For revival, Airin district needed bottom-up approach, which aims to put emphasis on local residents’ actions and listen to them and relevant organizations, departing from a traditional method of governmental organizations-led decision making. The district started an urban regeneration forum led by a public entity in late 1990s to facilitate discussion and dialogue among different stakeholders, which is followed by various community institutions funded to foster communication by involving all interested groups.
Nishinari ward office plays not only coordination mechanism but works as a part of the team aiming to develop Airin District. Airin was indeed a lagging district, and the level of mistrust was extremely deep. The local authority was therefore conscious of offering inclusive service and working with politeness and high respect to residents. It gradually melted the tension. While Mayor Hashimoto largely triggered the reform, the residents kept its implementation through a public-private forum called area management secretariat.
- Step-by-step efforts made by the local government to steadily involve fragmented stakeholders.
With the area management secretariat, the district invited a wide range of stakeholders to city planning, for the first time in history. From Airin district story, a clear lesson to learn is how critical inclusiveness is when making a change or reform, even if the change gets slowed down with too many stakeholders. The secretariat triggered public space improvement, solving crimes and violence issues, including drugs, and creating job opportunities for the residents. It was a case of building and practicing a true democratic process, which may be slow but efficient and important for bigger changes.