Culture driven policies and revaluation of local cultural assets: a tale of two cities, Otaru and Yūbari

Management of cultural heritage is an issue that is attracting increasing attention worldwide, as emphasis shifts from pure conservation issues to issues of future sustainability of heritage sites. Expe- rience seems to suggest that it is difficult to preserve heritage sites without embedding them into a cultural vital social and economic environment, whereas at the same time there is the risk that, by putting excessive focus on the economic dimension, they are turned into theme parks with gradual loss of authenticity and progressive disintegration of their cultural and historical value. This paper tackles these issues through a comparative study of two Japanese heritage cities, Otaru and Yu"bari, both in the Hokkaido Island of the Japanese archipelago. The case study is of interest in that the two cities are representative of two opposite attitudes toward heritage management: in Otaru, the revaluation of local cultural assets has been conducted through the involvement of the local population and a socially in- clusive approach, whereas in Yu"bari a top-down, financially driven approach has been developed in order to improve the city's attractiveness for tourists. The results of such opposite strategies have gained international attention. The Municipality of Yu"bari has gone bankrupt and its tourist attraction policy has been largely ineffective, whereas the bottom up approach of the City of Otaru has led to a rejuvenation of the city, that is now attracting tourists from abroad and has witnessed a considerable improvement in the local quality of life and in the sustainable use of local cultural heritage. Recent, successful new policy developments in Yu"bari to rescue the town from its deep crisis by means of direct dialog with citizens provide further evidence that active involvement of the local population makes the difference. This comparative analysis suggests that socially inclusive policies seem to be an essential component of viable heritage management models, and that failure to integrate such dimension into the strategic approach may be a fatal flaw.