Sequencing and combining participation in urban planning: The case of tsunami-ravaged Onagawa Town, Japan

Onagawa, a remote rural town in Japan, is on the verge of crisis: its population is aging and shrinking, and this adversity has been even more pronounced since the town was ravaged by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami. In its struggle to survive and revive, the town has emerged as a gem of participatory governance by instituting a multitude of participatory mechanisms with renewed leadership. This development shows how disasters induced by natural hazards can be a catalyst for progressive democratic change in a rural town like Onagawa, in contrast with earlier findings that disasters adversely affect democratic institutions and values. Onagawa's case also draws scholarly and policy attention to how to sequence and combine different participatory mechanisms in urban planning. Informed by field work, the study modifies an existing theoretical model to systematically highlight Onagawa's participatory mechanisms during the reconstruction planning, including their differences and complementarities. This institutional plurality served multiple purposes, including (i) allowing lay stakeholders to brainstorm a general reconstruction plan, (ii) avoiding the conflation of technical and lay discussions, (iii) reaching out to evacuees who were not able to participate, and (iv) educating citizens on town planning in hopes of nourishing a participatory culture in the long run.