Six thousand people died and hundreds of thousands lost their homes
when the Great Hanshin Earthquake hit Kobe in January 1995. It was the
largest disaster to affect postwar Japan and one of the most
destructive postwar natural disasters to strike a developed country.
Although the media focused on the disaster's immediate effects,
the long-term reconstruction efforts have gone largely unexplored.
Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with planners, activists, and
bureaucrats, David Edgington records the first ten years of
reconstruction and recovery efforts and offers detailed descriptions of
the geography of crisis and opportunity. Which districts were most
vulnerable to quake and why? Did policy makers and planners exploit
opportunities to revitalize the city and make it more sustainable and
disaster proof? Edgington's intricate investigation of Japanese
urban policy, local governance, and land use in stricken neighbourhoods
reveals that Japan's particular style of urban redevelopment
hindered rather than hastened its ability to rebuild a devastated
city.
An absorbing account of the largest urban-planning redevelopment
effort in Japanese history and the disaster that caused it,
Reconstructing Kobe offers real-world solutions to urban planners and
policy makers and is essential reading for students and scholars of
Japanese urban and planning history.