In 2010, the Umeda-Kita Yard project, the catalyst for Osaka's revitalization, fell into disarray.
After gathering the wisdom of the public and private sectors, the Osaka Umeda-Kita Yard project took more than 20 years to complete.
It is no exaggeration to say that it is one of the best urban planning projects of the postwar period.
But it has fallen into a chaos of unknown significance.
For three months, I alone went to the Kansai Economic Federation, the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, and Osaka City Hall, demanding to know why the brilliant subdivision project plan, which had finally been completed, could not be carried out as planned, and why it should be done as soon as possible. Why can't you follow through on the brilliant subdivision project plan that has finally been completed?
The redevelopment of the North Yard was the most critical factor in Osaka's revitalization.
I began to take action because Hiroshi Shimozuma, then President of the Kansai Economic Federation, suddenly suggested that the second phase of the North Yard subdivision be stopped and that it be turned into a green park.
It is no exaggeration to say that only two prime commercial areas in Japan are superlative.
Ginza is in Tokyo, and Osaka Station (North Yard) is in Umeda, Osaka.
A man who graduated from the University of Tokyo and served as president and chairman of Sumitomo Metal Industries, a major player in the Kansai business world, suddenly came up with the most absurd idea of turning the area into a green park.
He was one of Hokkaido's most gifted men, and I was one of Miyagi Prefecture's most gifted men.
He was a senior to me, so I went to him first, whom I had never met before.
After three months, I felt confident that they would never say anything stupid about the North Yard again, and I began to concentrate on my day job.
Then, one day, I watched the Kansai edition of NHK news after 6:00 p.m. and was astonished.
The TV camera was taken into a classroom at Minoh Elementary School, and the students were asked to say something like this.
Please build a soccer stadium in the North Yard (the planned second-phase subdivision site) and invite the World Cup to the area.
I couldn't take any more time away from my day job to go out and set them straight.
That's when this column appeared.
Just as the "Turntable of Civilization" gallantly onto the scene in July 2010, Akari Iiyama, a scholar of Islamic thought, is the big star who gallantly appeared before the Japanese public in 2021.
She is a woman, a supreme national treasure, who has appeared in Japan, the country where women have been cherished the most and where women are the happiest in the world, as represented by Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon.
2024/8/8 in Fukuyama
