TOKYO

The developments in Tokyo in the early 1900s attracted many people to the modernized city. As a result, Tokyo’s urban area grew past the recommended levels. Additionally, the 1920s was the industrialization period in Tokyo. Many industries were being established in the urban city of Tokyo. As a result of the uncontained and unplanned growth, there was a severe conflict in Tokyo as the residents clashed heads with the industrialists. Therefore, the local government in charge of governing Tokyo and the national government of Japan needed to solve a problem that threatened to take away all the glory of a mushrooming modern city. To address this issue, a development control system or subdivision control system was introduced to help prevent any uncontrolled and unplanned suburban development in Tokyo. Additionally, a zoning system was introduced in Tokyo in order to help control pollution and nuisance related problems. To be precise, in 1919, Tokyo enforced a new law known as City Planning Law and the main elements of the law were to create a simple zoning system like the one that had been created in New York City.[3] The City Planning Law also sought to emulate a designated building line system that was comparable to the German district development system. However, the designated building line system did not effectively meet its objectives. For instance, it failed to inhibit unplanned small-scale subdivision with insufficient infrastructure, mainly because all roads that measure wider than 2.7 meters were designated as building lines automatically and this enabled development on the lot that was attached to the road.[3] For this reason, small-scale development spread over suburban areas where there was a road network to facilitate rural and farming life. Therefore, because many railway systems were developed in the 1920s, suburbanization kicked off with a weak planning system (City Planning Law of 1919) that did not address the major issues of concern.