Sacred Places, Pilgrimage, and Tourism - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 145

against a background of social and economic turmoil affecting the whole of Japan.
These include social change at the end of the Edo period, building the railroad since
the 1860s, social upheavals during the Second World War, high economic growth in
the 1950s, the motorization that started in the late 1960s, and the introduction of
large retail shops after the 1980s.
However, community planning since the 1990s differed from the background
changes in that the community planning was supported by the Narita administra-
tion. More specifi cally, the following three facts distinguish the community plan-
ning from the other transformations in Omotesando:
1. In Kamicho and Hanasakicho, the refurbishment of shops and the change in the
retail business was not driven by the shop owners “wishes”.
2. The landscape was simultaneously changed by the township association.
3. This change was helped by shop owners thinking about the characteristics of
their town.
Many shop owners were forced to choose a different business category when
their initial project failed. Some shops would not have been refurbished or changed
their business model if the community-planning project had not occurred. Some
tenants also moved because of the setback project. The business environment dif-
fered from one where individual owners freely selected a refurbishment or a change
in business category in response to customer demand. This distinction identifi es
features in the transformation of commercial spaces. I emphasize that some shop
owners did not agree to the setback project. Most of these owners owned shops that
local residents frequented, and these owners were more conscious of their function
as local shopping streets than of a desire to be a part of Shinshoji-Monzenmachi or
Omotesando.
The facade improvement project produced shops with white or black walls,
Japanese tiles, and Japanese-style signs, but only stipulated that the shops had to be
Japanese style, not oriented to a particular age. After consultations between the
administration and local residents, the facade improvement project was deemed
suitable for Shinshoji-Monzenmachi. The project resulted in a line of similar-
looking shops that make up most of the landscape of Omotesando (Fig. 4.9 ). Visitors
to the town see the landscape as part of Shinshoji Omotesando and can feel part of
that landscape. However, despite the will of the shop owners, the reformation into
similar-looking facades was a direct result of the community-planning project.
Item 3 provided a forum for shop owners to rethink what makes their town.
Rethinking the unity of the town was reinforced through organization of the
community-planning council. Two demonstrations show this point. At the begin-
ning, Mr B of Kamicho visited all the shops in the town to request their cooperation
in the community-planning project, and Hanasakicho conducted a questionnaire sur-
vey on those who would be affected before adopting the policy as part of community
planning. Since Nakamachi developed early and included buildings from 1920 to
the late modern period, the association preserved the traditional landscape. Kamicho
adopted a different position and aimed to improve space for customers, because
since 1970, this shopping street experienced sluggish business. The setback project
increased space for customers and improved the facade of shops so customers gained