

By 2000, maps, such as in Fig. 5.28, were deceptively large, yet only showed the main tourism attractions out of scale. Although by 2001 maps included new tourism activities within the CBD, northern attractions beyond the temple complex still had been excluded. Interestingly, when I was seeking permission to publish these maps in 2019, initially there was great concern from Hyogo representatives that the maps were not current and did not illustrate a modernised touristic Japan. However, reactionary sentiment remains, obviated in the twenty-first-century digital official tourist brochures and 2019 tourist map ‘Himeji City: Welcome to Himeji’, which still shows limited tourist routes, more so than earlier ones which had also included Mt Shōsha (Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau 2019). Northern Himeji tourism is based on farm experiences, eco-tourism, garden tours and a back-to-nature approach that includes fureai and furusato, representative of the national tourism strategy of the Koizumi-era policies and issued in the prefectural publications. However, opening up northern Himeji means opening up middle Hyogo at the intersection

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railway and roads of the town of Wadayama (see Chap. 4), in Asago-shi. Known for its station’s exchange, the train then takes the traveller to the hot springs’ hub of Kinosaki in winter and the summer beaches of northern Hyogo. Alternatively, the traveller can drive the multiple-laned Bantan Highway, roads from Himeji through tunnels in mountains, onto the smaller roads, which then revert to the single lanes which fall off to rice fields a metre below on either side. Drivers politely reverse or give way. At these points, large farms are interspersed with rural hamlets, before the landscape changes to a mountainous region of trees. These shadow the roads until openings reveal rural housing dotted along smaller roads to the left and right. This was the connection to one of Hyogo’s smaller northern tourism areas, Kasumi on the Sea of Japan.

Bibliography All Japan Safe Casting Union Hyogo Association, 2001. Hyogo no Tsuriba: Koukuu Shashin (Fishing Spots of Hyogo: Aerial Photographs). Kobe: Kobe Shimbun. [in Japanese]. Crowe-Delaney, L. 1997. The Implications and Hazards of Petroleum Storage Facilities on the Nearby Populations of Fremantle and Himeji Ports. Unpublished Honours Dissertation, Social Sciences Department, Curtin University. Delaney, A. E. 2015. Japanese Fishery Cooperative Associations: Governance in an Era of Consolidation. In Interactive Governance for Small-Scale Fisheries: Global Reflections, ed. S. Jentoft and R. Chuenpagdee, 263–280. Switzerland: Springer. Environment Agency. 1994. Natural Parks: List of National and Quasi-National Parks 5.3. Tokyo: Ministry of the Environment Government of Japan. Tajima, M. 2001. Japan Almanac 2002. The Asahi Shimbun Almanac. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun. Environmental Affairs Division Nippon Steel Corporation. 2003. Nippon Steel Environmental Report 2003. Tokyo. Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas. 2001. Seto Inland Sea. EMECS 65.

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Fairbank, J.K., E.O. Reischauer, and A.M. Craig. 1978. East Asia: Transition and Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Frederic, L. 2002. Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Himeji City. 2001. Himeji Century 21 Plan: Master Plan for the City of Himeji. Himeji: Himeji City. ———. 2018. Himeji City. http://www.city.himeji.lg.jp/. Himeji City Committee for Tourism Planning. 2001. Himeji Kankō Kihon Keikaku Teigen (Proposal for the Himeji Tourism Basic Plan). Himeji: Himeji City Committee for Tourism Planning. [in Japanese] (summary in English). Himeji City International Relations Section. 2000. Himeji, Japan. Himeji: Himeji City. Himeji City Tourism Association. 2000a. Himeji-shi kankō ryudō chyōsa hōkoku. (Himeji City Tourism Report 2000). Himeji-shi: Himeji kankōkyōkai. [in Japanese]. ———. 2000b. History of Himeji and its Cultural Town. Himeji: Himeji City Tourism Association. Himeji City Tourism Authority Development Sector. 2001. Tourism Background, Plans and Objectives. Himeji: Himeji City Tourism Authority. Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau. 2019. Himeji City: Welcome to Himeji (English). Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau. Himeji Port Authority. 2007. Port of Himeji. Himeji: Shikamakaiun. Co. Himeji Public Relations. 1990. A Century of Himeji City 1889–1989. Himeji City. Himeji Tourist Association and Himeji City Office. 2000. Himeji Tourist Guide. Himeji: Himeji City. Hyogo Prefecture Board of Education Cultural Asset Protection Office. 2003. Japan: Himeji-Jo. Kobe: Hyogo Prefecture. https://whc.unesco.org/archive/ periodicreporting/apa/cycle01/section2/661-summary.pdf. Hyogo Prefecture, and Himeji Municipality. 2018. Himeji Harbor Passenger Terminal Complex Area Redesign Master Plan (Himeji Minato Taaminaru Eria Renyuuaru Khonkeikaku). Kobe: Hyogo Prefecture Harbour Public Services Industrial Promotion Division. [in Japanese]. Hyōgo-ken. 1998. Keikaku Shiage no Hōsaku Sōzōteki Fukkō to Katsuriyokuaru Sōzōteki Shakai. (The Final Measures of the Hyōgo 2001 Plan: Towards a Mature Society with a Vital and Creative Reconstruction). Kobe: Hyogo Prefecture. [in Japanese].

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———. 2001. Himeji Century 21 Plan: Master Plan for the City of Himeji (Harima Engan Kaigan Hozen Kihonkeikaku). Kobe: Hyogo Prefecture. [in Japanese]. International Relations Section. 1990. Himeji, Japan. Himeji: Himeji City. Itosu, C. 1995. Japan. In Coastal Management in the Asian-Pacific Region: Issues and Approaches, ed. K.  Hotta and I.M.  Dutton, 155–166. Tokyo: Japan International Marine Science and Technology Foundation. Japan Sewage Works Agency. 2000. Hyōgo Nishi Gesuidō Odei Kouiki Shorigyou Eesupuran (Hyōgo Sludge Disposal Processing Industry- Ace Plan). Akasaka, Tokyo. [in Japanese]. Kitada, H. 2010. Country Paper (Japan). Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific. www.unsiap.or.jp/ms/ms9/ms9_cp_japan.pdf. Komagata, K. 2010. Toward Better Communication with Data Suppliers: Experience of Japan. Statistical Institute for Asian and the Pacific. www.unsiap. or.jp/ms/ms8/p04-japan.ppt. Maneki Foods. 2018. Himeji Ekisoba-Maneki. Maneki Foods. https://manekifoods.com/. Metal One Corporation. 2006. Himeji: Town of Chain Production. Value One. Midzutsuki, G. 1932. Glimpses of Hyōgo Prefecture. Kobe: Commercial and Industrial Association of Hyōgo Prefecture. Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries. 1999. Atarashii Kaiganseido no Sutaato: Utsukushiiku, Anzen de Ikikishita Kaigan o Mezashite (The Beginning of New Coastal Systems. A Fresh Aim for a Safe and Beautiful Coast) addendum 2000. Himeji: Port of Himeji. [in Japanese]. Ministry of Transport and Construction Section Hyōgo Prefecture and Himeji Municipality. 1988. Himeji Po-to Renessansu 21: Chōsahōkokusho-Marintaun Shikama no Sōshutsu (Himeji Port Renaissance 21: An Investigative Report for the Creation of Shikama Marine Town). Himeji: Himeji Municipality. [in Japanese]. Odagiri, H., and A. Goto. 1996. Technology and Industrial Development in Japan: Building Capabilities by Learning, Innovation and Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ogawa, A. 2009. The Failure of Civil Society? The Third Sector and the State in Contemporary Japan. New York: State University of New York Press. Oshima, N., S. Kida, M. Manbe, and N. Mikami. 1994. Fisharina Policies in Japan. In Marinas, Parks and Recreation Developments, ed. M.  Flug and F.A. Klancnik. Wisconsin: American Society of Civil Engineers. Pedersen, K. 1989. The Monorail Society: Lockheed Monorail. http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/Lockheed03.html.

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Ports Com. 2010. Port of Himeji, Japan. http://ports.com/japan/port-of-himeji. Public Relations Section Planning Bureau. 1993. The City of Himeji. Himeji City Office: City of Himeji. Rimmer, P. 1992. Japan’s ‘Resort Archipelago’: Creating Regions of Fun, Pleasure, Relaxation and Recreation. Environment and Planning A 24: 1599–1625. Sabien, B. 1995. Regional Development in Japan and the Hyogo Prefecture. Perth: Western Australian New Leader with the Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Seaton, Philip. 2019. On the trail of the Last Samurai (III). International Journal of Contents Tourism 4: 32–44. Seidenstecker, E.G. 1951. Japanese Fisheries Reform. Far Eastern Survey 20 (18): 185–189. Accessed February 27, 2007. Sekiguchi, H., and S.  Aksornekoae. 2008. Eutrophication and It Causes/ Consequences: The Case of the Seto Inland Sea. In Asia-Pacific Coasts and their Management: States of Environment, ed. N.  Mimura, 78–91. Dordrecht: Springer. Shikama Kaiun. 2005. Shikama kaiun kabushiki gaishya no hōmupe-ji e yōkoso ! (Welcome! Shikama Kaiun Co., Ltd.) Shikama Kaiun Co., Ltd. http://www. shikamakaiun.co.jp/fr47.html. [in Japanese]. Sorensen, Andre. 2002. In The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the 21st Century, ed. Nissan Institute. London: Routledge. Soy, S.K. 1997. The Case Study as a Research Method. Unpublished paper. Austin: University of Texas. http://faculty.cbu.ca/pmacintyre/course_ pages/MBA603/MBA603_files/The%20Case%20Study%20as%20a%20 Research%20Method.pdf. Statistics Bureau. 2008. Populations of Cities. Tokyo: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Terry, T. Philip. 1927. Terry’s Guide to the Japanese Empire including Korea and Formosa. Handbook for Travellers. Boston: Mifflin. Totman, C. 2000. A History of Japan. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Uda, T. 2010. Japan’s Beach Erosion: Reality and Future Measures. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd. Uda, T., T.  San-nami, M.  Serizawa, and K.  Furuike. 2005. Beach Erosion in Japan as a Structural Problem. In 14th Biennial Coastal Zone Conference 2005. Vigarie, A. 1981. Maritime Industrial Development Areas: Structural Evolution and Implications for Regional Development. In Cityport Industrial Development and Regional: Spatial Analysis and Planning Strategies, ed. B.S. Hoyle and D.A. Pinder. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

6 Coastal Tourism in Rural Japan: Issues of Fisheries, Heritage and Culture in Kasumi

Introduction In contrast to the coastal development of Himeji, is that of Kasumi, a small fishing town on the Sea of Japan. Kasumi, as a rural town, had also been affected by mid-twentieth and early twenty-first-century national and prefectural policies that have incorporated tourism as a revitalisation strategy for regional economies. Coastal development occurred in Kasumi’s history from as early as the 1700s and perhaps earlier. Small wooden jetties were made as safe platforms from which to fish, thus becoming more structurally reliable as timber and building technologies improved. Accordingly, furthering coastal development was commensurate to improved fishery catches and production. Along with fishery technology, storage and transportation became foci until the mid-1940s. Following the hiatus of World War II until 1976, fish production increased in Kasumi, but so too did it for every town along this coast. From the 1960s, Japan’s construction industry became a driving force. For rural and regional development, the construction sector was supported by several ministerial portfolios in the © The Author(s) 2020 L. Crowe-Delaney, Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1_6

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guise of local economic growth that incorporated or facilitated tourism projects alongside rural fisheries’ needs for infrastructure. From the mid-1990s through to the mid-2000s, national budgetary constraints, policy changes, bank closures and national business collapses had an adverse effect on the Kasumi fisheries-based economy. Nationally led regional revitalisation strategies included complicating directives, which placed further pressure on this local municipal administration not used to responding quickly to injections, diversions or the withdrawal of funding by the prefectural (directly) or national governments (indirectly). The local fishery industry thus anchored this small coastal-based community by providing continuity in terms of cultural and social significance with strong leadership from local Fisheries Cooperative Association and various community leaders, but not all. Between the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1990s ‘lost decade’, fishery towns attracted upgrades to road and rail transportation for faster and improved delivery systems of fish to big city markets. Land reclamation and infill allowed for the development of safe and larger harbours and sustained both the industry and the town infrastructure. The Kasumi municipal administration vied greedily for subsidies, competing with neighbouring towns and became attracted by single focus injections of funds specifically for the fishing industry. From the 1970s, this led to the total restructuring of the coastal community on one of the few remaining natural coastlines of Japan and created social divisions including those who had small tourism businesses. The complexities of geography, community, industry and local politics intersect. Mishandled in rural towns, they are magnified and further jostled by prefectural and national politicking as well as by global shifts. Aside from Hyogo prefecture’s political history which led to the division of land use, a contributing factor of course was its physical geography of centrally dividing mountains and rivers. But a clear and distinctive separation of human use of the north coast was set to use, following a long history of fishing with a graduating use of the hinterland to include agriculture and animal husbandry. This examination of the prefecture’s land use also allows us to understand the connectedness in communities that exist in precarious rural settings and the future of these communities’ roles. For a small population in such an exposed coastal environment,

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both politically and physically, the people of Kasumi face the typical issues of rural fisheries even in the twenty-first century. The national and prefectural policy interventions for the betterment of regional Japan has added to the responsibilities and roles played by local stakeholders, municipal employees of general and fishery administration. This includes the temporary prefectural fishery representatives seconded from Kobe to the northern prefectural fishery institute. For some already-­ powerful local stakeholders, this also represents a perceived sense of entitlement in decision-making. The time period in this chapter focuses on the mid-1990s to 2002. Like the previous ones, this chapter deals with some history and provides a background for the town’s complex issues. History, however, also shapes contemporary issues. As with this book’s account so far, at times a retrospective account is offered to explain a current scenario for the fisheries, coastal development and semi-unplanned growth of this small coastal-­ based tourism industry. Chapter 6, the second part of the Kasumi story, focuses on the strategies for rural revitalisation of this town. Nevertheless, it is the fisheries that underpin much of the decision-making from the national to the local levels, but it is only one contributing factor in a range of dilemma that create challenging impacts for rural-coastal economic growth.

Kasumi—A Rural-Coastal Community While much of coastal Japan has been altered due to various reconstruction, an early geographical description of this Hyogo coastline remains relevant today; ‘rocky (and) precipitous … due to steep marginal down warping of mountain land’ (Trewartha 1965: 37). As such, this northern coast has a hinterland of limited alluvial soils. Steep mountains close to the coast create a gradient for orographic rainfall. Deepwater offshore trenches stop abruptly at the shore. In winter, the region is inhospitable due to the Siberian winds, heavy and prolonged snowfall and below-­ freezing temperatures. The three other seasons are stereotypes of quintessential Japan: cherry blossoms in spring, the autumn colours of exotic deciduous fruit trees (persimmons originally from China) growing wild

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among the dense pine trees and bamboo, and their turning green again in summers averaging 28 degrees Celsius. This area’s unique geological formations and limited restructure led to its inclusion in UNESCO’s Geopark certification. Beyond Tajima’s coastal area is a limited hinterland unsuitable for extensive development, restricting industrial growth and making its harbours unsuitable in the dangerous wintertime for large ships. While Japan is approximately the size of New Zealand or the state of Victoria in Australia, crossing from this northern coast of Kasumi over the Japanese Alps to Himeji or Kobe can make wintertime car travel unfeasible. Roads and railways can be blocked from snow, ice and landslides. Vehicles and trains have been tossed like toys and thrown by destructive winds. Tunnels, major toll collection points and roadworks can further restrict car travel from 6 hours to 12 hours. Despite these conditions, ski enthusiasts annually make their way to the snowfields of the alps. Kasumi is nestled in a c-shaped bay of a larger indented shoreline central to the Hyogo prefecture’s northern coastline of the San’in Kaigan (Fig. 6.1). Together with the coasts west in Tottori and east in Kyoto, this coast was designated a quasi-national park in 1963, elevated to the status of a Japanese Geopark in 2008, certified a World Geopark in 2010 and a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2015 (Secretariat San’in Kaigan Geopark Promotion Council 2019). While the Kasumi coastal area is approximately 88 kilometres, the Kasumi municipal land area in 2001 was 137.14 square kilometres. The whole north coast of Hyogo Prefecture is also the entire northern coastal region of Tajima-shi, a remnant administrative prefecture in the Tokugawa era to be later amalgamated with the Harima province to become Hyogo. The Geopark secretariat sits in Toyooka, Tajima-shi, Hyogo. From Kasumi, trains run west to Tottori prefecture and east to the Toyooka interchange. There is a direct train service between Kasumi and Himeji as well as a major toll highway connecting both in central Tajima at Wadayama to Kobe and Osaka. Travelling by car, Toyooka is approximately 30 minutes south east of Kasumi. The capital is a business, retail and industrial centre. Its population in 2015 was less than 82,000. Built mostly on the western side of the Maruyama River, Toyooka city is a transportation hub for shipping, rail, bus exchange and roadways. These

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Fig. 6.1  Kyū Kasumi 2019. (Source: Author)

connect across the city within the municipality and then route south to the prefectures and cities of Osaka and Kyoto. While most of Tajima’s roads are sealed and connected to the villages, they are based on the former agricultural tracks and farms that abut the roadside. Many non-­ arterial roads are narrow, allowing one car at a time to pass as concreted and canalled kerbs fall a metre down to rice fields below. The major north-south tollway is therefore the preferred road to travel on especially in the snow season. An east-west bypass connects Toyooka to Tottori and from this bypass in the distance to the left; the new Kami-cho municipal offices can be seen in outer Kasumi. In 2003, Kasumi municipality amalgamated with three other smaller municipalities (by populations and economies), and all three became

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known as Kami-cho. The amalgamation with Muraoka and Mikata, both of the Mikata-Gun (district), eventually subsumed the Kinosaki district. As of this writing, they all are now under the district of Mikata. Kasumi retained a strong administrative role in the amalgamations; original potential mergers with two other towns had disagreements which led to their exclusion. The coastal town prior to the final merger is the focus here. Known as Kyū-Kasumi from the local dialect, Kasumi is the location of the municipality’s town administration centre, the town hall, or yakuba. This indicates the once-prominent status of Kasumi in this fishery region. Thus, the ‘shire’ of Mikata-gun is part of the larger regional district of Tajima-shi in the prefecture of Hyogo. The much larger amalgamated municipality is now known Kami-cho. The local administrative area of Tajima-shi is Toyooka, also the name of the capital of the Tajima-­ shi region. Like the smaller municipality, it elects its own representatives and is one of the five ‘shi’, such as Himeji, that are the larger divisions within Hyogo Prefecture. History and local cultures have played a role in the retention of these locations’ names and their divisions. Further south across the inland from the coast, Tajima’s main rural tourism industry consists of hot springs (onsen) and snow skiing resorts. Other attractions include farm visits based on the major livestock production of Tajima beef. The coastal tourism activities of Tajima include water sports, fishing, summer camping, family accommodation, minshuku (Japanese-styled bed and breakfast), searching for unique, local produce and gourmet cuisine. Kasumi, a former major producer of fish, is one of three towns along this Hyogo section of coast that can offer all of these activities in its area. Accommodation, restaurants, cafes and way stations are scattered throughout the Mikata district.

 History of Coast Reclamation A and Development Land reclamation has been essential to Kasumi’s fishing industry and the safety of the dependent community that supports this single production-­ based fishery industry. As with other harbours in Hyogo during the Meiji

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period, the restructure of Kasumi Bay was to accommodate larger fishing boats and their increasing number. One of the earliest available maps dated in the Meiji period, but possibly drawn earlier (Fig. 6.2), indicates a jetty on what is now the Eastern Port. It was initially connected to a track or road network extending into the town’s hinterland. The map details a north-facing rural Kasumi. Maps such as these may have changed hands several times over generations to new local administrative caretakers which took care of the maps for referencing, safekeeping for village business and ownership disputes, by employing those skilled in cartography to make additions resulting from construction.

Fig. 6.2  Kasumi Bay, early Meiji period. (With kind permission of the TFRI)

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This map details cross-hashing to represent pine trees (matsu) on the c-shaped bay with a village settlement behind these trees. The earlier practice of Tokugawa geologists to plant pines was to create windbreaks and minimise coastal erosion, and thus was arguably one of Japan’s first coastal development strategies. A sandbar points north to a small island, while to the east is the jetty that juts into the ocean. From closer investigation of this map by classical Japanese language readers, it appears that the red lines in the map may be redirected rivers or their canalling. Japanese maps produced in this period often did not show scale and due north. Place names were commonly written facing outwards circling the islands. A later map from 1939 (Fig. 6.3) displays intensive reclamation and re-routing along the Kasumi coastline. Several smaller river channels had been canalled into grids to mitigate flooding, control irrigation and develop agricultural space for rice fields and vegetables. Kasumi Bay by then was divided into the Western (W) and Eastern (E) ports and the sandbar had been infilled to create a habitable land bridge to the former small, mountainous island. This infilled area houses all the main fishery ports, administration, small-scale fish processing factories and housing. The map’s scale and shipping lines may have been drawn in later. As the map indicates, most of the pine trees were removed and replaced by groynes, buildings, a railway line, built in 1868, and more roads. The housing and administrative buildings were built on the foreshore. Eventually, all pine trees were removed, and the area was prone to extensive tidal flooding. Four jetties of the Western Port were built from 1912. They replaced the Meiji jetty of the Eastern Port. Agricultural land was developed further south along the Yadogawa River toward the Daijyōji Temple, represented by a small red circle on the map. Despite the introduction of rock groynes in 1925, the village was still exposed to the open sea. In 1950, erosion remained a serious hazard for wooden dwellings and fish processing sheds, many of which broke and fell into the open waters as the high tides rushed past the sandy beaches. These destructive tides washed out all sand, breaking and eroding into more solid ground on where the houses were built and cast warehouses full of seafood back to the ocean. In 1952, the Western Port had expanded

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Fig. 6.3  Kasumi Port, 1939. (With kind permission of the TFRI)

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Fig. 6.4  Takeno village, 2001. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

to include a breakwater and further potential tidal destruction began to be managed. Figure 6.4 depicts a settlement footprint near a village in neighbouring Takeno which is similar to that of 1950s Kasumi. A groyne built in the 1980s protects the village, but in the 1950s these protection measures had yet to be built. By 1973, extensive concrete groynes and jetty development were built at right angles to the coastline in the same shape as 1939. Kasumi’s Western Port had been extended and upgraded with the use of tetrapods to facilitate the exponential growth in the local fishery industry as a result of Japan’s extensive and intensive technological upgrades for the industry as a whole. As in other parts of Japan, fishery research and aquaculture ponds were also constructed. At the Eastern Port, further land reclamation prepared the site for the future Tajima Fisheries Research Institute (TFRI), a prefectural fishery station whose head office is in Kobe (Fig. 6.5). All amenities, including the museum, are within a 15-minute walk from the western recreation port. Along the coastal road, although of historical and architectural interest, many wooden buildings were replaced by sturdier concrete construction for administrative use and most housing moved back one street

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Fig. 6.5  Kasumi Eastern and Western ports, 2019. The eastern working port and fishery administration is in the distance. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

inland. Exposure to the destructive weather still created havoc to the foreshore, and later more concrete walls were constructed (mid-ground (Fig. 6.6)), to separate the beach from the coastal road that is lined with housing, minshuku and small businesses. Between 1988 and 1997 in the era of the Resort Law, economic revitalisation projects had already taken place at the Eastern Port district. Along with the construction of the TFRI, the groynes were moved out further into the bay and the small mountainous island was flattened and reclaimed, covered in concrete for the aquaculture centre and other testing areas for the TFRI and its educational facilities (Fig. 6.5). The Kasumi Maritime (Fisheries) Museum was located nearby. The Imamura Family Inn, a municipal-managed accommodation, dining and function centre was built atop the cliff that overlooks the coast and fisheries. The extensive use of tetrapods created not only safer harbour conditions for fishing

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Fig. 6.6  Kasumi foreshore, 2001. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

and research vessels, but also platforms for local and visiting recreational fishers and protected breeding grounds for fingerlings and crabs. Inland along the Yadogawa River, 1990s reconstruction projects included housing, concreted block levees, the redirection of rivers (Fig. 6.7) and further upstream, a dam. Locals claimed that the construction of the dam added to flooding downstream in Kasumi, while Hyogo Rivers Department engineers also held concerns that the dam contributed to coastal and hinterland flooding. The extensive use of levees on the river are over 20 metres high in some areas. Small housing estates were built on agricultural land bordering the Yadogawa (Fig.  6.8) approximately a metre above the flood prone rice fields. Some locals chose to relocate to these estates from older coastal houses or to create a safe living space for their extended families.

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Fig. 6.7  Kasumi levee across the Yadogawa. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

General Land Use The Western Port Bay is approximately 1350 metres across at its entrance with the majority of development in the oldest (pre-Tokugawa era) settled area of Kyū Kasumi to the east of the Yadogawa River. Post 1950s development extends south-east of the river on higher ground than the west, while the coastline is the rebuilt area from the old fishers’ zone of wooden houses. This beach area is lined with buildings housing the Fisheries Cooperative Association, union and administration headquarters, auction sheds, wholesale and retail outlets, and restaurants. One of these restaurants in 2001 only served local people and not tourists from Japan or elsewhere. Further to the west of the Western port are the small businesses of fish cold storage/retail, seafood processing, more restaurants and some minshuku, offering an overall regional food experience focusing on local marine and agricultural produce for tourists. To the west of the Yadogawa River mouth are second homes built for tourist purpose. This is an exclusive area with houses not reflecting the history of

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Fig. 6.8  A modern housing estate adjacent to a levee and agricultural land, Yadogawa east. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

fishery homes, but more prestigious properties, and included the town’s third, non-chain supermarket which reopened for business under new management in 2005. Extending along the river into the hinterland into Kasumi are small fish processing factories, housing, schools, restaurants, bars, cafes, general retail, pachinko parlours and the municipal hub (Fig. 6.9). A large laundry business services the hospitality industry. Agriculture is located further south along the Yadogawa, although garden plots can also be found on the coast. Many owners of agricultural land live adjacent to their plots. However, those who have multiple businesses, which include farms, travel by car to their various properties. Interspersed in this settlement is the main Shintō Temple, named Daijyōji. Small plots of cemeteries and single Shintō shrines dedicated to the various local deity are scattered over the entire municipality. Housing styles vary. While there are those that have been maintained over several generations, there are also newly built ones too. Older homes have facades that are historically maintained with sliding doors giving

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Fig. 6.9  Streetscape Kasumi, 2001. This street heads north from the station to the beachfront. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

restricted access to shopfronts for small business (Fig. 6.10). The family structure may comprise four generations. Two storied dwellings which facing the main coastal road are weathered from the ocean and are excellent examples of fishing village architecture with shopfronts facing the road and close to the ports and boats (Fig. 6.11). In contrast, the mountain settlements contain multiple-level housing, small shops, restaurants and schools all of which are perched precariously on steep slopes. These belong to the remaining Heike descendants whose ancestors retreated here following their twelfth-century defeat by the Genji (McCullough 1988) (Fig. 6.12). Further inland, some of the older agricultural holdings have housing separated short distances from their farming plots (Fig. 6.13). Along the main road leading into Kasumi from the south are three businesses established in the Meiji period: a sake distillery; a food processor of vinegars, pickles, pear wine and condiments; and a soy sauce (shoyu) producer. Newer businesses reflect the influence of the global economy,

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Fig. 6.10  Traditional house, shuttered shopfront and street front, Kyū Kasumi. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

such as petrol stations, another supermarket, convenience stores and clothing shops (Fig. 6.14). Delineated blocks to the east of the Yadogawa and south of the more densely populated Kyū Kasumi exhibit a mixture of rice, vegetable and flower fields on either side of the road. The Daijyōji Temple founded by the Buddhist monk, Murayama, in the seventeenth century is located at the inland edge of this old and central area of Kasumi (Fig. 6.15). Daijyōji is located on tourist maps and together with the natural hot springs onsen, which was opened in 2000, and the newly built michi-no-eki, housing a restaurant, souvenirs and local products for sale, are the main cultural attractions to area. The other is the beach. By 1942, the built environment of Kasumi had changed from that of a traditional coastal fishing village to that of a substantial town with prominent and successful fishing port. Served by the Oki cold mass and the Tsushima warm current, the ocean supports sardine, two types of

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Fig. 6.11  Fishing village housing in Kyū Kasumi. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

mackerel, Matsuba-gani, squid and other fish. The period between the 1960s and the mid-1970s was the peak of Kasumi’s fisheries. Intensive fishing using state-of-the-art technology ensured that the Kasumi fisheries were the largest producers in the division of North West Honshu. The costs of redevelopment of the town were tested however, as fishing stocks became depleted. With the exception of horse mackerel, overfishing between 1973 and 1997, led to a decline in all species’ yields and was intensified by the implementation of the Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) ratified in 1982. This limited all Japanese fishing grounds to 200 kilometres from its shores. This also allowed Chinese and Korean fishers greater access to the fishing grounds and, therefore, a greater stress on fish stocks (Sakai Fisheries 1999). By 2005, the coastal area of Kasumi was dominated by the utility architecture of concrete buildings from the 1970s, signifiers of the town’s former economic prosperity. The ocean too was a concreted space with the extensive use of tetrapod breakwaters and groynes highlighting the significance of the fishery industry to the local economy. The visual

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Fig. 6.12  Heike mountain housing overlooking Kasumi Bay. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

beauty of Kasumi had been lost to what was considered an ugly line of unfettered development. This scenario together with the over-exploitation of Kasumi’s natural resources, and the resultant unsustainability of its fishing industry began to test locals’ faith in the sustainability of their community. Kasumi could no longer support itself due to its declining population and fishing industry. The reduced labour pool as a result of an ageing population, outmigration and the undesirable image and hard-working conditions of the fishing industry, made more so by a depleted fish stock, has highlighted how integrated a rural-coastal economy is such like that of Kasumi. It also highlights the instability of the rural fishing industry.

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Fig. 6.13  Housing above the Yadogawa. Vegetable plots alongside drying persimmon. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

Fig. 6.14  New development in Kasumi. A group of retail shops at a new crossroads leading to agricultural land. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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Fig. 6.15  The Gateway of Daijyōji Buddhist Temple.  (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

 ommunity Profile: A Challenge C for the Local Industry Other factors that have contributed to the precarity of the Kasumi economy are its profile. Demographic shifts, land and housing use, temporary and permanent population migration and labour force skills are contributors to Kasumi’s economic issues. The whole of the Kasumi population declined from 14,502 in 1995 to 14,081  in 1999 or 3.5%. This was commensurate with neighbouring Takeno and Kinosaki with similar rates of decline of 2.2% and 5.4%, respectively (Statistics Bureau of Japan. 2000). Kasumi population numbers fell again to 13,998 people in 2000. For Kasumi, the municipality estimated that in 2005 in this area of the coast and its immediate hinterland, 8000 lived here. The official figures tallied much less as statistics in hindsight revealed 7508 with projected losses of 400 people per year (Kami-cho Planning Division 2015: 29).

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Kasumi Populaon April-Oct 2001

14,420

Populaon Trend

14,410 14,400 14,390 14,380 14,370 14,360 14,350

Fig. 6.16  The population shift in Kasumi, 2001. (Adapted from Kasumi Machi Suisan Gyōshinkō Kyōkai 2001)

Kasumi Popula on Decline 1994-2001 15,100

Popula on Decline

15,000 14,900 14,800 14,700 14,600 14,500 14,400 14,300 14,200 1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

Fig. 6.17  The population decline, 1994–2001 (Compiled from Kasumi Machi Suisan Gyōshinkō Kyōkai 2001)

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In 2001, contributing factors to this statistical pattern other than births and high death rates, encompassed in- and outmigration, including secondary and tertiary schooling for teenage students, the arrival and departure of temporarily employed international English teachers and their accompanying families (one to two years), temporary employment exchange programmes with China and South Korea (three to five years) and employment relocation particularly within the fisheries research sector and fishery industry. The population statistics available for Kasumi in 2001 ranged between 14,081 and 13,998  in the same Tajima government publication (Tajima Regional Administration Group 2001). From the local statistics provided by the Kasumi Fisheries Industry Promotion Association, the 2001 population was 14,410. The latter data were collected on a monthly basis and so these are used here to indicate the fluctuations of just several months (Fig. 6.16). Figure 6.17 highlights the steep population decline over a six-year period where figures were available and ending with the beginning of amalgamation negotiations. In this period, it seems that gathering statistics was a challenging process, and due to gaining access to precious higher-level government funding, this may have been the contributing factor to statistical anomalies. The reality, however, was indicative in other factors. The population was declining not only due to increased mortality of this highly ageing population, but also to outmigration. Even now in 2019, opportunities for suitable employment, city lifestyles and better education options loom. Universities are largely located on the Pacific coast. However, not only the tertiary education age group has been affected by outmigration, but also the secondary school-age group. Depending on a family’s financial situation, the year level and a student’s future study plan, a student may leave Kasumi as young as 13 years of age to board or to live with other family members in cities that provide a wider range of secondary schooling. Statistics are unreliable for this type of boarding since students may be claimed in the family home as their domicile for census purposes. Nevertheless, this alternative housing for education was a common practice in Kasumi despite there being two secondary schools, one of which was based on fishery courses for 16-year-olds that included research and workplace integrated learning and potential employment in the TFRI,

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the Fishery Cooperative Association (FCA), offshore fisheries and management. Therefore, multiple home ownership is also common due to outmigration, death of a family member and investment acumen. Specific figures on these issues were not available in 2001, possibly hidden for taxation purposes, as claimed by a taxation department informant. Second-­ generation vacant home ownership was also common, where city owners who had inherited may use the former family home as a holiday home (known as a ‘second home’), rent it or leave it vacant in the long term. This kept housing prices at a premium, and repelled young families to emigrate to Kasumi, a detraction from the natural environment that was an initial drawcard and supported by the prefectural and national governments’ regional revitalisation initiatives (and tourism strategies). Important issues that locals identified for their economy, included the EEZ, disturbance of the fish breeding grounds, overfishing, imports, tourism competition, pricing and oil spill pollution were key themes. The TFRI and the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries informants identified what is now a national crisis of population decline. A local

Fig. 6.18  An elderly woman pushes dried fish in a converted baby stroller. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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medical provider noted the issues particularly of the ageing population. They all agreed that integral to these issues were the methodical identification of, and attention to, the most pressing issues, as a matter of prioritisation.

Women in Kasumi Women hold various roles in Kasumi which include being employers and business partners, as well as household managers and community volunteers. Households may accommodate up to four generations of family members with the elderly being cared for in the home but contributing to daily tasks as in where women can be seen preparing vegetables, shelling nuts or preserving persimmon and similar tasks (Fig. 6.18). A high-­ care retirement facility has been built on the outskirts of Kasumi. In 2000, those aged 65 and over represented 22.7% of the population of Kasumi. For the prefecture as a whole, this age group represented 16% of the population (Tajima Regional Administration Group 2001: 22). Since the 1950s, women have outnumbered men in Kasumi by approximately 8% (Kamitown Tourism Association 2005: 21). One businesswoman owned several small businesses servicing the local people who, she believed, came first before tourists. She is the eldest of four sisters, employs them and other women, together with an old school friend, in her restaurant which caters to locals (and one Australian researcher). A successful local identity and entrepreneur, she owned two florist shops and a local restaurant. In 2005, she reopened a retail outlet that included the town’s fourth supermarket, third flower shop and a small restaurant (one of several) in close proximity to the train station. She was not interested in venturing into the tourism industry. Women often provided the general welfare of home, extended family and the family business. Many of the multigenerational households were managed by women in their 40s. The wife of a local dentist and also the licensed aged care provider managed the practice, as well as attending to family duties and providing care for her aged mother-in-law while attending to her own parents in another town.

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Fig. 6.19  Fisherwomen of Kasumi. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

In the peak winter season, wives or female relatives of the fishermen carted the daily catch by barrow to the auction sheds but did not participate in the auction bidding. Clad to guard themselves against the cold and wet open sheds, the women wore thick gloves for protection while sorting and preparing the crabs for auction (Fig.  6.19). In other local businesses, women held core roles in maintaining their husbands’ or family’s businesses, often combining this with child-rearing, housekeeping and elderly relative care. Women of all ages worked in casual, part-time and seasonal employment in the fish processing factories in Kasumi. In one factory, which was also a retail business and gourmet restaurant catering to the tourist trade, the owner employed 13 women on a casual basis. He expressed concern about the women and their uncertain employment as he felt he could no longer hire such a large number in the future (Fig. 6.20). Women also outnumbered men in the Kasumi municipal administration, and Kasumi

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Fig. 6.20  Women predominate in the fish processing area of this factory. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

Tourism Association, but none held leadership roles which were held by local men or from other townships. This was the same in the TFRI and the Tajima Fisheries Management, where, in 2002, no women were employed by the latter and the former had a female office administrator, with men holding all the executive and directorial positions. It was not unusual for women to be the pivotal family member, simultaneously bookkeeping for all the businesses, preparing the family meals, taking care of in-laws and providing in-home palliative care to ageing family members. Such women were also committed to community programmes, volunteering for the local international group. Other women, closer to the fisheries could be ostracised due to husbands’ deaths at sea. These women then have to provide for their children until they find jobs and moved out. These women, no longer able to work near fishers, had to find alternative employment.

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Ancestry and Men’s Roles For many Kasumi community members, some have long community ancestry; 17 families could trace up to 3 generations who had lived in the town; 13 families could trace up to 4–10 generations; 3 families could trace 11 generations and over; 2 families could not give an exact number but knew that their families had been living in Kasumi for over 300 years. Ancestors’ occupations were fishing, farming, fishing combined with farming and/or carpentry, a watchman for the town’s rice storage and a samurai. Two of the business owners represented several generations of trade history including a 300-year-old Sake product industry and a three-­ generation vinegar and pickling manufacturing firm. Gender traditions led to men taking up particular roles within family and business (Takeda 2006; Kinoshita Thomson and Otsuji 2003). Even for the research of this book, survey and questionnaire respondents were 99% male, an instilled practice where Kasumi men were the respondents for household national census and the like. Males were mostly employed in the service, fishing and tourism industries and marine food processing. Following is the breakdown of job representation: 17% in the service industry, 15% in fishing, 7% in marine product processing, 9% in farming and 9% in tourism. The men’s jobs included heavy lifting and/or supervisory roles within the fishing industry. Ten had ‘side’ employment to supplement their income.

Industries and Businesses Kasumi is historically a fishing port with several small fish-processing factories located beachside; their number fluctuates as owners sell their businesses, move locations or close them altogether. The major fishing catch is snow crab (Matsuba-gani), squid, prawns, flat fish and cuttlefish. Marine products are the most important primary produce in the area. In 2000, the annual catch totalled 8.5 million kilograms with a value of ¥3.5 billion (Kasumi Machi Suisan Gyō Shinkō Kyōkai 2001: 21). Manufacturing, which includes value-added processing of marine products and other food processing, is even more important to the local

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economy; the value in the same year was ¥24 billion. Further inland, farms produce nashi pears for the nashi pear-wine industry, while various other agricultural products are mostly for local consumption. There is a food processing industry, which includes sake, vinegars and value-added seafood processing. Small business owners try to maintain their operations in the township of Kasumi. The local supermarkets and other small businesses, such as the launderer, drycleaner and the butcher in the town were owner operated and employed as many local people as possible under casual and part-­ time agreements. Semi-retired business people and other small retail businesses sold non-perishable goods, books, cameras and film in shops with residences attached. Other small businesses that were small franchises such as a bakery shop would hire women for shopfront duties. Business owners often had multiple business interests, thus were able to sustain the local economy by keeping as wide a range of services as possible in the town. A second-generation gas supplier also operated a plumbing business, and, as a kitchen manufacturer, had expanded operations into Toyooka. His large family residence in Kasumi was over 200 years old and had a separate entrance where neighbours could buy comestibles such as vinegars and sauces. The local dentist had taken on the extra responsibility of providing emergency care for the elderly since there was a shortage of doctors in the Kasumi area. He was licensed to do this and was on 24-hour call. Unemployment and underemployment have always been an issue for Kasumi. In November 2001, the then incumbent mayor, in an interview with me, said that he understood the importance of maintaining employment in the community, but that he would be obliged to make redundant 13 municipal workers within the next three months. In fact, 19 municipal government workers were made redundant two weeks later, causing a community outcry and pursuit of legal action for redundancy payments for long-term employees. The director of the TFRI was also concerned about the employment prospects of several of his staff including nine sailors on the research ship, which, under prefectural instruction, had experienced a reduction in its number of sea days. In the tourism industry, however, the duties were more shared, and even though when the research questionnaires and surveys were filled by

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the men of the household and many of the small businesses, both men and women, when needed, would work in second jobs, or casual jobs, if the women were also carers of the children or elderly. Older family members, who lived at home, would work full- or part-time. In the past, townspeople involved in primary production would have to take part in seasonal work away from home known as dekasegi (出稼ぎ). However, this term, which may have indicated hardship, was replaced with, ‘Do you have a supplementary income?’ (a ‘job on the side’, kengyoushiteiru shigoto wa arimasuka). Increasingly, tourism has become a second industry for this fisheries-based town. However, despite tourism being an increasing focus, one factor remains constant, fishery administration under prefectural administration and the local Fisheries Cooperative Association. In Kasumi, this situation raises further complex issues which is demonstrated in the remainder of this chapter.

Stakeholders and Role Players in Fisheries The fishing industry representatives, many of whom work in conjunction with the Tajima Fisheries Research Institute, include members of the fisheries union and cooperative, have considerable input into both the tourism industry and fishery production. Local fishers (who, characteristically, are also union and co-operative members) can have multiple roles not only as fishers, but also as owners of fish processing plants (freezing and drying), restaurants and other associated businesses all of which tie in with tourism or gourmet tourism. They may also be members of the chamber of commerce and the prefectural government. This intersection of interests also encompasses fishery-related businesses such as auctions, wholesale and retail sales, and further seafood processing such as the manufacture of reconstituted ‘seafood’ products. Stakeholders of Kasumi generally belong to the fishing industry and tourism and hospitality industries, while the role players are government officials whose sole focus is on fish production as is the various fishery organisations, or the tourism industry, managed by a mix of volunteers and part-time public servants. Last is the union and the powerful Fishery Cooperative Association. The FCA makes final calls on coastal

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development, fisheries decisions and coastal tourism planning. In conjunction with the research institute, they aim to optimise fishery production, knowing that the tourism and other industries need the fisheries to attract tourists and visitors.

Tajima Fisheries Research Institute In the 1990s, major prefectural development project was to further enhance the Tajima region’s fisheries with a mariculture and fishery research institute for the aquaculture of the roe of red sea bream, flatfish, abalone and turban shell. The Tajima Fisheries Research Institute (TFRI), situated on the Kasumi Western Port (Hyogo Prefectural Government 1993: 20), was an addition to the Tajima Fisheries Association (or Management) Office, which had a small outmoded aquaculture centre. Reporting to the prefectural head office in Kobe, the TFRI was originally established to conduct research to improve the Kasumi fisheries and those of Hyogo Prefecture more generally, but its role has expanded to include research into most aspects of fisheries and aquaculture production and fish processing. Kasumi’s history of fishery production is present in US military reconnaissance records (the village was then known as the Tajima fishery station). Following World War II, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces (SCAP) recorded various remnant industries throughout Japan including 118 government-supported fisheries, and marine products research stations and branches. The lowest order in this chain of fishery production was the prefectural fishery experimental stations (kenritsu suisan) whose tasks were multifarious and included the following: • Supporting fishery research laboratories, which conducted research on problems of local interest, both biological and chemical • The operation of large fishery research vessels, which would sell much of the fish they caught to the public and transfer the subsequent income to the government to help defray the expenses of the individual stations which managed the vessels

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• Fishery investigations and monitoring by police or patrol vessels, operating from these stations (SCAP 1946; Krug and Day 1947) These three roles were still conducted by the TFRI in Kasumi in the early twenty-first century. The current TFRI focus has centred on the patrolling of the North Western Sea of Japan to prevent illegal fishing, and to continue to test and address the effects of pollution from the 1997 oil spill, from the Russian oil tanker Nakhodka, that affected the Western Sea of Japan fish populations including Kasumi’s major winter productions of the Matsuba crab at least until 2001–2002. Tests of these crabs found that they were not only smaller in size, but that they had soft shells, which readily broke, or legs that fell off. In 2001, the institute, staffed by 13 casual and permanent land and sea staff, still focused its research on the quality of the Matsuba crab and on squid production and processing. Other roles of the TFRI included conducting at-sea fishery classes for Kasumi secondary school, providing advice for private deep-sea fishing tours and providing manufacturing and machinery advice to local producers. Such producers from the mountainous regions of the town can supplement their limited income from vegetable production and sales, where the purchasing of fish processing machinery to puree fresh seafood ‘off cuts’ with binding agents would produce kamaboko, a popular slightly chewy seafood product found in soups (Kazuko 2002: 104). The institute’s role expanded to include educational tourism, tours for the general public under the industrial tourism initiatives of the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) (MLIT 2001). From solely a fishery role prior to the early twentieth century, the various Kasumi fishery organisation roles now include deeper and broader responsibilities, including research and coastal management and tourism development strategies as well as land-based data collection.

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 ore Issues for Kasumi’s C Economic Revitalisation From a business perspective, grass-roots understanding of the issues for rural-coastal Kasumi was key to its revitalisation and best understood from the perspective of the town planner, deputy mayor and a councillor/ local businessperson. They detailed the core challenges for Kasumi, emphasised the importance of community profile, culture and other community issues that could not be addressed by a national policy, blanket approach of amalgamation alone. However, tourism was also questionable and economic diversity was key. The major supporter of amalgamation was the town planner. He believed that the impending amalgamation of Kasumi with the other municipalities within the next three years would provide solutions to core issues that other national government strategies, such as those focused on tourism, could not address. The incorporation of finances, labour, administration and budgets for several smaller municipalities, all suffering the effects of depopulation, would allow them greater access to resources than they could obtain separately. The national policy strategy to amalgamate small debt-ridden or poorly functioning municipalities into larger municipalities, which included Kasumi and surrounding municipalities, would only be successful if they possessed a variety of industries and businesses. The deputy mayor highlighted the problems associated with changes in national and prefectural political leadership change where associated administration changes meant it was possible that a new town planner could be installed. This had in the past created problems of continuity. Additionally, it was not unusual for a flow-on effect leading to the delay, change or abandonment of local projects. This was the first time in his experience that the town planner had been a local and believed that this was intrinsic to successful local economic and planning. Administrative stability and project continuity were key, while population decline remained problematic. A key feature he identified, however, was the issue of women’s workforce participation where his data indicated that approximately 70% of women wanted to work, but childcare facilities are

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inadequate. This contributed to unemployment in this rural community, one where there was an expectation that anyone who wanted to work should be able to participate in the workforce. The councillor/businessperson sold local product locally and on the internet. He highlighted other issues. Housing was a major concern. Counter-urbanisation or u-turn (yūtān) policies were not making a significant difference to Kasumi’s population or economy as there was little availability of reasonably priced housing. Locals who had inherited family homes had bought out their neighbours, or other home sellers, and had pushed up the Kasumi land and house prices. Locals were unwilling to sell excess land or empty houses for less than their private expectations preferred to leave these assets vacant or unused. A fourth leading community role player in the community was the director of the TFRI. His role was one that often required someone from outside the community, like the town planner, and was employed by the prefectural government. As part of his busy and challengingly diverse role, he was obliged to understand and attempt to address the issues facing this nationally important fisheries location as well as those of the local fishing community’s industry. He noted that there were would be difficult infrastructural challenges for future Kasumi revitalisation due to its physical geography. While the Kasumi town centre is a built-up area between the western and eastern ports, further east and west, there is only a narrow strip for development opportunity. As such, much of the coast will remain undeveloped due to the difficult terrain and weather patterns. The eventual designation of this coast as a ‘Geopark’ would further inhibit development. All these stakeholders and roleplayers agreed that the local issues inhibited sustainable growth for both tourism and the fisheries. Tourism attractions alone were not sufficient to sustain the local economy. The planner identified three core issues of infrastructure, demographics and touristic authenticity: (1) Kasumi needed to upgrade its infrastructure while maintaining its rural culture and atmosphere, (2) the revitalisation of businesses depended on the age group of 30–60 years and locals should not expect participation from the 20s age group because they were the least interested age group, and (3) the town needed to maintain not only an authentic old-style atmosphere, but also an

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old-style community attitude that would encourage and foster counter-­ urbanisation particularly of the older age groups.

Kasumi Lifestyle and Its Issues The 24–35 age group represented 10% of the Kasumi population in 2001 and desired employment in the municipal sector. It is also the age group that local, prefectural and national policies sought to retain in rural communities, as it is this demographic that migrates to larger cities mostly for employment. Men in this age group chose to work in public service because they did not like employment in minshuku or the fishing industry; particularly those who were brought up in family-owned businesses. On the national scale, this age demographic was the least represented in the fisheries. This local demographic liked living in Kasumi because of the natural environment, close to overseas travel destinations and affordability (small airports are in Tajima and Tottori the neighbouring prefecture, the cost of living was cheaper than that of the big cities, and they enjoyed and appreciated living close to their work). Like most locals, they were proud of Kasumi and wanted it recognised by ‘outsiders’ as a comfortable and natural community in which to live. In particular they wanted Kasumi to maintain its ‘under-developed’ environment, keeping ‘nature’ and with no further modernisation. This age group preferred to shop in Toyooka for clothing and to go to the cinema, in Tottori city, Tottori Prefecture. For young married families, convenience was more important and chose to shop Kasumi or Toyooka. The longer trip south to Kobe was generally a weekend stay. It was then possible to pursue personal relationships away from local, gossip and prying eyes and to enjoy a larger, exciting retail experience. While they took overseas holidays for the seven- to ten-day holiday periods to destinations such as India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Guam, the United States, this group predominately visited Osaka and its theme parks, and Okinawa for sea sports. Himeji was a school excursion destination, or a pass through, but never a holiday destination. Social relationships were more problematic. Women in their early 20s wanted to get married, have children early and remain in Kasumi. In

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contrast, some younger men did not want to get married early despite wanting to remain in Kasumi; they did not want to lose their ‘freedom’. Other men found it difficult to find a wife; their current girlfriends lived in other towns and did not want to move to Kasumi. While both men and women interviewed found that ‘old-fashioned, small-town’ gossip was annoying, one woman found the gossip was a community support mechanism, whereby her children were being watched over by community. This was the lifestyle she and her husband had actively sought.

The Challenges to the Fishing Industry The practicalities of everyday fishery industry life in Kasumi were portrayed as an arduous industry with significant impacts on the labour market, demographics and economy of Kasumi by everyone who was interviewed for this book’s research. In the past, rituals and prayers had been offered for the safety of the fishermen; from the wharves women would wave, wishing their menfolk a safe return from the risky life at sea. Although the town maintained these traditions by encapsulating them within festivals and calendared rituals, two of the women alluded to the continuance of purification rituals that entailed exclusion practices particularly related to the care of the sick and death at sea. Modern technology and environmental sustainability are pressures that have intensified and broadened the range of issues that the industry and associated role players must face. There was a general consensus between the Port of Hyogo director and staff, fishery employees, fishery industry owners, the TFRI director associate director and the Fisheries Co-operative Association president as major role players and stakeholders of the Kasumi fishing industry. Based on their extensive experiences, they all acknowledged several important issues facing the Kasumi industry. Many were global issues out of their control, being dealt with at international and national levels, but which they had to address daily in their fisheries and local community level. For the government officials and representatives, this meant that they had to be facilitators, to negotiate between the municipality, prefecture and local fishers (Table 6.1).

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Table 6.1 Challenges facing the fishing industry of Kasumi in the twenty-­ first century Issue

Details

Economic Exclusion Zone

The 200 nautical miles that EEZ ratified in 1982 now renders it illegal for Japanese fishing boats to sail into Chinese and Korean waters. However, Korean and Chinese ships exceed their quotas and have not recognised the Japanese waters as outlined in the exclusion zone regulations. Fish breeding grounds are being disturbed by land reclamation, (although submerged tetrapods were being tested as successful breeding and protection areas for juvenile crabs and fingerlings). Continued overfishing by professional fishing association members, and local and regional recreational fishers. Local retailers importing cheaper crab and fish from China, Korea and Russia. Neighbouring towns and villages such as Kinosaki and Takeno have their own ‘unique’ crab attractions, luring tourists away from Kasumi. Kasumi fisheries’ problems are a small and marginal issue for the Ministry for Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries, which employs over 300,000 people and whose focus has been agriculture. Processed fish products from Kasumi do not sell well in wholesale markets in the big cities where supermarket groups have controlled pricing policies, making it difficult for local produce to be sold at competitive prices. On 2 January 1997, the Russian oil tanker Nakhodka released approximately 5000 tons of oil onto Japan’s north western sea affecting many coastal marine environments (Yamamoto T. et al. 2003). This led to ‘rumours’ that the Kasumi Matsuba crab population had been polluted. Correspondingly, tourism numbers declined. In 2001, the Kasumi municipal government noted that tourist numbers had finally regained their pre-1997 levels. However, in 2001 even in peak season, some crabs had soft shells and broken or dismembered legs, ‘probably from a disease’. In the off season, this condition was prevalent in the young crabs caught (Makino 2008). Unstable crab harvests in both quality and quantity, affecting auction prices.

Disturbance of fish breeding grounds Overfishing Imports Tourism competition Lack of prioritisation

Pricing

Oil spill pollution

Crab harvests

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Fishing Culture and Tourism Growth The fishing industry is Kasumi’s traditional activity. Older locals aged over 50 recount fishing’s halcyon days pre-1980 and its importance to their community identity. Theirs was an attachment to the sea in terms of recreation and the economy. Those under 50 years did not consider fishing as an attractive employment option for themselves or their children, even though this age group was well represented in administration and fishery research. Naturally, conflicts of opinion exist within the Kasumi community; like any small community, perceptions can be perverse. The lack of economic progress and its future growth into a modern rural community and lifestyle was associated with conservative nostalgia and a bygone era of the romanticism of the old-style fishing village, and opinion held by some locals. Kasumi’s past successes as a major fishing town contributed to the community’s unrealistic sense of local pride and that somehow its economy would ‘miraculously’ turn around. Those locals opposing the nostalgia-based conservatives also recognised that fishing was not a desirable form of employment to attract counter-urbanites. Oddly enough, fisheries-related tourism held a positive image where it would enhance winter door sales at the sake or vinegar houses in this peak season for snow crab. Local product sales are boosted by tourists who were attracted to Kasumi’s fresh fish. The group of business stakeholders in non-fishing industries, held the view that the Kasumi fishing industry remained conservative due to a Kasumi sense of ‘stubborn pride’ of only focussing on fishing. This group instead opted for progress and change. They argued that nostalgic attitudes and ‘pride’ (in fishing) were useless as they did not address the town’s immediate real issues of depopulation and did not contribute to future long-term planning for the Kasumi economy. Not all those of this progressive camp wanted change to the natural environment, but they did not see a sense of holding on to a past that did not sustain a future for the town. Paradoxically, however, were the opinions of the collective qualified and specialists from the Hyogo Port directors, the fishery and industry owners of Kasumi and the employees of TFRI. They believed that there

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had been a decline in the much-needed sense of local pride that was derived from fishing as a form of employment and a lifestyle. But also there was the pragmatic stuff. According to the director of the TFRI, even those students who had successfully attended the fishery secondary school’s early training scheme rarely, if ever, entered the Kasumi fishery industry immediately following graduation. The lack of incentives included low salaries for an unsafe job that is seasonally demanding but has concomitant downtime. Kasumi’s gourmet-based tourism industry, however, needs seafood.

 ourism Industry Representation T and Stakeholder Self Interest The challenges that the fishing industry faces also impact the tourism industry. The administration of local tourism representation is conducted by locally established role players and stakeholders. This confines tourism income opportunities to areas and businesses already established and recognised as tourism destinations. Thus, they dominate the direction of local tourism. Additionally, although there is no single reason for this, from the prefectural level down, as local tourism policies are established, a local representational body is selected or a new one created to execute or oversee new tourism projects. These can be staffed by volunteers and the paid staff as well as the expected managing duty of a prefectural policy representative. In contrast, the FCA has sustained a powerful role to play in coastal management and tourism policy when the latter encroaches into the coastal zone. The FCA then administers the policy and its projects. Beyond this designated coastal zone, the municipal administration plays its role in tourism development in terms of funding and management, but the municipality has encountered bureaucratic overlap in policy development and implementation of projects. From the prefectural to municipal level and across departments, tourism, coastal management and other development projects can overlap. National issues may result in projects being impeded at municipal level.

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Another example of overlap is at the prefecture departmental level. At any one time, a coastal development project, which includes fisheries and tourism, may have several coastal management departments involved (from all three government levels). To complicate matters further, if a local community group is involved and has received some prefectural funding to support its project, it too has input into the management of the project. To a certain extent, however, project success is dependent upon the significance of a project and in relation to the driving group’s enthusiasm. Any type of business in Kasumi can choose to be represented by a variety of tourism associations, most of which charge a scaled-to-income membership fee. Additional fees for advertising and marketing can be organised by these associations’ representatives or the tourism provider can choose to create their own marketing approach. To be included in Japan Tourism Business (JTB) or Japan Rail (JR) promotions, the business must be a paying member of a registered and associated tourism body such as the Northern Kinki Tourism Association (NKTA) (Kita Kinki Kyōkaisha), which represented the northern regions of Kyoto, Hyogo and Tottori in 2001–2002. There were difficulties associated with four local and regional tourism bodies. Some major role players did not have the administrative skills to manage complex issues in the industry with whom they were representing, while new and small players faced well-established, nuanced and well-financed competitors. Alternatively, the tourism provider could choose to create their own marketing campaigns. However, there were consequences for small businesses who did not want to be associated with the tourism bodies and their prominent members. They did not hold a prominent view in kiosks where tourists access brochures, or as the internet became another advertising vehicle, were not easily found online. Even in 2019, some businesses appear to not exist as English has become a favourable brochure language on the internet. If a business does not join the larger tourism groups, it does not feature anywhere, unless its name is known. The potential tourist can only make a choice on what is available and, for inbound tourists, understandable. However, at the turn of the twenty-­ first century, the two minshuku owners represented in the next chapter

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were quite content with their reputation and word-of-mouth to promote their businesses as well as their own forms of advertising. Therefore, while it appears that various stakeholders maintain a selfishness, they do so not only to conform readily to the larger companies, but to maintain their own identity, profit margins and not abiding to the larger members’ behaviour in the tourism industry. The larger fee-paying members in tourism organisations also can hold sway in the prefectural regional associations set up to represent all tourism providers. The larger members include big-name coach and train companies, large hotel chains and regional large profit-making enterprises as well as national travel agencies’ subsidiaries, who in the research period were connected to some larger media groups and national railways. Consequently, if new tourism developments were being constructed or existing ones renovated according to the destination and local tourism provider dominance, tourism organisations’ marketing reactions differed according to the company connections of membership and fee-paying power. A tourism organisation’s response could be to retract advertising and local promotions for smaller destinations even though the latter may be paying fees or asked for temporary respite. This would then lead to other tourism attractions being promoted to take up the vacuum left by the tourism site redeveloping. Once redeveloped, destinations needed to regain their position in the tourism industry routes promoted by the tourism organisations, increasing prominence by paying higher fees. In the unpredictable rural tourism environment, such sidetracking of essential tourism routes led to established tourism competitors exploiting this situation and growing their market share. For a whole tourism destination such as Kasumi, it therefore was unviable not to maintain connections in the tourism industry’s organisational and regional networks, a situation lamented by a highly experienced and qualified Kasumi senior government official. Various stakeholders in business hold various self-interests. At the municipal level, national policies take precedence over local ones. Alongside the stakeholder demands are the associations set up to represent tourism providers. If new tourism developments are being constructed or changes are being made to existing ones, they tend to react to the different circumstances, retracting advertising and local promotions.

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This leads to other tourism attractions being promoted, and so any new redevelopment needs to regain a stronghold in the tourism industry. This is not unusual in any redevelopment, but in the erratic rural tourism environment can mean the sidetracking of essential tourism routes. Established tourism competitors can exploit this situation.

 egional and Local Tourism Groups—Connected R by Association The director of the NKTA revealed that its membership and voting power were based on a sliding scale related to the size and income of each tourism-based company for the northern coastal region of the prefectures of Kyoto, Hyogo and Tottori. Therefore, the choice for small operators to remain ‘independent’ was often a decision financially based. This was because only those companies whose membership contributions were the highest, such as coach companies, could be the most effective (i.e. large vote wielding) members of the association and thus implementing change or the status quo. Nepotism existed within such connections to tourism associations. This meant that some tourism development projects, in particular locales, benefited over others. The director of the NKTA revealed that his hometown of Takeno in Tajima had just been earmarked for a beachside redevelopment that included facilities for water sports. This project was to have been developed in Kasumi to replace a stalled but much larger coastal redevelopment detailed in the next chapter. A senior executive of the Tajima Regional Administration Group, a retired regional tourism director of JR, was proud of his achievement in his role to oversee the implementation of a Hyogo-Tajima furusato rejuvenation project in his hometown of Izushi. Such connections and local power, however, were not endemic.

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Kasumi Tourism Association The Kasumi Tourism Association (KTA) office and information centre was strategically located next to the Kasumi train station, but was run down and did not attract tourists and its overall presence was not a welcoming information centre. The association’s role was to market local tourism and tourism products and to liaise with the Tajima Tourism Association and the NKTA as well as collect and archive tourist data. Aside from the NKTA, these two bodies represent tourism businesses at the grass-roots level in Kasumi and were primarily made up of volunteers and casual staff. They joined meetings with the municipal administration when they felt it was needed and joined with the fisheries staff and tourism providers to contribute to the celebrations of seasonality and help create a festive township.

Municipal Government The municipal government, however, could play a significant role in the management and development of non-fishery-related tourism in coastal Kasumi. At the low-budget end of the local tourism continuum, it managed the Imamura Family Inn and function centre. At the infrastructural level, it administered the development of roads and other infrastructure necessary for tourism development. This was done in conjunction with the Kasumi FCA. For prefectural-funded projects, a municipal representative presents development plans to the prefectural government that are then identified as eligible for furusato and similar project funding. In the 1990s and early 2000s, despite some local community dissatisfaction, the Kasumi mayor and deputy mayor played significant decision-­ making roles in a large, controversial tourism project. At that time, it appeared that several advocates of the project had cooperated as local assembly members in order to ensure that the project would go ahead as smoothly as possible. Fiscal discretion over transfer payments from the prefectural government was maintained by the municipal government for particular stages of the project. A prominent local businessperson, not involved in fishing and tourism, together with an executive municipal

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staff member labelled the assembly as dishonest but would not disclose the reasoning behind this claim. Misleading information by a senior municipal executive meant that his senior municipal staff did not show any support or faith in this senior incumbent. Another major municipal stakeholder, also a council role player, had been supportive of many smaller tourism rejuvenation projects; his business, he claimed, depended on it. Later he retracted from this contentious project and moved into internet sales. This, he admitted, involved much less personal investment and greater prefectural support for regional and rural revitalisation funding. However, again conversely, as a result of the funding relationship between the municipal and Hyogo prefectural governments, the latter had the potential to influence the decision-making processes for municipal development. This included vetting proposals, relinquishing certain decision-making processes to the municipal leaders or, conversely, demanding that certain projects go ahead using municipal funding (Sabien 1995). Up to 2005, this process was still occurring in Kasumi, as it changed into the merger of Kami-cho, for changes to the location of certain administrative infrastructure. External roads linking prefectures were national-prefectural projects. Kasumi roadworks were partially funded by the municipality. During the winter of 2001–2002, major waterworks had to be undertaken in the main street of Kasumi. This was during the peak tourism period and highly disruptive to tourist and local traffic. The town hall’s secretary had explained that the resumption of major roadworks on the Kasumi bypass, a national and prefectural project on the perimeter of the township, could not go ahead until these local works had been completed. Thus, the efficacy and timing of projects can be affected when there are different policy and politicians’ agendas at different levels and when national and prefectural political power-broking filters down to the municipal level. The fiscal and administrative constraints at higher levels of government thus have local impacts at the municipal level. Regional revitalisation projects to promote growth actually contributed to its regression. Other competing tourist attractions benefitted including Takeno Izushi and Kinosaki.

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Until 1976, the growth of Kasumi’s economy was exclusively based on its fisheries and its reputation of successful catches. Its coastal geography, isolation and climate also contributed to a limited agricultural base. Kasumi’s role in the national economy was that of the major fishery provider of the north-west coast. Early strategies were mooted to stimulate Kasumi’s economy, reeling from the impact of the introduction of the EEZ ratified in 1982. Japan’s economic recession was felt much earlier in Kasumi. Local government and community stakeholders supported initiatives concurrent with the revitalisation of the region. These included medium-term micro-strategies to foster recreational fishing and gourmet tourism in Kasumi, but also included two much larger projects, the Kasumi Bypass and the Renaissance Plan (R-plan).

Bibliography Hyogo Prefectural Government. 1993. Hyogo Prefecture: Today and Tomorrow. Kobe: Hyogo Prefectural Government. Kami-cho Planning Division. 2015. Kami-cho nijin bijon. (The Population Vision for the Municipality of Kami-cho). Kami-cho: Hyogo-ken. [in Japanese] Kamitown Tourism Association. 2005. Kamichyo  (Kamitown). Kamitown Tourism Industry Division. [in Japanese] Kasumi Machi Suisan Gyō Shinkō Kyōkai. 2001. Kasumi Machi no Suisan. (Kasumi Fisheries). Kasumi Machi Suisan Gyōshinkō Kyōkai. [in Japanese]. Kazuko, E. 2002. Japanese Cooking. London: Anness Publishing Limited. Kinoshita Thomson, C., and E. Otsuji. 2003. Evaluation of Business Japanese Textbooks: Issues of Gender. Japanese Studies 23 (2): 185–203. https://doi. org/10.1080/1037139032000129711. Krug, J.A., and A.  Day. 1947. Fisheries Education and Research in Japan. Chicago, IL: United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. Makino, M. 2008. Marine Protected Areas for the Snow Crab Bottom Fishery off Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. In Case Studies in Fisheries Self Governance, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 504, ed. R. Townsend, R. Shotton, and H. Uchida. Rome: FAO.

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McCullough, H.C. 1988. The Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press. MLIT. 2001. Kankō hakushyo, heisei 13 nenban.  Whitepaper on Tourism (Sightseeing).  Tokyo: Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport. [in Japanese] Sabien, B. 1995. Regional Development in Japan and the Hyogo Prefecture. Perth: Western Australian New Leader with the Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Sakai Fisheries. 1999. Sakai Fishing Port. Sakaiminato. SCAP. 1946. Fisheries Education and Research in Japan.  Natural Resources Section, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers General Headquarters. Secretariat San’in Kaigan Geopark Promotion Council. 2019. Visit Kami: Nature and Outdoors. Tajima Regional Administration Group. 2001. Tomorrow’s Hometown, Tajima: A Model for the Integration and Connection between City, Town and Village. The Final Foundation Plan for 2001–2005. Kobe. Takeda, H. 2006. Gendering the Japanese Political System: The Gender-Specific Pattern of Political Activity and Women’s Political Participation. Japanese Studies 26 (2): 185–198. Accessed February 1, 2008. https://doi. org/10.1080/10371390600883594. Trewartha, G.T. 1965. Japan: A Physical, Cultural and Regional Geography. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. Yamamoto, T., M.  Nakaoka, T.  Komatsu, H.  Kawai, Marine Life Research Group of Takeno, and K. Ohwada. 2003. Impacts by Heavy-Oil Spill from the Russian Tanker Nakhodka on Intertidal Ecosystems: Recovery of Animal Community. Marine Pollution Bulletin 47 (1–6): 91–98. https://doi. org/10.1016/S0025-­326X(03)00051-­1.

7 Raising Hope with Promises: Unfulfilled Strategies for a Sustainable Rural Tourism Industry

Introduction The bypass roadwork developments including various smaller road upgrades, had been postponed, some since 1997 and held over because of a major development proposal, a remnant of the Resort Laws (Rimmer 1992). Though mooted from 1993, contractors broke land four years later for the Renaissance Resort Plan (R-Plan) on Kasumi’s Western Port. One of the last of the ‘concretised’ era’s construction projects, the R-Plan was a major tourism resort of modern architectural design, aimed to attract domestic and international visitors. It was a concept that would redevelop the entire coastline of Kasumi. It also claimed to be a project based on the furusato concept. Kasumi people pride themselves on being entrepreneurially progressive in terms of its fishing industry and associated businesses. Before the 1800s, pilgrims and travellers paid locals for hospitality, fresh food and accommodation as needed and visitors to Kasumi were no different, other than like much of the Kita Kinki San’in coastline, it has inhospitable winters. Kasumi was also geographically isolated and difficult to access until the introduction of the railways in the late 1800s. © The Author(s) 2020 L. Crowe-Delaney, Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1_7

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Since the 1950s, congruent with the nation’s increased industrial activity and the changes it brings, Kasumi’s keen, local historians have tried to document its sociocultural history for fear of it being lost to progress. They have recorded that it has been one of family, fun and relaxation from this period onwards particularly for locals. At best, these historians have only been able to access limited documents. But Kasumi also has a rich oral history, which, together with photographs and maps of unknown origins, is held in private collections; many illustrate the changes of the coastal environment due to disaster and development. Early tourism photographs of the area however are scarce or are recorded in various Hyogo Prefectural archives and are also subject to copyright. These are also the reasons for the local historians to again give accounts of this area. It is this reason of local history, then, that conflicting accounts of events occur. The period of research for this book, however, unearthed interesting local versions of the current situation in Kasumi. Therefore, the fieldwork was a window of opportunity to observe and discuss change as it happened, following the public call from the initial internet in a twenty-first-century announcement that Kasumi fisheries needed to better tourism to improve its economy. Tourism had already been a secondary industry based on sightseeing and dependent on fishing and local cuisine. As well, aligned very closely to the fishing industry and built upon hundreds of years of value-added food production, was pickling, condiments and other culinary means in order to preserve and flavour fish and rice. By the end of the twentieth century, it was these same specialised features based on the fisheries that led to the Kasumi municipality seeking greater measures for economic revitalisation. This included the boosting of its hospitality industry that was based on early travel and pilgrimage to the area. Tourism as it is now known was one business that could offset extreme seasonal fluctuations of the environment and north seas fishing. Between 1999 and 2005, a build-up to a crucial turning point occurred for the town. In this fieldwork research of 2000–2002, the Kasumi community was struggling. Municipal planning and local fisheries staff did not know what was happening for several projects. Financial and political issues at higher government levels led to evasive answers to locals’ direct questions while reports were put on hold. Such was the desperation of the

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local industry that two local business owners believed that their input for this book’s research would restart communication with the prefectural government. In part, this happened, and the outcomes will unfold here.

 asumi Fisheries Culture and Tourism: Reality K Versus Imagery As with Europe’s industrial revolution and the rural countryside becoming a location depicted with idyllic imagery, so too did rural Japan in the Meiji era. For European travellers, unspoilt coastlines were a site of enjoyment, in harmony with nature and where humankind felt joy in the (observation of ) the hard work of farmers, viewed from steam train windows. The coastline became a place of respite from the city pollution. Little reference to the difficulties of isolation, the lack of access to essential services and the condescension towards a farming class were not included in such narratives (Bunce 1994). In the twentieth- and twenty-­ first-­century rural Hyogo, Bunce could be describing a Japanese nationalism propaganda campaign for rural revitalisation. Between 2001 and 2006, Prime Minister Koizumi stressed the importance of Japanese domestic tourism for the next generation of Japanese to experience a nationalistic essence found in the rural idyll of regional Japan (Koizumi 2005). This was an image not only to re-engage urban Japanese with nature and national culture, but one that aimed to revitalise rural economies through visitor expenditure and permanent counter-­ urbanisation. While many Kasumi businesses actively promoted gourmet and fisheries tourism under this ideal, in contrast there were a few locals who denied tourist visits as a panacea. Instead, their businesses focused on maintaining a community for their locals. Sometimes this made the rural idyll out of reach for potential newcomers. These same locals understood that the tourism industry and its associated hospitality can be arduous. Hard work, long hours, demanding visitors and with local labour and employment constraints, these few preferred to take care of the existing community and revitalise the economy on their own grass-roots terms.

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Kasumi, however, had become a sightseeing destination with the growth and change since the Meiji period. Its natural coastline was an attraction for occasional wealthy tourists (Fig. 7.1). Nonetheless, due to its isolated and restrictive climate, significant income was generated from marine products and their associated industries. Kasumi maintained its identity as fishing village despite its gradual changing employment profile throughout the following century. In the twenty-first century, Kasumi community members are attached to the surrounding nature (shizen), its geographic and geological significance and the maintenance of Kyū Kasumi’s cultural history. An introduction to the people of Kasumi is to also be introduced to the role of the fishing industry culture of the community. Local discussions are often based on fish and ocean conditions first before other conversations are taken up, depending on the time of day, whether in a café or in a bar. The local history is a colourful one, steeped in fishery territories, conflict and

Fig. 7.1  Late Meiji postcard tourists relaxing in coastal Kasumi, ca 1890s. (Anon)

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eventually good neighbourliness, mixed with a healthy business competition. Yet this cultural pride has also been challenged. An important phase in the development of Kasumi tourism was in the period from 1985 to 1999 which corresponded with the decline in the income generated from marine products together with the nation’s ‘economic bubble bursting’. Kasumi’s fishery production had begun to decrease from the late 1970s due to improved technology leading to overfishing and later intensified by the impact of the EEZ in 1982. Its financial decline was substantial, from ¥8.6 billion in 1985 to ¥5 billion in 1999 and with yields falling from 21,240 to 10,700 tonnes (Municipality 2001: 17). However, Kasumi’s premium product, matsubagani, the snow crab, accounted for 27% of the industry’s total yield but contributed 39% of the marine income. Such yields therefore led to a change in Kasumi’s tourism industry, which had been based mostly on sports fishing, sightseeing and minshuku accommodation and used the crab as a drawcard for the other industries. Matsubagani, a top-quality high-yielding seafood flesh, together with the gradual rise in popularity for locals to incorporate their agricultural production with manufactured seafood production to supplement their incomes, meant that Kasumi’s local reputation for hospitality would shift to include gourmet crab tourism and the multi-courses of kaiseki. Gourmet tourism (gurume tsurizumu or gurume no tabi) encompasses the overall experience to include accommodation. In 2001 and in 2019, Kasumi’s ‘atmosphere’ of a relatively untouched natural environment incorporates aquaculture-based educational tours, coastal and deep-sea fishing, water sports, ocean watching, scenic coastal tours and owner-­ driver touring, visits to local shrines and accommodation in modern or traditional establishments. Kasumi’s gourmet tourism is highly dependent on its local fresh seafood, Kasumi-based cuisine and value-added products. It is also about purchasing produce en locale, and sending the fresh food, which has been packaged, refrigerated and then immediately delivered by courier as souvenirs to colleagues, friends and family elsewhere in Japan in less than 24 hours. Restaurants range from those privately owned, which provide seasonal and set course menus, to those found in high-end minshuku. Here

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guests expect an expensive local seafood menu, perhaps after a hot bath, and optional overnight accommodation. There are also a variety of establishments from a public-based family inn, although not a budget one, through to large cafeteria-styled restaurants. Kasumi marketing emphasises the quality and freshness of its ocean produce. Packaged products are printed with local motifs or symbols on the wrappings displaying area branding, a tourism/business concept that grew into the isson ippai. However, this ‘gourmet’ and local product marketing style is not exclusive to Kasumi. At most major train stations and retail shops adjacent to tourism attractions throughout Japan, outlets stock various ‘local’ products claiming to be exclusive to that town or region. Cooked and other preprepared grocery items from local producers are always available and have a long shelf life, able to be carried home by the budget-conscious traveller. Despite initial growth in the 1970s, by 2001 various aspects of tourism, the local fisheries, community attitudes, negative population growth and local government management, had contributed to a nexus of impacts for the Kasumi social fabric and its economy. Furthermore, alternative tourism options were sought, but these had challenges steeped in history and local dignity.

Community Pride, Nature and Culture A local public servant had posted on the municipality’s official website that growing tourism may be the way to improve the declining economy. Kasumi locals had positive perceptions of, and an affinity with, the town’s cultural heritage and natural environment. Locals interviewed claimed this was linked to their historic sense of pride in the relatively untouched coastline, the fishery’s history within the community, remnants of Shintō spiritual connections (Fig. 7.2) and perhaps links to several historic clan and fisher clan disputes over the centuries. While some pragmatic business owners believed that local enthusiasm and Kasumi’s notorious old-­ town ‘stubborn pride’ had created cultural challenges to accepting tourists, they also dismissed the need for a fisheries-only economy.

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Fig. 7.2  A small island north-west of the TFRI. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

The strong associations between nature, the coastal environment, the fishing village atmosphere and community mindedness did not extend to the fishery itself. Locals enjoyed the village lifestyle and the associated rural-coastal ambience. The business pragmatists felt this was Kasumi’s main challenge, its misdirected sense of pride held by some local townspeople who reminisced of Kasumi’s townscape and beaches pre-1970. They focused on its nature and fisheries, but not realistically addressing the main issue of its economic condition. These same idealistic townspeople used terms such as ‘romantic’ (romanchiku) when ruminating on their reminiscences of unburdened youth and yearning for the day of the return of soft, sandy beaches and towering pine trees. They did not recall the coastal devastation of high tides, nor the fishing accidents at sea. A local historian’s photograph (Fig. 7.3) depicts pockets of natural, sandy beaches on the Eastern Port, places for sunny, local community gatherings. It also records the ubiquitous concrete breakwaters aiming to protect the fragile, wooden buildings, seen in the background, that were victim to many destructive seas in the past.

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Fig. 7.3  Kasumi beachside recreation, 1955. (Oonishi 1998: 7)

All interviewees were of the opinion that Kasumi was a fine example of an untouched natural environment, a well-known scarce phenomenon of coastal Japan. They wanted to offer urban visitors a ‘real rural experience’, of a pride to be ‘passed on’ by living in such a town and a contrast to mass tourism. Gourmet foods and cuisine of the sea and land (yama-umi), the beautiful land and seascapes, recreational fishing and swimming were features of this overall clean and relatively unpolluted environment, of culture and mystical stories of this Japanese coastal enclave. As such, concerned local cultural historians, who feared that community oral histories of culture and the environment could be lost when municipal amalgamations were imminent, started to record, collect and collate what stories were still available. In 2005, a local honorary historian, a retired teacher, gave a series of lectures about Kyū Kasumi to an audience who were mostly retirees. He feared the impending amalgamation would lead to cultural homogenisation and a loss of knowledge

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about local cultural sites including natural/Shintō and religious shrines and other cultural identifiers. This is what drove him to document and self-publish the local cultural history in an effort to preserve Kyū Kasumi’s cultural and historical identity (Kasumi-chō Kyōiku Iinkai 2005).

Local Community Relationship to Their Economy It is important to consider here the global economy and certain assumptions of Japan’s economy in the 1980s. This was a boom period for the nation, but the Kasumi fishery industry already had its zenith in the late 1970s. Japan had one of the strongest economies. The United States in particular saw the need to redress international trade imbalances, and one way was for the Japanese government to encourage outbound tourism. I emphasis this here because while urban Japan was at the height of its economic bubble, rural and regional fisheries towns were impacted immediately by changes with the Japanese ratification of the Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ). More gradual stages of change were happening such as local population decline, increases in consumer tastes towards beef, pork and chicken as well as the contraction of the construction industry in regional Japan. As domestic tourism withdrew due to cheaper and luxurious alternatives such as Hawaii, increased subsidisation to the construction industry, improvements in fishery technology and grants for small businesses to value add to seafood production protected some rural and regional economies. Such stresses on the local community however have led to conflicts of interest. For Kasumi, this fostered competing business strategies and contributed to divisions in community attitudes. The impact of sustainable daily living, the management of the local natural environment and a tourism industry that had yet to become viable had driven the community not only into differences of opinion, but to a disconnection within the business community. This was the discord from several community leaders and members over the municipal leadership of the town’s economy and the controversy of further tourism development. Such dissenting behaviours diverge from the popularised academic literature of the period, conventionally depicting Japan as a model of harmony and groupism (working together) that ‘naturally’

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extended into or came from everyday life and ‘culture’ (Reischauer and Jansen 1995; Nakane 1973; Hendry 1993). Here then are the Kasumi locals’ comments summarised and categorised into three themes: community cooperation, pro-development and pro-nature. Their opinions and actions varied from a strong desire to preserve the natural environment to incorporate a vibrant industrialisation sector of fisheries and tourism. Interviewees over the age of 50 years desired further development of Kasumi’s tourism industry. In contrast, the 25–30 age group preferred no further development or a return to a natural and less-spoilt environment. 1. Community cooperation: tourism means income and survival, but townspeople need to get together; long-term visions not short-term selfishness; the need to work together to make a beautiful town; combined operations for quality products 2. Pro-development and growth: factories wanted; put open space to practical use for resort tourism development 3. Pro-nature: a potential attraction to the area; the enjoyment of living in the town; a need to harmonise with nature; townspeople should appreciate nature and the white beach, no over-development; there is also loss of original character; maintain a relaxed lifestyle

 hallenges for the Future of Tourism C and Fishery’s Industry Stakeholders and role players in Kasumi’s gourmet, sightseeing and fishing tourism, tourism business owners, a Japan Airlines (JAL) representative, and executives of the Hyogo Port Authority, Tajima Fisheries Research Institute (TFRI) and the Fishery Cooperative Association (FCA) identified key issues for Kasumi tourism and the major growth inhibitors. These people were long-standing community members who had dealt long term with Kasumi’s future development in Kasumi’s fisheries, aquaculture and tourism (Table 7.1).

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Table 7.1   Infrastructural and cultural challenges for Kasumi tourism industry Tourism Issues

Details

Accommodation

Only expensive accommodation was available because the family-oriented camping ground was closed to the public in the 1990s due to lack of custom and the costs of maintaining it ‘The list of airlines that fly to Tajima Airport is maintained on a best-effort basis. Schedules change frequently, and not information readily available’; in late 2002, the website for Tajima Airport (completed in 1994) became unavailable Infrequent trains, twice daily or not at all in certain weather conditions Chamber of Commerce members importing from China, not fostering Kasumi The next generation of minshuku, restaurant owners and fishers do not wish to continue in their parents’ businesses Outdated tourist operations, unmotivated operators (Fig. 7.4) Strong winds stopped train services, winter snow remains a hazard even on newer roads, landslides blocking major transportation networks on numerous occasions Ongoing disunity amongst the Kasumi local business owners Volunteer-led tourism associations

Unreliable transport

Conflict of interest Local disinterest

Rundown operations Extreme weather conditions

Lack of business stakeholder co-operation and professionalism

Education

A lack of co-operation and co-ordination between business sector, fishing and tourism industries, resulting in local divisions 20% of minshuku businesses had been unsuitable for over ten years A lack of collaboration with other tourism associations A lack of research, effort and practical ideas; professional tourism consultation for Kasumi was required and there was a great need for hospitality education Kasumi people were too narrow-minded and did not think of others; local tourism ideas were narrowly focused and only addressed short term solutions (continued)

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Table 7.1  (continued) Tourism Issues

Details

Tourism image

Kasumi does not have a tourism history comparable to its neighbouring competitors The beach lifestyle needs to be re-emphasised in Kasumi culture Lack of effective, co-ordinated public relations; marketing and advertising to promote the local landscape and attractions The prefectural government focuses its tourism promotion on Kobe and Osaka, leading cities of the Kinki district The Hyogo tourism budget is unbalanced, no solid objectives or clearly defined goals Restricted budget for the local tourism association

Advertising

Budget

Fig. 7.4  The unsheltered jetty, Eastern Port for the San’in Kaigan tour boat. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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Table 7.1 illustrates the large and varied issues. Most of the challenges were out of control in this period due to a small community facing the basic issues of ageing and depopulation while trying to work with a lack of direction and general consensus of what to do next to alleviate these pressures. Of those who were still working in the tourism industry, as with the fishery, the labour force was represented by people over the age of 50. Propelling the community forward into a position of a sustainable and viable community is a challenge and a time-demanding one. Those with extended family commitments have added pressures. The nation too faces these population conditions, magnified in an isolated rural-coastal location. Two other major obstacles were intrinsic to Kasumi’s sustainable tourism industry growth. By their very nature, they are activities difficult to change. One is the impact of tourism on local community members’ lifestyles, and the other is the role of power groups in the tourism industry. The fast-and-intense fish sales and their associated restaurant businesses were a business model that contrasted with the slower-paced styles of local everyday businesses such as in retail and local focused, less expensive restaurants. Then there is the accommodation business models of minshuku, a more informal style of inn accommodation or ryokan, which has existed since the early 700s. It can be argued that the ryokan is the model from which all Japanese accommodation has since been based.

The Winter Scenario—Gourmet Tourism While domestic and few international visitors travel to Kasumi throughout the year, it is the peak winter season that consistently attracts the most visitors. This changes the dynamics of the town and impacts the community in various ways. Local opponents to tourism questioned its contribution to Kasumi growth and did not believe that tourism was appropriate for the community. Mostly businesspeople, they were not associated with the fishery industry directly. Visitors were also confronted with unfamiliar business customs. As elsewhere, throughout rural Japan, even as later as the 1990s, some Kasumi small retailers practised the habit of turning on shop lights only when a customer entered. Other shops held limited stock or catered only to local customers. Some shopkeepers

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were semi-retired, or their spouses worked elsewhere. Those stakeholders in the tourism and non-tourism businesses endured the Japanese tourists because generally ‘they are rude and want a lot’. One leading restaurant of the day refused service to tourists and on weekends preferred to avoid the stress of intense business activity, the costs of labour and increasing perishable product in the likelihood that it may sell to a small number of visitors. A common scenario in Kasumi seasonal gourmet tourism attraction of matsubagani (snow crabs) in winter attracting coaches filled with tourists. Ferried directly to the beachfront retail outlets by eager fishmongers, the tourists’ purchases were then quickly and efficiently organised by the salespeople into awaiting couriers’ trucks for delivery to the tourists’ designated destinations. These coach tourists would then be ushered upstairs to the fishmonger’s restaurant, eat set meals, file down the stairs to the awaiting coach and then driven to the next town (Fig. 7.5). These tourists often did not get to experience Kasumi beyond the bus and restaurant

Fig. 7.5  Fresh fish retailer and bus tourists adjacent to Western port. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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windows with little opportunity to spend money in non-­designated outlets. Locals complained being left with rubbish, heavy traffic congestion, a lack of car parking, a lack of respect by the tourists, and a lack of good manners and driving courtesy from the independent travellers. The town went through similar experiences in the tourism peak of summer when the camping grounds were open but site bookings were metred out over a two-week period mostly during school break. The winter gourmet period however adds to this occasional weekend coach frenzy, when independent travellers, mass tourists from several coaches and neighbouring locals flock to the Matsuba-gani festival. To set the general Kasumi scene, aside from the summer tourists and some day-­ festivals mostly involving the local community occurring throughout the year, central Kasumi is very quiet. Businesses close by 4.00 pm except for the two small supermarkets, the butcher and a petrol station that remains open till 6.00 pm on a Friday. General vehicular traffic consists of local drivers and small trucks, most of which transport seafood to various food processing factories or to larger depots for national dispersion. Taxi drivers wait in their cars at the train station for a train that stops twice daily, with few, if any, passengers alighting. This all changes in the peak winter period. It is a peak season for two interrelated reasons. Matsuba-gani (snow crab) is the featured catch with the fishers busily optimising the first-day auctions and sales. As a result of this, Japanese tourists come to experience this delicacy as soon as it is caught at its freshest in season (shun). The first of the season’s catch is a day of much celebration and marketing. Tourists stay one to two nights in minshuku to experience these winter attractions or to stay for a few hours to attend the main festivities and the gourmet restaurants. Winter peak time emphasises the contrast between the rural comings and goings of locals and the tourists’ indulgence of food, relaxation in hospitable lodgings. However, on the one day of the first catch at the fish market portside, as cold winds howl through the sheds, both locals and visitors form long queues to wait for free crab soup and sake. The atmosphere is congenial, with friends, visitors, locals all chatting excitedly and hoping to catch a glimpse of some famous media personalities who may ‘happen’ to visit.

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Fig. 7.6  Women wait for the boxes of first catch crab that they will push on the yellow trolley. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

All this fervour is captured briefly on national television, which also features the early morning seafood auctions. Annually, television crews travel to Kasumi to film every detail of the catch as it is brought ashore (Fig.  7.6): the first auction, the prices and the various associated festivities. Like a scene from reality TV, television personalities interview visitors who exclaim the ubiquitous, ‘oishii!’ (It’s delicious!). This day is in the first week of December, and the ‘traditional’ crab soup-eating competition, established in the 1980s, is also televised. Competitors, mostly from the Kansai region come to win the ‘most crab soup eaten’ (sic) award (Fig. 7.7). Barrels of locally produced sake are donated and offered free to locals and visitors who drink it from cleaned, empty crab shells. Local manufacturers of vinegars, preserved products, sake and the employees of the public hot springs also attend to fill customers’ orders. Local farmers sell their produce. In more recent years, interested local community members, in conjunction with various Kasumi fishery stakeholders and support from the municipal government and the Kasumi Tourist Bureau (Association), have produced small cookbooks promoting the use of local products

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Fig. 7.7  Kasumi soup competition, 2001. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

Fig. 7.8  A forklift gains access to the road as traffic is flagged to stop. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

using local community recipes. These books were made available to visitors to Kasumi, particularly in the peak season as part of the overall festival experience to buy and cook the seasonal catch. At such festivals, traffic levels are high. The coastal Sangyo road is dangerous and noisy. Parking is at a premium. Temporarily employed, uniformed locals direct tour coaches, small buses, cars and industrial vehicles along the single-lane streets (Fig. 7.8)

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Fig. 7.9  A crowded car park adjacent to a seafood market. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

The traffic is further disrupted by couriers who deliver fresh crabs as souvenirs throughout Japan (Fig. 7.9) By two o’clock on Sunday afternoon, straggling independent visitors comprise the remnants of this tourist onslaught. Coaches and minibuses have left, leaving parking spaces once more for locals and the last independent travellers (Fig. 7.10). There is a quiet once more in contrast to the noise and excitement of the last two days. Income for Kasumi spikes at this festival time commensurate with this peak activity. The sources are both from the tourist expenditure and in 2002, from the prefectural budget for the tourism industry as part of its overall regional festival funding support, leaving room for greater profit margins. Local seafood business owners claim to make a profit at festival times, but actual figures were unobtainable. There were no claims of sufficient profits being generated to ‘keep the town going’ for the rest of the year. At the smaller vegetable market stalls, transactions were by cash in hand only with no receipts. While some Kasumi stakeholders wanted to turn this weekend scenario into a year-round business opportunity, other stakeholders wanted to avoid the impacts that this type of tourism creates. It is also a scenario

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Fig. 7.10  Coastal Sangyo Road is quiet the day after the crab festival. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

that national and prefectural tourism policies predicted would expand should there be improved infrastructure in this coastal town. New and improved infrastructure would prolong visitor stays and further promote nature and this rural-coastal attraction, a lifestyle that could encourage urbanites to relocate permanently. This was 2002. The national economy had yet to experience many of the twenty-first-century setbacks including the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant disaster. In the meantime, in the quiet enclave of Kasumi, the season of the Matsuba-gani was one of hope and celebrated with expensive gourmet meals! It remains an attraction that for some tourists includes weekend stays in traditional accommodation, the minshuku.

Accommodation and Hospitality The minshuku is a Japanese version of ‘Bed-and-Breakfast’ accommodation with an emphasis on family ownership, service and providing local, seasonal food mostly served in the evening. The owners of quality

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establishments provide traditional relaxing clothing such as yukata (a cotton dressing gown) and footwear. After bathing onsite or in a nearby onsen, the guest may sit at variations of traditional dining settings reminiscent of upper-class dining by the samurai travelling in the Tokugawa era, or western styled at a table with chairs. Two successful minshuku owners claimed that they owed their success to providing a friendly, family atmosphere that reflected the Kyū Kasumi rural lifestyle. At the turn of the twenty-first century, less than one-third of all Kasumi minshuku owners were under 50 years of age. Like many owner-managed businesses in Kasumi, minshuku were often managed in conjunction with other family businesses or where family members add to the household income by finding outside jobs. Minshuku ranged from those where it is the primary business to one of several other business interests run by a family, and where each business supplements the other to maintain the household’s income over the disparate incomes of four seasons. All Kasumi minshuku are dependent on seasonal gourmet tourism as the major attraction. Some supplement their incomes from rice, nashi fruit and spring onion farming. Farmers, in contrast, have used their farmland to build minshuku to make their farming more profitable. The least successful minshuku are those that do not supplement fresh produce from their own resources or who only use minshuku as an income. In 2002, Kasumi minshuku guest figures were unreliable. Some local hosts as providers were known to evade paying tax and therefore not provide guest numbers. This was facilitated by guests who chose not to stay overnight and mostly paying in cash. Owners depended on the appeal of the town’s village-like, natural and rural environment to set it apart from neighbouring town competitors. The intimate ambience and often confidential reputations are important for successful minshuku businesses. They are used to marketing the benefits of the overall experience, which is a popular experience in this type of domestic tourism in Japan, similar to the more expensive ryōkan. Stylised advertising often conveys the atmosphere of the minshuku, but also word-of-mouth and of course repeat visitors. The difficulties faced by the quality minshuku owners were vast. This included seasonality, dependence on the short peak seasons of the Japanese fished winter crab, sea sports and other beach attractions in

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summer with seasonal troughs in patronage in the off seasons and competing with price cuts offered by the well-known Kinosaki town onsen and ryōkan. Like the seafood restaurants and fish processing factories, there was a lack of business consensus for adopting new ideas. For the high-end owners, managing the myriad challenges of this hospitality sector was compounded by the sector being associated with the low-standard minshuku. This was one reason why bulk marketing was often refused by these successful minshuku businesses in order to maintain a quality reputation. Staffing too was difficult. Sustaining minshuku family businesses into the next generation was regarded as an ‘old person’s’ job, ‘old style’ and too ‘traditional’. Younger people considered that their private and social lives were compromised by this type of business, the management of it interfering with their lifestyle expectations. Maintaining locally trained staff was also a challenge. Once trained and experienced, these staff would then leave for better-paying positions in exciting city locations. The following depicts two minshuku styles represented in Kasumi. Both are successful enterprises.

Modern Minshuku In 2002, a modern, four-storied minshuku with individually styled rooms was managed by a second-generation owner. The business had been in the same location for over 30 years and the son had assumed management for the past 12 years. The foyer welcomes the guest with soft lights and a fountain promising a peaceful environment. This atmosphere was important, claimed the owner, and was part of the attraction of the establishment. The site was formerly a rice field, and a small rice field adjacent to the minshuku remains not only for aesthetic reasons but is harvested and the rice grain is processed locally. Although the minshuku is the family’s principal business, the father, who started the business, was also working for another company’s rice fields. The owner organised most of his own advertising and marketing (Fig. 7.11). He maintained a private, modern Japanese-style rotenburo (outdoor hot spring).

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Fig. 7.11  Stylised calligraphy on minshuku brochure. (Reprinted with kind permission of Sadasuke)

His guests mainly came from Osaka and Kobe. The owner was gradually making expensive renovations as he accommodated guests’ requirements. He found that Japanese guests had become increasingly demanding. They wanted more privacy, bathrooms with pedestal toilets and lockable, larger rooms in contrast to the traditional six tatami-­ sized rooms. Nonetheless, he had to balance traditional style with modern facilities. Rooms had appropriate lighting, ensuring that his guests felt and ‘looked good’ in this atmosphere. This is a Japanese hospitality tradition. The guest should look comfortable and aesthetically pleasing, being seated in front of an alcove, framed by this tokonoma where seasonal ikebana and

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scrolls are placed. This traditional practice of seating arrangement is a place of honour (Coaldrake 1996) and also practised in some family homes as well. This minshuku had a reputation for its focus on seasonal menus and family-style service.

Family Home Minshuku The income of this minshuku business, which was operated within the family home itself was supplemented by the owner’s farmed nashi (a crunchy, apple-shaped pear) for eating and selling to wine producers. The owner also worked seasonally in other agricultural businesses—a modern form of migratory labour, known as dekasegi. Although it was a secondary business, the minshuku was a significant enterprise with repeat guests visiting for over 30 years. The winter kaiseki (a beautifully presented meal of five or more dishes) of crab was the evening specialty, served from the kitchen adjacent to the Japanese-style dining room with floor seating for up to 12 in front of several tokonoma. He stressed that it was important for each of his guests to feel special. The owners kept live crabs in an aquaculture system in a storage room beside the house that also stored local fruit and vegetables. Proud of this clean, ‘modern’ facility and of their business, the owner and his wife both shared the businesses’ duties, although there was a division of labour. This owner was pleased that the larger minshuku (above) had additional new buildings under construction. He believed that this would attract more business to the town. He was prepared for their ‘overflow’ from this larger accommodation enterprise. He owned another house across the road from his minshuku. Here he maintained his hobby of a formal Japanese-style bonsai garden which he showed to selected guests. His son, who was in his mid-20s and lived independently nearby, was employed elsewhere and did not aim to work for or take on the family business. In contrast to the larger minshuku owner, the small minshuku owner was a member of a group of ten Kasumi minshuku for the purpose of collective advertising and marketing. In terms of the efficacy of the tourism associations which represented Kasumi, he believed that while the NKTA

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support had improved, the Tajima Tourism Association was unreliable; he claimed that it favoured big companies over smaller ones.

 ourism Industry Power Groups; ‘Favourites’ T Versus ‘Newcomers’ Drawn by second incomes or a supplement for a pension fund, some minshuku owners and small business holders found the business of tourism hard work. They also had to compete with experienced business providers and equally experienced municipal leaders from competing towns. In any advanced economy, well-connected networks are useful in regional townships where peer business referrals (from overflows or special product sales) can be additional keys to success. In contrast, exclusion from groups can also send a powerful message to tourism consumers. This was the same for Kasumi and the region in general. Several government role players and business stakeholders held concerns for the future of Kasumi tourism largely led by favouritism in the marketing and promotions sectors of regional tourism associations. The dominance of the major travel companies such as Japan Tourism Business (JTB), Japan Railways (JR) and bus companies associated with Kita Kinki Tango Railway (now Kyoto Tango Railway) concentrated their efforts on the tourism destinations of their subsidiary and other ‘connected’ businesses. Some more expensive tours offered Kasumi stopovers for a matter of hours for crab kaiseki. Kasumi was only a stopover in the big company’s itineraries to the better-known attractions the onsen of Yumura and Kinosaki and the sightseeing of historic Amanohashidate in North Kyoto. With no overnight accommodation component in their itineraries, these short two- or three-hour tours were thus ineffective for a large number of minshuku owners who offered overnight packages. In contrast, fishery-related tourism operators, fishmongers and restaurateurs believed that the dominance of large companies in the region provided a positive impact due to the very nature of the short stopovers and intensive shopping sprees for seafood. Kasumi traders could also exploit their spillover, capturing the individual travellers.

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While the accommodation and hospitality industry stakeholders believed there was a prefectural government bias concerning budgeting and advertising for Pacific coast tourism, their concerns were more localised. They questioned the validity of appropriate budgeting for effective tourism education; these resources were inadequate at the local level. In 2002, the number of national tourism management courses was limited in terms of availability, accessibility and geography which drew potential labour away from rural industry (Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism 2010: 29, 39). Despite these obstacles, the local hospitality industry’s key role players were proactive in their community. They wanted Kasumi to maintain its profile as a place of rural culture and integrity as a fishing village while also being seen as a town moving towards a modern economy. These were enthusiastic community contributors despite being affected by the declines of the tourism and fishing sectors. They and likeminded businesspeople were keen to work hard for the community, despite having no heirs apparent. The major tourism industry affected by this was the accommodation sector. Despite proactive community members across the fisheries, tourism and hospitality sectors introducing innovative festivals for winter uptake of the local crab catch, other neighbouring communities were as or more competitive than Kasumi, with some having the same economic issues and similarly solving them.

Same Ideas, Same Foods…Same Problems Like the Matsuba-gani Matsuri of Kasumi, a plethora of festivals fill the Japanese national calendar. Customs aside, the modern festival has become a tourism strategy for many towns’ revitalisation schemes. The use of modern and modernised festivals for tourism aims to direct visitors to towns and villages throughout Japan. They are often linked to themes, experiences, foods or items that are identified with a locality or region. These are remnants of strategies from the national scheme for rural tourism revitalisation of ‘one product, one village’ (isson ippin undō). Introduced in the 1980s, this was an idea to link a specific product or attraction to a regional village or town (METI 2008). Such image

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creation, identification and branding focused on local uniqueness. Ironically, this has not been an altogether successful concept. Many villages and towns along the Northern Kinki coastline and beyond claim to have the ‘best tasting’ crab. Products can be similar in content but just branded with different labels. Centuries-old festivals too are major attractions for visitors, emphasising heritage and cultural history and are thus strong competition for the modern junior events. Buoyed by the various national tourism strategies to promote local produce between the 1980s and 1990s, many rural fishing communities were exploiting their cultures too, to encourage tourism and improve their economies (Martinez 1990). To promote the local snow crab harvest, Kasumi fishery stakeholders adopted the festival approach to recreate a tradition to showcase community cultural activities. As just described, foremost for Kasumi was to market the culture of the food experience of (gurume) gourmet tourism. Kasumi featured a package promotion combining local produce and cuisine with sightseeing, adventure and action as ‘experience tourism’. Major train stations were always stocked with brochures advertising travel on JR trains to destinations highlighting seasonal foods and sights, and, as websites grew to more sophisticated content, always included seasonal fare. At Hyogo stations, Kasumi tourism brochures promoted seasonal overnight packages. Kasumi prided itself on its gastronomic reputation maintaining that it had the ‘cleanest and tastiest’ crab in Honshū. Between the years of 2001 and 2005, Kasumi moved on to adopt a micro-strategy, but focusing on all these seasons instead of just winter. The aim was to capture a small percentage of these niche markets still travelling the regional north. Targeting different age groups with different gurume activities, the gourmet experience could form part of a regional tour, the minshuku experience as a high-end option or part of a family and youth action package where the food was the least expensive item (Fig. 7.12). By 2005, Kasumi’s simple train station tourism brochures were replaced with glossy publications containing local recipes and traditional seafood preparation guides for the tourists. Later, mirroring the change for ecotourism, recycled paper publications in sophisticated, Japanese

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Fig. 7.12  Marketing for the budget conscious 2005. (Reproduced with kind permission of Kamitown Tourism Association)

styles reflected a local appreciation of quality, but with tactile appreciation of a bygone Japanese ‘culture’ (see Fig. 7.13). By 2000, the lone post of the Kasumi tourism website a few years earlier calling to improve its economy had disappeared from the website archives. The Tajima district economy was continuing to wane, a reflection of the larger economic issue of the national economic downturn. The same ideas to improve rural and regional economies throughout Japan had similar themes. The destinations too received the same responses: a slow acceptance to visit, little desire for rural Japan and a contraction of consumer spending. The economic downturn was touted ‘imminent’ by the national government. (The government ten years later declared that it had suffered an economic recession for that period,

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Fig. 7.13  Promoting seasonality, spring in Kasumi, 2005. (Reproduced with kind permission of the Kasumi Yakuba)

known as ‘the lost decade’.) But this had already squeezed much of regional economies in Hyogo throughout the 1990s. A desperate last effort to rejuvenate the prefecture’s north meant reinvigorating the rarely used Tajima airport. As part of the list of 65 projects to develop Hyogo Prefecture between the 1980s and 1990s, the purpose of the Tajima domestic airport was to open up regional Hyogo and thus encourage its citizens to appreciate

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their prefecture’s natural environment. Completed in 1994 and located some 5 kilometres south-west of Kasumi, it was part of the ‘Furusato Cherry Blossom Corridor’ planting project that would stretch from the Seto Inland Sea of Himeji to the Sea of Japan (Hyogo 1998: 20) and culminating at the Kasumi waterfront. Based on the Hyōgo 2001 Plan, this Tajima regional stimulus project, Future of Hyogo (Sabien 1995: 87), included the rejuvenation of the Tajima coast. As the rest of the chapter explains, alongside initiatives by local stakeholders and community role players who worked hard to invigorate Kasumi on their own terms, this was one of the three regional ‘last ditch’ projects instigated from the national and prefectural levels of government to reinvigorate the northern regions of Hyogo, Kyoto and Tottori prefectures (Kita Kinki). While this chapter has sought somewhat to depict the reinvigoration projects in a chronological order, this was far from the reality. Kasumi and neighbouring townships endured all these reinvigoration attempts at various stages over 10–15 years and perhaps even from the late 1970s as earlier versions were mooted, while the northern region, the Kita Kinki, too had its development priorities, mostly based out of Kyoto and Tottori. Back into Hyogo, the one that created the most enthusiasm for Kasumi community members was the Renaissance Plan.

 he Renaissance Plan: T Waterfront Redevelopment In 1991, guided by the Hyōgo 2001 Plan, a few selected officials from the Kasumi municipality and the Hyogo Prefectural Ports and Harbours division consulted with a research professor from Osaka University to consider the long-term strategy of the ‘Renaissance Plan’ a waterfront redevelopment (R-Plan). It included improvements to the shoreline and to develop a resort on the water’s edge. Some records suggest that a resort had been advocated for this site since 1976. Early construction provides evidence of this as the coast had major protection works completed to this end of the coastal township prior to the resort stage’s ground preparation. The breaking of the ground for the resort zone of the Western Port

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area of Kasumi began in the same year as the Kasumi bypass, 1997. The promises that came with the R-Plan brought much hope to the local business community as it promised growth. The gourmet tourism strategy and festival had been in place since the 1980s, but growth had been slow and fluctuated with the economy and pollution stresses. The R-Plan was an eight-staged tourism project to be developed along the central Kasumi coastline and included the construction of the Imamura Family Inn. The Plan was to be completed in stages because the Japanese economy was expected to revive by the end of the decade. Funding was expected to be gradually released from the prefectural government for such projects. Support from the Hyogo Prefectural government included initial funding for the land reclamation and the site foundations upon which local businesses and other private enterprises could then build a hotel and a tourist resort (Fig.  7.14). A multi-lane road that would replace the narrow coastal Sangyo Road.

Fig. 7.14  The R-Plan. This local mother, gazing north, is sitting in the circled map area. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

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The R-Plan (Fig.  7.14), with a projected cost at 1995 value of US$70,000,000 (Sabien 1995: 89), consisted of four ‘community, monument, recreation and resort zones as well as a man-made reef ’ (sic) under the Block Act of Development of Special Regions—The Act for the Improvement of Comprehensive Resort Areas (1987) and The Act on the Extraordinary Measures for the Development of Depopulated Areas (1980–1990). Drawings from the Hyogo Prefectural Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Fishing Ports (Hyōgo-ken Nōsonsuisanbu Gyokouka et  al. 1993: 2–3, 4) earmarked the western beach area as a Resort Zone, the Coastal Recreation Zone and the ‘Getting back to Nature Zone’. The resort zone itself had several versions. Each version had archways to view the sea from the roadside, a proposed buffer between the heavily constructed beach, the extensive green lawns and the road. While the development could have possibly attracted funds from the larger Keihanshin recreation development funds (Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe recreation budgets), a farfetched idea from some Kasumi pundits, the R-Plan was a local focus. Thus, it was eligible to seek various sources of government and local business funding as a major resort development. It came under the initiative of ‘one village one product’ (isson ippin undō) (METI 2008) and the ‘furusato’ plan under which the Hyogo government had endorsed this rural municipality’s application. Local business participants were expected to contribute 1% from their ‘development of new events and products’ budget as an initial investment under a further umbrella project of ‘Hyogo  – the home town living with the sea’ (sic) (umi ni ikiru sato) (Kasumi Machi 1993: 26). The funding negotiations were conducted between several national government departments and the prefecture. The application procedure, under the Furusato Foundation for Loans Private Project (Sabien 1995), required the participation of a private promoter who represented the town requiring revitalisation, making an application to the Prefecture. This was then modified and forwarded to the National Foundation, which assisted in the procurement of joint financing from financial and other institutions. The foundation would also conduct a comprehensive study and examination of the project and notify the local government of the results of these examinations. The local government would then issue

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Fig. 7.15  West beach of Western Port Kasumi. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

Furusato Local Bonds to procure the necessary funds and provide a Furusato loan to the private project promoter. There were problems from the outset. The consultation processes in the form of local meetings included over 23 local business leaders who had formed a consortium to decide the budget for the commercial enterprise planned for the resort (Figs. 7.15 and 7.16) The budget was estimated at ¥1 billion and a large private enterprise group (unnamed) was reconsidering to undertake the project. Aligning with this part of the major build of this project, local construction companies and the associated entrepreneurs, who wanted to be in the new development, were then expected to develop and commercially populate the forthcoming reconstructed site. This included the relocation of local retail and wholesale fish markets and stalls from the Eastern Port sector to link up with the major fish processing operations and restaurants already on the Western Port Sangyo Road.

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Fig. 7.16  The R-Plan Kasumi Beach. A five-storied archway building was planned for this section of the site. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

As the early stages of the project development could not be settled, ideas on the nature for the project began to change. The municipal government had similar ideas for redevelopment, but the consortium and the municipal government did not work together. By the late 1990s, not only did funding become problematic due to the decline in the national economy, but no agreement had been reached as to the leadership of this regional private enterprise initiative. Cultural and research facilities were also considered for inclusion, particularly for the fishery sector. In 1993, under the directive of the mayor, the municipal government approved funding for a maritime museum for tourists, inland and away from the coastal R-Plan site, but near the new TFRI building and aquaculture ponds. Not only was the museum design outdated (from TFRI interviewees), it was considered a waste of funds as a tourism attraction. The museum was a static display, not the standard

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of the SeaWorld maritime centre in the nearby Kinosaki complex against which it was expected to compete.

The Beginning of the End of a Revival Kasumi Bay has been subjected to several stages of development, much of it occurring offshore to improve and safeguard the coastal environment and the fisheries. The R-Plan would therefore capitalise on funding that had already been invested in the town over several decades and particularly in 1997 when preparation for the beachfront resort began. Much of the money provided for the R-Plan had been injected into this further beachfront preservation and underpinnings before the final stage, the resort building itself, was finally postponed. According to the mayor in 2001, the hiatus in development was due to the lack of prefectural funding and the extended downturn in the national economy. The deputy mayor had inferred that while the national economic situation was indeed problematic, he pointed to the lack of stakeholder co-operation that had contributed to uncertainty over the future viability of the project when it first started. By February 2002, the land stage remained incomplete. Kasumi people had been waiting since 1986 for the R-Plan to rejuvenate their townscape, industry and economy. They were left with a sandy infill used as a boggy car park on the shoreline. The R-Plan was developed for two reasons: to prevent further coastal erosion and to develop a swimming beach and leisure area for international tourists to the Kinki region, but particularly for domestic tourists from the Keihanshin, a collective term for the cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. These cities, however, have their own tourist attractions serviced by six- or eight-lane highways and fast public transport. The time travelled by car to Kasumi from Himeji on the Pacific coast can be two to four hours in good weather, more in peak holiday periods, and over four hours in snow. By rail, it takes over two hours. Although the R-Plan was initiated in the 1970s, officially it was mooted under the legislation of the Resort Law of 1987 (Kasumi Machi 1993: 26, 27). Towards the end date of the last stage of the entire project, it was later indirectly supported through national Welcome Plan 21 funding. In

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what could be described as a ‘trickle-down’ process, national government funding as part of its overall international tourism initiative was directed to the larger regional tourism districts such as the Keihanshin. This was probably the reason for the involvement of the University of Osaka (in Osaka city) in the design. Initially the project had been led by the Hyogo prefectural government as part of its tourism planning and development. The objectives of the R-Plan were to generate a future for the Kasumi tourism industry that would complement and grow the gourmet and sightseeing attractions already in place. It promised to create a ‘Tajima project that would be the model for ‘tomorrow’s furusato’ (Tajima-shi tashikyoku) (Kasumi Machi 1993: 26, 27). The resort would replace the rundown attractions and unused facilities and move the ‘centre’ of the town’s retail sector from the existing commercial street frontage to the resort building. The mayor and local tourism director agreed that it would solve the population and business problems of Kasumi. The resort would have a ‘home-style’ atmosphere and its western zone would provide a natural environment for children and a place for recreation and interaction with nature and between people. It would make Kasumi’s amenities available for tourists year-round and not just in the popular times of winter and summer. Further spin-offs included improved employment and repopulation opportunities. However, an artist’s impression illustrated a modernist architectural style. The proposed buildings featured a four-storey squared archway with imposing glass walls that reflected the existing dwellings and businesses across the main road while allowing a window to view the sea. The  ‘home-style’ fishing village atmosphere would be replaced with a gleaming glass edifice blocking the coastal views. Despite the presence of such new amenities, the Kasumi winter weather would continue to make car travel to the town an arduous and unpredictable one, while the unreliability of flights into Tajima airport would continue to be a deterrent. Then, in July 2000, just inland and south of old Kasumi, the Yadogawa Onsen had opened. An initial surge of tourists visited the newest onsen in the region. This resurgence of tourism at the onsen (fresh, new onsen are always an attraction) encouraged local business leaders to reassess the R-Plan for one last attempt. They requested that a specialist advisor from

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Fig. 7.17  The Kasumi resort zone in 2001. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

the Hyogo Prefectural government reconsider the viability of the planned retail shops and recreational attractions such as deep-sea fishing (shinsōtsuri). The TFRI was already providing deep-sea fishing for tourists an incentive to encourage FCA members to take on this opportunity to utilise their fleets in fishing in the off seasons and to enhance their incomes, but training and licences would be costly. The business group and the specialist then met four times in late 2002. At these meetings, no alternative development projects were agreed upon; the final decisions on development remained with the Kasumi municipal officers. The business leaders therefore felt helpless because there had been no evident progress (Fig. 7.17). Except for the R-Plan, suggestions for the improvement of the Kasumi economy had been varied. Built near the historic sake factory, the Yadogawa onsen was a pristine yet characterless example (local’s comment), and its initial tourism success had rapidly waned. Other short-­ term profit, the retail tourist projects, experienced the same outcome. A mayoral—mooted, piecemeal and unresearched, deepwater extraction (an expensive process of collecting deep ocean current water to sell for unproven health benefits) was abandoned. Only a small group of

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successful businesses were capable of not only formulating a set of their own economic development strategies but also of implementing them. In 2001–2002, there was discussion between the relevant stakeholders from the FCA, the fisheries union, general and fish processing businesses and interested community members to debate and negotiate any remnants of the R-Plan. It was agreed that the first and most important task was to prevent further erosion of the beach and foreshore. It had been difficult to obtain money from MAFF, and, even in November 2001, the cost of this project to date had yet to be fully calculated. Stage two, which was the planting of pine trees, was meant to occur within the next five years. Stage three was to be the building project and the reinterpretation of the existing foreshore, its buildings’ designs and purpose.

 he Chain of Decision-Making and the Unfeasibility T of the R-Plan Despite some locals still having faith in the future of the plan, the deputy mayor conceded that there would be no further development of the resort site. The consultation process was at odds with the prefectural government. It had withdrawn its support due to the site’s unfeasibility as a leisure venue for locals and a belief that the leisure boom would soon finish. Thus, an investment focus on the tourism initiatives would be a misdirection of prefectural funding. Outside private investors were now seeking more financially stable investment opportunities in the public sector. One last consideration was by the deputy mayor. He believed that the development of a conference centre on the former R-Plan site would provide a place for city and country people to communicate and interact. He considered that construction of such a facility would be a useful strategy for the future sustainability of the Kasumi community (even though a modern cultural/community centre had already been built a street away in the previous decade). It was like throwing sand to the wind as those in similar executive roles were seeking alternatives with no financial or research support. Then in February 2002, without community or prefectural consultation, the then mayor made a surprise announcement that there were new

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options for the redevelopment of the R-Plan site. A large multilevel car park and community centre were scheduled for completion by 2004 and would include conference rooms and new municipal offices on the beachfront, while unused areas would be planted with pine trees. Also, under his consideration was the restoration of the bathing beach for both locals and tourists as a place of recreation, like that of the past. His election was due in the same year and already legal action was in place for 19 staff to claim redundancy packages.

A ‘Concrete’ Dilemma: Bypassing the R–Plan In the January winter of 2002, Kasumi was again impacted by a decision to restart a project that had been held back due to the excesses of the construction sector. Already reeling from the ‘end’ of the R-Plan, another yet to be finished project diverted much needed municipal funding. As part of the national project to open up regional Japan, a section of the greater project of the Kyoto-Tottori, east-west Highway connection, the Kasumi bypass had commenced construction in the mid-1990s. These building works had caused protracted disruption to the Kasumi community and its environs. This bypass was part of a national roadwork scheme, which, together with the R-Plan, was drafted in 1986 and therefore preceded the Koizumi-era tourism initiatives and halt of the extravagances in that sector. The aims of the bypass, at the regional level, were to assist in the opening up of the northern Kinki district prefectures between Kyoto, Hyogo and Tottori so as to reverse the decline in tourist numbers in the northern region’s small towns. This area’s roads were dangerous due to the difficulty of traversing small thoroughfares, perilously winding and snow covered in winter. On a national scale, another desired outcome of connecting these major northern coastlines was to reinvigorate the construction industry. A major cement industry was based in central Hyogo in Wadayama town of the Tajima district. The Kasumi section of this route was being built at the same time as the ground preparation for the R-Plan. It was evident that both of these works were causing major disruptions to the incoming tourist and local

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Fig. 7.18  Land resumed from a local business, 2001. (Photograph Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

traffic who had been encouraged by the festival initiatives. Family homes were displaced, and small businesses were affected. The bypass project also led to a variety of businesses and homeowners having their land resumed (albeit with compensation) by both the municipal and Hyogo governments. For one family business providing essential plumbing and LPG supplies, part of their premises had been acquired by the Hyogo government. Although they were compensated, the disruption to their business and of supplies to their customers created stress for the owners (Fig. 7.18). Excavations destroyed part of their buildings, and they could only rebuild once the bypass had been completed. The town’s sake business as well had part of its land resumed for the bypass pillars, but engineers later deemed the land unsuitable for construction as it contained natural artesian hot springs and the area was later rezoned for use as the Yadogawa onsen. The push for the construction sector to reinstate the development was quickly halted as soon as Koizumi’s national reforms for fiscal reconstruction included suspending expensive construction industry initiatives. Nearly all roadworks were stopped in their pre- or mid-construction phases throughout Japan. In the wider context, these reforms aimed to

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reduce wasteful expenditure and to improve the nation’s public finances for future generations by easing long-term debt liabilities (Mulgan 2002: 2, 3). In the short term and the local context, Kasumi was adversely affected by dislocations resulting from these reforms. The impacts included the cessation of work on the Kasumi bypass section of the Kyoto—Tottori East—West Highway in 2001. The community was left in limbo while waiting for the works to resume. This retrenchment was a clear example of top-down policy decision-making not considering the impacts on the rural-coastal peripheries. In contrast, in the central Hyogo town of Wadayama, based on cement production, road reconstruction at a major intersection continued. Traffic at this location was diverted and became slow-moving, adding an hour or more to car travel times from the southern cities to Kasumi. Pressure from various ministerial and entrepreneurial sectors, including the Ministry of Construction (amalgamated with the Ministry of Transport to form the MLIT in 2002), led to a reconsideration of this hiatus to road construction nationally, and the Kasumi section bypass construction recommenced in 2003. Nevertheless, community morale in Kasumi remained low due to the decrease in tourist numbers. Meanwhile, the municipality was directed to reallocate funding for the revegetation of the Kasumi coastline, to the renewal of drainage pipes along the road into the town centre, a project that began in mid-January 2002. This was part of the bypass project. The stipulation for this drainage work surprised the local town planning office, its local plans overridden due to the national reinstatement of roadworks. Therefore, the prefectural departments then instructed that the local drain works had to be completed before the bypass roadworks on the outskirts of the town could resume in 2003. A town planning officer noted that although repair of the drainage system was needed, this had been planned for the next three-year municipal budget. Within weeks, the roads were opened up, and the drainage works further disrupted town traffic of the peak winter tourist season from February 2002. Running parallel to a local road, the Kasumi bypass section was eventually completed in late 2005 (Fig. 7.19). The local tourism industry had been disrupted by this stage of works for over three years, but the regional bypass, of which the Kasumi section was a part, had initially begun in the

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Fig. 7.19  The Kasumi Bypass. (Photograph T. Kurano)

late 1990s. The Kasumi tourism industry stakeholders, already compromised, saw their predicament exacerbated by a national roadwork project and a protracted political stand-off which extended over a seven-year period. Theoretically, Kasumi tourism had been in limbo from 1986 when the R-Plan, of which the bypass was a component, was first mooted in 1976.

Is Tourism the Right Rural Revival Tool for Coastal Kasumi? Regional revitalisation from a top-down approach has arguably produced outcomes for Kasumi that have interfered with its own community’s attempts at reinvigorating its own economy at its own pace and one which the community pundits can best manage. To keep the interest in the area and forestalling the outcomes of the stagnated tourism industry as a result of the hiatus of messy developments, the Hyogo government had yet another regional strategy. A one-off event was conceived, perhaps seven years too late.

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To encourage travel to the Tajima, Hyogo invited visitors to the region to formally join in the ‘opening’ of the Tajima airport in 2001 with the Tajima Festival. (The airport had been opened since 1994.) The Hyogo government claimed that the festival would increase tourism and subsequent economic and population growth in rural towns and villages. Over 200,000 Tajima residents and officials and 400 organisations participated, of which 72 groups represented the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries. However, only eight groups represented the tourism industry. The festival’s highlights featured renewed  development of Tajima’s traditional cultural base, utilities and trade links with countries across the Sea of Japan. In order to do this, projects were aimed to establish communications, information technology transfer systems and transport corridors through the region, encourage the development of new tourism opportunities, improve the service industry and revitalise the agricultural and fishing industries. Such enthusiastic goals, however, were not reflected in the outcomes. The introduction of an airline with unreliable flight times (JAL interviewee and the airport’s website) and the duplication of local gourmet foods over all the region added to reasons why domestic tourists did not travel to this distant and hazardous region other than for ski sport enthusiasts and summer tourists. Neither the Japan Brand concept, introduced in 2004 and later criticised for its focus on already-established tourism destinations and attractions, nor a questionable successor to the Welcome Japan rural revitalisation strategy (Rausch 2008) managed to direct economic and population growth to declining towns such as Kasumi and its neighbouring towns of Onsen, Mikata and Hamasaka. As Table 7.1 depicts, infrastructural and cultural issues challenged the Kasumi tourism industry. At the grass-roots level, the general daily business of tourism hospitality is a demanding one, on call basically 24 hours. Even at this small-town level, tourism can be complicated by stakeholders’ and role players’ opposing interests. As such, tourism industry representation and leadership has played a key role in the direction of the town’s local industries. The desire for increased tourism growth by some members of the community led to two major projects to revitalise

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Kasumi. However, one almost closed the town in its peak tourism period due to national government pundits focusing on elections. The other caused great disappointment.

Is Tourism the Right Rural Revival Tool for Coastal Kasumi? Was the R-Plan a doomed project before it started? Was it a project that was not appropriate for the location? Were the local opponents to tourism-­driven rural revitalisation correct? Regional tourism data did highlight one clear trend. Local enthusiasm for the R-Plan had waned by 2001. The Kasumi tourism industry too remained moribund. It became increasingly evident to the local community that the Japanese economy was not recovering from the economic recession that had begun in the early 1990s. Despite the protection enabled by construction for the Kasumi foreshore, it was still vulnerable to coastal degradation and so was largely unusable by tourists, save for car parking. Locals however, had already noticed adverse visitor trends before the 1990s. The proposed time for the resort zone development from its onset was beset with problems, one being in the period of a freefalling economy, reflected in visitor numbers of the period to rural Kasumi. By the mid-1990s, tourist figures to Kasumi had plummeted. Kasumi had reported that its overnight visits had fallen from 396,000  in 1985 to 238,000  in 1995 (Kasumi Municipality 2005: 54) and, as the Tajima regional figures indicate, had another fall, to 170,000, by 1999 (Table 7.2). Table 7.2  Kasumi and Tajima Day and Overnight Visitors

Kasumi Tajima

1994 All visitors

1999 All visitors

1994 % shift overnight

1999 overnight

% shift

1283 13,103

459 9927

−64% −24%

170 2641

−75% −34%

Tajima Tourism Association (2001)

680 4009

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Tajima regional visitor numbers were strong in the winter of 1994. The growth was attributed to the opening of the Kinosaki aquarium, the increased promotion of the Kinosaki onsen and the opening of neighbouring Muraoka-cho’s michi-no-eki. With the impact of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, the nation’s economic recession and the 1997 Nakhodka oil spill, not only did the region suffer, but particularly the Kasumi gourmet tourism visitor numbers, falling in the five-year period by over 60%. The Kasumi fisheries and ocean environment endured long term pollution. In 2002, TFRI representatives commented that such was the severity of the pollution, it  contributed to the ongoing rumours and suspicions that there were unhealthy crabs from the region, ‘due to the 1997 oil spill’. Comprising almost 70% of the accommodation business in Kasumi, by 1999 the total of minshuku visitor nights had fallen to 115,000, only to rise slightly in 2000 to 138,000 (data supplied kindly by the FCA for 2001 only*). The sightseeing ocean excursion numbers had fallen from 33,000 in 1996 to 13,000 by 2001*. While several small projects had been built between the late 1980s to the early 1990s, such as a new community centre, a multiple purpose hall and the Imamura Family Inn, a hotel convention centre (Fig. 7.20), they did little to reinvigorate Kasumi. Cynically, it can be said that these developments that were the result of a series of political promises and subsidies to improve rural community amenity, instead, were the subsidisation of the construction industry that McCormack (1996) had so described of the era. The delayed R-Plan development therefore coincided with plummeting tourist figures. As noted earlier, geography, politics and the economy have played a formidable role in creating tourism growth. However, the stalled regional developments were not the sole reason for this fall in visitor numbers. In 2002, a survey of 98 respondents of Himeji residents aged 40–65 who had visited Kasumi were revealing. While 23 returned for the gourmet tourism experience, 25 did not desire to return to the region for the winter experience. Only 3 had bought local produce. Another 38 did not care to travel to Kasumi at all, even though they had visited the Tajima region. For those who did not want to return, they had already experienced that area and wanted to explore other regions. For them, Kasumi

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Fig. 7.20  Imamura Inn and its view overlooking Kuroshima Island, north-west of Sea of Japan. (Photographs Lesley Crowe-Delaney)

was not a repeat holiday attraction. This was the age demographic which Kasumi minshuku owners hoped to attract. A paradox sits here in the research. Only 40% of those who did return did so for the very attractions that are available in Kasumi winter, a theme of gourmet tourism set in an environment of rural hospitality of a ‘traditional’ minshuku. They considered it a place where the Japanese tourist could experience nature, local produce and the Japanese coastal-rural

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idyll. Yet these comments contrasted in that these seasoned tourists wanted to visit other places in Japan and internationally as well. The attraction of this local destination was not enough for visitors to override being global tourists, a common phenomenon worldwide. This corresponds with the few locals who did not agree with a tourism-focused industry for Kasumi. Nonetheless, there were drawn-out processes and delays of the R-Plan, the coastal beautification, the national political impacts resulting in the delay of a major bypass, the reconstruction of the town’s water drainage works, the main intersection of central Hyogo at Wadayama where traffic jams and extensive detours for a protracted period disincentivised travel to Kasumi along with consumer contraction as the national economy slumped. While the regional revitalisation projects of the Tajima region had passed and did not fulfil policy aims, the Kasumi tourism industry was achieving its own peak results on one weekend a year in winter, with general gourmet tourism activity or passers-by adding to the main industry of fishing. (Summer had budget beach attractions over the season.) Meanwhile, the Kasumi municipal town planning department of two staff, contended with its own local dilemma, that of making sense of prefectural and national policy at the municipal level, while dealing with the municipal amalgamations for 2006. While both Kasumi and Himeji are situated in coastal national or quasi-national parks, Hyogo’s northern coast was seen as an official cultural and material connection to the prefecture’s rural idyll for its urbanites, but the rural idyll did not reach the expectations of the urban tourist ideals. Tourism means income and survival; (But it) needs academic research and feedback and connection with tertiary institutions to include Kasumi in marine sciences; Hospitality-educated, young people are required. (a Kasumi community member in 2002).

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Bibliography Bunce, M. 1994. The Countryside Ideal: Anglo-American Images of Landscape. London: Routledge. Coaldrake, W.H. 1996. Architecture and Authority in Japan The Nissan Institute/ Routledge Japan Studies Series. London: Routledge. Hendry, J. 1993. Understanding Japanese Society: Routledge. Hyogo Government Prefectural. 1998. Hyogo Plan 2001. Hyogo: Hyogo Prefectural Government. Hyōgo-ken Nōsonsuisanbu Gyokouka, Hyōgo-ken Suisan Jimusho and Kasumicho Furusato Shinkōka. 1993. Kasumi kaigan renessansu keikaku (The Kasumi Coast Renaissance Plan). Kobe. [in Japanese]. Kasumi-chō Kyōiku Iinkai. 2005. Wagamura no Rekishi, Bunka: Jidai ni Tsugitai Takara no Monogatari. (Preserving Our Village’s Heritage of History and Culture: The Story of the Treasure Which We Would Like to Succeed to the Next Generation). Kinosaki gun Kasumi cho Kasumi: Hyogo Prefecture. [in Japanese]. Kasumi Machi. 1993. Kaori no surumachi, Kasumi. (Kasumi: We Present a Wonderful and Special Fragrance to You). Hyōgo-ken Kasumimachi Zeiyōran: Kasumi Machi. [in Japanese]. Kasumi Municipality. 2005. Kasumichō Gappei 50 Shyūnenshi. (Kasumi Advance 1955–2004 Fifty Years of Progress: The Kasumi City Commemoration of Amalgamation.) [in Japanese]. Kobe: Kamicho Municipal Tourism Industry Division.  Koizumi, Junichiro. 2005. Conference Speech. World Tourism Student Summit, 2005 Ritsumeikan University, Beppu Oita Prefecture, Japan, November 15. Martinez, D.P. 1990. Tourism and the Ama: The Search for a Real Japan. In Unwrapping Japan: Society and Culture in Anthropological Perspectives, ed. E.  Ben-Ari, B.  Moeran, and J.  Valentine. Manchester: Manchester University Press. McCormack, G. 1996. The Emptiness of Japanese Affluence. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin. METI. 2008. One Village, One Product Campaign—Since 2006. Tokyo: Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. Ministry of Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism. 2010. White Paper on Tourism in Japan 2010, Summary. http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/000221175.pdf

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Mulgan, A.G. 2002. Japan’s Failed Revolution: Koizumi and the Politics of Economic Reforms. Canberra: Asia Pacific Press. Municipality, Kasumi. 2001. In Municipal Records, ed. Kasumi-cho Yakuba. Kobe: Hyogo Prefecture. Nakane, C. 1973. Japanese Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. Oonishi, E. 1998. Furusato, Sakaimura. Kasumi-cho. [in Japanese] Rausch, A.S. 2008. Place Branding in Rural Japan: Cultural Commodities as Local Brands. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 4: 136–146. Reischauer, E.  O., and M.  B. Jansen. 1995. The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Rimmer, P. 1992. Japan’s ‘Resort Archipelago’: Creating Regions of Fun, Pleasure, Relaxation and Recreation. Environment and Planning A 24: 1599–1625. Sabien, B. 1995. Regional Development in Japan and the Hyogo Prefecture. Perth: Western Australian New Leader with the Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Tajima Tourism Association. 2001. Tajima shinkaidō. Toyōka: TTA. [in Japanese].

8 Economic Rejuvenation: Discussing Tourism for Regional Japan

Introduction The original thesis on which this book has been based contended that ‘national and prefectural policies designed to increase tourism activity and expenditure in Japan, can prove to be problematic when attempts are made to implement them at the local and municipal levels. As such, they cannot always improve local economic conditions.’ This chapter aims to summarise some of the complexities. The putting together of this book also drew attention to the ongoing processes of decentralising Japan’s administrative system (Takao 1999, 2003), which has long depended on the central administration borne out of Tokyo, but by politicians who have been groomed by generations of their forefathers in national politics. Municipal leaders on the other hand are driven by more localised interests. Competing experiences for these lines of people mean two very different layers of experience, a dichotomy in itself of leadership of an internationally place nation and the interests of very localised issues. The former nonetheless impacts the latter. For

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Hyogo, the prefectural government departments were the key administrators between these two polarised administrative systems. Their elected leaders too led by generations in politics and influential business connections. This book is not a finger-pointing exercise (I could be explaining the political system in Australia). Rather, this is a geography trip of extensive fieldwork, research and discovery in primary and secondary resources. It has been a journey that this author has taken and been offered fantastic opportunities by almost 200 people from Hyogo Prefecture. The sharing of information and support was generous. From the loan of a camera for an immediate interview and excursion of the Himeji Port, to the hundreds of kilometres of driving across the northern kinki region of Kyoto, Hyogo and Tottori prefectures to gain a better insight into the tourism of the region reinforced that Japanese people do really know how to be hospitable. This support extended into the days of interpretations in interviews and the networking made available to me from basic conversations, to the full fee-paying scholarships and grants directed to me for my research. It is this hospitality on which Japanese tourism is based. It is what Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi referred to when, in an international conference and workshop at Ritsumeikan University in Beppu in 2005, he talked about encouraging young Japanese people to regain their knowledge of their homeland’s culture and its people. It is this understanding of a history and culture that was retained for 200 years in the Tokugawa era, only to be dismantled, reinvented and redirected to take a closed nation into the twentieth century. Japanese hospitality culture, however, is also one that accommodates the foibles of political stances. In the case of tourism, Japan has only moved into a modern order since the 2002. So, at the end of this stage of this study I gathered more questions. Is tourism as an industry too late for Japan on the global stage? Did all the geopolitical upheavals, internally and internationally, disrupt a nation’s growth into the tourism industry in which other post-­ industrialized countries have been able to evolve? Is the lack of a multicultural language system at play in contributing to earlier tourism growth? Are there comparable nations that have overcome these issues? These are some of the questions that could be put to the research agenda, but more

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importantly is what can be learned from how Japan has battled the inner workings of its own economy in relation to rural dis-economies. Certainly, nearly every post-industrial economy of the world is facing matters involving rurality, fisheries, coastal and river degradation, agricultural growth and production. The rest of the world can learn from Japan, its success and the yet-to-field successes. Japan too can learn from the successes of other nations in terms of immigration and diversity, decentralisation and disaster management. For tourism and hospitality, the stage is very different for Japan. Japanese inns as ryokan, minshuku and other forms of accommodation have been recorded in the earliest of their histories and (her)stories. Women have played integral roles in Japanese hospitality; the most famous women into the twenty-first century are the geisha of Kyoto. They have been depicted on many international promotions for tourism since the 1960s when airlines such as Qantas used illustrations on their brochures. Yet women are also the contributors to small businesses in rural and regional Japan. At the onset of this book’s research, it was expected that the city of Himeji would fare far better than the town of Kasumi due to its historic connections, political acuity and diversified industry. Both these case studies feature one major challenge, that of depopulation. For that reason while the original research conducted in 2001–2002 took the opportunity to examine a clear window of issues for both communities, the drive in tourism policies and amalgamations to improve both economies has nonetheless been undermined by depopulation. The impacts in both locations are palpable. At the time of this book’s completion, it was the year that the novel coronavirus COVID-19 had spread globally as a pandemic while Japan was to host the Olympic Games of 2020. The challenges to policy implementation include land- use conflict and differing perceptions of coastal landscapes, notably those from the local community ‘perspective’ and the tourist ‘perspective’. This study used the topic of coastal development of two contrasting localities of Himeji and Kasumi in Hyogo Prefecture, with particular reference to the following: 1. The role of peripherality

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2. The distinctive nature of the Japanese political, administrative and planning systems 3. Japanese cultural constructions of the coast, landscape, tourism and recreation as a means of investigating this issue

 imeji and Kasumi: Coastal Tourism H Attractions and Port Development The economy of Himeji is a diversified one. Still heavily reliant in the mid-twentieth century on heavy chemical industries by the late twentieth century, much of its industry had changed to ‘cleaner’ activities such as electronics manufacture and recycling. Its fishing industry had been reduced to value-adding in processed seafood. Himeji has several inland tourist attractions including an aquarium, a children’s park, a small zoo and remnants of its monorail. Parklands, castle gardens, a modern multistoried community services and retail building, and samurai village-styled garden complement its major tourist attraction, Himeji castle. By contrast, the Kasumi economy is reliant on its fishing industry which includes gourmet tourism. Its coastal and inland tourism businesses include artisanal small-scale production and minshuku experiences as part of the gourmet tourism experience. Table  8.1 provides an easy overview of both the study cases. Between 2001 and 2005, Himeji’s tourism industry was focused on the international attraction of the World Heritage listed Himeji Castle and the Mt Shōsha Shrine, which is part of a larger religious national and international pilgrimage/tourism trail. Himeji has a sufficient variety of accommodation and other facilities to cater for all tourist budgets. By contrast, Kasumi had yet to develop a sustainable tourism industry. In spite of this, all political sectors expected that the tourism industry was capable of making a significant contribution to economic rejuvenation. To manage the industries, both locations maintained tourist information bureaux, associations and offices. Himeji, however, possesses a business and tourism system whereby many of the key tourism stakeholders

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Table 8.1  A comparison of Himeji and Kasumi industries for the period 2001–2002 Factors Economic structure

Himeji

Heavy industry, manufacturing, R&D, retail, ocean products (e.g. seaweed production, fish processing), tourism Nature of tourism activities World Heritage Tourism-Himeji Castle, festivals, outdoor activities, port attractions, leisure port activities and cruise ships Tourists 7,466,000 Religious pilgrimage sites Mt Shōsha Temple, one of Japan’s major pilgrimage attractions Meditative forest walks Several buildings and scenes used in the movie Last Samurai Recent tourism Coastal sports stadium, development projects light show The multistoried building adjacent to the Himeji castle is a venue for former open-air markets and festivals National→prefectural Relationship to the redevelopment of national and prefectural plans →direction of policy sunset industrial sites Prefectural and municipal expansion of inland tourism Other policies and projects Municipal amalgamation, fishery acquisition

Kasumi Professional fishing, seafood processing, tourism and hospitality

Gourmet tourism, minshuku, natural coastal sightseeing, leisure fishing

170,000 Daijyōji Temple, a single building dedicated to Buddhist art Small coastal rock formations dedicated to local Shintō deities Bay made safe from tidal destruction by coastal engineering works Boardwalk and ablution blocks

National→prefectural fisheries and rural tourism initiatives

Municipal amalgamation

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also play decisive roles in the business and social community. There is a tourism hierarchy of business leaders of large companies, senior stakeholders who held honorary, but prime, decision-making positions in the large and active Chamber of Commerce and the various tourism organisations. Kasumi business owners who held honorary positions in local tourism organisations were not representative of the larger local industries (including larger minshuku). In contrast to their Himeji counterparts, they worked alongside the directives of other local bodies, notably the Fishery Cooperative Association, which was charged with the responsibility, under the national and prefectural coastal and environmental policies, to appropriately manage the coastal environment and therefore Kasumi’s tourism development. For both municipalities, tourism was regarded as a sustainable industry within their respective economies. This book discusses  how both economies experienced similar challenges which affected their coastal development and industries. It also illustrates the close interdependence between tourism and coastal development in Kasumi. This is not the case in Himeji where coastal development is largely dependent on the ports, shipping and associated industries.

 he Role of the Perceptions of Distance T in Tourism Policy Implementation The efficacy at the municipal level to implement regional and national policies for tourism development and the sociocultural perceptions that underpinned and/or influenced these policies depended not only on the effort of the government role players, but, more importantly, on the business stakeholders. Interviewees from both locations conveyed a perception of ‘distance’ from Tokyo, the central administration hub of Japan and the prefectural hub in Kobe. What was evident, however, were the regional revitalisation strategies with a top-down and ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, with a basic premise that if money and construction is thrown at the problem, the problem will be resolved. Chapter 1 introduced the role of nature, networks and coastal tourism, the book’s premise. Chapter 2 provided the geographical and historical settings addressing the underpinnings of space

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and place and their importance in location hegemony of city governance centrality while the communities of Himeji and Kasumi stigmatised with their reputations as castle town and a fishing village, respectively. This is certainly not a unique practice, placing a value of authenticity against a location with historic appeal. Indeed, it is the premise on which tourism of the great cities of the world are based. It is also the same problem now facing heritage tourism, overplayed to the point where the tourist complains of ‘oh no, not another historic building’. Chapter 3 discusses these concepts further under MacCannell’s Staged Authenticity and the use of historic stereotypes of furusato and other sustained strategies for the development of various tourism policies, similar scripts played over several generations, each adding a strategy rather than replacing redundant or unaffordable projects. As Chapter 4 then looks at the prefectural issues that the Hyogo government had to face, while negotiating and reimplementing tourism strategies around the disaster of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. As the following chapters then illustrate, some of the projects for coastal development became outdated before they started (the concreted children’s’ playground in Himeji), failed (the monorail and its retail precinct also in Himeji) or were too outlandish and inappropriate a project to get started in the first place in a community that was losing a labour force rapidly and was difficult to access due to distance and seasonal weather conditions (the R-Plan in Kasumi). Why was the R-Plan considered a ridiculous notion by many locals in that community? The fisheries, restaurants and accommodation sector tried to capitalise on the national and prefectural funding of the period in order to attract money and future tourism growth, both administrative sectors overlooking the speed at which the community was depopulating with an ageing community and rapid outmigration of approximately 30% in the study period. Meanwhile, tourists had been travelling elsewhere. For both locations, from each community’s own viewpoint, peripherality played a key role for visitors. Kasumi peripheral and remote at the prefectural and national scale and castle town Himeji close in proximity to capital Kobe, but peripheral to Tokyo, meant that not only were their economic situations vastly different from each other in terms of revitalisation projects, but that the results from tourism rejuvenation too were

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vastly different. This was in particular to the nation’s ‘successful’ major attractions of Tokyo, Kyoto and the various popular ski fields. Capturing a moment in time, Chapters 5, 6 and 7 also highlight that the kinds of coastal development proposed for both these locations were as different as their locations and their population sizes. Big city tourism strategies did not equate to regional successes. Yet, the reactions to make the most of policy strategies were remarkably similar and significantly long term in focus. This suggests that the stakeholders and role players were used to the prolonged nature of economic growth associated with construction projects. However, also both locations’ business groups initially  aimed to harness the funding of the nation’s booming economy under the directives of the Resort Law and later by taking the opportunity of the construction sector’s zeal for development at all cost to the coastal environment. For Kasumi, both tourism and fisheries players were aware of their roles and the stakes for their communities relevant to the regional policies. They were also aware of influences by cultural perceptions related, among other things, to place, environment and location. They were also aware of the constraints within their respective communities. These were significant for Kasumi locals, where anything that affected the community as a whole resonated strongly with the major community members and leaders. The major municipality role players however noted that there were also many members of the community who did not contribute to the tourism industry community despite owning  accommodation businesses. The successful major players who did not join business associations nonetheless contributed to the town’s issues trying to find ways to implement sustainable changes that would benefit the community and its businesses. Ironically perhaps, their proactive marketing approach meant that they would not be involved with passive non-contributors, in order to build their community into a sustainable one using their own good reputations for the benefit of the whole local industry. While the local tourism projects were led by national overarching policies, the projects were guided by filters of prefectural and municipal administration and practices. Nevertheless, at the time in the aftermath of the bubble economy and its later collapse, expectations in Japan were high that it would return to this economic example. Instead, it became

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known as Japan’s ‘lost decade’. It can be argued that because of this hope of a resurrected economy, there was less economic foresight at the municipal level to appropriately direct development policies to accommodate the individual economic and geographic positions of these municipalities. Grandiose plans, in the hope that they would attract tourists both domestic and nationally, either failed to get off the ground or once built, did not achieve the tourist number expectations. As detailed in Chapters 2 and 3, peripherality and cultural perceptions both play a role in Japan’s distinctive political, administrative and planning systems for tourism policy. The impacts of Japan’s political and economic history, its settlements and the evolution of its sophisticated transportation networks, initially influenced by the sankin kōtai system, have contributed to the geographical and cultural distinctions between many towns and cities of Japan. For Himeji and Kasumi, their roles in the Japanese economic and political systems have remained the same since the early Tokugawa period. As such, Himeji is distinguished as a ‘castle town’ with the traditional, conservative and yet positive social overtones that accompany this status despite its more recent history as a city with a heavy industrial port and coastline. Kasumi remains a fishing town. These reputations endure despite both municipalities having been amalgamated with several of their neighbouring municipalities, incorporating tourism and other more sustainable industries to add breadth to their economies. Hyogo Prefectural government allowed construction projects to go ahead for Himeji and Kasumi until the national objectives took a sharp turn with the Koizumi government in 2002. Before then, the benefits of concretised development projects given to the nation’s construction companies were an excuse for sustainable economic growth. It was short-term growth however, compromised by the nation’s 1990s negative economic growth phase. In fact, it was this very sector that withdrew from Kasumi’s proposed Renaissance Plan in the late 1990s, yet it was not until the 2002 that the Hyogo Ports Department also withdrew, just months before Koizumi won the elections. Meanwhile, the community members of Kasumi were left with little hope of economic reprieve. In contrast, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Himeji, due to its financial base and influential networking, could continue to construct

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concrete forms for tourism and leisure despite its accommodation sector serving mostly the business sector and short overnight stays. Chapter 5 demonstrates that despite the need for tourism to expand to the north of the central Himeji business district, the influential major players in the tourism, hospitality and accommodation (THA) industries rejected a proposed extension of the Himeji tourism route north beyond the established tourism district contiguous with Himeji Castle. Documentary evidence lists the same industry players or their company representatives as being involved in various plans for sections of the area between Himeji city and its coastline for tourism, hospitality and leisure development over several generations. Rather than being responsive to, and responsible for, regional development goals, experienced and tightly knit stakeholders directed funding to maintain and grow local infrastructure for development projects that were beneficial to their own industries. This however is not unique to Japan. The Australian government system in 2020 has been under scrutiny for similar behaviour, such as in the electoral districts with sporting grants a focus, with other surprises forthcoming. But what is distinct  in Hyogo has  been the powerlessness for some small Hyogo towns and villages where ageing communities are distanced figuratively and literally from being able to keep watch and report or act against such favouritism in development  project (in)discretions. Strong advocates for towns on the periphery of the decision-making hubs may be one way to curtail hegemonistic driven projects. At the Kasumi level before amalgamation, the municipal town planner singled out the skills for an incoming mayor. To be such an advocate, she/he needed to be a local, well connected at the prefectural level  and experienced to secure a sustainable economy for Kasumi’s safe environmental future.

 he Cultural Consequences of Being Located T in the Peripheral and Marginal Kasumi’s declining and ageing population, falling production and distance from markets and important economic and political hubs were unable to compete equitably for prefectural and national funding. This contrasts with the powerful networked stakeholders who competed

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for tourism infrastructure funding in Himeji and experienced in seeking prefectural and national government funding. The promise by the national government to support regional tourism development, detailed in Chapter 4, did not provide a level-playing field on which to operate. As Chaps. 6 and 7 then demonstrate in Kasumi, what may have been conceived initially as rural and remote area development strategies were later tendered to all municipalities that are ‘regional’ in spite of the inequity to successfully play in the bidding rounds with the major fund applicants. This included the outskirts of Tokyo. Historically, power was rewarded in the Tokugawa era, but could this still apply 300 years later? Certainly, larger towns and cities had fared much better in the contest for development funds in part because they possessed informed, well-connected and experienced stakeholders and role players. Nevertheless, other factors may have been at play between the 1980s of the Resort Law and the regional revitalisation up to 1995. As Chapter 5 discusses, some well informed and connected local interviewees believed that a system of  favouritism continued to be  led by powerful players at the Himeji municipal level into the 2000s. Further evidence was observed in the well-oiled connections of ‘old school ties’ and generational connections and provided by extensive interviews and historic records of past municipal projects. Nonetheless, as Chapter 7 demonstrates, the Kasumi community stakeholders and role players had sought various ways to maintain their local identity, industries and amenities. They did compete for and failed to obtain funding support for the full stages of the R-Plan, but they also negotiated amalgamation details with several smaller municipalities to optimise once again their aims to seek higher-level funding. Where there was once a plan for a major renaissance of their coastline, there was now a plan to conserve the ‘natural’ coastal environment to encourage domestic tourists. Unfettered development curtailed through adverse economic conditions has allowed Kasumi to maintain its cultural heritage, language dialect and identity as a fishing town. Even as Kasumi improves its likelihood of obtaining future tourism project funding through municipal amalgamations, this same process has encouraged local historians to document the sacred sites and historic features in fear of losing the old Kasumi (Kyū

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Kasumi) culture, landscape and language. In a type of citizen movement, community members contributed their stories and photographs of local histories for collation and publication  for this book. Kasumi’s identity has even found its way into publications of which community members contribute family recipes for local produce. The locals’ use of space and place, as a new stage of their authentic culture in the 2000s has thus been maintained and over time. This has evolved, providing an opportunity for ‘nature and culture’ to again be ‘sacred’ and for the coastal environment to be ‘preserved’, maintaining attachments to space and place. A staged authenticity harking from the Tokugawa era essentially become the existential authenticity not only for the Kasumi people to maintain their identity, but to proudly display it as a touristic trope. The outcome for the Kasumi business community to the national call to improve rural and regional Japan through the use of tourism and local identity as a rural accommodation culture of gourmet comforts may not have been the initial aim of the concretised development of the R-Plan, but because of its failure, some cultural attributes were preserved. At this very local level, however, there were dissidents.

One Policy Does Not Fit All Japan already possessed a sophisticated service industry steeped in religious and political history and tradition oriented towards domestic-­ travelling Japanese. The traveller sought hospitality and accommodation provided by a service sector in a countryside that had been popularised through all the arts (see Chaps. 1, 2 and 3). Between the Meiji period and the Koizumi era, planning for domestic tourism was incorporated into an international tourism agenda. This was most evident in mid-twentieth-­ century tourism policy, where it’s development infrastructure contributed to other ministries’ portfolios to drive regional and rural revitalisation that would support the construction industry among others. Domestic tourism, a cultural pilgrimage, national adoration of the geography and applauding its ‘uniqueness’ have been a supplementary instrument for economic and nationalistic policy. It did not stand on its own until the Abe government, although it had begun to be considered an industry in

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its own right notably after Koizumi’s declaration in 2005 at Ritsumeikan University in Beppu, Oita Prefecture. Before the Koizumi era, international campaigns such as the Welcome 21, despite their often-professed intent, did not do much to encourage international visitors to the ‘real heart’ of rural and regional locations of Japan, such as Kasumi. Like the Koizumi government’s Welcome Japan campaign, the earlier policies were driven by a mantra-like belief that development projects which improved bucolic tourism attractions would benefit all regional economies. Instead, tourism policy was dominated by advertising and marketing for the major tourism players such as the attractions in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, a process that has  continued through the first decade of the twenty-first century. This tourism policy approach was not dissimilar to those of the Meiji era, although their intent was different. Those earlier  tourism strategies divided Japan  for economic and later strategic objectives, reinforcing a core and a periphery, city and country, the modern and the traditional. This dichotomy was not only represented in tourism marketing. It also limited opportunities to access funding and professional support for tourism development in peripheral rural areas such as Kasumi. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the central government still considered tourism as a tool for regional economic rejuvenation. This included revitalising the declining production in the fisheries industries.

Fishery Cooperative Associations on the Rural Coast Fishery cooperative associations throughout Japan’s history have been most resistant to change. They have possessed political power because the fishery industry has been the major food producer. Since the new constitution, the FCAs have retained considerable authority over their fisheries industries and members, but increasingly over  their local  tourism and coastal development. The Kasumi FCA has influenced the types of development allowed in its rural coastal setting, the management of eco-­ systems in its locales and the nature of tourism development in the coastal area and its immediate hinterland. It was the FCA that decided to close, albeit temporarily, the Kasumi camping grounds and attempt to attract

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‘higher end’ tourists. It was also a few members of the FCA, whose subsidiary businesses were the local restaurants and fresh-fish markets, that also drove the R-Plan. A distinctive feature of the Japanese coastal planning system therefore is that the FCAs maintain a powerful and consultative role that extended beyond the fisheries industry. Whether or not the actions of the FCAs facilitated successful economic, social or environmental outcomes, they provide examples of how sectional interests can sway the implementation of local and even national and prefectural goals.

The Role of Networks in Coastal Development Projects Up until 2019, major stakeholders in both Kasumi and Himeji business communities appeared to be able to exert influence on municipal-level public-sector decision-making strategies. In Himeji, a number of business leaders had gained their status as a result of inheritance, with fourthand fifth-generation proprietors managing their families’ companies. This style of networking in the urban industrial sector of Himeji was the same in Kasumi, but on a smaller scale in the fishing industry. FCA members collectively do what they believe is best for the maintenance of their local economies. Yet it was evident that a power base of a few stakeholders and role players led the co-operatives, and family connections were common between several neighbouring fishing communities, a natural outcome of such small, tightly knit rural towns anywhere in the world. All these roles and connections could provide positive motivations for successful creation and implementation of tourism policies and the accompanying strategies. A set of well-tested guidelines offer some insight.

Tourism Policy Efficacy The National Tourism Policy Review of Japan, 2002 noted that ‘sluggish demand is partly attributed to the degradation of tourist destinations and travel products in Japan. The underlying issue is the inability to manage resources and the tourist destinations in an integrated format…creating

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a system or structure that satisfies the needs and demands of both residents and tourists’ (Directorate for Science Technology and Industry 2002: 9). Wall and Mathieson (2006: 309, 313–314) argue that the lack of frameworks for conceptualising tourism projects that involve community, natural resource management and policy are characteristic of unsuccessful tourism industries. The main indicators that hampered sustainable resort tourism globally were equally applicable to Hyogo: 1. Inadequate forecasting • The Kasumi bypass delay and the protracted nature of its construction is an example of the lack of concern or consideration at the upper levels of government for the impact of their actions on a small rural town considerably reliant on its tourism industry. 2. The inefficiency of planning measures • This includes an overall planning framework that has not taken into consideration past tourism failures, successes and inflexible in gauging future trends. 3. Scale of the development • The Kasumi R-Plan was too large for the size of the community. • For Himeji, overambitious port redevelopment has led to unleased offices, and underutilised working and recreational port facilities. 4. A failure to specify goals • Strategies need to meet clear local needs rather than to match broad top-down objectives. Objectives such as those in the Kasumi scenario to improve tourist numbers, promote rural and regional development or to encourage counter-urbanites, each has its own different challenges. • Himeji and its port redevelopment need to know what and who would use the buildings and facilities that had been built. Purpose-driven evaluation research and projections would have better information of these objectives. In 2002, Japan’s OECD National

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Tourism Policy Review did not address the issues of urban demands on rural tourism structures, the difficult and demanding nature of the Japanese domestic tourist or the role that the media play in constructing the Japanese rural idyll. Additionally, cultural perceptions from many perspectives, as discussed throughout this book, have stood in the way.

 ultural Perceptions of the Coast and Nature: C Identity in Tourism Policies and Strategies This book has illustrated that based on political structures set up in the Tokugawa era and reactions to them modernisation took its course over the Meiji era. Government strategies maintained select cultural elements of nature such as to sustain the food sources from fisheries and agriculture, fostered in peripheries, either as city outskirts or as distant rural enclaves. As the changes grew into the twentieth century, the perception of connectedness to nature (fureai), the ‘old hometown’ (furusato) and the role these concepts played in national and prefectural tourism policies, are evident in the various economic growth strategies using tourism and excessive development for it are exemplified in Hyogo Prefecture. As one of the prefectural government’s late twentieth-century state promotions indicated, Hyogo was the embodiment of all of Japan. In the one prefecture is found a sophisticated modern city of Kobe, the quintessential castle city of Himeji with Japan’s only original full castle example, beautiful and working coastlines, a broad economy, clean fisheries of Kasumi beef production, well networked transportation systems, universities and the list goes on. Other deeper cultural constructs have been recalled such as the samurai parades at festivals at Izushi and the poignant commemoration of the Heike defeat at the hands of the Genji in mountainous Kasumi. A rationale then for a ‘back to nature’ approach for regional tourism was more aptly a policy for counter-urbanisation. It seems however that this strategy was misplaced. Counter-urbanisation throughout Japan was piecemeal and controversial for locals and new urban immigrants alike. Himeji surveys revealed in that while Kasumi was a desirable town to

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visit, some tourists did not see a reason to return. Together with potential counter-urbanites, the concept of the ‘natural’ environment involving active participation in the fishing industry was even unpopular with most Kasumi locals. Neither was there a desire for young locals to own or work in minshuku. These were  contradictions to the aims of national policies which  were driven by strategists’  perceptions where  the traditional Japanese rural lifestyle once experienced, would reawaken the Japanese ‘connectedness’ to nature (fureai) and desire to again work and live in the countryside. Such expectations of a staged authenticity to say the least, resulted in the lack of Japanese taking up the call to return to the ‘nature’ and in any measure, was an obtuse strategy. Rural, traditional living, hard work, large, extended families and long commutes were less attractive than the modern lifestyles to which generations of Japanese urbanites and even some rural dwellers had become accustomed. Furusato as an inescapable nostalgia-driven ideal has not been the model for Japanese urbanites with no experience of rurality or understanding the concepts of all forms of (the wild) nature. This notion was that tourism, as an economic panacea, was embedded in Japanese economic and political culture and psyche- a willingness to serve as some government pundits believe. After all, historically, hospitality in the form of accommodation, has played a significant role for travellers throughout regional Japan (though in early times enforced). Local villagers provided food, beverages and accommodation. Unique, local traditions and locations became attractions in themselves. What followed was the development of various levels of hospitality businesses (ryokans and minshuku), particularly at designated way stations and registered crossing points or posts. In time, such locations gained reputations, and were made known by various artists and poets. Commissioned by local business owners, this whole ‘network’ of travel action became famous. An examination of Japanese tourism strategies and projects throughout the twentieth century reveals a similar perception in tourism policy—what worked in the past would work for the current situation. However, that was not the case for both domestic and international visitors until well into Abe’s second term in the twenty-first century. Tourism for local providers has been equally tested.

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Tourism profitability statements were unavailable at the time of this research suffice to say that both municipalities provided visitor numbers and their expenditure as well as expenditure on tourist facilities. Anecdotal evidence  as well as survey data in Kasumi indicated that, for a family-­owned business such as a small minshuku of one to four guests per night, it provided a supplementary income to families who were also involved in agricultural or seafood processing. Other indicators that Kasumi tourism was an  unreliable  source are because of: the closure and subsequent reopening of the camping grounds; the seasonality of restaurant closures; the second home sector where houses remained empty and locked; and the unviability of the R-Plan project. For Himeji, some evidence for decline was detailed in the interview with a Himeji municipality tourism executive. The physical evidence included the number of empty hotels, small restaurants and retail properties in the train station and port districts, areas used by both travelling businesspeople and tourists. Other projects that reflected Himeji’s downturn in tourism were abandoned structures left to deteriorate, such as the Himeji Port Hotel complex and the crumbling structures of the monorail tracks. Kasumi THA owners demonstrated problematic relationships between locals and visitors, the latter’s’ high expectations only satisfied if amenities were similar to city experiences. Tested too were the casual staff who could otherwise be employed in less demanding, more rewarding jobs. Even so, during the peak period of winter 2001–2002, Tokyo-based NHK popularised rural life in television documentaries and soap operas. They depicted the rural lifestyle with idealised rural values and landscapes. Storylines focused on the contrast of ‘valueless’ and artificial city lifestyles. The staged authenticity of the rural (Chapter 3) is one maintained in a bucolic idyll. Such characterisation is manipulated and caricatured, where expectations of rural life are in turn manipulated by government and media role players who see this imagery as a means to attract counter-urbanites to the allegedly authentic rural Japan. These processes not only maintain the dichotomy of the rural/urban, but also create real-life tensions that need to be contained in order to encourage urbanites to embrace the rural ‘idyll’.

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Meanwhile, Japanese tourists are fulfilling their created identities as gourmet consumers of seafood, maintaining their ‘Japanese-ness’ as yukata-draped guests in minshuku stopovers. The tourists exist as the staged authenticity as they don the traditional clothing, sitting on tatami in strategically aesthetic placements in front of a tokonoma. For a brief moment in the touristic experience, visitors are transformed, they become once again attached to the spirituality of nature in contrast to their status as urbanites who are ‘distanced from the nature spirits and the visual of the countryside’.

 iscussion: Peripherality, the Role D of Traditional Fishing and Rural Cultural Perceptions in Tourism As anyone who has travelled extensively through Hyogo Prefecture (and Japan) will see, a clear and distinct urban–rural dichotomy exists, particularly in peripheral coastal locations. Throughout the twentieth century, smaller fishing settlements on the northern coastline of Hyogo on the Sea of Japan, had changed little in terms of geographic positioning, business location and type. Arguably preserving that which is considered the innermost characteristics of Japanese culture by the government pundits from Tokyo are nevertheless, by the late twentieth century, locations of significant commercial fisheries enterprises using advanced technology, accessing fish stocks from less polluted (often international) waters as compared to the Pacific coast areas, where the fisheries industry such as in Himeji is consigned to innovative fish processing. Nonetheless, this idealised rurality does not replace the realities of the fishery lifestyle, or negate the fact that it is a hard, dangerous and isolated occupation. Staged authenticity is thus more likely to be found in resorts and tourist centres closer to the main cities in Hyogo Prefecture. Within an hour’s car drive from Kobe, the day tourist can enjoy forests, castle remnants and reconstructed historic shrines. Within a two-hour drive, the traveller can enjoy fields of European flowers and experience farm-life activities, and within three hours in winter, Hyogo’s snow fields beckon.

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These would seem to be sufficient for most Japanese tourists and would­be rural inhabitants who wish only to be an observer of, rather than be a participant in, rural life. The theme of idealising nature particularly in tourism policy has led to a multiplicity of initiatives in Himeji and Kasumi. Many semi-­professional and recreational fishers had lost interest in fishing in polluted and degraded environments, with unkempt jetties landscaped with abandoned vessels. In post-industrial times, a touristic Japan was reinvented by government policy intent on reinventing the coast and idealising it as a means of a connectedness with nature, ‘home values’ of fureai and furusato. These signifiers not only engender a sense of place, but also frame the sea and the coast as cultural components to ‘being Japanese’; government’s attempts to try to maintain nationalism’s role. For the Kasumi fishers, the fisheries were a lifestyle and a livelihood, one of struggle and danger in icy seas and seasonal income. The enjoyment of nature was living on the land, enjoying recreational moments of sea sports and the outdoors, the ocean environment. Although there was a sense of pride in being involved in rural community life and  in the fisheries, it was certainly no  longer the desire for hard work of the fisheries, or its alternative, the tourism industry.

Bibliography Directorate for Science Technology and Industry. 2002. National Tourism Policy Review of Japan. In Benchmarking of OECD National Tourism Policies. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Takao, Y. 1999. National Integration and Local Power in Japan. 1st ed. Hampshire: Ashgate. ———. 2003. Building Transnational Civil Society: Can Japanese Local Government Bring it Together? Clayton: Monash University Press. Wall, G., and A. Mathieson. 2006. Tourism: Change, Impacts and Opportunities. Essex: Pearson Prentice Hall.

9 Epilogue. Optimistic Communities in Himeji and Kasumi: Still Waiting for Long-term Tourism Growth

At the time of writing this book, tourism in Japan had taken a major turn towards discourses of ‘Cool Japan’ and ‘contents’ tourism along with hosting  the upcoming August  2020  Olympics, postponed to August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many of the promotional predecessors, Cool Japan has focused on particular elements of the richness of Japanese culture, this time aiming for consumer cohorts that are interested in manga, anime and cosplay and in terms of extreme sports tourism beginning with skiing. The problem with these types of tourism is that it does not address tourism as an industry and the strategies for sustainability in all aspects. The UNWTO now declares that tourism needs to address five pillars of sustainable economic growth: social inclusiveness; employment and poverty reduction; resource efficiency, environmental protection and climate change; cultural values, diversity and heritage; and mutual understanding, peace and security (Mead 2018). While these were described by PM Koizumi in 2005, there needs to be genuine action to protect the next generations of tourism pundits from policymaking that is surfeit of © The Author(s) 2020 L. Crowe-Delaney, Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1_9

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agenda for the larger unsustainable industries that contents tourism will attract. Having plastic or resin statues that emit toxins in the full sun of summer does not fit these pillars. They also do not fit the dignity that other proud and passionate communities’ volunteers in Japan, despite their ageing, try and effect change not only as volunteers but to showcase their culture and history. As some part-time students of the University of Hyogo lamented, they want and need part-time work, but not dressed in embarrassing anime costumes, making ‘stupid’ comments. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identified by the UNWTO (2018) are touched upon for regional and rural Hyogo; however, the sustainability that was sought in early 2000s has yet to be achieved. International tourism peaked in 2015, then dropped in 2018 to below 2014 arrival numbers. The Japanese policy, although being ‘late’ in the lucrative end of international tourism, can, importantly, capitalize on the research data of UNWTO. There are important issues to address however, namely: 1. Avoiding the focus on ‘fashionable’ types of content tourism overall. Not only does this create a danger of branding current-day culture in Japan based on historic culture, it confuses ones that no longer truly exist with ones that never did exist (Cool Japan-otaku), in everyday life. There is a risk of national caricature on the international stage. 2. Not all of Japan is ‘cool’. Like all cultures throughout the world, Japan has its everyday issues. Japan and its tourism marketing have always considered a facade from the times of early Meiji period where tourists were directed to the more beautiful aspects of Japan. Once a cultural initiative to create a consolidated nation, Tokugawa Japan is now depicted in samurai costume attractions for tourism. 3. Point 2 can impact in terms of expectations and business negotiations. Tourist expectations in dealing with difficult circumstances are premised by visions of Japan filled with people who are expected to understand about aspects of Japanese culture such as their agriculture, fisheries and other daily considerations throughout the archipelago. 4. Tourist expectations are always heightened by the inclusion of value for money. Language barriers will stop the flow of understanding, and

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human communication will not be enhanced by artificial intelligence and digital technology. Japan’s retailers understand this, and in 2019 large department stores still featured multilingual assistants at information desks. These issues may seem trite, but in terms of tourism, Japan has struggled as a global partner on the world stage as a serious tourist attraction. Prime Minister Koizumi acknowledged this, and his ministry initially led the twenty-first-century drive to reach 40,000,000 tourists by 2020. Notwithstanding COVID-19, this short-lived goal was achieved before the Olympic Games. Japan’s tourism industry sincerity showing itself to be authentic as a nation may provide a sustainable tourism industry for a country that is experiencing rapid depopulation through ageing, low birth rates and increasing ageing which need care rather than work in tourism. With an ageing population in the twenty-first century, there will be less opportunity for Japan to be serious about constructing a solid tourism industry where the population cannot support tourism growth. Singapore and the Philippines are already facing ageism, and there are laws to prevent discrimination in employing people over the age of 70. And so, when we visit Japan in this second decade of the twenty-first century, we can see that there are many tourism opportunities. These include Airbnb and other types of home accommodation in regional locations. Facilities may not provide four-star tourism and hospitality features but can instead lead to connections with local people, local foods and the natural environment, or the environment in situ. This is whether visitors explore the built environment found in Tokyo, the mixture of nature and the built environment in Kyoto, the historic environment of Himeji, or the natural environment of Kasumi on the Sea of Japan. These are not going to attract all types of tourists. However, these features are found  in  Japan, and straining to provide further themes will tax local people and strain hospitability. Local people do not always want to be tourism providers. Though Japan has a long history of hospitality, this was initially under an enforced system. When I completed the conclusion, it was difficult to tell you where the story ends. Japanese tourism, accommodation and hospitality industries

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faced an extraordinary set of issues that impact individual business stakeholders. Japan is a nation not only built on large technology and other conglomerate models but is still carried by small businesses. To see the changes between ‘then and now’ for the case studies, a collated summary would draw attention to the remaining population dilemmas before and after the amalgamations (Statistics Bureau 2015, 2019). However, the data has been difficult to obtain for 2001 statistics as many were prefecture based for publication, census data is collected every five years and published approximately 1–3 years after, meaning disasters can delay publication as well. Additionally, Himeji’s population has remained relatively stable due to municipal mergers.

Hyogo Tourism 2020 and Beyond The conclusion chapter included a list of system failures known to hinder successful tourism policy. As the UNWTO now looks to new standards of everything that causes unnecessary consequences to the tourist footprint, Japan as a technologically advanced country can quickly join the think tanks and move away from the costs of overtourism. An extensive methodology and its understanding alone of data collection and collation as the Index of Indicators and Basic Data (UNWTO 2020) are what Japan and other nations prepare to provide for the world stage. Remarkably, reflecting this book’s research observation of the many ministries and departments that were involved in municipal tourism projects, for the UNWTO, no less than 60 sources of data from five ministries and departments were accessed to provide details for Japan. Hong Kong, Germany and Croatia had one source, France had two, one being its national bank, and Australia also had two with its tourism research and statistics departments. Japan did not use its statistics department as noted earlier in this book. The UNWTO list of tourism industries categorization is also detailed, with 11 main categories and 30 descriptors (accommodation alone had 5), one category as open country-specific characterization. Descriptors are then broken down further into classes, and accommodation again had over 40 classes (UNWTO 2020: 27–28). The tourism industry that

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includes hospitality (food etc.) and accommodation is now a serious business. The UNWTO compendium is a manifest where financial accountability is key to sustainability and a fairness for all members in tourism-associated communities. Much has already been written about the excesses of tourism, the bad behaviour and the like. Japan can be an exemplar in this industry of protecting developing nations where sex tourism and slave tourism are still endemic. Preventing and stopping bad tourism practices such as animal cruelty and protecting their right (see macaque monkeys and poorly managed zoos) are ways that Japan can contribute to all beings’ rights in its own borders. Clever ways of using the oceans for tourism and fishing, recreational and industrial are right in the line of the technology that Japanese companies contribute and can do more.

Himeji In late 2019, I was able to briefly return to the two areas of my study, to travel and take the following photographs. The ports of Himeji are cleaner near the ferries’ jetties (Fig. 9.1). Now protected by a permanent breezeway to the small, highly manoeuvrable boats, there are several jetties, each is covered overhead that can dock perpendicular to the main walkway. They provide transportation to Ieshima Islands, for locals, fishers, mainland labour and tourists. While it is not difficult to board these ferries for the abled-bodied, disability access is limited getting onto the boats themselves. Also limited are the tourism notice boards inside the port offices (Fig. 9.2). All in Japanese, it is evident that this is not an easily included tourism opportunity for those who do not read Japanese. There is an electronic multilingual board of explanation of the islands. Taking an elevator to the second floor, I was able to freely visit the small museum of port history and newly installed Ikuno Silver mine trail to Himeji historic display. I could look out over the port, where on several day visits I found that this was indeed a quiet port. I discussed everything in Japanese. From this vantage point of the museum, the port’s small tugboats are moored adjacent to the recreational dock. Figure 9.3 details the shinkansen protection walls and elevated tracks. Also in the background is the

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Minato Sports dome on the left, the only features built from the Shikama Marine Town, Himeji Port Renaissance Plan (see figure Chap. 5). Still with a green belt, the port is not a tourist/working port such as Fremantle in Western Australia or Dublin, Ireland or Yokohama bay. The Port of Himeji still attracts small cruise ships that can sail alongside that port. With the separating of the large dock and ferries’ jetties, there is a better shipping line access. Adjacent to the jetties is the recreational boat marina (Fig. 9.4). The heavy industry of cement manufacture still remains; on the last day that I visited, I found a thin layer of cement dust everywhere. This industry is alongside the main dock that accepts tourists from cruise ships with a small park garden with various statuary (Fig.  9.5). In an era of intensive cruise ship tourism for extremely large, 4000-people carriers, the Port of Himeji is a small dock (Fig. 9.6) compared to docks around the world, but it does support smaller ships.

Fig. 9.1  Himeji shipping transit lane to marinas with improved visual access for all boat users

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Fig. 9.2  Himeji Port Authority offices

Here, tourists can disembark, walk down ramps and stairs, and use elevators and escalators to board coaches and taxis adjacent to the cement manufacturers (Fig. 9.7). From there they travel past everyday Himeji to the central district to see Himeji’s heritage features before reembarking and sailing to other ports east and west, perhaps to Okayama or Kobe. Himeji city transportation hub has changed. It can be said that if Olympic tourists come to Himeji, they will be well serviced by a safe, clean and amenable space for travel and rest. The information centre is served by volunteers for various tourist treks and paid staff from the Himeji Tourism department and municipal offices. The malls underneath, which wind around and across, are competitive, though on a much small scale, with Osaka station and transportation hub (Fig. 9.8). From this hub’s viewing platforms, there are fantastic views to be had of the Himeji Castle, newly restored, with its silver white rooves

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Fig. 9.3  Tugboats in Himeji marina. Sports dome and the Shinkansen track is in the background

reflecting its White Heron name of Shirosagi (see Fig. 9.10). This clear view is the result of the relocation of the statuary to the Himeji port (see Chap. 5) (Fig.  9.9) and the positioning of the platform at the end of Otemae dori (street). Parallel to this street is the undercover Miyukidori, which in inclement weather will lead the traveller up to Otemae Park, where an early coffee can be bought before joining the throngs of currently mostly Chinese and Taiwanese tourists visiting the castle. Rickshaw runners stand on all four corners before the castle’s front entrance (Fig. 9.10). Mostly used by Japanese tourists, one lucky runner was strong enough to pull this well-built Australian around several tourist features—his English impeccable, he was a university student of marketing and economics, paying his way while keeping smilingly fit! I was his

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Fig. 9.4  Recreational and working boats marina

Fig. 9.5  The working Port of Himeji 2019

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Fig. 9.6  Port of Entry, Himeji

Fig. 9.7  Cement manufacturers greeting cruise tourists

first international tourist; most tourists were Japanese. There were three trips ranging from ¥4000 (Fig. 9.11). The Himeji Castle was still in its final throes of renovation, was not disability inclusive and, at 10 am, was already humming with tourists from China. Like the Japanese tourists to Queensland, Australia, in the 1980s and 1990s, and Kasumi in 2002, this form of mass tourism offloads

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Fig. 9.8  The new and well-connected transportation hub, Himeji

tourists through special entrances, channelling the visitors to the designated attractions. Once in the castle, they are directed through to the small shops evocative of the shrines throughout Japan selling trinkets, souvenirs and good luck talismans, and then led back to their coach to be transferred to the next attraction. Japanese and other international tourists tend to wait before entering the castle until after these coachloads move on. However, there are days when non-coach tourists do not have a choice and these independent travellers have to mingle with the jostling groups. The surrounding gardens and paths of the castle are off limits to bicycles, now banned from use; only a few locals and curious visitors stroll the paths to take photographs unless there are events. Across the road from the main entrance to the castle, a small set of shops selling souvenirs and cafes with local and international fare are frequented by Japanese and

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Fig. 9.9  A new place for statues

independent visitors. Some European travellers stop and buy, but many others do not even enter the outlets.

Kasumi, in Kami-cho As I leave Himeji station on a train that will take me to Kasumi, my bento box set up on my table with the hot vending machine coffee-in-a-­ can keeping my cold hands warm, I watch the last views of the lustrous castle gleaming in the morning sun. I travel in a carriage with about 12 other passengers. By lunch time, only three passengers are remaining in my carriage, most alighting at Wadayama and Kinosaki. We three are also the only ones to alight at Kasumi station (Fig.  9.12). One is in a

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Fig. 9.10  Tourists disregard safety and respect of the castle walls to take photographs

wheelchair and there is no disabled access at all to the other side of the station. After carrying, lifting and pushing our fellow traveller in the wheelchair, with everyone’s dignity intact we walked and pushed on smooth paths to Sangyo Road to feast on the crab dishes of the season. The day was overcast in Kasumi, and I shared the beach with only a local taking his dog for a walk, a primary school soccer practice on the beach’s green field and some teenage boys deciding what to do next (Fig. 9.13). Only three crab restaurants were open and two restaurants with seafood dishes. As expected, the crab dishes were expensive starting from ¥10,000. Other crab restaurants had few customers, were untidy and did not welcome a foreigner. I decided on the small restaurant I used to frequent in my research days. Climbing very difficult small stairs, I met friendly new owners, offering a multiple course meal of special dishes for

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Fig. 9.11  The staged authenticity of rickshaw driver pausing as the authentic is staged for a photographic memory

Fig. 9.12  The path from Kasumi station to the beach road. A clean and modern façade

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Fig. 9.13  The grassed flat ground behind the beach buffer—site of the R-Plan

¥1600 and lovely views of the beach (Fig. 9.14). The owners only spoke in the local dialect, but they were busy with visitors. The view revealed that the R-Plan was completed to second stage, with the coastline improved with a protected boardwalk lined with young pine trees and where sea eagles will nest (Fig. 9.15). The west beach of the Western bay had a small bronze pyramidal statue. On this was a surprise for me; engraved on it was the Meiji/Tokugawa map of Kasumi that I was given to use for this book by the Tajima Fisheries Research Institute (Chap. 5) (Fig. 9.16). I later met up with some former interviewees and they gave me a guided tour. While little had changed in the town, another dentist had moved in, which was a relief to the already-overbooked dentist, as well as a licensed aged-care paramedic. The town was quiet as usual for a Sunday, but the supermarkets were open in the early evening as were some other shops. A large truck from the fisheries port moved out onto the beach road. A few cars drove around the canalled housing area of old Kasumi for a last-minute shopping (Fig. 9.17). This quiet and peaceful location was populated with mostly women shopping for the evening meal. Small gardens grew the last of autumn

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Fig. 9.14  A gourmet meal for a fraction of the price of crab

Fig. 9.15  A section of the board walk made into a beach protection buffer

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Fig. 9.16  A sculptural map of Tokugawa Kasumi Bay

seasonal vegetables, and citrus hung like golden orbs, sentinels guiding the locals walk home. The train was due at 5.00 pm, but my hosts insisted on driving me on to Toyooka, to meet more friends and to catch the train there back to Himeji. The Kasumi bypass is a quick 15-minute drive to Toyooka, and, on our way out of Kasumi, we viewed the new location of the Kami-cho municipal offices close to this roadway. Few cars were using the bypass in the darkness, but my hosts said it was busy most days with locals travelling to other towns for work. Toyooka soon came upon us and we slipped into the main street, nicknamed ‘shutter street’, due to the many permanently closed-down businesses, their garage-style shutters protecting the once-extensive busy street. Toyooka station is part of the larger hub for multimodal transportation including the nearby connections for the Maruyama River. Tonight, it was quiet. I used an elevator to descend to the several train platforms and boarded my quiet carriage. I nodded to the only other passengers on the train, the same two who alighted with me for a gourmet meal that day in Kasumi.

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Fig. 9.17  Sunday evening supermarket on one of the many canals in old Kasumi

Bibliography Mead, Leila. 2018. UNWTO Report Links Sustainable Tourism to 17 SDGs. IISD. https://sdg.iisd.org/news/unwto-­report-­links-­sustainable-­tourism-­ to-­17-­sdgs/. Statistics Bureau. 2015. Population Census 2015. Summary of the Results. Tokyo: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. ———. 2019. Official Statistics of Japan. In e-Stat Portal Site of Official Statistics of Japan. Tokyo: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. UNWTO. 2018. Tourism in the 2030 Agenda. https://www.unwto.org/ tourism-­in-­2030-­agenda. ———. 2020. Methodological Notes to the Tourism Statistics Database, 2020 Edition. Madrid: World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

Index

A

B

Advertising, 73, 102, 105, 117, 119, 124, 133, 144, 178, 210, 255, 256, 282, 283, 285, 287, 288, 323 Ageism, 333 Aging, 5, 100 Amakudari (jobs from heaven) post retirement from public service, 117 Amalgamation or gappe, 8, 39, 42, 49, 50, 59, 62, 100, 162–164, 170, 186, 187, 196, 222, 238, 248, 270, 308, 313, 320, 321 Anthropocene, viii, 6, 23 Aquaculture, 285 Attachment to space and place, 22, 86 Authenticity, 11, 23, 64, 72–105, 249, 317, 322, 327–329, 344

‘Back to nature,’ 13–15, 64, 180, 211, 326 Brownfields, 171, 185, 189, 193, 194, 201, 203 C

Castle towns, 24, 35, 40, 49, 88, 119, 156–164, 166, 169, 179, 204, 317, 319 Chihō 地方出身 (region, locality rural area, place of origin), 119 Coastal and development, viii, xii, 2, 6, 7, 9, 12, 15, 21, 22, 24, 33–38, 72, 100, 103, 116, 120, 136, 146, 156, 159, 171, 177, 180, 183, 195, 197, 200, 204, 205, 209, 217, 219, 224, 246, 255, 313, 316–318, 323, 324

© The Author(s) 2020 L. Crowe-Delaney, Tourism and Coastal Development in Japan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7167-1

349

350 Index

Coastal (cont.) fisheries, xi, 60, 103 and reclamation (infill), horikomi, 46, 56, 160 zoning, 169, 179 Coastal degradation, 305 Coastlines, viii, 6, 7, 19, 24, 36, 40, 46, 47, 49, 58, 74, 83, 94, 100, 104, 156, 157, 159–162, 174, 184, 188, 196, 218–220, 224, 226, 229, 263, 265, 266, 268, 288, 292, 300, 319–321, 326, 329, 345 Compulsory travel, 7, 12, 89 Conceptualising tourism, 325 Connectedness to nature or fureai, 326, 327 Connections (Konne) and old school ties, 321 Construction, ix, 4, 7, 9, 12–15, 17, 25, 39, 43, 52, 78, 83, 84, 92, 97, 115–118, 120, 122, 125–130, 132, 133, 136, 140, 141, 146, 147, 156, 157, 164, 168, 170, 171, 177, 180, 183–187, 217, 223, 226–228, 263, 271, 291, 292, 294, 299–301, 306, 314, 316, 318, 319, 322, 325 subsidisation, 271 Cool Japan, 82, 331 Counter-urbanisation, 98, 137, 140, 142, 249, 250, 265, 326 See also Yūtārn (u-turn) Countryside (inaka), 14, 24, 77, 80, 85, 88, 97, 98, 141, 144, 208, 265, 322, 329 COVID 19, 4, 313, 333 Coronavirus, 4

Crabs snow crab (matsubagani), 5, 243, 253, 267, 277, 288 Cultural consciousness identity, 82 integrity, 76, 287 perceptions, 6, 7, 14–15, 204, 318, 319, 326–329 Culturalisms, 73 Culture transfer, 86 D

Decentralisation, 8, 16, 24, 57, 95, 123, 140, 163, 184, 313 Deforestation, 80, 83 Dekasegi (出稼ぎ) (second job), 245, 285 Depopulation, 5, 13, 50, 56, 58, 98, 123, 248, 253, 275, 313, 333 Dialect, 11, 35, 37, 49, 73, 77, 81, 88, 222, 345 Dichotomy, 23, 33–64, 89, 311, 323, 328, 329 Disabled access, 343 Discrimination, viii, 63, 333 Doken Kokka, 146 Domestic tourism, 1, 11, 12, 14, 72, 75, 92, 96, 105, 136, 142, 155, 158, 187, 201, 209, 210, 265, 271, 282, 322 and policy, 105, 155 E

Earthquake, 3, 6, 11, 12, 36, 116, 118, 120–129, 133, 139, 141, 143, 146, 171, 184, 185, 188, 206

 Index 

Economic boom/bubble, 13, 14, 271 Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ), 59, 233, 239, 260, 267, 271 Economic recession, 305 Ecosystem, 22, 83 Epilogue, 331–348 Ethnography, x European (tourism), 80, 81 Existential experience, 75 Existentialism, 75 Existentially authentic experience, 103

351

Foreign language study, vii Foucauld and power (Cheong and Miller), 97 Fureai (and connection with Japanese countryside/rurality), 14, 327 Furusato and national identity, 97 and nostalgia, 327 and tourism, 97 Furusato sosei, 136 G

F

Festivals, 73, 77, 90, 126, 141, 172, 174–176, 178, 207, 251, 277, 279–281, 287, 288, 292, 301, 326 Fieldwork (in Japan), 34 Fisheries, viii, xi, 6, 7, 16, 17, 24, 52, 58–63, 98–100, 102, 103, 141–147, 185, 187, 195, 218, 219, 227, 233, 238, 239, 242, 245–247, 249–251, 255, 258, 260, 264–272, 287, 296, 299, 306, 313, 317, 318, 324, 326, 329, 330, 332, 345 Fisheries-related tourism, 253 Fish processing, 8, 24, 162, 185, 186, 193, 224, 230, 241–243, 245–247, 283, 294, 299, 329 Fishery Cooperative Association (FCA), 59, 62, 100, 239, 245, 254, 258, 272, 298, 299, 306, 316, 323–324 Fishing villages, 58–62, 93, 99, 137, 162, 231–233, 253, 266, 269, 287, 297, 317

Geography (and geographers), vii, viii, xi, xii, 5, 7, 17, 21–24, 33–36, 40, 42–49, 52, 56, 64, 71, 85, 86, 88, 90, 93, 156, 169, 218, 249, 260, 287, 306, 312, 322 Geopark, 49, 156, 220, 249 Geo-tourism park, 8 Gourmet tourism (gurume tsurizumu or gurume no tabi), 5, 6, 100–103, 245, 260, 267, 275–282, 288, 292, 306–308, 314 Governance, 16, 37, 40–42, 63, 71, 86, 88, 90 Government publications, 19–21, 238 Great Hanshin Earthquake (Nambu), xi, 3, 8, 44, 116, 121, 123, 146, 156, 157, 180, 204 Greenbelts, greenspace, 184 H

Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake Disaster, 121 Heavy industry, 43, 51, 56, 123, 132, 157, 159, 162, 163, 169, 178, 188, 196, 201, 205, 336

352 Index

Heike Clan, 73 Heike descendants, 85, 231 Heritage tourism, 155, 176, 317 Himeji Castle, Himeji-jo, Shirasagi, 12, 46, 157, 159, 168, 170, 173–175, 206, 207, 314, 319, 337, 340 Horikomi, land reclamation, see Coastal, and reclamation (infill), horikomi Hospitality, ix, 12, 15, 17, 26, 43, 75, 78, 79, 89, 94, 96, 101–103, 105, 136, 147, 150, 151, 178, 179, 205, 207, 210, 230, 245, 263–265, 281–284, 287, 304, 307, 312, 313, 320, 322, 327, 333, 335 Human geography, viii, xi, xii, 5, 7, 21, 22, 64 Hyogo, 5

J

I

L

Identifiers, 23, 86, 271 Identity, 73, 86–88, 90, 91, 93, 95–102, 136, 142, 163, 166, 240, 253, 256, 266, 271, 321, 322, 326–329 Image-making, 53, 59, 72 Improve and delineate zones (for future projects), 183 Induction method, 17 Industrial and experience tourism, 286–288 In-migration, 122 isson ippai/isson ipin undo one place one product campaign, 268

Japan, 104 Japan Brand, 304 Japan Railways (JR), 138, 255, 257, 286, 288 K

Kaiseki gourmet multiple course meal, 267 Keidanren, 15 Keihanshin, 16, 296 Kinki, 16 Koizumi, Juunichiro (Prime Minister), 2, 9, 14–16, 19, 98, 99, 116, 119, 120, 123, 128–130, 132, 180, 204, 265, 301, 312, 319, 322, 323, 331, 333 Konne connections or business networks, 25

Language, vii, ix, xii, 37, 77, 81, 84, 89, 93, 195, 224, 255, 312, 322, 332 Lost Decade (Ushinawareta Jūnen) (economic depression), 177, 185, 218, 290, 319 M

Machizukuri town and city revitalisation, 136 Mad cows disease, 8 McCormack, Gavin, 117 Meiji ‘tourism,’ 3 Methodology, x, 7, 334

 Index 

Michi-no-eki (lit) street station, general local produce retail outlet and tourism information centre, 147 Minshuku and hospitality, 281–283 and staffing, 283 Monorail, 208, 314, 317, 328 Multinodal transportation hubs, 6 Municipal amalgamation (gappe), 39, 163, 164, 270, 308, 321 N

Nationalism, xii, 11, 78, 79, 82, 85–87, 90–93, 99, 103, 265 Nature (shizen), 14, 81–83 See also Shizen Nature-conduit, 82 Nemawashi, 25 Nepotism (in tourism), 257 The New Long-Run Economic Plan (shin keizai keikaku 1958–1962), 171 Nihonjinron, 23, 86, 87, 96, 99, 136 Nostalgia, 13, 96, 98, 253, 327 See also Epilogue O

Oil spills, 239, 306 Ōkuma Shigenobu (Prime Minister), and propaganda, 87 Olympic Games, 118, 313, 333 One place-one product, 15 See also isson ippai/ isson ipin undo one place one product campaign Onsen, 12, 49, 78, 95, 96, 222, 232, 282, 283, 286, 297, 298, 301, 304, 306 hot springs, 12

353

Other (the), 87 Outmigration, 5, 8, 39, 43, 50, 58, 122, 123, 125, 177, 234, 238, 239, 317 Overfishing, 233, 239, 267 P

Pacific-Agenda 21, 1 Paris, 120, 124 Participant observation, x, 16, 203, 207 participant-observer, 16 Peripherality, 22, 313, 317, 319 Peri-urban, 99, 104, 198 Phoenix Plan, 122, 126, 133, 150 Pilgrimage, 1, 2, 7, 12, 14, 33, 64, 72, 75–79, 86, 89, 91, 172, 174, 264, 314, 322 Pilgrims, 11, 12, 263 Plan, Do, See, 19, 130, 180 See also Koizumi, Juunichiro (Prime Minister) Pollution, viii, 21, 53, 80, 121, 136, 142, 189, 190, 193, 195–197, 202, 205, 239, 247, 265, 292 Population decline, 237–239, 248, 271 Port authority, 191 Ports for tourism, 100, 102, 122, 123, 203, 335 for working, 3, 6, 177, 185, 187–197, 203, 227, 336, 339 Propaganda, 3, 20, 73, 90, 93, 97, 136, 265 See also Ōkuma Shigenobu (Prime Minister), and propaganda

354 Index R

Railway, 44, 51–54, 92, 97, 102, 103, 137, 138, 159, 170, 212, 220, 224, 256, 263 Real estate, 6, 168, 187 Recreational development, 19 Regional (use as a term) p3 C3, vii, viii, x, xi, 1, 2, 4–6, 10–15, 18, 20, 24, 33–38, 49–53, 57, 58, 64, 85, 88, 94, 95, 97–101, 116–120, 122–124, 129, 133, 135–147, 150, 155, 158, 163, 167, 174, 177, 209, 217–219, 222, 229, 239, 255–257, 259, 265, 271, 280, 286–291, 295, 297, 300, 303, 306, 308, 313, 316, 318, 320–323, 325–327, 332, 333 Regional imbalance rejuvenation, 13 revitalisation, 15, 116, 119, 133, 218, 239, 259, 303, 308, 316, 321 Reinventing Japan, and Morris-­Suzuki, 73 Resort development, 6, 124, 143, 293 Resort Law, 14, 140, 171, 227, 263, 296, 318, 321 Resorts, 12, 14, 43, 49, 53, 124, 140, 222, 263, 291–294, 296, 297, 299, 305, 325, 329 Revitalisation strategies, rural and regional, 217, 218, 304, 316 Rezoning, 168, 179 Ritsumeikan University, Beppu, 312, 323 ‘Romantic’ (romanchiku), 269 Rural coastal, 5, 6, 9, 23, 35, 44, 63, 64, 79, 82, 95, 100–102,

135–147, 150, 217–260, 269, 275, 281, 302, 323 and economic growth, 219 Rural idyll identity, 328 revitalisation, 265 Rural revitalisation, 305 Russian oil tanker Nakhodka, see Oil spills S

San’in Kaigan, 8, 44, 49, 220, 274 Satoumi, 23, 137 Satoyama, 23, 83, 99, 137 Sea of Japan, 8, 24, 35, 43, 63, 94, 137, 141, 212, 217, 291, 304, 307, 329, 333 SeaWorld, 296 Second homes, 12, 83, 194, 229, 239, 328 Shinkansen, 138 Shizen, 14, 81–83, 266 Sightseeing, ix, 12, 14, 15, 64, 72, 75–77, 79, 86, 89, 92, 94, 143, 181, 264, 266, 267, 272, 286, 288, 297 Signifiers, 233, 330 Social network sites, x, 75 Souvenirs, 77, 78, 117, 137, 147, 232, 267, 280, 341 Space and Place, xi, 4, 6, 7, 15, 22, 23, 34, 35, 64, 73, 84–86, 88, 322 SP-ring (Super Photon Ring), 178 Statistics manipulation (see Amalgamation or gappe) reliability of, 19

 Index 

Sustainability, ix, 1, 4, 6, 7, 79, 99, 115, 137, 151, 207, 234, 251, 263–308, 331, 332, 335 T

Taisho nationalism, 93 Tōkaidō, 7, 21, 34, 39–41, 51, 52, 54, 56–58, 63, 89, 102–104, 136, 157 Tokugawa, ix, 2, 4, 38, 40–42, 46, 47, 49–52, 55, 59, 60, 63, 77, 78, 81, 83–89, 91, 93, 94, 96, 100, 102–104, 159, 163, 220, 224, 282, 312, 319, 321, 322, 326, 332, 345, 347 Tokyo, 12, 37–42, 49–53, 55, 57, 58, 60, 88, 95, 99, 103, 104, 117–120, 139, 311, 316–318, 321, 323, 328, 329, 333 and centralisation, 41, 55, 88 Topophilia, xi, 15, 22, 23, 34, 35, 64 Tourism brochures, 73, 100, 211, 288 growth, 115, 116, 137, 139, 146, 155, 164, 176, 209, 253–254, 304, 306, 312, 317, 333 and infrastructure challenges, 137–139 plans, 8, 12, 14, 120, 122, 134, 136, 150, 193, 320 as utopia, 15, 150 Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Law, 2 Tourist-definition, 11 Traditional practices, 23, 49, 72, 90, 285

355

Traditions, 13, 15, 25, 55, 60, 64, 72, 73, 75–77, 82, 84, 85, 88–94, 97, 98, 105, 116, 156, 164, 204, 243, 251, 284, 288, 322, 327 Tuan, Yi Fu, xi, 2, 7, 15, 23, 34, 35, 64, 73, 89, 90 U

Umi-no-eki, 20, 147, 149, 193 Unification, 50, 86, 88, 159 UNWTO, viii, 10, 79, 84, 115, 331, 332, 334, 335 Urban plans (and planning), 25, 100, 142 V

Volunteers, 150, 157, 173, 176, 240, 245, 254, 258, 332, 337 W

Web 2.0, x Women, 73, 76, 91, 93, 116, 200, 206, 207, 240–242, 244, 245, 248, 250, 251, 278, 313, 345 and fisheries, 76, 242 Y

Yūtārn (u-turn), 137, 140, 142, 249, 250, 265, 326 See also Counter-urbanisation

356 Index Z

Zaibatsu (business/industry conglomeration), 159–161, 163

Zones, 53, 57, 92, 100, 141, 156, 157, 162, 168–172, 178–180, 189, 199, 205, 229, 254, 291, 293, 297, 298, 305