Ugly Japan?

Anyone who has been to Japan knows that most of its scenery is absolutely ugly. Most Japanese cities are a hideous mess of concrete, wires, and poorly-maintained buildings. Even in relatively unpopulated areas, there are wires and concrete everywhere. The level at which the Japanese have managed to destroy the beauty of its scenery and landscapes is amazing.

I managed to locate some excellent photo examples of Ugly Japan from this site.

Here we have a photo of a crowded area of Osaka. What a mess! Do they really need so many wires? If they do, can’t they just place some of them under the ground? The idea that burying wires makes them highly vulnerable to earthquakes seems to be bullshit. I have seen a few areas in Tokyo and Nagoya that buried their wires out of sight.

That picture above is an extreme example; most Japanese streets have fewer wires. But the wires problem is huge, especially for tourists, who have to carefully frame their photos so that no wires are visible. Believe me, it’s a pain in the ass.

The Japanese also seem to like concrete barriers. Just about any hillside with a remote chance of eroding or collapsing is a target for concrete reinforcement. The picture above is a prime example. You might look at it think it doesn’t look too bad. But in 5 years, after the concrete becomes dirty and stained, it will be quite unattractive.

Japanese construction projects also target rivers. Since rivers might flood or their banks may erode, they must be lined in concrete as well. In addition to uglifying rivers, it pretty much ruins the habitats for the creatures that live in them. That is, of course, assuming that pollution hadn’t killed off most of the creatures before the concrete was added.

I could go on for hours posting pictures of ugly buildings in Japan. Japanese construction companies and consumers have not seemed to realize that buildings should be pretty. Most Japanese apartment buildings are concrete structures that look like they were designed in the 1970′s by Soviet Architects. To make matters worse, nobody realized that building exteriors need to be cleaned or repainted occasionally. Within 5 years of their construction, the concrete exterior of most apartment buildings is hideously stained, with black streaks everywhere. It makes relatively new buildings look decades older.

But don’t worry, somebody has finally caught on to what has happened:

FEATURE: New measure created to protect ‘cultural scenery’

(Kyodo) _ A campaign is spreading among local governments to preserve terraced paddy fields, mountains, reservoirs and other traditional landscapes of agricultural and mountain villages by designating them by the state as “important cultural scenery.”

The local governments also want to utilize the campaign for regional promotion as Japanese society ages and the population shrinks.

In explaining the significance of being designated as important cultural scenery at a symposium in January to call for the preservation of terraced fields, Hirotoshi Miyasaka, mayor of Chikuma in Nagano Prefecture, told some 150 farmers and other residents, “We would like to use the campaign to create momentum to keep this beautiful scenery.”

The classification as cultural scenery is a system the Cultural Affairs Agency created last year as the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) looks at, as one of the conditions for World Heritage designation, whether local scenery has taken root in regional industries and life.

Unique industrial scenery created over time, for example as a product of the agricultural, forestry, fisheries, or mining industries, can receive the state’s assistance for its upkeep and anti-disaster prevention if it has been deemed important cultural scenery.

About 6 hectares of terraced rice fields in Chikuma have already been designated by the state as a place of noted scenic beauty, but on the outskirts of the designated area, rice cultivation has been abandoned in recent years.

Therefore, the municipal government has taken notice of cultural scenery whose regulations are not as strict as those on places of noted scenic beauty and whose scenic preservation local governments need to tackle systematically.

It is considering an application to make the entire terraced field area about 70 hectares wide and the possibility of increasing events that allow big-city residents to experience farming work at the terraced fields.

The first area selected as important cultural scenery in November last year was “Suigo” (lakeside district) in Omi-Hachiman, Shiga Prefecture, where there are channels for transportation of reeds, a material for making blinds.

According to the Cultural Affairs Agency, in addition to Chikuma, Kamogawa in Chiba Prefecture and Karatsu in Saga Prefecture want their terraced fields to be designated as cultural scenery.

The town of Nakashibetsu in Hokkaido with its windbreak larch forests, the town of Inami in Hyogo Prefecture with reservoirs and the city of Uwajima in Ehime Prefecture with terraced fields want their respective areas to be designated to protect them, and are trying to satisfy designation conditions.

Because of regulations on land and the heights of buildings, including those on the outskirts of areas to be designated, the understanding of all designated area residents is imperative.

“As society ages, the time will certainly come when farming land cannot be protected only by farming households. If the name of an area designated as cultural scenery becomes well-known, opportunities for those other than farmers to take part in field-protection activities will expand through farming experiences,” said a municipal government official of Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, where terraced fields of potatoes are widespread.

Kazuhiro Kimura, a professor at the agriculture faculty of Shinshu University and a farm land adviser to the Chikuma municipal government, said, “Terraced fields built over a long period of time are most precious estates. We would like to make such land a fresh model for protecting farming land.”

Too little, too late? Probably. You can read another article about Japan’s ugliness here. It also has a top 10 list of the biggest eyesores in Japan:

BIGGEST EYESORES

1 Nihombashi Bridge and the flyover from hell
2 Kawaguchi Station the most chaotic bicycle park in Japan
3 Kinugawa the ghost town the bubble built
4 Omuta city the shopping arcade of a thousand bankruptcies
5 Hamarikyu Gardens built for an emperor, but collects all the flotsam in Tokyo Bay
6 Fuefuki discount shopping centre the most garish in all Japan
7 Utsunomiya station the nest of the loan sharks
8 Akasaka ghost house not a square inch without graffiti
9 Shibuya river where even the water rats fear to tread
10 Yashio the industrial dump next doo

Oh well, at least they still make neat video games.