2016 Volume 3 Pages 163-186
Japan's wartime city planning and housing policy was the prototype for city planning in the postwar-era. The greatest issue for wartime city planning was the construction of military plants in local regions. This study aimed at clarifying the relationship between industrial development and the legal city planning of the Nippon Steel Co. Ltd. (NSC) during World War II, with a focus on the cases of the Muroran, Kamaishi, Hirohata and Yahata (Yawata) Works.
The Japanese steel industry originated with NSC, which was founded as a national policy company through the consolidation of steelworks in 1934. Legal city planning was developed in relation to the construction of four huge steelworks: Muroran, Kamaishi, Hirohata and Yahata. City-planned streets were instituted in four cities with steelworks. However other legal city planning was different. The result of this research represents legal city planning for industrial development during World War II. The cases of industrial city planning during the war shared the principle of an air defense system. In contrast, advanced city planning notions such as “planning unit” and “regional planning” were introduced in accordance with the sizes of the respective cities.
