The Tokyo Renaissance: Constructing a postmodern identity in contemporary Japan

The crisis of modernity and the dissolution of Western dominance in the economy have brought about cultural pluralization in many parts of the world. Various nations, states, regions and ethnic groups have voiced their independence from Western political and cultural domination and entered into multivocal discourse for the renegotiation and recreation of new identities. The reproduction of selfhood takes different forms and expressions in accordance with local specificities. One aspect is the tendency to appropriate certain aspects of indigenous premodern culture, such as tradition, folklore, historical past, or archaeology as a locale upon which to build new identities. The present dissertation discusses the reproduction of the identity of Tokyo in relation to the crisis of modernity. The materials are drawn from the Tokyo Renaissance Campaign conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government since 1989. Tokyo\u27s production of identity, which stands in direct relation to the de-hegemonization of the modernist hierarchy, manifests a simultaneous process with her transformation into a world city. A world city, a center of world finance and economy, also needs to be a cultural center providing an abundant sense of history and tradition. The current restructuring of the international division of labor is placing cities and regions in new relationships. This sensitizes and raises a new regional consciousness, and regional tradition, history and heritage are assigned new significance. Taking the concept of tradition as essentially meta-traditional, the dissertation examines how post-industrial society appropriates images of a pre-industrial mode of organic community and communication in giving a city (and region) a new identity. The dissertation also examines how time and space are reconfigured in Tokyo, and how they are enacted in the redefinition of the history as well as the remaking of the place and the built environment. It is shown that Tokyo\u27s disintegration from the modernist world order ultimately serves as a reinforcement of modern institutions and ideologies. Further, it re-integrates the city into a new world order