Idioms of Japanese Planning Historiography

In this chapter, the authors highlight three important strands of interpretation in Japanese planning history—one studying planning as a part of a general urban or architectural history, one focusing on planning as a discipline, and another emphasizing urban design. These strands of history writing speak to the difficulties of studying a country with a very different language, plus a long-standing and original culture. The authors aim to position the planning history writing on Japan in the context of global networks of planning historiography. Exploring the planning history writing inside and outside of Japan, they see different idioms that are related to specific interpretations, terminologies, and representations or perceptions of planning, but also to the use of planning primary materials, written and in imagery. The different perceptions of the role of planning are embedded in, and effectively partly result from, different idioms, both in words and visualizations.