Economic History of Cities and Housing (Monograph Series of the Socio-Economic History Society, Japan)

This book focuses on urbanization as an attendant consequence of industrialization and sheds light on urban problems such as housing shortages and poverty of jobless people, and the housing and social policies implemented by central and local governments to deal with these problems. Through this book, the volume editor and authors convey the view that urbanization transformed economy and society spatially and in quality, and caused the change of central and local administration in the process of tackling various urban problems. The book features recent academic works on economic history of the city and housing, researched from an advanced perspective of comparative history in Japan. The aim of this book is to make works by Japanese scholars accessible to a wider readership throughout the world. This edited volume includes four articles (chapters) and four book reviews originally published in Japanese and subsequently translated into English. The first chapter analyzes the characteristics of the urbanization that occurred under the land readjustment projects implemented from the Sino-Japanese War to the reforms following World War II, by focusing on the conflict between landowners and peasants in Japan. The second chapter examines the construction of urban housing following Japan’s defeat in World War II, focusing on the reconstruction of war-damaged housing from the perspective of the creation and distribution of private residential space under Japan’s postwar regulatory regime. The third chapter examines the adoption of communal unemployment insurance systems in Wilhelmine Germany, focusing on the Genter system, in which the municipalities paid subsidies to the trade unions that provided their out-of-work members with unemployment benefits. The last chapter investigates the accumulation of the mechanical engineering industry in Paris region during the period 1939–1958, focusing on the role of the subcontracting system. Preface 6 Contents 9 Contributors 11 Part I: Economic and Social History of Cities and Housing in Japan and Europe 13 Chapter 1: Landowners and Tenant Farmers in the Process of Urban Formation: A Case Study of Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, 1937–1952 14 1 Introduction 15 2 Arable Land and the Expansion of Land Readjustment in the War Period 17 2.1 Land Readjustment in the Area Around Tachibana Station 17 2.2 Landowners and Peasants in the Ōshō-chūbudaiichi Land Readjustment Area 19 2.3 The Implementation of Land Readjustment and Compensation for the Loss of Arable Land 24 3 Land Readjustment and Arable Land During the Period of Postwar Agricultural Reform 26 3.1 The Purchase and Sale of Land 26 3.2 Land Use and the End of Land Readjustment Projects 28 4 Confrontations Between Landowners and Tenant Farmers Concerning Provisional Replotting 29 4.1 The Original Cause of the Problem 29 4.2 The Discussions Between the Landowners and the Tenant Farmers 32 4.3 The Responses of Central Government Ministries and Agencies and the Amagasaki City Agricultural Land Committee 34 5 Tenant Farmers and the Settlement of the Issue of Provisional Replotting 35 5.1 The Tenant Farmers’ Acceptance of Provisionally Replotted Land 35 5.2 Occasional Work by Tenant Farmers 36 5.3 Tenant Farmers’ Demands Regarding the Remaining Arable Land 37 6 Conclusion 39 Postscript 41 References 42 Chapter 2: Housing Reconstruction in War-Damaged Cities: The Creation and Distribution of Living Spaces in the Late 1940s Under Postwar Governmental Controls 45 1 Introduction 46 2 Structural Changes in Living Spaces 48 2.1 A Statistical Look at Supply and Demand in Housing 48 2.1.1 The Supply-Demand Balance in Housing 49 2.1.2 Regional Disparities 52 2.2 The ‘De-commodification’ of Living Spaces 54 2.2.1 The Destruction of the Housing Supply Structure Through House-­Rent Controls 54 2.2.2 Changes in the Ownership Structure: From Rented House to Owned House 58 3 The Private Sector’s Self-Funded Construction Activities Under Post-war Controls 60 3.1 Constraints on Building Materials 60 3.1.1 Regional Disparities in the Availability of Wood Materials and Their Procurement Methods 60 3.1.2 The Tightening Supply-Demand Balance for Wood and Controls on Construction and Building Materials 62 3.2 Financial Limitations 65 3.2.1 Methods of Procuring Construction Funds 65 3.2.2 Self-Funded Housing Construction 66 3.3 Structural Changes in the Housing Land Market 67 3.3.1 The Ownership and Utilization of Housing Land 67 3.3.2 The Utilization of Leased Lands 69 4 Conclusion 71 References 73 Chapter 3: Communal Unemployment Insurance in Wilhelminian Germany: A Case Study of the Greater Berlin Administration Union 77 1 Introduction 78 2 Differences of Opinion Regarding Unemployment Insurance Among Municipalities in Greater Berlin 80 3 The Argument for Communal Unemployment Insurance: Schöneberg and Charlottenburg 82 4 The Development of the Schöneberger System 84 5 The Failure of the Attempt to Introduce the Charlottenburger System 86 6 The Failure of the Attempt to Introduce Unemployment Insurance for the Whole of the Greater Berlin Area 91 7 Conclusion 92 References 94 Chapter 4: The Short-Lived Revival of the Mechanical Engineering Industry in the Paris Region 1939–1958 96 1 Introduction 97 2 The Importance of the Paris Region to French Mechanical Engineering 97 3 Parisian Machine-Makers and World War II 99 4 Parisian Machine-Makers During the Cold War and the Creation of the Common Market 102 5 The Vicissitudes Experienced by Primary Enterprises 103 5.1 The Evolution of Product Policy 104 5.1.1 Aircraft Engines 104 5.1.2 Industrial Motors 104 5.1.3 Varied Industrial Machines 105 5.1.4 Machine Tools 106 5.2 Technical Innovations in Metal Processing 107 5.2.1 Grinding Machines and Cemented Carbide Tool Bits 107 5.2.2 The Diffusion of ‘Light’ Universal Machine-Tools 107 5.2.3 Intermediate Technologies 108 6 The Continued Existence of Small Shops 109 7 Conclusion 111 References 111 Part II: Book Reviews 113 Chapter 5: Review of Shūichi Takashima, Toshi Kinkō no Kōchi Seiri to Chiiki Shakai: Tokyo-Setagaya no Kōgai Kaihatsu (Urban Development and Local Communities in Interwar Tokyo) 114 Postscript 118 References 118 Chapter 6: Review of Tadashi Nakano, Tatsuyuki Karasawa and Ichirō Michishige (eds), 18 Seiki no Igirisu Toshikūkan o Saguru: Toshi “Runesansu” ron Saikō (Exploring Urban Space in Eighteenth-Century England: A Reappraisal of the Urban Renaissance Debate 119 Chapter 7: Review of Yoshiyuki Morishita, Kindai Cheko Jūtaku Shakaishi: Shinkokka no Keisei to Shakaikōsō (Czech Housing Policy and Social History in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Building the First Czechoslovak Republic) 123 Chapter 8: Review of Nodoka Nagayama, Doitsu Jyūtaku Mondai no Shakai Keizaishi teki Kenkyū: Fukushi Kokka to Hieiri Jyūtaku Kensetsu (Study on the Socio-economic History of Housing Problems in Germany: Welfare State and Non-profit Housing) 127 Index 132 Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Landowners and Tenant Farmers in the Process of Urban Formation: A Case Study of Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, 1937–1952....Pages 3-33 Housing Reconstruction in War-Damaged Cities: The Creation and Distribution of Living Spaces in the Late 1940s Under Postwar Governmental Controls....Pages 35-66 Communal Unemployment Insurance in Wilhelminian Germany: A Case Study of the Greater Berlin Administration Union....Pages 67-85 The Short-Lived Revival of the Mechanical Engineering Industry in the Paris Region 1939–1958....Pages 87-103 Front Matter....Pages 105-105 Review of Shūichi Takashima, Toshi Kinkō no Kōchi Seiri to Chiiki Shakai: Tokyo-Setagaya no Kōgai Kaihatsu (Urban Development and Local Communities in Interwar Tokyo)....Pages 107-111 Review of Tadashi Nakano, Tatsuyuki Karasawa and Ichirō Michishige (eds), 18 Seiki no Igirisu Toshikūkan o Saguru: Toshi “Runesansu” ron Saikō (Exploring Urban Space in Eighteenth-Century England: A Reappraisal of the Urban Renaissance Debate)....Pages 113-116 Review of Yoshiyuki Morishita, Kindai Cheko Jūtaku Shakaishi: Shinkokka no Keisei to Shakaikōsō (Czech Housing Policy and Social History in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Building the First Czechoslovak Republic)....Pages 117-120 Review of Nodoka Nagayama, Doitsu Jyūtaku Mondai no Shakai Keizaishi teki Kenkyū: Fukushi Kokka to Hieiri Jyūtaku Kensetsu (Study on the Socio-economic History of Housing Problems in Germany: Welfare State and Non-profit Housing)....Pages 121-125 Back Matter....Pages 127-129