Paper short abstract:

Two initiatives to realize society 5.0 in Okayama, Japan are presented. Both cases reveal the significant role of the existing politico-spatial units and the emerging power relationship among these units in its actual policy process. These cases points to a structural change in regional governance.

Paper long abstract:

Since its announcement in 2016, the new model of society -i.e., society 5.0, which points to ‘a human centered society where its system highly integrates cyberspace and physical space, through which economic growth and resolution of societal issues are balanced’, gradually came to be considered as the central goal of Japanese regional governance. The ongoing ‘digital garden city nation plan’ of PM Kishida indeed situates society 5.0 as an envisioned future of Japan situating smart city (SC) as a designated method of its realization. Internationally, the idea of SC points to an initiative that makes use of digitally informed solutions and advanced technologies to increase efficiency in its urban management. Japanese initiatives, on the other hand, actively targets societal issues of rural communities and its management; be it rural or urban, smartification of the existing communities across various sectors including mobility, health care, administration as well as agriculture has become a significant strategy for Japanese domestic governance. Among the international scholarship, there is a growing consensus to consider SCs as a glocal phenomenon; the existing studies have documented unique characteristics of ongoing effort of SC building worldwide. However, thus far, its historical aspect has often been neglected. Against this ground, this paper situates Japanese SC initiatives in the policy history of regional governance. After establishing this point, this paper studies two SCs from Okayama prefecture: Maniwa city and Nishi-Awakura village. Both cases deal with local effort in smart energy transition for regional vitalization. The empirical studies reveal not only the locally unique characteristics of a given SCs but also a common spatial pattern of transformation in their policy processes. Neo-liberal decentralisation of Japanese regional governance proceeds while taking advantages of existing spatially differentiated socio-political units; while, its hierarchical relationship among the relevant politico-administrative units of governance -i.e., national, prefectural and local governments and neighborhoods, seems to have been gradually altered. This may point to an emerging relationship between centre and periphery in Japan.