This report analyses waterfront development organization and process in Toronto (Canada) and six Japanese centres (Kitakyushu, Hakata and Fukuoka; Kobe, Yokohama and Tokyo), during the 1990
It is set within the context of two international symposia organized by WAVB in November 1996, which examined the waterfront experiences of Oslo, Darling Harbour, Johore Balmi, Toronto, Kobe and Yokohama.
The report has three parts; first, a comparison between the port policies and management systems of Japan and Canada; second, a critique of waterfront development in the six Japanese waterfront cities visited during a joint WAVE-WRT study program in November 1996; and third, some ideas are put forward for Japanese waterfront planners and decision-makers to consider as they continue their mission to provide Japanese citizens with high quality waterfronts.
The report describes and draws a distinction between Japanese and Canadian port administration. Whereas Japanese policy and administration is stable the Canadian system is changing. Japanese authorities see ports as vital social assets of Japanese society. More than simple points of transshipment major Japanese ports are seen as integrated urban complexes accommodating urban growth and change, and performing multiple functions, including diversified waterfront development.
The major Canadian ports on the other hand are viewed by the Canadian government largely as economic entities, part of an integrated North American multi-model system in which the various elements compete. The Canadian government is off-loading responsibility for most ports to others, retaining responsibility (but not funding responsibility) only for the eight to ten Canadian ports decreed vital to domestic and international trade, who will then be expected to be financially self-sufficient. (Toronto is not among these ports).
Canadian port organizations have not played the same strong role in waterfront development that Japanese port organizations have. Instead, in Canada governments have tended to establish land-based waterfront development corporations.
