“Obnoxious facility” is a general term for the facilities that are necessary for society but that people do not want to be located near their habitation. Moreover, the sense of dislike of such buildings is termed “NIMBY”.
Until now, incineration plants, crematoria, and other public facilities have been famous as obnoxious facilities in Japan. Recently, however, it has emerged as a big social issue that many nursery schools cannot open because of neighborhood opposition movements. In the 1990s, homes for the aged were also subjected to strong protests against their establishment.
It is supposed that the factors of the phenomenon that cause these welfare facilities—which fulfill fundamental social demands—to become obnoxious facilities, or conversely cease to be so considered, include not only the political promotion of their establishment but also changes in social consciousness.
This research aims to examine the historical transition of welfare facilities for the aged and children as obnoxious facilities, and to consider the social background and problems. In this study, we examine the newspaper articles on the opposition movements against the establishment of these facilities as the basis to judge whether they became targets of NIMBY. By analyzing the texts of these articles and the specific planned location of homes for the aged and nursery schools opposed by the residents living in the vicinity, we clarify the causal factors of this phenomenon.
In Chapter 2, we compare for seven public facilities the change in the numbers of articles on the opposition movements against their establishment to reveal the historical positioning of homes for the aged and children as obnoxious facilities. Both types of facilities experienced a particular peak for the number of corresponding articles.
In Chapter 3, we analyze the contents of these articles and the location environment of 23 construction plans for homes for the aged detailed in these articles. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, there were many cases where prejudice against homes for the aged seemed to be most prevalent, but after that period, such cases gradually disappeared. However, due to the lack of site selection procedures in the late 1980s, there were also many cases in which the government began promoting their construction in green spaces, parks, and public squares to secure a comfortable environment for the residents among dense urban areas. We clarify that the number of opposition movements against homes for the aged decreased because people came to accept them and they have also become beneficial for an increasing number of people with the advancement of an aging society.
In Chapter 4, we analyze the contents of these articles and the location environment of 15 construction plans for nursery schools detailed in these articles. In the 1970s, there were some movements against nursery schools and a controversy among society over dealing with them as an undesirable noise source. Moreover, since the 2010s, the number of these movements had increased again and it continues to expand more steadily now than in the 1970s. We reveal that the major factors in the growing number of cases in recent years comprise the deregulation of nursery schools executed in the 2000s, the change of the psychological distance to children among society mainly caused by the declining birth rate, and incomprehension of the necessity of nursery school among the elderly who have never used it.
With the increase in demand for homes for the aged and children, it is expected that these facilities will increase ever further and that the arguments of the opposition movements will become increasingly diverse. We need to discuss how to promote mutual understanding within local societies.
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