ABSTRACT
During the last ten years a boom of redevelopment of inner-city sites has occurred in many Japanese cities, and particularly in Tokyo. In many inner-city neighborhoods of small two to four-story dwellings, high-rise residential buildings (universally referred to as manshon in Japan) of 20-50 stories are being built. This has provoked intense conflicts between existing neighborhood residents and the property development companies pursuing redevelopment. This chapter suggests that while such conflicts are often seen simply as a manifestation of selfish not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) style opposition to neighborhood change, it may be equally valid to understand such mobilization as a legitimate case of grassroots attempts to influence patterns of urban change at the neighborhood scale. These conflicts over residential development and redevelopment in existing urban areas also provide a unique window on ongoing changes in Japanese urban governance, urban planning, community organizing, and conflicts over urban space.
