From red light district to art district: Creative city projects in Yokohama’s Kogane-cho neighborhood

This article examines how a creative city project in Yokohama regenerated urban spaces before and during the 2008 financial crisis. Japanese cases can broaden our view of post-crash effects and policies. Japan avoided financial entanglements that plague the US and much of Europe. However, its export-oriented economy, which never recovered from a long period of stagnation, now suffers because of the declining purchasing power of its Western trading partners. Moreover, the direct role of the state in urban policy suggests a different context than that theorized in Western accounts of urban entrepreneurialism (or neo-liberalism): the latter stresses the role of municipal governments and developers in using creative city policies to create sanitized forms of urban redevelopment. To address the gap in knowledge about this sort of process in Japan, I use strategic informants, observations and secondary data to examine how creative city projects helped transform Yokohama’s Kogane-cho neighborhood from an enclave of brothels to an art district. In contrast to Western cases which feature local government and development interests, I show how creative city policies also were influenced by the interactions of neighborhood groups, provincial police and a national economic development policy encouraging quality of life measures, including crime control in entertainment districts. National stimulus funds have sustained the quality of life initiatives, but the art district’s homogeneity raises doubts about its status as a creative milieu.

► We examine how a creative city project in Yokohama redeveloped urban spaces.
► A Japanese case broadens our view of post-crash effects and policies.
► Neighborhood groups, police and national policies regenerated an red light district.
► The art district’s homogeneity raises doubts about its creative milieu.