I have borrowed this entry on a discussion board dated May 14, 2011 from Shigehiko Togo, Former Correspondent of the Washington Post Tokyo Bureau, as I really liked this out of the box initiative (his entry is in italics). Japan will probably never do it, but this is the kind of thinking Japan needs in this age.
Based on the experience which Japan has suffered by the 3.11 disasters, how about relocating our capital to Tohoku, Northeast area of the Honshu island?
There are three reasons why I am writing this.
First, from safety perspective:
From southern Chiba Prefecture toward Miyazaki Prefecture coast of the Pacific, three major gigantic quakes parallel to the Honshu islands are anticipated by scholars. The possibility of an earthquake with an epicenter directly under Tokyo is often discussed.
The future possibility of a big earthquake in Tohoku, both plate type and active fault type should be seriously examined by scholars but after 3.11, isn’t it Tohoku itself an area relatively safe from earthquake and tsunami disasters in coming next several centuries ?
Furthermore, we now know from the experiences of 3.11, where are the areas relatively safe or more dangerous within Tohoku regarding earthquake and tsunami disasters, including the danger caused and to be caused by nuclear reactors.
These are the reasons why I think it is adequate to propose Tohoku as a place of new capital of Japan from safety point of view.
Second, from recovery perspective:
Needless to say, if we will relocate the capital in Tohoku, it will be the very core of the recovery project. Both material and mental impact will be tremendous. The scale of the project will be immense. It will be incomparable to any of already proposed plans by the national and local governments, parties and city planners etc.
Third, from historical perspective:
Looking back the history of Japan, I think we cannot deny the fact that some political group or tribe located in the Kyushu island had moved toward east and located its political and cultural center in Kansai area sometimes in an ancient days. Since then, many capitals such as Fujiwara, Nara or Kyoto had been located in Kinki area in Kansai. After the Meiji Restoration, the capital again moved toward east and Edo became Tokyo, which literally means something like “East Center”.
Tohoku area was never a center of Japan. By moving the capital again toward east, can’t we say that for the first time in history, all Japanese islands would have fulfilled its historical responsibility?
I will try to write down a concrete plan of how to realize this proposal so that it would not end just as a dream.
The relocation must start as a step of recovery project, must take a step by step process and must maintain a reasonable relation with Tokyo.
Now, what is a capital for the Japanese. In one word, that is a place where the Emperor resides. So the construction and the declaration of the new capital must start by moving the Imperial Palace to Tohoku. The Palace includes the residence of Their Majesties, imperial office and the Three Holy Shrines.
Diets, governments, other national functions and diplomatic core would move eventually with careful balance between the existing Tokyo. From that perspective, it may be desirable if the new capital would be placed somewhere not too distant from Tokyo.
The basic character of the new city will be “coexistence with nature” and “revival of Japanese tradition” as is already stated in many proposals. We should not try to rebuild gigantic buildings such as in Kasumigaseki in Tokyo. It should be designed based on a concept of “low rise buildings in a forest”. I expect scientists, engineers and construction companies to develop a new material for housing, a light, tenacious and not too expensive one in harmony with maximum utilization of wood and other “natural” resources.
At the end of the last century, the government had seriously examined to move the Diet from Tokyo and construct a city of 100.000 populations. As for the candidate area, one, Tochigi and Fukushima group and another, Aichi and Gifu group had been nominated. The fee was estimated to be about four trillion yen. If we would move the capital in Tohoku, it will be sure to cost more, but recent estimations of the recovery fee from 3.11 disasters indicates that the amount would not be unreachable. It should be necessary that the central government would take a strong leadership such as prohibition of land speculation and temporal restriction of private right.
Ken Matsumoto, an active businessman who lives in Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture who runs a precision machines factory which was heavily damaged by the tsunami of 3.11, strongly asserts that the recovery must take place from a bottom up energy of local inhabitants. But for the new capital idea, he said “Our place, Tohoku was never a center of Japan. It will be a historical miracle if the capital would move here. Nothing would encourage us more than that. It would stimulate for sure all Japanese people to stand and to work for the new dream.”
In the media, I have seen and heard, Yoshimi Watanabe, President of Your Party(Minna-no-To) mentioning about the relocation of the capital. Their party homepage writes that the Diet should move to Fukushima Prefecture. Jitsuro Terashima, a prominent scholar-commentator referred to the partial relocation of the capital to Tohoku. But as far as I know, there are no serious, comprehensive proposition on this subject.
Based on the experience which Japan has suffered by the 3.11 disasters, how about relocating our capital to Tohoku, Northeast area of the Honshu island?
There are three reasons why I am writing this.
First, from safety perspective:
From southern Chiba Prefecture toward Miyazaki Prefecture coast of the Pacific, three major gigantic quakes parallel to the Honshu islands are anticipated by scholars. The possibility of an earthquake with an epicenter directly under Tokyo is often discussed.
The future possibility of a big earthquake in Tohoku, both plate type and active fault type should be seriously examined by scholars but after 3.11, isn’t it Tohoku itself an area relatively safe from earthquake and tsunami disasters in coming next several centuries ?
Furthermore, we now know from the experiences of 3.11, where are the areas relatively safe or more dangerous within Tohoku regarding earthquake and tsunami disasters, including the danger caused and to be caused by nuclear reactors.
These are the reasons why I think it is adequate to propose Tohoku as a place of new capital of Japan from safety point of view.
Second, from recovery perspective:
Needless to say, if we will relocate the capital in Tohoku, it will be the very core of the recovery project. Both material and mental impact will be tremendous. The scale of the project will be immense. It will be incomparable to any of already proposed plans by the national and local governments, parties and city planners etc.
Third, from historical perspective:
Looking back the history of Japan, I think we cannot deny the fact that some political group or tribe located in the Kyushu island had moved toward east and located its political and cultural center in Kansai area sometimes in an ancient days. Since then, many capitals such as Fujiwara, Nara or Kyoto had been located in Kinki area in Kansai. After the Meiji Restoration, the capital again moved toward east and Edo became Tokyo, which literally means something like “East Center”.
Tohoku area was never a center of Japan. By moving the capital again toward east, can’t we say that for the first time in history, all Japanese islands would have fulfilled its historical responsibility?
I will try to write down a concrete plan of how to realize this proposal so that it would not end just as a dream.
The relocation must start as a step of recovery project, must take a step by step process and must maintain a reasonable relation with Tokyo.
Now, what is a capital for the Japanese. In one word, that is a place where the Emperor resides. So the construction and the declaration of the new capital must start by moving the Imperial Palace to Tohoku. The Palace includes the residence of Their Majesties, imperial office and the Three Holy Shrines.
Diets, governments, other national functions and diplomatic core would move eventually with careful balance between the existing Tokyo. From that perspective, it may be desirable if the new capital would be placed somewhere not too distant from Tokyo.
The basic character of the new city will be “coexistence with nature” and “revival of Japanese tradition” as is already stated in many proposals. We should not try to rebuild gigantic buildings such as in Kasumigaseki in Tokyo. It should be designed based on a concept of “low rise buildings in a forest”. I expect scientists, engineers and construction companies to develop a new material for housing, a light, tenacious and not too expensive one in harmony with maximum utilization of wood and other “natural” resources.
At the end of the last century, the government had seriously examined to move the Diet from Tokyo and construct a city of 100.000 populations. As for the candidate area, one, Tochigi and Fukushima group and another, Aichi and Gifu group had been nominated. The fee was estimated to be about four trillion yen. If we would move the capital in Tohoku, it will be sure to cost more, but recent estimations of the recovery fee from 3.11 disasters indicates that the amount would not be unreachable. It should be necessary that the central government would take a strong leadership such as prohibition of land speculation and temporal restriction of private right.
Ken Matsumoto, an active businessman who lives in Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture who runs a precision machines factory which was heavily damaged by the tsunami of 3.11, strongly asserts that the recovery must take place from a bottom up energy of local inhabitants. But for the new capital idea, he said “Our place, Tohoku was never a center of Japan. It will be a historical miracle if the capital would move here. Nothing would encourage us more than that. It would stimulate for sure all Japanese people to stand and to work for the new dream.”
In the media, I have seen and heard, Yoshimi Watanabe, President of Your Party(Minna-no-To) mentioning about the relocation of the capital. Their party homepage writes that the Diet should move to Fukushima Prefecture. Jitsuro Terashima, a prominent scholar-commentator referred to the partial relocation of the capital to Tohoku. But as far as I know, there are no serious, comprehensive proposition on this subject.
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