Citizens' Proposed" Urbanization Plan for the Environment and Landscape of Lake Biwa -October 1996, Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture-.

Citizens' Proposed" Urbanization Plan for the Environment and Landscape of Lake Biwa -October 1996, Omihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture-.

In the mid-1990s, Japan was in the midst of social and economic restructuring following the collapse of the bubble economy, and the concept of "sustainable development" was gradually beginning to take hold. In particular, after the 1992 Earth Summit (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development), local governments across Japan were required to respond to Agenda 21, which aimed to harmonize the environment and development, and environmentally conscious approaches accelerated in the fields of national land transportation policy and urban planning.

In this context, the efforts of Omihachiman City in Shiga Prefecture attracted attention as a pioneering "citizen-proposed" urbanization plan, taking advantage of the unique characteristics of the region that hosts Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan. The Lake Biwa basin has long been plagued by water pollution and eutrophication problems, and in the 1980s, the "soap movement" and domestic wastewater purification campaigns gained momentum, becoming a symbol of environmental awareness nationwide. Omi Hachiman City was a region with the soil for such citizen movements, and in the 1990s, the city was seeking a new model for urban planning by incorporating such movements into its municipal administration.

The "Environmental Preservation Urbanization Model Project" that was being promoted in Omi Hachiman was part of a nationwide model project jointly promoted by the Environment Agency and the Ministry of Construction, which reviewed urban expansion on the basis of harmony with the natural environment and landscape. Specifically, it was necessary to plan for the development of new residential and commercial areas while preserving the continuity of the wetlands, farmlands, and ecosystems around Lake Biwa.

In this plan, the "workshop method" was introduced to reflect the opinions and real-life experiences of citizens, rather than being led by the government or developers as in the past. Citizens, researchers, and government officials worked together to propose, for example, "residential areas that coexist with agriculture" and "street design that offers a view of the waterfront," and a system was tried in which residents were involved from the early planning stages as the main actors in protecting the environment.

These efforts were in line with the concepts of "collaborative urban development" and "public involvement" that were beginning to sprout across Japan at the same time, and were innovative at the time of 1996. It is also regarded as an example of grassroots urban planning practice that would later lead to the formation of the "Basic Act on Biodiversity" and the "Basic Environmental Plan.

This plan, in which citizens of Omi Hachiman City, together with government officials and experts, sought to harmonize the environment and their daily lives in order to pass on the precious natural resources of Lake Biwa to the future, can truly be called the germ of "environmental democracy starting from the local level.