午夜剧场

Have you ever felt that "the city has become cleaner" in your daily life? In recent years, redevelopment and station-front improvements have been progressing in various parts of the city. Generally, such redevelopment is often praised for improving convenience and brightening the atmosphere of the town. On the other hand, some people may have experienced long-standing local independent shops closing down, with their sites replaced by chain stores or higher-priced establishments.

Cities are constantly changing, both in terms of hardware (buildings, etc.) and software (society). In the midst of this, the term "gentrification" provides a clue when we pause to consider what kind of impact the changes brought about by redevelopment have had on society.

Gentrification generally refers to a phenomenon where working-class residential areas and low-income areas in the city center, known as inner areas, are redeveloped, and new luxury housing or commercial facilities targeting the middle class and above are opened. This leads to a turnover of residents and an increase in higher-income inhabitants. This book looks back at the footsteps of British sociologist Ruth Glass, who coined the term, while also examining how gentrification manifests as a problem in modern cities by looking at low-income areas in Vancouver, Canada, and Yokohama.

Until now, the term gentrification has not been very well known to the general public in Japan. However, in Western societies where housing shortages and soaring housing prices and rents have become social issues, gentrification is understood to lead to the eviction and displacement of socially vulnerable groups.

Turning back to Japanese cities, how should we think about gentrification? At this point, even when looking at the same urban landscape, some people see it as gentrification while others do not. By obtaining a word to describe the phenomenon occurring before their eyes, people can "understand" it. When thinking about changes in cities and regions, gentrification will undoubtedly become an increasingly important term in the future.

"Who Is Being Evicted? Gentrification and Threatened Communities"

Kahoruko Yamamoto

午夜剧场 Press

288 pages, 2,970 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and job titles are those at the time of publication.