The Maglev Project and Urban Development:

Growth Politics and Spatial Restructuring in the East Side of Nagoya Station

Abstract

    In Japan, the national government has encouraged urban mega-projects under the dogma of “choice and concentration.” This article presents case study of the Nagoya Station area to examine the construction of an urban growth machine in contemporary Japan. In this area, the Central Japan Railway Company (CJRC) conceived the idea of installing a new underground Chuo Shinkansen station under the building. CJRC and other local big businesses including the Toyota Group had rebuilt antiquated buildings from the 1990s to the 2010s. In 2007, CJRC officially announced a plan to construct a maglev line between Tokyo and Osaka named Linear Chuo Shinkansen, and since then this plan has driven redevelopment of the area. The city government set a development plan for the Nagoya Station area in 2014, and this plan defines the framework for the coordination between local stakeholders. The local business community and the city government expressed worries that Nagoya might be subordinated economically to Tokyo by the opening of the maglev line. This case study shows how a mega-project drives a city to growth politics in the post-Fordist era.