The Implications of Population Decline and Fiscal Austerity on Public Nature: Insights From the Evolution of Urban Park Management System in Japan

Abstract

Facing challenges of population decline and fiscal austerity, Japan has implemented a series of initiatives to promote public-private partnerships (PPP) to ensure the sustainability of urban parks and revitalize urban spaces. These initiatives, while alleviating the government's financial burdens on parks, have also raised concerns about the potential erosion of publicness and public interests resulted from the commercialization of public assets. This paper reviews the evolution of Japan's urban park management system after World War Ⅱ—including three phases of being purely public goods, initiating marketization, and diversifying management entities. The functions of parks have continuously enriched, and the construction, management, and operational modes have shifted from government-led towards multi-stakeholder participation, along with expanded funding sources. By examining the PPP types, driving forces, implementation mechanisms and challenges in urban park management, this paper points out that, in different eras and social contexts, the Japanese government has kept adjusting its role to maximize public interests. This has proactively updated the implications of publicness in infrastructure like urban parks, from a post-war opposite of publicness versus privateness on ownership, to the participation of private capital for a higher efficiency, and finally to a community for a stronger regional competitiveness. The reforms of urban park management system in Japan offer significant lessons and insights for urban infrastructure management in other countries and regions.

● Proposes that the evolution of Japan's urban park management system has undergone three phases: being purely public goods, initiating marketization, and diversifying management entities

● Analyzes the implementation forms and driving forces of public-private partnership modes in Japan's urban parks

● Discusses how the Japanese government, by continuously adjusting its role over time, maximizes public interests and promotes the contextual transition of the public nature of urban infrastructure

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Publicness / Landscape Justice / Public-Private Partnership / "Private Finance Initiative" System for Parks / Urban Parks / Management System / Urban Infrastructure

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Acknowledgements

Post-Doctoral Fellow Project of "A Comparative Study on the Evolution of Metropolises in China and Japan, " China Scholarship Council (No. 202308430114)

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