The importance of improvement in living condition in urban areas recently has been stressed in Japan. We can point out three issues in this trend. First, blighted areas have already appeared in suburban areas of densely built “bunka” apartment house. Second, revitalization of the inner city is being watched with keen interest. Third, criticism of existing urban policy which is busy pursuing construction of urban infrastructure is developing new ideas for improvement of urban living condition. From these viewpoints, we can see only two examples of improvement in poor housing distrcts. In fact, Japan has a long tradition of renewal of poor housing districts. Unfortunately, these kinds of districts, i.e. minority group ghettoes, we call “dowa” districts, have not been properly analysed. There are two reasons for this lack of research. First is the tendency for Japanese scholars to avoid topics and ignore groups that are the object of majority prejudice. Second is the record of heavy-handed political intervention in the conduct and findings of such research.
This paper at first clarifies the historical formation of poor housing districts in prewar Japan. Second, we focus on the “Renewal of Poor Housing Districts Act” of 1927, making clear how this act was created and put in force. This research also attempts to put “dowa” districts in their proper place among all kinds of poor housing districts in Japan. In addition, we set value on this housing act as the the first public project to improve living conditions in Japan, and reveal the counter-responses of the people concerned.
In post-war Japan, especially after 1960, the pace of renewal projects quickened and many projects attained good results. These results were achieved mainly by minority-group peoples' movements, and such movements were linked to political influence. The historical approach adopted in this paper aims to pursue the origin of these movements and their political attitudes in pre-war Japan.
The “Renewal of Poor Housing Districts Act” was authorized by the Department of Social Welfare of the Ministry of Interior. Before the enactment of this act, the Department of Social Welfare conducted many investigations of poorer peoples' living and housing conditions. These investigations not only helped in the enactment, but also added special characteristics to this act. One such characteristic is observance in principle of rehousing people in the same location, and the other is omission of concrete standards in selection of renewal areas. The former is the result of imitating the housing acts in England. The latter is explained by the fact that the Department of Social Welfare had no need to define selection standards since they had already gained information about location of the poor housing districts.
Projects in accordance with this act began in 1928, rehousing nearly 4000 households by 1942 in 6 big cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kobe and Yokohama. The 16 districts selected or planned for selection were divided into three types. This selection reflected the existing three types of poorer peoples' districts at that time. The first type were those of minority groups, i.e. “dowa” districts originating in the pre-modern era. The second type were residential districts of urban miscellaneous laborers centering around flophouse, and the last one was residential districts of lower factory workers. The latter two emerged in modern era after 1868. Seven of the selections were of the first type, and these cases became a precedent for post-war projects. From the viewpoint of the people concerned, Nagoya and Kyoto showed special responses toward the renewal projects. Considering the historical conditions in pre-war Japan, people at that time did not possess any legal ways of opposition and had limited opportunities for achieving their demands for improvement.
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