Japanese transit-oriented development: the framed market and the production of alternative landscapes.

Abstract

America's dominant pattern of automobile-dependent suburban land use is the target of much criticism. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has emerged as an alternative to the status quo, but has also launched a polarized debate on whether TOD is a necessary market correction or inefficient government meddling in the "free market." In Japan, however, TOD-style metropolitan landscapes are the rule rather than the exception and, paradoxically, have emerged with little in the way of state-led land use planning and private, rather than public, transit systems. This dissertation analyzes the development transit-oriented development in Japan, with specific attention to the role of government, via railway policy, urban planning policy and other institutional factors, in enabling and shaping ostensibly "free" market forces.