Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : decentralization and the tension between global and local urban Japan / Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier -- Local initiatives and the decentralization of planning power in Japan / Ishida Yorifusa -- Concentration and deconcentration in the context of the Tokyo capital region plan and recent cross-border networking concepts / Nakabayashi Itsuki -- Financial stress in the Japanese local public sector in the 1990s : situation, structural reasons, solutions / Alain Schebath -- Centralization, urban planning governance, and citizen participation in Japan / Andrâe Sorensen -- Machizukuri in Japan : a historical perspective on participatory community-building initiatives / Watanabe Shun-Ichi J. -- Whose Kyoto? : competing models of local autonomy and townscape in the old imperial capital / Christoph Brumann -- Conclusion : decentralization policies : questioning the Japanese model / Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier.

Electronic reproduction. Boulder, Colo. : NetLibrary, 2006. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to NetLibrary affiliated libraries. This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2006.