Fukuoka Growth 06 Quality of Life

Information & Strategy Office
In severe financial conditions, many municipalities are attempting to focus on policies for the efficient and effective financial operation. What is the necessary policy for the social and economic development? Municipalities are also expected to engage in marketing. ‘Information & Strategy Office’ was set up in URC as an advisory team serving for Fukuoka City with a mission to contribute to the economic growth of Fukuoka City. In daily operation, it collects and analyzes data and information, consults to city bureaus and the general public, builds up policy options and recommends priorities to support Mayor’s decision making.
Every city is unique and has its own characterBifocal Eyes to Look at a City – It is ideal to have bifocal eyes like a zoom lens to comprehend a city. – Macro eyes would help understand the position of Fukuoka on the world map from a comprehensive point of view. – Micro eyes would help capture the charms of Fukuoka from an ordinary resident’s point of view. – These are often described as “bird’s-eye view, fish’s-eye view, worm’s-eye view”. Because a city continues to change day by day like a living creature, it is necessary to look at a city from diversified points of view. Competition for Uniqueness – Every city looks in similar colors from the universe. – However, when visiting a city, each city has its own charms and characteristics. – Examples would include an old townscape in Europe, a modern business street in the United States, a chaotic large city in Asia, and a traditional colony in Arab. – The era pursuing the quantity and scale by mass production has shifted to the era focusing on the quality. – As a result of globalization, urban planning to enhance unique charm and context of a city has become popular. Uniqueness of Fukuoka – What is the uniqueness of Fukuoka? – “Fukuoka Growth” provided the data mainly from the macro-eye view from the first issue to the previous one. – From this issue, switching to the micro-eye view, the unique “Quality” of Fukuoka is going to be thoroughly introduced. – The theme of this issue is Fukuoka’s world-class “Quality of Life”. September 5, 2013 Taichi GOTO Head of Information and Strategy Office Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Center
Fukuoka Growth [Growth Potential of Fukuoka City]
06 Quality of Life (18/09/2013 Version1.0)

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The 9th Fukuoka City Master Plan formulated in 2012 has the urban management strategy of mutually leading the high quality of life and economic growth. Foundation of such positive spiral is diversified people, interaction and creativity.An American urban studies theorist, Richard Florida points out that the world has shifted from the manufacturing industry to the creative economy with the intellectual intensive type, and the growth engine is the accumulation and the concentration of people with talents and productivity. Those who are called “Creative Class” working in the intellectual intensive industry gather and live in a specific region, then raise the economic productivity, and resultantly attract more Creative Class members. Florida indicates that in the world of today the major source of growth like talent, innovation, and creativity are not evenly distributed, but only a few “Mega Regions” are bearing the global economy. He also argues that because “the creativity desires for a comfortable place ”, a livable city attracts talented people, and as a result, a “Mega Region” has been developing not evenly but “spiky” in the world. And the spiky Mega Regions include Fukuoka City as in the “Fuku-Kyushu Mega Region” (Northern Kyushu Mega-region). Fukuoka City is surrounded by world-top class Mega Regions and Megalopolis like Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul which are located within 1,000 kilometers. Although Fukuoka City with 1.5 million population itself is not a large city in the world, it has an advantage of being a central city of Kyushu Region with 13 million population. Fukuoka City also enjoys livability in a compact urbanized area, and could provide higher quality of life than many other Megalopolis. Improving a quality of life in Fukuoka City will further raise the level of citizens’ satisfaction and the city’s competitiveness in the world. The growth of the city will attract more people including the “Creative Class” members, which leads the city to have more opportunities for new establishments and start-ups. Naohisa HATAKEYAMA Information and Strategy Office Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Center

Figure1. Livability Evaluation in Fukuoka	Figure2. The Monocle’s Global Quality of Life Survey (2013)


*Click on the figures to enlarge.

Fukuoka Growth Data is the basis for planning. No hypothesis or forecast can be established without logical grounds based on data analysis. Data is related to various fields. To collect and analyze data is an important task. In natural science, accumulated experimental data leads to new discoveries and evolution. In business or policy making, a variety of data supports to build next strategies. Data indicates “fact” at a certain point in time from a certain point of view. In order to plan for the future of Fukuoka, it is important to analyze data from a variety of points of view and to prepare a more certain path for growth. There is a variety set of data indicating the growth potential of Fukuoka city. A series of reports “Fukuoka Growth” is going to be released twice a month. In each issue it will diagnose and discuss the future of Fukuoka city and people by analyzing data relevant to a selected theme. We hope this series of reports will be informative for those who are considering to live, study, work, invest, and start a business in Fukuoka.