Women’s Expectations of Imperial Reconstruction Planning at Tokyo

Gender Historical Approach to Urban Planning in Prewar Japan

Abstract

This paper critically reevaluates the predominant male-centric and planner-centric narrative in urban planning history in Japan through a gender historical lens. It delves into the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923), examining the interplay between the women’s movement and urban planning, explaining their subsequent divergence. Initially, it investigates how Mary Beard introduced urban planning issues to the Japanese women’s movement post-earthquake, as evidenced by women’s magazines. The paper then analyses the treatment of brothel, sangyōchi and nigyōchi (red-light district) locations as urban planning concerns within the women’s movement, highlighting the public prostitution system. It scrutinizes the response of male-dominated urban planning authorities to women’s movement demands, revealing a reluctance to intervene despite acknowledging the link between prostitution and urban planning. The analysis shows the alignment of interests between the women’s movement and urban planning during protests sangyōchi and nigyōchi. However, the women’s movement gradually shifted focus towards viewing the prostitution issue as a humanitarian concern, moving away from urban planning solutions. Finally, this paper illustrates how the convergence between the women’s movement and urban planning, observed briefly after the Great Kanto Earthquake, was disrupted by political inaction from authorities and the abolitionist movement’s ideology.