Building STP’s Ecosystem: Kitakyushu Approach - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 420

3.5 Self-Directed S&T Promotion for Green Growth:
from Eco-Town to Smart Community

''Environment'' is one of the keywords to understand the Kitakyushu approach on
building STP's ecosystem because Kitakyushu City is a symbolic place to over-
come environmental pollution occurred in the process of modern industrialization.
As mentioned above, although the Kitakyushu Industrial Area has supported high
growth of Japan as one of the Japanese four Great-industrial Areas, it has brought
about the serious environmental pollution in the 1960s in this area. In particular,
the extent of the pollution was very severe in the industrial area of Tobata,
Wakamatsu, and Yahata near the Dokai Bay. Then, local women's association
began a movement to regain blue sky and sea from the environmental pollution
symbolized ''Smoke with seven colors'' and ''Sea of the death,'' and as the local
government joined in this movement based on the resident network, the technol-
ogy, know-how, talent, ethos, and climate concerning environment were cultivated
from the process of overcoming the pollution in the City.
Based on the experiences to overcome industrial pollution, the City of
Kitakyushu strategically chose an environmental approach for regional renaissance
of the city visioning a ''Resource Recycling-based Economic Society'' involving
some strategic conceptions such as:

• Strategic use of the large-scale innings in the coastal industrial area near the
Dokai Bay where the land remained because of the hollowing out by the
reorganization and rationalization in the industrial structure.
• Positive use of the regional experience for overcoming the pollution centered on
the Dokai Bay and the regional tradition for the international exchange centered
on Moji Port.
• Regional development that uses the green engineering, know-how, talent, and
citizen network obtained from pollution overcoming process.
• Recycling of all kinds of wastes from the heavy consumption of energy and
resource.
• Cooperation of the green engineering with developing countries and leading of
the eco-business in Japan toward the cleanup production.
• Development of the recycling industry as a national venous industry.
• Development as a hub port for the distribution of the recycling industry.

The Kitakyushu Eco-town Project was started based on such strategic con-
ceptions, and it is a starting point of green innovation based on the KSRP
development. The project aims to develop eco-business totally from education and
basic research in the KSRP to technological and practical research in the Practical
Research Area, and industrialization in the Comprehensive Environmental

Complex and the Hibiki Recycle Area (Fig. 17 ).
The results of basic research in the KSRP can be ''seeds'' for various empirical
researches as sub-projects of the eco-town project in the Practical Research Area
where there are sixteen facilities for industry-academia research partnership.