Wataru Kobayashi, Director of Chiba University of Commerce Research Center for Economics

Aim of the special feature in "CUC View & Vision No. 49"

The increase in vacant land and houses is seen as a problem throughout the country. The existence of vacant land and houses means that usable resources such as land and buildings are not being used effectively, so the first challenge is to find users and ways to use them. However, users will not necessarily appear in the short term, and until then, the owners must manage them appropriately. However, there are cases where people abandon their responsibilities, and where responsibility is unclear, so dealing with such problems is also an important issue. Furthermore, the declining birthrate and aging population, as well as the population decline that is progressing in various regions, makes dealing with this problem even more difficult.

To address this difficult issue, the government is working on establishing laws and various local initiatives are underway, but of course there are many challenges ahead. This special feature is a compilation of presentations given by participants at the CUC Policy Research Forum (July 20, 2019) entitled "Utilizing Vacant Land and Houses for New Urban Development," which was held with this problem in mind, and which was reconstructed based on the discussions that took place that day.

The first article introduces five new legal systems related to these issues and considers their challenges. The systems discussed here are the "Act on Special Measures Concerning the Promotion of Measures for Vacant Houses, etc." (promulgated in November 2014), the "Act on Special Measures Concerning Facilitating the Use of Unowned Land, etc." (promulgated in June 2018), the "Act Partially Amending the Urban Renewal Special Measures Act, etc." (promulgated in May 2014), the "Partial Amendment of the Social Welfare Act (Act Partially Amending the Long-Term Care Insurance Act, etc. for Strengthening the Community-Based Integrated Care System)" (promulgated in June 2017), and the "Act Partially Amending the Act on Promotion of the Supply of Rental Housing for Persons with Special Needs in Securing Housing (commonly known as the Housing Safety Net Act)" (promulgated in April 2017). Author Noguchi states that "there is a shared recognition that the role of municipalities and local communities is important" in establishing these laws, and points out issues such as the aging of officials of existing local community groups such as neighborhood and neighborhood associations, and weak coordination with "new voluntary civic activities" such as children's cafeterias and the utilization of vacant houses.

The second article examines mechanisms to promote the participation of local residents, introducing the example of Hayama. The author, Kuwahara, runs a community cafe in Hayama Town, Kanagawa Prefecture, while also serving as a member of the Hayama Horiuchi Council. This "councillor" is positioned as a place to promote collaboration between various stakeholders, mainly in the areas of "life support and nursing care prevention," when building a community-based comprehensive care system in each region. At the first general meeting of the council, held in June 2018, issues such as a lack of information sharing, a lack of people to take on the role, and a lack of bases were identified, and it was pointed out that one of the causes of the "lack of bases" was the "immaturity of deliberation and collaboration habits." Even if there are vacant lots and vacant houses suitable for welfare services and resident activities in a region, the issue will not be resolved unless the habit of deliberation among stakeholders about the possibility of utilizing the property has matured. In order to solve these issues, a concrete mechanism is proposed for gradually forming "mutual assistance areas" where mutual assistance activities can be carried out among neighboring residents.

The third article focuses on "places" for the elderly in the community-based comprehensive care system, and introduces examples of efforts to utilize vacant houses in community welfare. It takes up the examples of the "Housing Support Council" based on the Housing Safety Net Act mentioned above, and the "Vacant House Countermeasures Council" based on the Vacant House Countermeasures Special Measures Act, and points out several issues. The former is an organization that provides support such as providing housing information to both potential tenants who need housing and landlords who provide housing. In addition to improving the success rate for the number of consultations, author Matsumoto points out that the issue of resolving the housing problems of residents who are having trouble securing housing but do not come to consultations is also an issue. Regarding the latter, he gives a case where consideration is given to using vacant houses as community facilities, and points out the issues necessary for maintaining them.

The fourth article examines the "common ownership management" of vacant houses through a case study of vacant house management through cooperative activities in Spain. "Common ownership" is a form of joint ownership, in which the right to manage and dispose of the property belongs to the group, while each member is only given the right to use and profit from it. Based on this, author Takahashi redefines "common ownership management of vacant houses" as "the utilization of vacant houses in areas where the owners are forced to neglect their use and management by some kind of intermediate organization, managing the houses on their behalf in a form separate from ownership (common ownership)," and examines the possibilities. In this article, he considers collaboration between neighborhood associations and cooperatives, as well as the role of organizations such as Spanish housing cooperatives.

The fifth article, entitled "Modern Common Ownership Theory," reexamines the "civil society theory" and considers the sustainability of citizens' joint ventures. According to author Igarashi, while "commons" has been the subject of study of the state of communities formed on the basis of "common land resources," modern common ownership theory studies and examines various connections while targeting modern cities that do not depend on land resources. On the other hand, civil society theory attempts to answer the question of "how should we view urban residents?" as cities expand with population growth. In particular, it focuses on the argument that with the transition from a rural society to an urban society, human relationships that were bound by traditional local customs are dismantled, and "citizens" are born as free people with a public spirit. In reality, many people lost their base to return to at the same time as they became free, and became isolated, but traditional civil society theory has not given much thought to how to position them. Based on this, he states that while traditionally civil society theory has tended to be discussed in terms of citizens resisting authority, in disaster-stricken areas, a "horizontal connection" structure has been created in which citizens utilize authority while also working with their own strength to achieve goals, and that local governments have come to be positioned as "targets of collaboration with citizens" rather than as entities that provide convenience. What is important is to sustain this kind of collaboration, rather than ending it as a temporary "heartwarming story" in the disaster-stricken areas, and the book examines what is necessary to achieve this.