Community Creation and Current Changes in Higashikujo, Kyoto

Abstract

This chapter introduces the Higashikujo area of Kyoto, which historically has been marginalized and where social problems involving poverty and multiculturalism are conspicuous. Yet, the area is also awash with various organized resident initiatives that have been tackling these problems for nearly 50 years. Furthermore, it investigates how this community of mixed social profiles has been pressed for change, due in part to the changes in regional policies by the city and in part to the thriving guest house and minpaku (private residence temporarily taking lodgers) businesses near Kyoto Station in recent years. The paper concludes by evaluating the roles of stakeholders and residents in the process of change.

1 Introduction

In Japanese social welfare studies, there has been scant research on minority groups other than senior citizens, people with disabilities, and children. There are very few studies that focus on foreign citizens, or citizens with foreign roots. While it is not to the extent of Europe or America, 2% of Japan's population are such citizens, and cities where multi-nationalization; multi-ethnicity and multilingualism are all increasing are becoming more common around Japan (Watado 2009). In Japanese Social Welfare Studies, the elementary school districts are used as the basic area for studies in regional welfare. The practical side of regional welfare practices is generally through mutual assistance activities via neighbourhood and residents’ associations. Ethnic minorities are not in general included in any assumptions, and there is a tendency for them to be considered a nuisance factor, with the implicit belief that they do not follow the local rules.

Kyoto’s Higashikujo district is an area with a high concentration of residences belonging to Korean people (zainichi), formed in the context of the pre-war colonial policies. It is just south of Kyoto JR station (that is additionally a Shinkansen station) and is a convenient location for transportation. In the immediate vicinity of this entrance of Kyoto, an international cultural tourist city, there are settlements of both groups that are characteristic of thinking about minorities in Japan and cities; the outcast people (burakumin) and the Koreans living in Japan that are the subject of the present study (see Figs. 1 and 2). This area was historically marginalized, and when the modern city expanded, this area corresponded to the typical fringe inner city located on the geographical outskirts of the historical city centre. This area seems like it should be nice, due to the thriving tourism industry, but did not improve was because of the existence of these two fringe areas. The process of historical development was also quite complex. Since before the war, the area belonging to the Burakumin and zainichi had a reputation of being a bad neighbourhood. Although it has now been resolved, until the mid-1990s a 1-km squatters’ settlement known as “banchi nr. 40” was between the bank of the Takase River and the portion of Kamo river to the south-east of here. Higashikujo is an area that has been discriminated against, formerly referred to by the insulting name “Tongku.”

Fig. 1

The neighbourhood of Higashikujo

Fig. 2

The location of Higashikujyo in Kyoto

The urban policies of post-war Japan led to an investment of public funds in burakumin as a national project, but the zainichi were omitted from these urban policies. Despite this, the phrase “Higashikujo: the neighborhood where people live together” started to be used in the city planning. How the burakumin on the north side and zainichi on the south side have historically gotten along has been studied. Additionally, as society ages and people with disabilities have started to get involved in community development, Higashikujo has been repositioned as “a neighbourhood that accepts various people without consideration of nationality, cultural background, disability status, or age, whether senior citizens or children, and as a neighbourhood where people know about and cherish their differences, learn from each other, and enjoy the diversity” as well as to “share these accomplishments.”

In the approximately 50 years since the 1960s, the population of Higashikujo has declined. According to the 1965 census, 30,986 people lived there, but as the birth rate declined and the population has aged, it has halved—according to the 2010 census, only 16,325 people lived there at that time. There were previously three elementary schools in the area: Sanno, Toka, and Towa Elementary, but due to the declining birth rate, in April of 2012 the three elementary schools and Toka middle school were consolidated. Now, these schools are the combined Ryofu Public Kyoto Elementary and Middle School.

This paper will examine the following questions regarding the residents of Higashikujo. What sorts of problems did they face historically? What sort of progression led to community development of a neighbourhood where people live together? And how has this “neighbourhood where people live together” been changing since 2011 when the residential environment project that was primarily focused on building municipal housing came to an end?¹

2 The Creation of Higashikujo as a Neighbourhood with a Poor Standard of Living

Even in the same neighbourhood of Higashikujo, the conditions were quite different for each of the 3 former school districts and 38 districts. The northern area is close to the Hachijo exit of Kyoto station, and this area is the pleasure quarter that is lined with combined commercial facilities, hotels for tourists, restaurants, and entertainment facilities. However, past this area, the scenery changes to a town scape where old buildings stand out. This trend gets stronger when one goes to the eastern side of Kawaramachidori.

Historically, Higashikujo was called Higashikujo village and was part of Kii-gun Kyoto, and it was an area in the suburbs that produced vegetables such as Kujo onions. The east side of Kawaramachidori towards the Kamo river was a quiet rural zone, with expansive rice fields. However, after the Meiji restoration, there was an increase in factories alongside the improvement of Kyoto's transportation network, and from the 1920s/1930s Korean people started moving here. They worked in the textile and dye industries and in Kyoto's urban development projects such as the Kamo river levee protection works and the construction work of several lines of Tokaido Rail.² Subsequently, Higashikujo became the largest settlement of zainichi in Kyoto. The Suujin district to the north was the largest burakumin area in Kyoto, and the fact that it had land that would accept poor people was one of the reasons for the settlements (Uno 2001).³

Higashikujo was troubled with a poor living environment both before and after the Second World War. Shortly after the war, a black market appeared at the Hachijo exit on the south side of Kyoto National Railway station, and there was an influx of people returning from the former colonies into Suujin and Higashikujo (Fig. 1). There is a theory that Koreans from other areas who were attempting to return to the Korean peninsula gathered at the Hachijo exit on the south side of Kyoto station, but when they learned that their nation had become unstable, they stayed in the surrounding area.

In any case, a slum formed from Yakatacho in the Suujin school district on the south-eastern side of the station along the Takase River to Yonkacho in the Sanno school district. This created a situation where, from the windows of the trains going to and from Kyoto station, it was possible to see the scenery of shacks right along the Kamo river. For the city of Kyoto, that was trying to become an international tourist city, the existence and visibility of a slum were considered a more vexing problem than the problems in the lives of its residents. During this era, the so-called “all romance incident” took place.

The “all romance incident” was an incident where the Kyoto City personnel used the All Romance magazine that was released in October of 1951 to publish a novel entitled the “Burakumin Area.“ This was based on the people who lived in the slum alongside the Takase River in Sujin and Higashikujo, and this started a movement against discrimination. The movement said that this novel was inciting discrimination against the outcast people (burakumin), and they said that the city of Kyoto was responsible because they failed to deal with this situation. The struggle to make the administration responsible for neglecting the poor living conditions of the outcast people spread across the nation, and it was connected with the findings reported by the 1965's national council on social integration measures. These areas were targeted for improvements, but because these improved properties were allocated on the territory and attribute system for the benefit of burakumin,⁴ zainichi were unable to remain, and were forced to move into Higashikujo. Some of the residents of the slums along the Takase River moved into the Kitagawara complex that was built nearby,⁵ but even after this, there was still a high density of shacks around Yonkacho.

Together with these Yonkacho, there was one more district in Higashikujo that had a poor living environment. This was the “banchi nr. 40” that was formed along 1 km of the riverside along the Kamo river, extending to the north from the Toka bridge on the south-eastern side of the Toka school district. The river terrace originally only had pigsties, but from the mid-1950s, it became a “squatters’ settlement.” In this neighbourhood, the Takase River flowed right next to the Kamo river terrace. The “banchi nr. 40 area” that was built between the Takase River and the river terracew was a problem that the School District Local Government Federation thought they should not be involved in. Thus, these Yonkacho and the 40 banchi became the targets of exclusion and discrimination. The problem of illegally occupied river terraces could be seen in regions across Japan such as beside the Tsurumi River in Yokohama, the Abe River in Shizuoka, and the Otagawa river in Hiroshima. However, in other regions, the “New River Law” that was enacted in 1964 was used as an opportunity for developments by the Ministry of Construction and the local municipalities, and it is an issue that has generally disappeared (Motooka 2014). However, the complete elimination of “banchi nr. 40” around the Kamo river happened after the year 2000 (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

Source Higashikujo community development support centre

The row of houses in lined up on the bank of the Kamo river in banchi nr. 40 (the 1980s).

3 The Creation of Higashikujo as a Neighbourhood Where People Live Together

Higashikujo has a complex combination of problems such as housing, discrimination and poverty, ethnic issues as well as the declining birth rate and aging population. The residents have not been content with this situation. The city of Kyoto drafted the “basic plan for measures to handle slums” in 1967, and this led to starting policies to help Higashikujo in earnest (see Table 1). This was also brought about by the appeals of citizens seeking improvements in the community. Rather than attempting to clear the slums to create an “entrance to the tourist city,” citizen pressure caused the city of Kyoto to move in the direction of ensuring a minimal standard of living for the community residents. The initiatives made in Higashikujo that could be considered demanding a normal human life have been developed by groups of citizens, ethnic groups, support groups, and welfare groups from before 1967 until the present year of 2018.

Table 1 The main movements involving Higashikujo (centred on the policies of the city of Kyoto)

First, a look will be taken at the initiatives undertaken by community residents. The Council for the Improvement of Higashikujo is a local organization that was founded because of a fire that happened in February of 1982 is still active. It allows community residents to make independent efforts to improve the community environment. They do things to create connections between community residents such as holding a summer festival and making mochi, and they propose projects and make demands to the city of Kyoto from the perspective of residents. In particular, they have been positioned as a group that represents local opinions about the comprehensive development projects for residential urban areas that started in 1993.

In Higashikujo where zainichi live, there are branches of the ethnic associations, such as the Korean Residents Union in Japan and the General Union Association of Korean Residents in Japan. These two ethnic associations are undertaking activities to give people more rights in their lives and also to help provide mutual aid. For example, the Southern Kyoto Branch of the General Union Association created a seniors’ club for senior citizens, and they are also registered with the Kyoto Southern District Council of Social Welfare. The Democratic Korean Women's League in Japan also cooperates in the activities of longevity clubs. The activities of the Women's League led to the launch of the LFA- Kyoto Korean Life Support Centre, an NPO that is the primary ethnic care provider for elderly Korean residents of Japan.

Since the 1980s, ethnic volunteering that doesn't fit into the frameworks of these ethnic associations has also taken place. In 1986, the Hanmadang was formed because of the call of the scholar of literature Mingi Yan. This passed on the ethnic culture of the Madang theatre, and it was aimed to create active culture in Higashikujo through the participation of both zainichi and Japanese people. It was a new sort of movement that was different from the ethnic associations in that it tried to contribute to the development of a new independent creative culture. The activities of Hanmadang led to the creation of the “Higashikujo Madang” a festival that represents the multiculturalism of the area (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4

Hishashikujo Madang (picture taken by the author)

The Higashikujo Madang is held once a year by renting a local elementary school. The students at local nursery schools, elementary schools, and ethnic schools in Kyoto hold a performance, and it was still continuing as of 1993. One of the objectives of the Higashikujo Madang is to create a place for true exchanges and the self-liberation of every ethnicity including Japanese and Korean people by having them actively participate together in the festival. This objective is symbolized by the “wadaiko (Japanese drumming) and Samulnori (Korean percussion quartet”) performance done at the end of the festival. Usually, Madang is a festival that has been centred on Korean residents of Japan, and the Samulnori performed with Korean folk instruments is a standard event. However, Higashikujo is a place where the outcast people (burakumin) live in great numbers, and the recital contest that uses wadaiko which is part of Japanese culture, and something that was created through trial and error by both burakumin and zainichi. It is filled with the hope of wanting to live together.

4 Independent Life Support Practices that Support Living Together

Welfare organizations also play a large role in Higashikujo. In Higashikujo, there are many minorities living in the area who need both housing and care at the same time, such as senior citizen Korean residents of Japan, people with disabilities, and elderly Japanese people who don't have visitors. In Higashikujo, there are also some public welfare institutions, and in addition to these, systems for voluntary independent living support for minorities has also been set up. Here, three such systems will be introduced.

First, there is living support by Kibounoie (The House of Hope), a community welfare centre in Yonkacho. Originally, Kibounoie was a settlement workhouse established by an American priest in 1959. In 1965, it opened a children's centre, and in 1967, it engaged in children's welfare projects like opening the “Kibounoie Catholic Nursery.” Additionally, it also gave support by distributing food and visiting people so that the residents around Yonkacho, who had more complex problems, could continue living independently. From 2011, the Kibounoie community welfare centre was also entrusted with the management of the Kyoto area multicultural exchange network. The second such system is housing management and living support for the apartments in Higashi Matsunokicho complex, where the residents of the “banchi nr. 40” squatters’ settlement moved into. Specifically, this project consists of (1) individual living support to the residents for whom there are concerns such as protective monitoring, consultations, and housekeeping assistance, (2) projects that gather people together such as dining and recreation, and (3) cooperating with other specialized agencies or autonomous organizations. This project was realized through negotiations with residents’ association of the squatters’ settlement. The project was entrusted to the Higashikujo community development support centre, an NPO that has a history of supporting the illegally occupied district of “banchi nr. 40.”

The third such system is the paid volunteer system entitled the foreign welfare committee system. The medical and welfare institutions in Japan still do not assume that their clients will have different cultural backgrounds. The foreign welfare paid volunteers who receive training handle interpreting, giving assistance with consultations that respects people's cultural backgrounds, and carry out protective monitoring activities. The Care Insurance System that was started in 2000 in the context of the problem of care for senior citizens becoming more intense does not discriminate against any nationality, and by all rights, it will be useful for senior citizen Korean residents of Japan. However, foreigners might not be able to read the documents, and have had bad experiences in the past where they have been excluded from the social security system because of their nationality. Therefore, some ethnic associations are concerned that the foreign senior citizens might not be able to use the system. These associations and volunteer groups formed by people with experience and social workers are planning the care network for foreign senior citizens and people with disabilities in Kyoto, and with the support of the city of Kyoto, they are operating this network.

5 The Intersection of Higashikujo Policies Guaranteeing Human Rights and Policies to Invigorate the Area in Front of Kyoto Station

So, how has Kyoto City Hall been involved with Higashikujo? The city of Kyoto has implemented a variety of policies for Higashikujo, but when these are broadly divided, they fall into two categories: policies trying to guarantee the human rights of community residents, and policies trying to revitalize the area.

The policies to guarantee human rights started with the mayor of Kyoto in 1967: “the actualities of life for the residents of Higashikujo is a serious social problem related to basic human rights and social welfare as stipulated in the constitution”. A fact-finding investigation into the lives of people in the north-eastern districts of Yonkacho nr. 4 was conducted in 1968, and all sorts of welfare policies were emphasized, such as establishing a public living centre, corresponding to the burakumin community centre. Since 1993, the “plan for residential environment development projects for the Higashikujo local community” that made serious inroads into the housing problem was decided on. Because of this plan, dilapidated residences were bought up and eliminated, and municipal housing and district facilities were developed. The total cost of the project exceeded 20 billion yen, but in 1995, municipal housing was constructed in a total of 4 sites starting with the construction of Higashikujo municipal housing in Nishiiwamotocho. In the final municipal housing in Higashiiwamotocho, a multicultural exchange and regional network centre were included into the construction. This centre was established by the city of Kyoto with the goal of fostering exchanges between people with diverse backgrounds including zainichi, based on the historic characteristics of the Higashikujo area, and conducting social welfare projects for people to coexist. Its management has been entrusted to the community welfare centre named “Kibounoie”.

In “banchi nr. 40” part of the Toka school district, the “Headquarters for Environmental Construction Policies for the Area Upstream of the Toka Bridge on the Kamo River” was established by the national government, the Kyoto prefectural government, and the Kyoto City government. The “issue of the squatter settlements” had disappeared, because the residents of “banchi nr. 40” had moved into the newly constructed municipal housing in Higashi Matsunokicho. As was seen in the previous paragraph, there are housing management and living support projects being implemented in Higashi Matsunokicho that are not being done in other municipal housing.

The other policies are those related to community revitalization and economic development of the area. The development of the area in front of Kyoto station was historically managed as the centre of the northern part of the Shimogyo district. In contrast to this, the city of Kyoto was slow in the development of the southern side near the Hachijo exit, and in 1976, the area near Nishisannocho was designated as the first urban redevelopment project near the southern exit of Kyoto station. This project constructed a new railway line and built commercial complexes. In 1983, the “Hotel Keihan” opened in front of the station, and in 1984, the commercial complex called the “Kyoto Avanti” was opened. The city of Kyoto aimed to develop the southern exit further, and in 2001, the district community development policies for the area near the southern exit of Kyoto station were put together. The community development policies established a “zone to install new facilities,” and in 2005, a new building addition was added to the New Miyako Hotel Kyoto that was already in the project district. In 2011, the “Aeon Mall KYOTO” was opened. A large flow of people has been created going west from the Hachijo exit of Kyoto station.

The area in front of Kyoto station is in the same Sanno school district as the Yonkacho, but different policies have been adopted for the western side near Takedakaido road (that includes the area in front of the station) and the eastern side of Kawaramachidori. The creation of an intrinsic safety net in “Higashikujo community where people live together” might have taken root because people constantly felt that it was possible that minorities could end up excluded in the process of regional revitalization.

6 Exploring Higashikujo as a Model Area for “Young People and Art”

Because of these two policy groupings, the eastern side of the Sanno former school district became a welfare community, and the western side of the Sanno former school district became a base for developing southern Kyoto. Under these circumstances, in 2017, the city of Kyoto released new policies that invigorate the area southeast of Kyoto station in an attempt to characterize Higashikujo as a cultural art area. The context for this was the Cultural Agency moving to the Higashiyama district of Kyoto, and the Kyoto City University of Arts moving to the Sujin district.

The Sujin district that is located near Higashikujo has had strong interactions with the formation of Higashikujo. The Sujin district is the largest settlement of the outcast people (burakumin), and the development of social integration projects was seriously delayed because it is so large-scale. During the bubble period, this area experienced similar problems to Higashikujo with people buying up plots of land by force to resell them. Additionally, the municipal housing that was connected to the social integration measures, which comprised the majority of the district, adopted a system where individuals with long-term residency were given preference; the end result of this was, when the social integration measures were completed, the working age groups ended up moved outside of the district. Furthermore, this district experienced a more rapidly declining birth rate and aging population than Higashikujo. Local organizations were eager to move public facilities to invigorate the area. Meanwhile, the Kyoto City University of Arts that was located in Nishkyo district (that undeniably feels removed from the central area of Kyoto) had been exploring a move to the central area since around 2010, partially because of their buildings deteriorating and being too small.

In March of 2013, the Mayor of Kyoto submitted the “petition for developing and moving to the Sujin district,” and the local Sujin Neighbourhood Association and the Sujin Community Development Promotion Committee made submissions welcoming this. When the construction of the planned municipal housing was completed in Higashikujo, the Higashikujo Area Management Preparations Committee was founded. This committee explores new community development, and the Higashikujo Regional Improvement Committee plays a central role in it. In July of 2013, the Higashikujo Area Management Preparations Committee submitted a petition requesting the promotion of community development to “unify the Higashikujo area and the adjoining Sujin area.” This petition stated that Higashikujo and Sujin were the same, insofar as they needed initiatives to ensure that the residents could continue living safely because they have the same distressing problems of poverty, discrimination, and having many vacant sites for which a purpose has not been determined.

In this way, new community development for art and youth was basically welcomed by the neighbourhood, but there are still many unknowns about how this will actually affect residents. In 2017, the city of Kyoto took measures to reconcile the neighbourhood with “youth and art” by entrusting the “Model Project to Build a Society where People Shine through Culture and the Arts” (under the jurisdiction of Civic Culture Bureau) and the “Project to Promote New Community Development based on Young People and Arts and Culture” (under the jurisdiction of the General Planning Bureau) to the Non-profit Organization, Higashiyama Artistic Presentation Services (HAPS). Additionally, a new movement attempting to promote cultural activities on their own sprung up in the private sector as well. Arts Seed Kyoto also plans to build a small theatre. This construction plan came from a completely different context from the community development of Higashikujo. Several small theatres in Kyoto that had provided a place for student theatre and young theatre companies like the Atelier Gekken, and that had continued in Sakyo district for the past 33 years, closed one after another in 2017 because of owners aging or the buildings getting worn down. Modern artists and the director of the Atelier Gekken felt a sense of crisis at the decline of theatres in Kyoto, and they established a general incorporated association and searched for a place that could become a theatre. In this process, they found the warehouse of Hachise Co. Ltd. in the Yonkacho. They are currently in the middle of fund raising the required 100 million yen to remodel it into a combined cultural complex called the “Theatre E9 Kyoto,” and they are trying to collect this from a wide variety of citizens.⁶

7 The Sudden Increase of Guest Houses and Minpaku (Private Residence Temporarily Taking Lodgers) that Used Empty Space and Empty Houses

The information in this section and Fig. 5 in Chap. 12 come from Kyoto City Information Center’s “list of travel lodge industry facilities (November 30th, 2017)”.

http://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/hokenfukushi/cmsfiles/contents/0000193/193116/1130jpn.pdf.

The movement of the Kyoto City University of Arts and the policies to invigorate the south-eastern area are both administrative policies, but the Higashikujo area is currently being shaken up by a different movement. This movement is the sudden increase in guest houses and minpaku.

The number of tourists who are visiting the global tourist city of Kyoto is increasing. Until now, there were three hotels located south of the Hachijo exit: the “Hotel Keihan” (opened in 1983), the “Kyoto Daiichi Hotel” (opened in 1991), and the “Hotel Centnovum Kyoto” (opened in 1995). In Osaka, Kamagasaki, Yokohama and Kotobukicho, there was a movement to try to create a lodging industry targeting backpackers from abroad by utilizing the relatively cheap real estate properties. However, the only real guest house in Higashikujo was “J-Hoppers” Kujo street (opened in 2002).

However, since 2012, this situation started to change. Until then, hotels were only built in locations that were extremely close to Kyoto station, but in 2012, Almont Hotel Kyoto was opened on Kawaramachidori street. Then, guest houses (simple lodgings) gradually started to open. In 2012, there were only 3 guest houses. In 2013, there were 3 new ones, and in 2015, there were 14 guest houses. By October of 2017, the number of registered guest houses had skyrocketed to 56 (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5

Increase of guesthouses (created by the author)

In Kyoto, the #Project Team for minpaku Policies# was started in December of 2015, and this team investigated the state of these minpaku facilities in Kyoto. The specific content of the investigation done by the city of Kyoto was a factual investigation of the minpaku facilities targeting 8 brokerage sites including Airbnb and interviewing the related businesses. The results of the survey confirmed that there were 2702 facilities; the top three districts with the most locations were Shimogyo district (599 cases), Nakagyo district (470 cases), and Higashiyama district (445 cases), and Higashikujo Minami district had 168 cases. The number of cases where the location could be pinpointed was 1260 cases, and this was not even half of the total cases at 46.6% of the total. The number of cases that had a license under the travel lodge business act was 189 which was 7% of the total. The following 4 problems were brought up based on the survey results: (1) the minpaku facilities had many unlicensed businesses, (2) the residents in areas near the minpaku facilities felt anxiety, (3) the minpaku facilities are not being managed, and (4) the locations could not be pinpointed in more than half of the cases. The city of Kyoto is emphasizing that “guaranteeing the safety and security of the minpaku clients and surrounding residents” is of the utmost importance (City of Kyoto 2016).

Although there are cases of new construction and operation of minpaku facilities in Higashikujo, there are also many cases of repairing existing vacant houses and operating them as minpaku facilities. Among all the cases, it is suspected that there are some cases that “Urban Renaissance” (UR) housing where minpaku is prohibited, and some cases where people are listing their own houses that are public housing on minpaku intermediary sites (Fig. 6). There are also instances when these are not run from the outside but rather are managed by community residents.

Fig. 6

Minpaku restrictions (picture taken in 2016 by members of community groups)

8 Conclusion

Higashikujo is currently at a turning point. Originally, Higashikujo had the two streams occurring simultaneously: the guarantee of human rights of minorities like zainichi, and a movement to economically stimulate the area. This might have been the fate of an inner-city area that had a history being a slum. Furthermore, as there is an increase in minpaku facilities due to an increase in foreign tourists and as the public art projects increase accompanying the movement of the Kyoto City University of Arts to the Sujin district, what should “the neighbourhood where people live together in Higashikujo” be like? The decline of community is becoming a problem in every region. In this sort of era, urban areas, in particular, are seeking a local image of “being good to live in, good to visit, and good to work in.” The lives of the people living there are fundamental, but the following two points should be addressed in the current situation of opening up to outsiders.

The first point is the way of thinking about the area. As was mentioned at the beginning of the text, Higashikujo consists of 3 former school districts, and each district has different characteristics. Additionally, in the invigoration policies of the south-eastern area the term Higashikujo was not used. The city of Kyoto conducted as survey of vacant houses in the area, and they explored if it might be possible to use them to support young artists. However, it felt like the priority was making money with minpaku facilities rather than community development for “young people and art.” If community development using the new elements of “youth and art” is going to be invigorated, isn't it essential to adopt a strategy that doesn't fixate on the south-eastern areas but rather also looks at resources in the wider area of Higashikujo like the southern region with Toka and Towa school districts?

The next point is about the new people entering the area. This might be true for all of Kyoto, but there is a sense of being on guard against new residents and participating actors. However, cities are places where a mixture of humans with a variety of backgrounds live. It seems like an increase of new entities that take part in community development is a plus for community development whether these entities are artists or minpaku sojourners. On the other hand, young people and artists are not primarily concerned with community development in the first place. Young people are young people, and artists are artists. Both of these groups should be guaranteed free action and expression. Policies that do not guarantee these things and just use these people are irresponsible. If these people are being asked to contribute to community development, it is essential to create reasonable incentives. The people who have lived there until now and the new people visiting both bring up possibilities. It seems like art management that creates possibilities for people meeting in the same world is needed.

However, if this happens, there are also concerns about what will happen to the lives of minorities like people with roots in foreign countries, senior citizens, and people with disabilities and to the “community where people live together in Higashikujo.” Regardless, the public housing that has been built again in Higashikujo is a stronghold of minority residences, and the local resources that support them have been established in abundance. It seems essential to conduct community management that handles a wide range of elements like art, housing, the economy, and welfare, and to do fund raising using private residences, businesses, and citizens inside and outside the area, and capital that is not public funding.

The Higashikujo Area Management Preparations Committee that petitioned to the city of Kyoto to promote a unifying community development of the Higashikujo and the Sujin area will be reorganized into the Higashikujo Community Development Liaison Committee, and the next turning point will likely be after the Tokyo Olympics. The search for cooperation and initiatives by various actors will continue.