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OSAKA'S FUKUSHIMA AREA: SHOWCASE OF BACK-ALLEY ECONOMY
12/11/2009

 
Kippo News  from Wed, November 18, 2009

New showplaces such as huge malls have emerged in redeveloped factory sites and public land areas in Osaka, Tokyo and other large cities, attracting throngs of people. Big corporations are likely to continue investing in U.S.-style gigantic malls with retail outlets forming the core of the business. However, Fukushima, an area of Osaka City adjacent to the heart of the metropolis, has quietly trodden an entirely different path in the past five years.

Fukushima is a town with crisscrossing narrow passageways, where privately run stores that look like hideouts hang out "noren" shop curtains displaying their emblems and names here and there in a unique, self-centered manner and without keeping regional integration. Yet, strangely enough, the town exhibits a quiet liveliness with men and women of all ages around. The number of newly opened eateries has doubled from five years ago. Grocery stores and residence-turned-shops included, the number of stores in the area has since mushroomed by several times, with so many lights on at night.

Attention is focused on Fukushima now. Gourmet and community magazines have introduced parts of Fukushima in regional and national editions. Travelers to Osaka from across the country, including those attending conferences or on business trips, have begun visiting Fukushima in hope of finding good out-of-the-way places.

Fukushima remains untouched
Fukushima is located less than a kilometer to the west of JR Osaka Station in the central part of the city. Normally it could have been transformed into an area bristling with office buildings. But there was a reason for it to remain untouched and to keep itself as an area with a maze of narrow lanes and a mixture of dwellings, stores and cottage industry factories. The development of business districts in Osaka unfolded along Midosuji Avenue spreading north and south from Osaka Station to the Minami area. In other words, Fukushima was left behind.
That proved fortunate for Fukushima, however. The decline in the economic power of Osaka has been accelerated but land prices and rents in the center of business districts stay at high levels. Young generations striving to achieve self-reliance in business took note of Fukushima. Behind the move was the belief that they could attract customers if they displayed uniqueness and new business sensibilities.

Low rents in Fukushima
Rents for land and houses in Fukushima are lower than in existing business districts in other places. Those wishing to open up shops can do so with a minimum amount of funds by leasing old merchant or private houses, retaining their external appearance intact and putting some ingenious thought into interior furnishings. Business establishments such as restaurants, cafes, patisseries, bars, "izakaya" pubs and boutiques capitalizing on youthfulness have gradually been rising in number.

Many first-time visitors to such establishments find it hard to locate them by themselves. But the difficulty of finding locations itself has become an unexpected attraction, with community magazine articles featuring such ratings as a "three-star difficulty in location" proving smash hits. These establishments were sprinkled like a few spots in the area five years ago. Presently, the number has grown to the level of being scattered in various parts. The area is linked with zones that used to be flourishing quarters, beginning to change the entire district into an expanded scene of back alleys.

Having a long history, back-alley towns include the Pontocho, Gion and Ishibe-koji areas in Kyoto, the Kitano, Renga-suji and Tor Road areas in Kobe, and the Hozenji Yokocho, Janjan Yokocho and Ohatsu-tenjin areas in Osaka. Almost all these places are "national brand-name" back-alleys known all over the country. Big cities in the world like Tokyo, London, Paris and New York have their own back alley towns, which certainly attract people.

Huge new towns that appear "overnight" in areas like landfill sites along Tokyo Bay and Osaka Bay are interesting. But they are faceless. Taiwanese-Japanese novelist Chin Shunshin (known as Chen Shunchen in Chinese) says "there is no flavor in a town that fails to nurture back alleys." Here is a restaurant (photo) with its entrance facing a pathway measuring less than a meter in width. It will be a pleasure to know what such back-alley towns will look like five years from now. (Tawara)


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