The Evolution Process of the Drafts of the City Planning Act of 1919

From the City Planning Investigation Commission to the City Planning Bill

Abstract

This paper tries the clarify the formative process of the City Planning Act of 1919, by identifying a series of the drafts of the City Planning Bill discussed and amended in 1918 by the meetings of the City Planning Investigation Commission, the most crucial organ of the Home Ministry. The author traces the changing dafts by sections and concludes the Act succeeded in providing a variety of implementation tools but failed in institutionalizing the concept of the general plan, thus inheriting the old tradition of heavy emphasis on public works of the Tokyo Municipal Improvement Ordinance of 1888.