History of the City in Japan

Course Information

College	Akashi College	Year	2024
Course Title	History of the City in Japan
Course Code	6036	Course Category	Specialized / Elective
Class Format	Seminar	Credits	Academic Credit: 2
Department	Architecture and Civil Engineering	Student Grade	Adv. 2nd
Term	Second Semester	Classes per Week	2
Textbook and/or Teaching Materials
Instructor

Course Objectives

1) Understand the characteristics of Japanese cities based on the climate, nature, culture, and other elements of the land.
2) Understand each Japanese city's changes and their characteristics.
3) Can express opinions on the problems that Japanese cities are facing today.

Rubric

	Ideal Level	Standard Level	Unacceptable Level
Achievement 1	Can explain the characteristics of Japanese cities based on the climate, nature, culture, and other elements of the land, while referring to differences from other countries.	Can explain the characteristics of Japanese cities based on the climate, nature, culture, and other elements of the land.	Cannot explain the characteristics of Japanese cities based on the climate, nature, culture, and other elements of the land.
Achievement 2	Can explain each Japanese city's formation process and its changes while referring to their characteristics.	Can explain each Japanese city's formation process and its changes.	Cannot explain each Japanese city's formation process and its changes.
Achievement 3	Can express opinions on the problems that Japanese cities are facing today.	Can explain the problems that Japanese cities are facing today.	Cannot explain the problems that Japanese cities are facing today.

Teaching Method

Outline:

This course will take examples of some major cities in Japan and closely analyze their formation and changes. The objectives of the course are to understand that there are influences such as history, climate, culture, etc., behind a city's establishment, learn to closely analyze a city from a wide range of perspectives, and finally, study the history of a nearby city, and consider its future from students' own perspectives.

Style:

Classes are mainly conducted through lectures, presentations, and discussions. Students will be assigned small reports at the end of each lesson, and report assignments according to the lesson progress. Evaluation will be based on a comprehensive judgment of the submission of these reports, presentation attitude, statement content, etc. There will be no exams. To achieve this course's objectives and aims, students are required to do the following self-study outside of classes: 1) Pre-study the backgrounds (culture, politics, society, etc.) for the eras that will be covered in class; 2) be interested in a nearby city, use materials to research its history, and actually visit it to see the traces; and 3) read the relevant literature and books.

Reference books: City History Illustration Collection Editorial Committee. "Toshishizushu" (Shokokusha), 1993, edited by Hiroyuki Suzuki et al. "Series, Toshi, Kenchiku, Rekishi" University of Tokyo Press, etc.

Notice:

This course's content will amount to 90 hours of study in total. These hours include the learning time guaranteed in classes and the standard self-study time required for pre-study / review, and completing assignment reports. Students should ensure that they have fully prepared beforehand for discussions and presentations in class.　Students who miss 1/3 or more of classes will not be eligible for evaluation.

Characteristics of Class / Division in Learning

Active Learning

Aided by ICT

Applicable to Remote Class

Course Plan

			Theme	Goals
2nd Semester
	3rd Quarter
		1st	Orientation Explain how this class will progress and how to research literature, materials, etc.	Understand and can explain to others how to proceed with the class, how its evaluated, and what the goals are.
		2nd	Ancient cities of Japan Establishment and transformation of Heijokyo and Heiankyo.	Can explain capital cities.
		3rd	Modern cities of Japan Establishment and development of Edo	Can explain the characteristics of a modern city.
		4th	Modernizing cities (Tokyo) From Edo to Tokyo	Can explain the characteristics of Tokyo's modernization.
		5th	Modernizing cities (Kyoto) Transfer of the capital and three major projects	Can explain the characteristics of Kyoto's modernization.
		6th	Modernizing cities (Kobe) Opening of Kobe Port and settlement construction	Can explain the characteristics of the port city of Kobe.
		7th	Development of suburban residential areas Development of suburban residential areas by electric railway companies	Can explain the development of suburban residential areas by electric railway companies.
		8th	Post-war city formations Urban city development in Kobe	Can explain post-war Kobe's urban transformation.
	4th Quarter
		9th	Cities and disasters Kobe and the Great Hanshin Earthquake.	Can explain the history of the city that has faced disaster.
		10th	The multicultural city of Kobe Co-existence with foreigners	Understand the characteristics of Kobe, where Japanese people and people from other countries have been co-existing.
		11th	Formation process of a nearby city Reveal the history of a nearby city through literature and field surveys.	Can decide a target city for one's investigation and study its changes.
		12th	Presentations Present the content studied and discuss it.	Can explain the content studied in a way that is easy to understand and briefly answer questions on it.
		13th	Tour 1 Visit a nearby historied city	Can notice traces of history that remain in the city
		14th	Tour 2 Visit a nearby historied city	Can notice traces of history that remain in the city
		15th	Summary Based on classes, consider future issues for cities	Can express opinions on problems that cites face today, while reviewing classes.
		16th	No final exam	No final exam

Evaluation Method and Weight (%)

	Short report	Final Assignment	Presentation	Total
Subtotal	30	60	10	100
Basic Proficiency	5	10	5	20
Specialized Proficiency	15	40	5	60
Cross Area Proficiency	10	10	0	20