Infrastructure Decommissioning: A Brief Report on Embracing Future Generations’ Perspectives to Avoid Intergenerational Procrastination

Infrastructure decommissioning refers to retiring infrastructure at the end of its useful life. Since all types of tangible infrastructure have a finite lifespan, the challenges of decommissioning are as significant as those of its creation. Despite this, there is an insufficient accumulation of knowledge regarding decommissioning. Given the intergenerational nature of this issue, the current brief report explores how the methodology of Future Design and its key concept, ‘imaginary future people’, can transform the perspectives of individuals involved in infrastructure decommissioning. In 2018, Uji City Hall in Kyoto Prefecture invited 32 citizens to participate in a series of 4 workshops contemplating the future of local communities and the 132 public assembly facilities, constituting 47.3% of the city’s public facilities. Future Design methodology and the concept of imaginary future people were adopted. Then the workshop discussions were transcribed and analyzed to compare how participants’ perspectives changed when they embraced the concept of imaginary future people, as opposed to when they did not. The analysis revealed that the concept encourages individuals to envision the future broadly. Based on this envisioning, they derive answers about the role of public assembly facilities, often considered peripheral. The paper concludes that Future Design is effective in exploring how ‘value’ can be created in decommissioning, motivating individuals to address infrastructure decommissioning. To elucidate the mechanisms by which Future Design produces such effects, further and more thorough research is required, which falls outside the scope of this report. Nevertheless, reporting that such an effect has been observed in a single case is considered to have both social and academic value.