And if Tokyo was no longer the capital of Japan? Described as extravagant a few years ago, the project to move the capital is now taken very seriously by the entire political class Japanese. According to a survey by the Nihon Keizai daily, three-quarters of Japanese would support this idea, which regularly arises in public debate but has been ruled out so far, no consensus.
The earthquake in Kobe in January 1995 (over 5000 dead) has tragically given the project to the agenda. Tokyo, which concentrates quarter of the population of the archipelago, is built close to one of the areas with highest seismic risk in the world. And 30 million people that has the city live in fear of a repetition of the great earthquake of 1923 destroyed the town and made 140,000 dead. At the urging of the government commission for the relocation of the capital in December presented a report which, for the first time, sets the main criteria of the new site: the future capital should be located within 60 to 300 km the center of Tokyo, in a relatively sparsely populated area, less than forty minutes to an international airport. At least 9,000 hectares must be available for construction. Finally, the selected region will be rich in water (a major problem in Tokyo) and, of course, located in an area where the risk of major earthquake is limited.
As early as 2011. The report calls for the transfer to the new capital of the main centers of political and administrative decision: the Diet, the Prime Minister's residence, the ministries and the Supreme Court, Tokyo remains the economic and cultural capital of Japan. A timetable has even been established. Site selection must be made by the "end of 1997 was then put to a vote of Parliament. If green light parliamentary work could start in 2001, the report said. And if on schedule, the inaugural session of the Diet in the new capital could be held in spring 2011.
That, at least, the project as it exists on paper. But the ball is now in the policy. The Diet has passed a law calling for the need for such relocation and set up a commission to select the site. However, the approach of the end of the parliamentary session June 19, opponents of the project (mostly elected from the capital) are resisting. Not without success: the parties of the ruling coalition (LDP, PSD, Sagigake), yet benefiting from the outstanding support of the first opposition party, the Shinshinto, have not yet determined the date of submission of the bill in the House ... Clearly, if a majority of the political class supports the idea, move on to practical work is another story.
All powers concentrated. Tokyo, literally "eastern capital" is a misnomer. Is the capital of Japan, it was perhaps when calling Edo, it was the seat of the shogunate government, while Kyoto, the "capital city", home to the residence of the emperor. But since the Meiji Restoration (1868), the emperor moved his residence at the castle of the shogun Tokyo Takugawa. Since then, the city focused absolutely all power: political, administrative, economic and cultural. Its population, its share in national industrial production or the number of companies that have set up their headquarters in Tokyo give a crushing burden complained of by the other cities of the country. Starting with its rival Osaka, the capital of a region, Kansas, a strong tradition of trade and industry. Since the beginning of the century, he is regularly subject to devolve power to break the hegemony of the capital, which in the late nineteenth century, was probably the largest city in the world with a population exceeding one million inhabitants .
At the National territory, lead counsel for the change of capital, the emphasis is on all the right reasons the project: overcrowding, high costs of land and rents, housing shortages, saturation of transport ...
"This step is necessary so that Tokyoites find a better quality of life, says Keijiro Murata, MP and chairman of the LDP parliamentary group of the file. Since the bursting of the bubble, the city was gutted by elevated expressways who massacre the landscape. "But the chosen primarily sees a chance to accelerate the deregulation of the economy and give more powers to local local. "Since the period of U.S. occupation after 1945, remained entrenched habit of taking all important decisions, even in terms of business in the capital," said Yoshinosuke Yasoshima, president of Teikyo Heisei University and a member of the government commission for the relocation of the capital. At Keidanren, the Japanese employers' organization, it also believes that "this project is an unexpected opportunity to stretch the too closely tied to the state and the private sector. As the United States, the economic and political spheres will be more clearly separated. " For the business community, the project is obviously a boon: the cost of operation is estimated at 14,000 billion yen (700 billion dollars) over ten years, or 3% of GNP.
A capital in 700 years. The project does not yet unanimous. "Centralization was the engine of the economy, it would be a gross error to challenge the system," politicians are the Tokyo area. At the town hall, it calls into question the value of the transaction in terms of devolution, "If, as expected, 600,000 people actually leave Tokyo, this is not what will solve the problem of overpopulation." Finally the opponents of the project speak for a bill well above the figure announced. "It would be more useful to spend the money to build earthquake-resistant measures even in Tokyo," said the mayor of the capital, Yukio Aoshima.
However, some want to see in this proposed new capital the sign of a deeper change. "On average, Japan has changed its capital every seven hundred years, says Professor Yasoshima. However, these changes always correspond to key periods of Japanese history. Today the country needs a new lease of life, a social project for the next century. Change Capital is a beautiful symbol. "
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