Kyoto City, Japan

Kyoto City preserving its historical landscape

Kyoto City (Japan) has a municipal policy to not only preserve, but actually recreate its historical scenery.

For over 1,200 years, Kyoto has been cultivating its picturesque scenery, in which many historical properties, including World Heritage sites, blended in with a cityscape immersed in nature. Since rapid economic growth in the 1960s, however, the city’s scenery has continued to change despite a variety of efforts to protect it.

The proposed plan includes a number of restrictions regarding outdoor advertising including: a ban on rooftop advertising; strict regulations on the height, size and colour of outdoor advertising; and a complete ban on blinking neon advertising. Proposed enforcement includes penalizing construction companies that violate the ordinance through business suspension and license revoking, as well as the public disclosure of these penalties.

Local governments, residents and businesses can all profit from the development of dense, mixed-use neighbourhoods. These measures save green spaces and money by cutting fuel, utility, infrastructure, and service delivery costs. For more information, please visit www.iclei.org/ccp.

Kyoto City is one of 21 local governments in Japan that are currently Members of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. For more information on ICLEI and its activities in Japan, please visit www.iclei.org/japan.

Source: ‘Kyoto to strengthen regulations on outdoor advertising’ and ‘New municipal policy about preserving and recreating historical scenery released’, Japan for Sustainability, 18 February 2007.