Is compact city a super solution?

Abstract

The compact city concept has become a very popular urban policy among local cities in Japan because they are facing many serious challenges, including depopulation, change of retail strategies, and over-dependency on automobiles. As these challenges are rooted in the fundamental changes that occurred in Japanese society during its modernization and in the progress of urban technologies, the compact city cannot be a super solution for all these issues. The author recognizes that there is an undeniable necessity of transforming the shape of cities and that downsizing cities is one possible initiative. Different combinations of relevant initiatives befitting each local condition are required to cope with very difficult situations.