The post-war rebirth of Yokohama: the planner Akira Tamura’s contributions to municipal reform

Akira Tamura (1926–2010) was a Japanese expert in city management and planning during the post-war period. He was awarded the Grand Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan in 2000. Tamura conceived citizen-oriented theories of city management and planning and put them into practice in Yokohama city from 1968 to 1978. After Mayor Ichio Asukata requested that Tamura to join the city government and execute his previous proposals, Tamura set up the Planning and Coordination Department with young multidisciplinary professionals. They worked as a collaborative team to negotiate and coordinate among multiple stakeholders, including local communities, public authorities, national ministries, and business sectors. Asukata and Tamura shared the aim of reforming the local government machinery into an independent, responsible entity, avoiding unnecessary interference from national ministries and politicians. Although Tamura laid out a framework for the city’s future evolution, his management philosophy of planning and coordination has not been well transmitted. With the objective of conducting empirical research to investigate and share Tamura and his colleagues’ work, this non-profit organization was established in 2015 by people with concerns about local government initiatives.