Yokohama Sewerage Story in Meiji ~Construction of Modern Sewerage Systems by Brunton and Zentaro Mita~

Abstract

From the end of Edo to Meiji era, Japan suffered from repeated cholera pandemics, in one of which more than 100,000 people were killed. Therefore, in the early period of Meiji era, the spread of Western-style modern water and sewerage systems was urgently needed. The first sewerage system in Japan was built in a foreign settlement in Yokohama by Richard Henry Brunton who was a hired foreign engineer from England. And then, the sewerage construction was taken over by Zentaro Mita, a Japanese civil engineer. The purpose of this report is to trace the trajectory left by both parties in Japanese sewerage engineering as a reference for providing assistance to developing countries in the field of public health engineering.