"Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada."

Introduction: decentralization and the tension between global and local urban Japan / Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier -- Local initiatives and the decentralization of planning power in Japan / Ishida Yorifusa -- Concentration and deconcentration in the context of the Tokyo capital region plan and recent cross-border networking concepts / Nakabayashi Itsuki -- Financial problems in the Japanese local public sector in the 1990s: situation, structural reasons, solutions / Alain Schebath -- Centralization, urban planning, governance, and citizen participation in Japan / Andre Sorensen -- Machizukuri in Japan: a historical perspective on participatory community-building initiatives / Watanabe Shunichi J. -- Whose Kyoto? Competing models of local autonomy and townscape in the old imperial capital / Christoph Brumann -- Conclusion: decentralization policies: questioning the Japanese model / Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier.