ABSTRACT

From its beginnings in the 1960s until today the word machizukuri1 has taken on a variety of meanings and new concepts are constantly being added.

In 2001, Professor Yasuhiro Endo (1940-) introduced the idea of machisodate to Japanese planning in a book entitled Machi-sodate wo hagukumu, taiwa to kyodo no dezain (Cultivating Urban Husbandry:2 Design of Dialogue and Collaboration) (Endo 2001) for which he received an Ishikawa Memorial Award of the City Planning Institute of Japan in 2002. He pointed out that the word and concept of machizukuri became popular in the 1980s and 1990s after being used first in 1964 by a citizens’ movement in the Sakae-higashi district of Nagoya city which proposed cooperative rebuilding projects as well as a master plan for the area where a land readjustment project had been enforced (Endo 2001: 11).3 Since then, the word machizukuri has developed to mean a citizens’ movement with the aim to realize a lively community environment and services to improve daily life in the neighborhood. However, on the other hand, the word was often used ambiguously or even contradictorily. Contrasting machi-sodate, his new concept, with machizukuri, Professor Endo emphasized the importance of creating a social network in the process of community development.