Shrinking without degrowth: Growth-oriented shrinkage in the case of Japanese cities

Abstract

Degrowth city or degrowth planning is often confused with shrinking city, though the two concepts have a clear difference. The word “shrinking city” describes the phenomenon of a city shrinking in size, while the word “degrowth city” or “degrowth planning” describes an alternative planning ideology.

Khmara and Kronenberg (2023) provides a distinction between a shrinking city and a degrowth city and acknowledges the usefulness of applying urban degrowth concept to shrinking cities. Schindler (2016) gives the example of Detroit to showcase the possibility of incorporating degrowth concept amidst a city’s shrinkage. Though these studies lay out the differences and relations between the two city concepts, there is still a lack of research on why incorporating degrowth concept is inherently necessary for shrinking cities.

Compact city is one of the concepts often endorsed when countering city shrinkage. By condensing the socio-economic infrastructure to the city centre and increasing its density, a compact city aims to maintain a high quality of living, limit environmental impact from urban sprawl, and reduce public expenditure. Though being one of the prominent city concepts, Bibri (2020) argues that compact city planning can result in a disproportional focus on economic benefits, sidelining environmental and social improvements. This study highlighted the case of Swedish cities, but the same argument can be applied to Japanese compact city planning. 

Japan is one of the leading countries in its aging and declining population: 29% of the population was over 65 years old in 2023, and the total population is expected to halve in the next 100 years. In 2014, a governmental report brought attention to the acute shrinkage of Japanese cities by declaring that 49.8% of Japanese municipalities will become “potentially extinct” by 2040 (Masuda, 2014). As a countermeasure for future shrinkage, many cities have incorporated the concept of compact city into their spatial planning agendas. Toyama, for example, is a city of 410,000 people that adopted compact city planning in 2005. The city’s initiative is regarded as a successful case, with increases in the use of public transport, city centre population, and real estate value (Onodera, 2023).

The objectives of compact city in Japanese cities focus heavily on economic benefits such as decrease in public expenditure and increase in real estate value. Though social and environmental aspects such as walkability, mixed land use, and CO2 reduction are mentioned, they are oftentimes overlooked or simply not measured when discussing the outcomes of these city plans.

This paper will adopt a descriptive case study method to analyze compact city planning in two Japanese mid-sized cities: Toyama and Kumamoto. By studying their official documents and secondary sources as well as conducting interviews, the paper will analyze the narratives behind the adoption of compact city planning and how their results were measured. The paper will then discuss the limits of compact city planning when endorsing a growth-oriented view and argue the necessity of incorporating postgrowth planning perspective to achieve social and environmental sustainability in shrinking cities.