COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PORTS AND CITIES : TOKYO AND ROTTERDAM
Anton M. J. Kreukels, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, Utrecht University, the Netherlands and, WAVE. Waterfront Vitalization and Environment Research Center, Tokyo, Japan.
This is an summary of some results from a 70 day joint research project sponsored by the Nippon Foundation, in the first part of 1996 in Tokyo.
1. Introduction
The comparative study - of which here follows a summary - differs from the mainstream of studies about waterfront revitalization, brought out mostly by geographers and urbanists and fashionable in the eighties and early nineties in the U.S.A., Europe and in Asia. These analyses focus on physical and spatial restructuring of port areas in relation to the port city. This contribution here is first of all about economic/technological growth of ports in relation to urban growth. paying at the same time tribute to other factors, like culture, social problems and environment, this all in relation to the institutional setting of the region and nation at stake. This means that here physical and spatial manifestations are approached mainly as derived from social, cultural and economic functions and in line with the institutional setting.
This summary presents some of the lessons from a first and broad international comparison of two ports and cities in an unifying world, but also a world conditioned more than ever by institutional, cultural and societal singularities and particularities. The comparison is organized in two parts. First of all you find a basic positioning of the two cities and ports: Tokyo and Rotterdam. Subsequently follows a basic assessment of the policies with regard to port and city in Tokyo and Rotterdam, with as main standard an up to date strategy of Managed Growth, in which one tries to balance between the exigencies of economic and technological development at the one hand and other values especially those related to culture, social well-being and the environment at the other hand.
2.Positioning Tokyo and Rotterdam: Port and City
At first sight it seems quite curious to compare two units which are so different. Tokyo is a world city, with only New York and London as ones of the same kind. It is a gigantic metropole with 11 million inhabitants. As world city it is an enormous concentration of main functions, institutions, professions and consumers in a national, an Asiatic and finally global setting. Within Japan it isn't challenged by any other city, while this country with 125 million inhabitants at the same time is one of the most advanced and rich countries in the world. Rotterdam, on the contrary, is a medium size city with nearby 600,000 inhabitants, not even the first city and capital (that is the city of Amsterdam) of a small, dense populated and advanced European country with only 15 million inhabitants: the Netherlands.
However, in contrast with the city (the first component of comparison)the situation is the opposite, when it comes to the port (the second component). Here, the Port of Rotterdam scores over a long period as the biggest port in the world for cargo in general, and as third port at the moment in the container sector. The port of Tokyo at the contrary is not the first port of Japan for cargo in general. Kobe, Chiba and Nagoya are the first ranking ports of Japan. While Kobe is in the class of main world container ports, Tokyo is not at all at the list of the 10 most important container ports, even when it is an important container port in Japan.
When one analyses urban and regional phenomena its economic/technological and institutional terms, these contrasting extremes are an advantage. They make it easier to register the relevant facts and conditions. At the same time significant differences instead of comparable sets need not to be problematic, at least if one is aware of it, as here, when one compares Tokyo and Rotterdam, with regard to the port and with regard to the city.
2.1. The Ports of Rotterdam and Tokyo
The port of Rotterdam is together with those of Singapore and Hong Kong at this moment clearly in the ranks of the main world ports. Given the increasing importance of the economy and trade within Asia and from Asia with the rest of the world Rotterdam will probably not maintain - perhaps with exception of its dominant position in the distribution of petrol and oil - its present market share in cargo in general and that in the container sector. Even keeping Rotterdam in the group of the main world ports requires enormous investment in infrastructure, superstructure and logistics. However, the prospects for the port of Rotterdam are in general good, given its efforts and strategies in the eighties and nineties aiming at expansion and adaptation of its infrastructure, superstructure and logistics (for instance the investment in the Delta 8 section of the new port area: the Maasvlakte). Also its longstanding and strong position of hub at the sea mouth of the Rhine, the main European waterway, keeps the port of Rotterdam in the first ranks. Problems in Rotterdam with regard to a future functioning of its port concentrate on the interrelations between the huge port and the medium size urban centre and its region. Here are ample examples of delayed or retained opportunities for port related economy, resulting from a lack of land caused by a rigid system of land use planning in Rotterdam particularly and in the Netherlands in general. For linking up with a world port in the coming period a greater adaptability of land use and more opportunities for urban growth are essential.
The port of Tokyo is nowadays not in the super-class of world main ports. Neither another port in Japan is in the small group of main world. As mentioned before the ports of Singapore and Hong Kong have are the most important ones in the container sector and highly ranking for cargo in general. Fromout Japan only Kobe has a position as the 6th world container port. This ranking of ports in Japan is related partially to the geographical position of this Archipelago in South East Asia and the Pacific Rim. It must, however, also be contributed to the a weak inclination of Japan to be or to become leading not only in economy but also in trade and distribution fromout Japan. Finally one can question if the investments of Japan over a longer period in optimizing the daily functioning of the major designated ports in Japan, under which that of Tokyo, have been pronounced enough for joining the main ports in the world. However, Japan represents at the same time with its advance economy and technology, its enormous consumption and production a rich hinterland with a stabile supply and demand side, particularly for high value goods. This applies to the international, national markets and especially to the metropolitan areas, first of all that of Tokyo. Ports play an important role in the trade and distribution system of Japan, nowadays as in the past, given especially the Archipelago setting of this country. They can - given the gradual transitition in Japan to a more balanced import and export related to an high standard economy
