Deliberate suburban residential neighborhoods in metropolitan areas generally known as new cities had been initially developed in England. The brand new city motion unfold from Europe to East Asia, corresponding to to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In Japan alone, 2,903 New Cities had been constructed, however many skilled fast inhabitants decline and ageing within the 40 years after their improvement. Due to this fact, they turned into previous new cities and needed to remodel their amenities.
Dr. Haruka Kato, a junior affiliate professor at Osaka Metropolitan College and Professor Emeritus Kazuhiko Mori performed motion analysis in Senboku New City, one of many largest previous new cities in Japan. Senboku-NT’s inhabitants declined from roughly 170,000 to 115,000 in 2022. As well as, the older technology elevated by about 42,500 folks, accounting for 37.1% of the whole inhabitants. The demographic change made it tough for older folks to dwell in Senboku-NT as neighborhood retailers closed one after one other, leaving frail older adults unable to take care of their each day life inside strolling distance.
To deal with this drawback, residents started to discover community-led initiatives with the assistance of neighborhood federations, NPOs, social welfare organizations, the federal government, and universities. The Senboku Hottokenai Community Challenge is an instance initiative that steadily reworked vacant constructing shares into supportive housing for older folks, a bunch dwelling for folks with disabilities, and a neighborhood restaurant. As well as, this community-led city transformation undertaking unfold to neighboring areas. The outcomes of this research shed new gentle on the significance of community-led co-creation in transdisciplinary initiatives towards the Wholesome New City.
“Hottokenai in Japanese interprets to ‘go away nobody behind,’ which is the central promise of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth and its Sustainable Growth Targets,” mentioned Dr. Kato. “Our perception gives the necessity to implement a brand new city motion program to increase the city transformation undertaking for the Wholesome New City to different previous new cities in East Asia.”