Vol.62 No.5 (2010)
Contents
Article
HANAKI Hironao
Characteristics of People Emigrating to Manila and Dekasegi from Omishima Island in the Geiyo Islands from the Taisho Era to the Early Showa Era: The Case of Kuchisubo Settlement, Okayama Village 1
Review
MIZUNO Masahiko
Economic Geographies of Urban Restructuring in the 2000s: Financial Capitalism, Global Cities, and the Creative Class 26
Reserch Notes
OHASHI Yumi
Recycling of Commercial Food Waste in Aichi Prefecture 45
NAKAGAMI Kaoru
The Significance of Sewerage in the Foreign Settlement in Kobe in the Early Meiji Era 62
NARUSE Atsushi
Identifying with Other Places: Homes that a Photographer Found in His Journey 78
Meeting Reports
120th Research Seminar of Historical Geography Study Group 93
101st Research Seminar of Geographical Thought Study Group 98
36th Research Seminar of Metropolitan Area Study Group 99
Abstracts
Characteristics of People Emigrating to Manila and Dekasegi from Omishima Island in the Geiyo Islands from the Taisho Era to the Early Showa Era: The Case of Kuchisubo Settlement, Okayama Village
HANAKI Hironao
Graduate Student, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba
The purpose of this paper is to identify one of the origins and the characteristics of emigration from the Setouchi region in the first half of the twentieth century. Many of the emigrants from the Setouchi region chose to emigrate to Manila. However, not many studies have been conducted on the subject. For this case study, the author selected Kuchisubo settlement in Okayama Village, Omishima Island, which had a sizeable population who wanted to emigrate to Manila. The author began by reconstructing the historical emigration from Kuchisubo settlement by studying the differences between emigrants, domestic migrant workers, and the non―migrant population. The author also considered the possibility that emigration was related to former occupations such as domestic migrant workers. In addition, the author studied the relationship between the emigrants and their home settlements. Interviews, emigration lists documented in the diplomatic archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as documents archived in the village office of Okayama, were used for the study.
There were many emigrants from Kuchisubo settlement to Manila during the Taisho era and the early Showa era. The emigration to Manila began when an emigration company committed to recruiting a few emigrants to Manila in the late Taisho era. After the early Showa era, emigrants to Manila from Kuchisubo settlement began to increase due to better job opportunities and social networks among families, neighbors, and friends of the earlier emigrants. On the other hand, since the late Edo period, many people living in Kuchisubo settlement had become dependent on domestic labor migration to maintain their livelihoods. During the late Taisho and the early Showa eras, domestic migration also took place in addition to overseas emigration to Manila. People in Kuchisubo settlement began migrating to other places within Japan to seek better job opportunities through social networks with other migrants who were already living there. Thus, emigration to Manila can be regarded as an extension of domestic labor migration.
During the late Taisho era and the early Showa era, the early migrants repeatedly went back and forth, and in addition to helping to provide job opportunities, played an important role in maintaining the temple, shrine, and other public amenities in Kuchisubo settlement,. On the other hand, up until the early Taisho era, the landlords, saltpan owners, and cotton textile factory managers who came from the old established families of Kuchisubo settlement played an important role in the lives of individuals living in Kuchisubo. After the late Taisho era, due to the decline of the cotton and salt industry, the fortunes of these formerly powerful families also declined. In their place, emigrants who had maintained social network connections with their home place began to play an important role in maintaining the livelihood of their home settlement.
In this paper, the author first examined the historical emigration from Japan to Southeast Asia after the late Meiji era, which has not been explored in emigration studies until now, and also demonstrated that people emigrating to Manila shared similar characteristics with domestic labor migrants and even worked in similar jobs before emigrating. In addition, this study emphasizes the fact that migrants kept in touch with friends and relatives at home and played an important role in the lives of people living in Kuchisubo settlement, despite moving to Manila or to other places in Japan.
Key words: emigration to Manila, occupational changes, dekasegi （domestic temporary labor migration）, Okayama Village, Kuchisubo settlement
Economic Geographies of Urban Restructuring in the 2000s: Financial Capitalism, Global Cities, and the Creative Class
MIZUNO Masahiko
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University
This paper reviews studies focused on the economic and social restructuring of cities in developed countries in the 2000s （2000―2009） from the viewpoint of economic geography. Drawing on critical examinations of the global cities thesis and the creative class thesis by Saskia Sassen and Richard Florida, respectively, the author points out the following four features of urban restructuring during the decade.
First, urban spaces that contain land and buildings have gradually been incorporated in global financial capitalism. In other words, they have become financial products that have been traded beyond local and national borders, which caused a growth in financial business and a rapid rise in housing prices and rent prior to the financial crisis. The surge of financial capitalism in the 2000s has had a tendency to destabilize urban spaces and the lives of the residents in these areas.
Second, neo―liberal policy movements have emphasized intensifying intercity competition and the rise of urban entrepreneurialism. City governments increasingly tend to pay more attention to attracting mobile capital, and neglect social policy for city residents, who are relatively immobile.
Third, according to Sassen, global cities are characterized by the economic and social polarization of urban residents. In the 2000s, many Japanese writers and researchers discussed the fact that Japan had been converted into a gap―widening society. The increasing job insecurity of younger workers is suggested as a cause of the widening of the income gap. In particular, some critics perceive the suburbs as a problem, partly because irregular and low―paid employment is often a feature of these regions. In addition, this decade has witnessed an increase in the regional disparity between Tokyo and the rest of Japan.
Fourth, the intercity competition for attracting highly skilled talents has been accelerated in the 2000s. Richard Florida insists that attracting the creative class is fundamental to urban development. He suggests that diversity, openness, and tolerance are magnets that attract the creative class. Although his view has drawn the attention of local politicians and policymakers, a considerable number of scholars criticized it for several reasons. One of these criticisms is that urban development can be better explained in terms of locations that offer job opportunities rather than the residential preferences of people or urban amenities. Another criticism is that urban policies based on Florida’s view possibly deepen the social divide between the creative class and the rest of the population. We have to recognize the importance of job creation in production activities throughout the production chains in order to prevent the deepening of the social divide in urban societies.
Key words: financial capitalism, global cities, gap―widening society, creative class, cultural industries
Recycling of Commercial Food Waste in Aichi Prefecture
OHASHI Yumi
Graduate Student, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University
To increase the recycling of food waste which could be put to better use, the Law for the Promotion of the Utilization of Recyclable Food Resources （the Food Recycling Law） was enacted in 2000 in Japan. Up till then almost all food waste was incinerated or buried in landfill sites. Under this law, food distribution businesses and restaurants throughout the country are required to make efforts to recycle their food waste. However, the actual food waste recycling rate has not grown significantly since the law was enacted. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors affecting why the recycling of commercial food waste in Japan is not proceeding as effectively as it could. The main conclusions of this study can be summarized as follows:
There are four distribution channels for commercial food waste: municipal disposal/recycling facilities; on―site recycling by waste generators; recycling facilities by food waste recycling contractors; and recycling facilities by governmentally licensed and registered food waste recycling contractors. As far as Aichi Prefecture is concerned, this study found that governmentally licensed and registered food waste recycling contractors can play a key role in promoting commercial food waste recycling in the future. However, the following problems exist:
First, only 79 food waste recycling contractors are governmentally licensed and registered in Japan. This is not a sufficient number of operations. Due to such an insufficient network of food waste recycling contractors, a food waste generating establishment may decide that, due to the long distances involved and the consequent high transportation costs, it is not worthwhile having its food waste recycled. Also, the recycling fees charged by the recycling business must be adequately balanced with the municipal waste disposal charges levied in the area. At the same time, food waste recycling businesses cannot be commercially feasible unless their recycling techniques are sufficiently developed to offer profitable products through recycling. Another potential impediment involves the codes of practice and agreements between the food waste generators and their haulers which have arisen from the government’s conventional waste management policies. The working practices and traditions which have so evolved may constitute a barrier to realizing more efficient food waste recycling.
Key words: commercial food waste, recycling, the Food Recycling Law, food waste recycling contractor, Aichi Prefecture
The Significance of Sewerage in the Foreign Settlement in Kobe in the Early Meiji Era
NAKAGAMI Kaoru
Graduate Student, Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University
This paper compares the sewerage constructed within the foreign settlement in Kobe in the early Meiji era with those in other cities colonized by Western powers. In such colonial cities, the colonists suffered from many infectious diseases while they were implementing ideal city plans there. Some previous studies referring to sewerage in colonial cities such as Calcutta, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Yokohama have shown that Westerners have ascribed those problems to the local environment and people, so they have built sewerage in the planning of such colonial cities because they believed that it was an important sanitary facility.
On the other hand, few previous studies have examined this aspect in relation to foreign settlement in Kobe, similarly a colonial city, so most previous studies have not been able to explain enough the significance of sewerage to Westerners or the process of its construction there. For example, some previous studies consider the sewerage in foreign settlement in Kobe simply as “a modern urban facility by Westerners,” and some neglect the “drains” which had been in existence in the foreign settlement in Kobe before the construction of sewerage. It is impossible to explain why the colonists were not satisfied with the existing drains and constructed the new sewerage without referring to these drains. First, this paper shows that Westerners in the foreign settlement in Kobe held a concept of sanitation, the “miasma theory,” by referring to articles in the English―language newspapers of the early Meiji era. This concept was identified in other colonial cities, and was a main impetus for the construction of sewerage in the foreign settlement in Kobe. Then, this paper pays attention to a difference in building forms between drains and sewerage, and indicates that Westerners in the foreign settlement in Kobe needed sewerage laid under the ground, and not drains open to the air, in order to avoid infectious diseases.
With reference to case studies about Western colonial cities, and in examining how sewerage was built in the foreign settlement in Kobe, this paper explains its significance and process leading towards its construction.
Key words: sewerage, sanitation concept, city plan, foreign settlement in Kobe
Identifying with Other Places: Homes that a Photographer Found in His Journey
NARUSE Atsushi
Part―time Lecturer, Tokyo Keizai University
This paper analyses the photographic works of Tanuma Takeyoshi who travels around the world. Although he is most famous for what he has made his life’s work, ‘Children of the World’, he has also produced works focused on Tokyo where he was born, grew up, and currently lives. Through the course of his world travels, he has identified particularly deeply with two regions, the Andes in South America and the Catalonia region of Spain, and has published books of photographs that were specifically devoted to each region. This paper investigates the process of his identification with these regions through the analysis of his photographs. By producing these photographs, Tanuma has acquired a sense of belonging to other places.
Andes Sanka （Homage to the Andes） was published in 1984. This photo collection consists of all color photos which were taken on a journey in the 1970s. They include photographs of magnificent natural landscapes, the daily life of the Indios who live there, scenes of their festivals, the remains of the Inca Empire, and the geoglyphs of Nazca. The photographs of natural landscapes give viewers a sublime sense of vastness and spirituality.
Romnic Catal （Catalan Romanesque） was published in 1987. The monochrome photographs of Romanesque―style medieval buildings were taken in the mid 1980s. The buildings have been weathered through a history of more than a thousand years, and they have become artworks appropriate to their surrounding as they balance the upward striving of human creative intention with the downward force of natural gravity.
By grasping the fascination with other places through taking photographs from a traveler’s viewpoint and finding spirituality and universal commonality in other places, Tanuma pays homage to these places and a sense of belonging. While all human beings have homes where they were born and grew up, they create a layered identity by ‘belonging’ to other places, selected according to individual taste, which also function as a home.
Key words: other places, photography, a sense of belonging, the sublime, homage
