Article ID: CBB066505806

Lost Rivers: Tokyo's Sewage Problem in the High-Growth Period, 1953–73 (April 2022)

unapi

Shinichiro Nakamura (Author)
Taikan Oki (Author)
Shinjiro Kanae (Author)


Technology and Culture
Volume: 63
Issue: 2
Pages: 427-449


Publication Date: April 2022
Edition Details: Special Issue - Industry in Common: Thinking Globally with Modern Japan
Language: English

Early modern Tokyo was a city of water with rivers and canals crisscrossing the city and connecting its commercial centers. However, modern Tokyo's rivers have disappeared—filled in, or converted into concrete-lined sewers. This article explores what happened to these waterways during Japan's period of rapid economic growth. It focuses on the 1961 policy decision by city planners and water engineers that resulted in the rivers-to-sewers transition in the lead-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The process of making this policy sheds light on the interface of the long-term urban industrial pollution and the short-term pressures of urban clean up before the 1964 Olympics. Contributing an envirotech perspective on industrial waste management during Japan's high-speed economic growth period, this article brings to focus a rush to pave with concrete Japan's return on the international scene, as part of the showcasing recovery from the political and economic catastrophe of World War II.

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Associated with

Article Aleksandra Kobiljski (April 2022) The Global Industrial Now. Technology and Culture (pp. 309-325). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB066505806/

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Authors & Contributors
Kreitman, Paul
Veronica Ghizzi
Arribas Ramírez
Raith, Erich
Man, Zhimin
Ricardo Fernández García
Concepts
Rivers
Environment
Hydrology
Water
Engineering
Water resource management
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
18th century
17th century
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
Italy
Japan
Milan (Italy)
Tokyo (Japan)
United States
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Institutions
European Commission of the Danube
United States. Army. Corps of Engineers
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