Operationalization of the Creative City Concept in Japan: A Comparative Review with a Special Focus on Kanazawa and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The creative city concept has gained global recognition, notably through the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). In Japan, facing declining birth rates and economic stagnation, this framework was seen as a revitalization tool to increase the urban quality. Yet, while the creative city concept clearly appears on the theoretical level, its operationalization usually remains unclear. Additionally, previous research considers sustainability questions through economic, social, and cultural lenses but more rarely through environmental aspects. Thus, this paper aims to explore the implementation of the creative city in Japan, unveil the specific elements composing the policies of UNESCO Creative Cities, and question how environmental sustainability is addressed in these policies. The research method includes a qualitative analysis of the membership monitoring reports (MMRs) submitted by cities to UNESCO. Conducting a field survey in a creative facility and a hearing survey with the city government, the research also focuses on Kanazawa as a case study to explore in greater depth the interaction between creative city strategies and environmental sustainability. Among the research findings, economic perspectives—through support for creative industries and the promotion of tourism—and systematic actions targeting children dominate the MMRs, while socio-environmental aspects receive less attention. Most ambitious initiatives toward environmental sustainability were implemented in rural cities. In Kanazawa, it appears the creative city policy is independent of the local environmental policies, although some opportunities exist to connect them. The field survey indeed reveals that some spontaneous initiatives toward environmental sustainability might emanate from a creative facility. Therefore, the paper provides significance in unveiling the specific content of creative city policies in Japan and in re-examining the notion of creativity to integrate environmental sustainability into the creative city agenda.

1. Introduction

After the end of the 20th century brought to the eyes of the urban planner the concept of the Smart City and the promise to tackle urban challenges thanks to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the 21st century opened a less technology-focused path as Charles Landry [1] coined the concept of the creative city, aiming at integrating culture and creativity as core factors to foster urban development. The linkage between culture and development is not a brand new concept and has already nurtured various articles in the literature through works on the creative economies [2,3] and the related creative industries [4,5]. During the 20th century, the role of culture in urban planning started seducing decision-makers as ongoing globalization provoked the relocation of Western and Japanese industries to some low-cost countries [6]. This change in the urban space also led some cities to fail to ensure important functions such as fostering the local culture and guaranteeing social coherence [1,6]. Later, the 21st century finally announced the rise of the knowledge economy [2,3] as global cities concentrated big IT firms and talents to the detriment of regional and rural areas. This context will contribute to popularizing the creative city model as a tool for urban revitalization, especially in regional cities with rich accumulated cultural assets. One proof of this success is the implementation by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2004 of the UNESCO Creative City Network (hereafter UCCN). Currently, the network gathers more than 300 cities all around the world [7] through seven different creative fields: music, media art, literature, gastronomy, film, design, and crafts and folk art.

If the concept of the creative city appears clearly on the conceptual level, its implementation is nonetheless usually carried out in an empirical way [8] since the creative city’s operationalization usually appears as a black box for the urban planner. In the Japanese literature, Sawada points out a lack of academic research on this topic, regretting that most articles on cultural and creative cities are case studies lacking substantive discussions on the content of specific policies [9]. Moreover, literature points out that in practice, cities privilege economic development when implementing creative city policies with too few considerations towards increasing social welfare [10]. When it comes to UNESCO-certified creative cities, the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the UCCN agenda in 2015 raised incomprehension among member cities [11] as neither culture nor cultural development appears in the 17 SDGs. Yet, in the current era of “global boiling” [12], integrating creative city development and its related debates within the urban Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seems to be a prerequisite for cities worldwide to continue providing comfort to their inhabitants. Nevertheless, one can admit that this integration is not trivial since it highly depends on the local context.

These aspects indicate a need for urban planners and cities to clarify the overall operationalization and content of creative city policies. Similarly, the climate urgency requires new approaches to implement policies articulating environmental sustainability and the creative city concept. In Japan, the concept has spread for over two decades, giving it time to mature and adapt to an urban tradition different from Europe, where the creative city concept emerged. Consequently, this article aims to unveil the detailed content of creative city policies in Japanese UNESCO creative cities with a qualitative analysis of the Membership Monitoring Reports (MMRs) sent to UNESCO by the cities. This research also aims to investigate whether environmental sustainability is integrated into the creative city plans. Eventually, through a case study in Kanazawa, this paper will explore pathways to further incorporate environmental sustainability into the creative city framework while discussing the challenges of this integration.

The limitations of this qualitative analysis of MMRs open avenues for future quantitative research examining the content of creative city policies in Japan and allow for the exploration of cities that have not attained UNESCO certification. Additionally, the case study conducted in Kanazawa creates pathways to bridge the gaps between creative city policy and environmental sustainability in rural and regional areas with rich accumulated cultural assets. Future research may address these gaps in densely populated areas, in suburban areas, or in cities that have not focused their urban policies on historical and cultural preservation.

After this introduction, the remainder of this paper is structured in six sections. Section 2 reviews the literature related to the creative city, the launch of the UCCN, and the relationships between the creative city model and environmental sustainability. Section 3 introduces the MMRs as the main raw material used for the qualitative analysis of creative city policy content. The criteria of analysis emanate from the identified common themes of the MMRs, issues highlighted by the academic corpus, and UNESCO’s recommendations to further integrate environmental prospects into the creative city’s scope. Finally, this section details the content of the hearing survey conducted with the Kanazawa city government and presents the surveyed creative facility. Section 4 presents the results of the operationalization review of the ten selected Japanese UNESCO creative cities and points out their main initiatives and outputs as creative cities before presenting the results of the case study in Kanazawa. Section 5 discusses the identified content of the creative city policies in Section 4 in light of the literature considerations for the creative city framework. Furthermore, this section briefly discusses the imaginaries that shaped the creative city concept over the last decades and explores the challenges and the possibilities for Kanazawa to integrate environmental sustainability into its creative city agenda. Ultimately, conclusions will be drawn in Section 6.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Overview of the Creative City Theory and Operationalization

Landry [1] starts his book by pointing out that the economic paradigm shifted from a manufacturing-based model toward a knowledge-oriented one. He argues that a new approach is required to conceive and analyze the city in this changing context. On one hand, this approach must be transversal as it encompasses economy, democratic life, governance, social coherence, culture, and sustainability. On the other hand, Landry does not advocate a tabula rasa approach as he insists on the necessity to take into account the local context and the accumulated assets of the city. In this sense, other scholars have confirmed that the success of a creative city depends on the existence of a certain potential while arguing creative city strategy should be built organically [3,13]. Following Landry’s concept, Richard Florida [14] theorized the creative city as a hub for the creative class, endorsing the idea that the city’s attractiveness depends on its capacity to attract highly skilled talents to stimulate economic growth. This vision, completely overlooking local context and small-sized cities, led various scholars to step against Florida’s point of view and nuance this approach [5,15,16]. Rather, discussions tend to consider that the success of the creative city lies in the quality of its urban space [1,3,13] with a prism of analysis focusing on the balance between the production milieu and the urban cultural environment. For instance, Scott [3] designated the production system and the urban cultural environment as a duality in which each side enhances the qualitative functioning of the other. The articulation of culture and economics is indeed complex and is epitomized by the play between cultural values and commodity logic [4], inherent to traditional liberal approaches [15].

On the operationalization level, cities seem to be tending to focus on the productive apparatus (i.e., the creation of new businesses, support to entrepreneurial projects) while relegating urban cultural quality to a subaltern role [13]. In parallel, since the subprime crisis, several cities have had to deal with unprecedented social issues, as deregulations and privatizations resulted in high unemployment rates in the Northern economies, including Japan, as well as homelessness [17]. In the last decade, the literature has thus questioned the sustainability of the creative city with an emphasis on cultural and social aspects as well as the challenges the model meets within the current neo-liberal era [10,15,17]. Among them, social inclusion is a recurrent theme, albeit Landry already stressed it in 2000 when he first published his book [1].

2.2. About the UNESCO Creative City Network

In 2004, seduced by the cultural aspects of the creative city concept, UNESCO launched the UCCN based on the assumption that culture can be a valuable tool for cities to achieve sustainability. According to Pratt [15], the UCCN focuses on building local partnerships and examining shared experiences across cities. Indeed, the network does not aim to apply Landry’s framework [1], nor any other academic model, as emphasized by UNESCO official Marco Rosi [18] in the academic journal City, Culture and Society in 2014. Soon after its beginning, the network experienced considerable success with exponential growth, increasing from 16 members in 2008 to 180 in 2017 and 350 in 2024 [19]. In the March 2024 UCCN Evaluation report [20], officials emphasized that the gap between the concept of the creative city and its effective operationalization is a source of concern for member cities, as the report acknowledges that the UCCN strategic framework lacks specific guidance for urban governance. Furthermore, the report notes that member cities do not effectively integrate SDGs, particularly environmental sustainability, into their action plans [20]. In this context, Stevenson [11] outlines that integrating the SDGs from the 2030 Agenda into the UCCN represents a major rethinking of its raison d’être, as none of the 17 SDGs do not mention culture or cultural development. Yet, since then, cities have had to demonstrate their commitment to align with the UNESCO SDGs during their application process in addition to their engagements with the UCCN project. Every four years, following the year of designation, UCCN member cities are required to submit a Membership Monitoring Report (MMR) to detail their activities and projects. However, cities sometimes overlook this obligation, as there are currently no consequences within the UCCN for failing to submit this report punctually or if the intervals exceed four years.

2.3. Creative City Concept in Japan

As noted in the introduction, the creative city concept has been implemented in Japan for over two decades, within an urban context that differs from Europe. Indeed, in comparison to European cities, Japanese cities must contend with significant seismic activity, resulting in differing safety regulations in urban spaces and have long suffered from a declining birth rate. Additionally, in Japan, urban and regional policies have been shaped by a long history of a bureaucratic system, while spatial usages vary from those in Western countries.

The work of Osaka University professor Masayuki Sasaki [21,22,23,24,25] significantly contributed to popularizing the concept of the creative city in Japan, while the 2003 report by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto for the Nissei Life Insurance Research Institute [26] initiated discussions about the potential of the creative industries in Japan, particularly in the context of economic stagnation. In this regard, Kakiuchi and Takeuchi estimated the volume of creative industries in Japan in pointing out that categorizing a given industry as creative or non-creative involves extremely complex questions [27]. In addition, the corpus of Japanese academic research is also nurtured by papers exploring the dynamics behind the location of creative industries [28] and the potential effects of gentrification it induces [29].

In the 1990s, the burst of the economic bubble and ongoing globalization caused Japan to experience economic stagnation and deindustrialization for the first time since World War II. It is in this context that interest in creative and cultural policies as tools for urban revitalization emerged among cities [21,22,23,30,31]. Between 1995 and 2004, Japanese scholars compared urban regeneration strategies between Japanese and European cities, referencing and commenting on Western scholars’ conceptual framework. For instance, Sasaki compared the strategies of Bologna and Kanazawa in [21], while Okabe discussed the cases of Kitakyushu and Bilbao in [32]. Okabe highlights that these comparisons raised awareness among Japanese urban planners about revitalizing cities through different pathways (i.e., not only through industrial promotion and economic recovery, as was the case during the Japanese economic miracle) [32]. From an operational perspective, the success stories of Kanazawa [9,22,25] and Yokohama [25,28,33] in the early 2000s significantly contributed to the further spread of this model in Japan, even if in some cases, the creative city implementation was less successful, as in Osaka [17,24]. After 2008, as the subprime crisis severely impacted the Japanese economy and welfare system, the concept of the creative city as a tool for fostering social cohesion began to attract both scholars and urban planners [17,24,33].

Concurrently, the literature emphasizes that regional Japanese cities are adopting creative city strategies to reduce their dependence on Tokyo’s overconcentration, aiming to keep pace with unavoidable globalization and reaffirm their unique features [30]. Sasajima pointed out that the Japanese creative city approach was more influenced by the national government’s “quality of life” and social control strategies and less by entrepreneurial approaches, which can be found in Europe and North America [33]. Ueno and Nobuharu highlighted that creative city projects are typically structured around three main policy areas: “Culture and Arts Promotion,” “Industrial Development,” and “Urban Development and Design” [31]. While some cities adopt transversal approaches encompassing these three areas, most surveyed cities still view policies in these areas as independent [31]. Moreover, birth decline in Japan has led many cities to face depopulation and a downsized economy. In this context, the creative city is seen by many Japanese regional cities as a solution to shift from growth models dependent on manufacturing toward a more balanced, service-oriented economy [6]. Furthermore, tourism can be seen as a realistic direction for cities as it can help maintain service levels in rural and regional areas, given that depopulation has eroded urban functionality [6]. By identifying the specific content of Japanese creative city policies, this research aims to shed light on the concrete actions taken by Japanese cities to address the challenges of post-industrial society and depopulation facing the country.

In January 2013, Japan created the Creative Cities Network of Japan (CCNJ), additionally to the UCCN, to foster cooperation and exchanges with other creative cities in Japan and overseas [34]. The network answers a need for local synergies among Japanese cities (but also East Asian cities) [34]. Similarly to the UCCN, the CCNJ is designed as a hub of information; the CCNJ organizes conferences and conducts research to foster collaborative projects in Japan related to creative cities. For Japanese cities seeking to obtain the UNESCO certification, joining the CCNJ can be seen as a first step in the recognition of the success of the creative city policy implementation. In early 2025, the CCNJ was composed of 127 municipalities and 45 organizations (i.e., NPOs, research centers, cultural foundations, and associations from the private sector).

At the operational level, creative city plans serve as intermediaries between the city and local stakeholders (i.e., citizens’ NPOs or private sector-led organizations), as the purpose of such reports is to implement higher-level local plans. In this context, creative city plans may serve as proof that the city complies with the laws and political trends of the Japanese central government. Thus, it is noteworthy that many initiatives taken by Japanese UNESCO Creative Cities in the MMRs adhere to the guidelines of the 2017–2018 “Basic Act on Culture and the Arts” and the recent enforcement of the “Cultural Tourism Promotion Act.” The position of the creative city plans within the Japanese legal context is illustrated by Figure 1.

Consequently, focusing solely on Japanese UNESCO Creative Cities offers several advantages. As illustrated in Figure 1, all of these cities operate under the same legal framework, thereby minimizing bias in comparisons due to consistently higher-level political orientations. Moreover, in focusing only on UNESCO Creative Cities, one can easily compare the initiatives and projects led by the cities, as the MMRs have to obey a common specific structure (given by UNESCO).

2.4. Creative City and Environmental Sustainability Prospects

In implementing the 2030 Agenda, UNESCO contributed to codifying the imperatives raised by the urgency of climate change, calling for ambitious and integrated transformations toward more sustainable models. Building on this notion, recent research shows that transformations toward sustainability are increasingly discussed in academic papers and stresses the importance of governance and politics to understand and analyze these transformations [35]. Additionally, recent works on sustainability pathways include the concept of planetary boundaries, popularized by Rockström et al. in [36], identifying key thresholds that cannot be crossed without fundamentally compromising the resilience of planetary life support systems. In the urban context, integrating environmental sustainability raises questions as it covers a large variety of fields and expertise, such as transportation systems, air quality, thermal comfort, water management, or land use planning. Puchol-Salort et al. emphasized the complexity of the multi-factor and systemic aspects arising from the integration of sustainability in urban planning [37].

Kakiuchi defines sustainability through the idea of “improving the quality of life in a city without leaving a burden for future generations” [10]. For Landry [1], the sustainable city is an answer to the Club of Rome’s report [38], which discussed economic and population growth with finite resource supplies. It can be seen as an opportunity to explore new strategic visions, such as the ecological regeneration of the Emscher river system in Germany, which Landry quotes as a reference [1] of creative ways to tackle ecological questions. In 2011, Kagan and Hahn [39] pointed out that Florida’s approach [14] shed light on clean air and bike paths as reasons why people are drawn to a place. They argue that the absence of the further integration of such prospects with sustainable issues in Florida’s theory leaves space for integrating environmental sustainability issues into the creative city concept [39]. Until recently, the existing body of creative city research gave little space for environmental sustainability compared to social [17,21,33] and cultural questions [10,20,40].

However, since 2019, a significant number of articles have addressed the potential links between creativity and urban sustainability, with more prospects toward environmental sustainability, particularly in European cities. Some articles have thus examined the contribution of ephemeral cultural events, such as Design Weeks [41] or music festivals [42], in fostering environmental sustainability within the creative economy and generating ideas to foster urban SDGs. Others have explored whether creativity can serve as a vector for sustainable urban planning in creative districts [43,44] or have reconsidered the creative city concept in pursuit of “urban creative sustainability” [45]. For articles tackling environmental sustainability explicitly, it appears that creativity in urban development has been mostly applied in “culture-centric” and “econo-centric” approaches [46], which have neglected the ecological perspectives on sustainability [47]. Nonetheless, recent work combining creative cities issues with environmental sustainable development revealed connections between creativity and the natural environment [47] and discussed the role of green infrastructures within the creative space [48,49]. In Japan, a study found that green amenities play a secondary, yet important, role in the distribution of small creative firms in Tokyo [48]. Similarly, a 2021 article detailed the link between green infrastructures and cultural and creative vitality in some European cities, asserting that there are positive relationships between these two [49]. The article eventually suggests a revision of the European Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor (CCCM) in integrating an Urban Nature sub-index as one of the performance indicators of the European CCCM [49]. Therefore, previous research explored the linkage between creative spaces and environmental sustainability through the prism of green infrastructure and natural environment, particularly in European cities [42,44,45,46,47,49].

To answer these issues, this research will shed light on the opportunities raised by the creative city approach to further integrate environmental sustainability prospects into its scope in broadening the notion of creativity, as suggested by the literature [10,39]. Thus, this paper discusses explicitly environmental sustainability aspects in Japanese certified creative cities, aiming to go further than discussions focusing on the natural environment and green infrastructures. This paper will consider environmental sustainability as the efforts to limit and adapt to climate change, bearing in mind the concept of planetary boundaries, while continuing to improve the quality of life of a city.

3. Selected Cities, Materials, and Methods

3.1. Material and Selected Cities

Each UNESCO Creative City is associated with a creative field, which is chosen by the cities during the application process from among the following categories: Music, Media Arts, Literature, Gastronomy, Film, Design, and Crafts & Folk Art [7,18]. Although it is noteworthy that Japan includes cities representing all seven UCCN fields, this paper excludes Okayama (City of Literature) from the analysis, as the city was only recently certified in 2023. Consequently, no reports or concrete action plans were available for analysis.

Table 1. Selected cities and documents retained for the analysis.

City (Year of Admission)	Field	Documents Used for the Analysis	Publisher of the Creative City Dedicated Website
Nagoya (2008)	Design	MMR *: • 2008–2016 (No reports after)	Nagoya, UNESCO City of Design Organizing Committee [50]
Kobe (2008)	Design	MMR: • 2013–2016 • 2017–2020 Yearly Reports: • 2009 to 2022	Dept. of University and Education Cooperation Promotion, Planning and Coordination Bureau, City of Kobe [51]
Kanazawa (2009)	Crafts & Folk Arts	MMR: • 2013–2016 • 2017–2020	-
Sapporo (2013)	Media Arts	MMR: • 2013–2017 • 2018–2021	-
Tsuruoka (2014)	Gastronomy	MMR: • 2014–2018 • 2018–2022	Tsuruoka Creative City of Gastronomy Promotion Committee [52]
Hamamatsu (2014)	Music	MMR: • 2014–2018 • 2019–2022	Hamamatsu Creative City Music Promotion Council [53]
Tamba-Sasayama (2015)	Crafts & Folk Arts	MMR: •2016–2019	-
Yamagata (2017)	Film	MMR: • 2017–2021	Yamagata Creative City Center Q1 [54]
Asahikawa (2019)	Design	Yearly Reports: • 2021 to 2023	Asahikawa Creative City Promotion Council [55]
Usuki (2021)	Gastronomy	Creative City Promotion Plan 2022–2024	Usuki Creative City of Gastronomy Promotion Council [56]

* MMRs = Membership Monitoring Reports.

presents the ten selected Japanese UNESCO Creative Cities, detailing their respective creative fields, year of certification, the documents used for qualitative analysis, and the publisher of the Creative City’s dedicated website, where applicable.

The methodology used was strictly qualitative, resorting to the analysis of the city’s MMRs as the main raw material. When these reports were not available (for cities that joined the UCCN only recently), the study retrieved available yearly reports of activity (Table 1). Additionally, official websites [50,51,52,53,54,55,56] were consulted to track events and/or additional resources to confirm and complete the content of the MMRs. In the case of Usuki (certified in 2021), the research used the 2022–2024 Creative City Promotion plan of the city as the main material for the analysis. The period of analysis thus covers 2008 to 2024, depending on the cities.

The location of the Japanese UNESCO Creative Cities (as of May 2025) is shown in Figure 2. Although the study did not retain Okayama, it is noteworthy that the set of cities covers a variety of geographical regions in Japan (Kyushu, Chugoku, Kansai, Chubu, Tohoku, and Hokkaido).

Thus, this study adopts a two-level analytical framework. The first level takes a broad perspective, examining the ten selected Japanese UNESCO Creative Cities through a comparative analysis of the retrieved MMRs to uncover the content of their creative city policies and assess the extent to which environmental sustainability is integrated into their agendas. The second level focuses on the city scale, using Kanazawa as a case study, to conduct an in-depth analysis of how creative city strategies interact with environmental sustainability.

3.2. Criteria Used for the Comparative Analysis

A set of criteria and a corresponding list of “tracked content” (

Table 2. Determination of the criteria used in the paper (elaborated by researchers).

Criteria	Tracked Content in the MMRs	Origin of the Criteria	Role in the Analysis
Tourism	- Creative Tourism - Tourism development	• Creative Tourism concept stems from [57]	Initiatives Review
Support to Creative Industries	- Subsidies for creative industries - Branding system for local products - Support in business launch/development	• Represents the “production milieu” [3,13,40]
Human Resources	- Training programs	• Examine the workforce in the creative industries
Education and Children	- Support to schools and higher education - Workshops for Children	• Explicitly written in all the MMRs • Support to higher education [24]
Physical Urban Space	- Construction of new public amenities - Enhancement of the cityscape/city comfort - Preservation/Renovation of the cityscape	• Measures the “quality of the urban space” [1,13,24]	Outputs Review
Cultural Production	- Cultural experiences - Opening of new cultural facilities - Local production of cultural goods	• Represents the “urban cultural environment” balancing the “production milieu” [3,13,40]
Citizens’ Activity and Social Inclusion	- Social integration projects (homelessness, ethnic minorities, disabled persons…) - NPO-led initiatives and bottom-up policies	• Landry’s original idea [1] • Japanese scholars recommendations [10,17,24,33]
Environmental Sustainability	- Education on environmental sustainability - Decrease in CO2 emissions - Biodiversity and ecosystem preservation - Urban greenery and soil pollution	• Answers the need of UNESCO’s report [20] • Planet boundaries prospects [36] • Possibilities to link creative cities with natural environment [47] and green infrastructures [48,49]

) were developed to guide the qualitative review of the reports. This predefined list ensured a consistent approach across all documents. Globally, all MMRs addressed the topics of tourism, creative industries, human resources, and education and children (i.e., these expressions are explicitly written in the MMRs). To these four criteria, four others were added, emanating from the recommendations of the academic corpus to capture possible missing themes: physical urban space, cultural production, citizens’ activity, and social inclusion.

Physical urban space and cultural production aim to capture the equilibrium between the productive apparatus (which are measured through tourism development and support for creative industries) and the cultural urban environment that is required when implementing a sustainable creative city plan [3,13,40]. Citizens’ activities were a central theme of both Landry’s and Sasaki’s theory [1,24] when coining the concept of the creative city. The analysis will thus attempt to measure innovations in citizens’ commitment and NPO-led actions. Social inclusion has been added in response to the urgent need to integrate social issues, as highlighted by Landry [1] and Japanese scholars [10,17,24,33]. Finally, an environmental sustainability criterion was added to assess the gaps pointed out by the 2024 UCCN evaluation report [20]. This criterion encompasses the findings of Section 2.4 of the Literature Review, connecting the creative city with environmental prospects [47,48,49]. The criteria used for the comparison of the creative city’ initiatives and outputs are shown in Table 2.

Therefore, the analysis first examines the initiatives of the selected creative cities in Section 4.1 using the lenses of tourism, support for creative industries, human resources, and education and children. It also investigates the outcomes of creative city policies through criteria such as physical urban space, cultural production, citizens’ activity and social inclusion, and environmental sustainability.

This comparative review offers an overview of how the creative city concept is operationalized in Japan, setting the stage for a special focus on Kanazawa—City of Crafts and Folk Arts—where the interaction between creative city strategies and environmental sustainability is critically analyzed.

3.3. Methodology for the Kanazawa Case Study

In addition to the comparative analysis of the ten selected cities, this paper includes a case study on Kanazawa to explore the potential integration of environmental sustainability into creative city policy. Kanazawa was selected for several reasons. First, the city was an early adopter of ambitious cultural policies in the late 1990s, laying the groundwork for its future creative city agenda. When writing this article, Kanazawa has been implementing creative city policies for nearly two decades, providing a more mature example compared to other cities in the sample. Furthermore, Kanazawa is widely cited in the academic literature as a representative case of successful creative city implementation [6,9,22,58]. The case study also allows for a deeper analysis of the two retrieved MMRs [59,60], offering insights into how environmental objectives might be more systematically integrated into the existing framework. As part of the appropriateness process for Kanazawa as a case study, a hearing survey was conducted with the Craft Policy division of the Kanazawa City Government in November 2024. Indeed, the craft division is directly related to the creative city action plans, as it formulates recommendations for the city. Details of the main points covered by the questions are shown in

Table 3. Interview Process for the Case Study in Kanazawa.

Steps of the Interview	Main Elements Covered
Part 1: About the UCCN	• Motivation to apply the UCCN • Creative City Policy before 2009 • Cooperation with other cities of the UCCN
Part 2: Creative City Strategy	• Role of the Craft Division in Kanazawa City’s organization • Cooperation with the other departments (Tourism, Industry…) • Definition of the main stakeholders (NPO and private sector mainly) • Precision about the content of the three pillars of the city’s strategy [59,60]
Part 3: Environmental Sustainability and Urban Planning	• Influence of the “Kanazawa City Basic Environmental Plan” [61] over the Creative City Plan • Influence of urban planning through the “Wood Culture City” plan [62] and the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center • Integration of the UNESCO SDGs with the “2030 Kanazawa SDGs Plan” [63]
Part 4: Citizens’ Participation and MMR	• Realization of citizens’ participation in the urban space and decision process • Methodology of the monitoring reports (topics, indicators…)

.

The purpose of the interview is firstly to understand why Kanazawa chose to initiate a creative city strategy and to apply to the UCCN from the city government’s perspective (Part 1). Secondly, it aims at exploring the role of the Craft Division within the city’s organization while comparing the content of the creative city policy with the elements the study retrieves in the MMRs [59,60] (Part 2). Lastly, the interview aims at discussing the articulation of the creative city policy with environmental sustainability policies [61,62,63] (Part 3) and the role of citizens in the decision process (Part 4).

Last, but not least, a field survey was also carried out in the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center (in Japanese, Kanazawa mirai no machi souzoukan) in November 2024. The opening of the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center is indeed one of the last main projects of Kanazawa as a creative city [60]. This field survey aims to capture some potential indirect outputs on environmental sustainability in shedding light on possible spontaneous initiatives. The field survey led to an unplanned discussion with a staff member from the NPO Vivistop Kanazawa, who were present in the building. The results of the case study are presented in Section 4.2.

4. Results

4.1. Operationalization of the Creative City Concept in Japanese UNESCO Creative Cities

The set of cities comprises a variety of urban sizes and histories. To facilitate the synthesis, a typology based on population size and economic aspects was adopted for easier reference to the cities discussed in this paper. The study considers Nagoya, Sapporo, Kobe, and Hamamatsu to be “big cities” in the sense that they are densely populated compared to other cities in the set. These cities also host the headquarters of major firms and factories from world-renowned manufacturers. Kanazawa, Yamagata, and Asahikawa are classified as regional cities due to their experience with deindustrialization, their more traditional urban allure, and their natural surroundings. Finally, by rural cities, the research refers to those with low density (below 100 hab/km²) where the economy still relies on the primary sector and where depopulation issues are more pronounced. As explained previously, bear in mind that the local context is a prerequisite in the creative city conceptual framework, since the literature insists on the organic aspect of its operationalization [3,13,40].

Table 4. Overview of the selected cities.

City	Population (2024)	Density (hab/km2)	Type of City	Economic Aspect
Nagoya	2,332,369	7155	Big City	• Industrial Port City (2nd after Yokohama) • Welcomes heavy industries (cars and aviation)
Kobe	1,492,572	2680	Big City	• Multicultural Port city (4th port of Japan) with international companies’ headquarters
Kanazawa	455,578	973	Regional City	• Traditional city with preserved districts from the Edo Period • Small–medium-sized companies developed with traditional arts and crafts
Sapporo	1,967,391	1755	Big City	• Modern city developed in the 19th century welcoming IT firms • Winter sports industry and international festivals
Tsuruoka	116,731	89	Rural City	• Rural city surrounded by farmlands • Small and medium-sized companies (farms, restaurants, processed food industry)
Hamamatsu	778,943	500	Big City	• Industrial city with Headquarters of world-renowned instrument makers’ firms (Yamaha, Kawai, Roland…) and the motor industry
Tamba- Sasayama	37,793	100	Rural City	• Rural economy relying on agriculture • Historically and locally developed crafts companies
Yamagata	242,505	636	Regional City	• Welcomed industry during the Japanese economic miracle • Recently shifted to the tertiary sector
Asahikawa	316,801	424	Regional City	• Old industrial city (brewing, furniture design, paper pulp) • Recently shifted to the tertiary sector
Usuki	33,348	38	Rural City	• Economy relies on agriculture, forestry, and fisheries • Small–medium-sized food-related industries

This table is a refinement from a previous one elaborated by Sasaki in [25].

thus presents the selected cities with some insights (population, density, type of city, and economic aspects).

To provide a preliminary estimation of the importance that the selected cities assign to their creative city projects, this study examined the creative city budgets reported in the available MMRs. The declared budgets per capita are presented in Figure 3.

The highest budgets are in Tamba-Sasayama and Yamagata, which both include costly construction and renovation projects. Kanazawa and Hamamatsu also present significant budgets compared to Nagoya, Kobe, and Sapporo. It is hard to truly comment on these budgets, as the details are not always included in the reports (the budget is often indicated as an “estimated budget for overall action plan”). However, a difference appears between small and medium-sized cities, which show higher budgets per capita compared to big cities.

Building on these contextual elements, this paper now turns to a review of the initiatives and outputs of the selected cities. Using the predefined criteria and their associated indicators (as outlined in Table 2), the study synthesizes the data extracted from the analysis of the MMRs on a criterion-by-criterion basis.

• Tourism: Cities associate their tourist target with their creative field (e.g., craft tourism for Tamba-Sasayama and Kanazawa, gastronomy tourism for Tsuruoka and Usuki, etc.). Increasing foreign tourism through branding strategy is a prevalent objective in regional and rural cities, particularly as big cities already attract foreign tourists (except for winter sports in Sapporo, big cities do not present a clear strategy for attracting tourists).
• Support to Creative Industries: Cities rely on some public-funded agencies playing an intermediary role with the private sector. The scope of these structures fluctuates between investment, networking, product development, and management support. In addition, all cities adopted a consistent branding strategy in labeling locally produced goods in order to bolster consumption during festivals, conventions, and trade fairs before breaking into international markets. Being certified by UNESCO as a creative city reinforces this branding. Regional and rural cities associate this strategy with granting systems for young entrepreneurs in declining traditional industries. Finally, the study revealed Kobe implemented a program aiming at supporting local creative industries in the integration of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) in their development.
• Human Resources: UCCN plays a central role in human-resource-related initiatives through exchange programs for artists, the workforce, and students. Along with that, the selected cities notably established grant systems and training programs for creative industries workers. Kobe is the only one to mention programs aiming at training its city employees with local designers to foster creativity.
• Education and Children: Particular attention is given to children through the organization of “Children workshops” in almost all the cities, as well as collaborative projects with schools and local cultural facilities, aiming at making culture accessible. The education of children on environmental sustainability is occasionally embedded in the MMRs. For example, in Kobe, a design-oriented event addresses recycling issues (Kids SOZO Project) and a town-planning workshop gathers children from the city to create their dream town (Chibiki Kobe). In rural cities, food education in schools (as in Tsuruoka and Usuki) or farm tours stress the importance of consuming locally produced food for children.

The details of the initiatives undertaken in the ten selected cities, along with the four criteria employed for the review, are presented in

Table 5. Creative cities’ initiatives.

City	Tourism	Support to Creative Industries	Human Resources	Education and Children
Nagoya [Big City]	No clear strategy	• Pairing business and creators through networking events • Ensuring access to affordable spaces • Supporting young start-ups	• Artist -in-residence Program • Design workshop connecting designers, Business developers, students and researchers • Exchange program with UCCN cities	• Family Program Workshops • Exhibitions for children
Kobe [Big City]	No clear strategy	• Creation of a platform for communication and investments to expand sales channels • Support for product development • Collaborative projects between start-up and city administration	• “Creative directors” initiatives for city employees • Project “Englobe” (for ESG prospects) • Training school to connect local designers with small–medium-sized companies	• Initiatives to improve access to literature • Workshop for children to create their own town (Chibiki Kobe) • Kids SOZO Project (Reuse of factory trash for design)
Kanazawa [Regional City]	Foreign tourism and craft tourism	• Advice, networking, and branding with the local business creation agency • Grants promoting craft industries • Using UCCN to expand sales channels • Support entrepreneurs in a new creative facility	• Artist-in-residence program • Exchange of craftsmen with other creative cities • Grants for craftsmen and trainees	• Craft workshop for children • UNESCO Schools (ASPnet Program) • Scholarships for craft trainees • Exchange program for students with creative cities
Sapporo [Big City]	Snow Sports and cultural tourism	• Sapporo style branding project to increase visibility of products • No maps business convention (to promote cutting-edge technologies)	• Artist-in-residence program • Sapporo Cultural Art Community Center links artists, scientists, and researchers	• Support for children’s art/cultural activities (Hello! Museum, Kokoro no Gokijo) • Opening of an art engineering school
Tsuruoka [Rural City]	Foreign tourism and gastronomy tourism	• Subsidies for the food-related industry • Expanding sales channels with a branding contest • Science park as a bioscience research hub/start-up incubator	• Exchange of chefs with other cities • Grants for a cooking skills program • Training program for chefs • Cooking classes and workshops for citizens	• Food education in school (how to eat healthy and locally produced food)
Hamamatsu [Big City]	No clear strategy	• Cultivation of the sales channels through the organization of and participation in the Music Instrument Trade Fair (in Japan and in the US)	• Internationalization of musicians thanks to an exchange with Bologna • Workshops and lectures about music • Establishing training facilities for musicians	• Junior orchestra initiatives • Music appreciation projects for children
Tamba- Sasayama [Rural City]	Foreign Tourism and craft tourism	• Providing unoccupied houses for new businesses • City rural innovation lab. for aspiring entrepreneurs in agriculture, tourism, and gastronomy (with Kobe University)	• Artist exchange program • Workshops for agriculture and forestry basics knowledge	• Architecture school projects for the renovation of traditional districts • Agriculture school project
Yamagata [Regional City]	Foreign Tourism and screening tourism	• Support to the Yamagata Film Commission for domestic and foreign productions • Creation of a hub for independent non-fiction movies and documentaries	• Artist-in-residence program • Initiatives to improve access to cinema (Yamagata Film School for citizens)	• Film Workshop with children during the International Festival
Asahikawa [Regional City]	Industrial and cultural tourism	• International Furniture Fair	• Artist-in-residence program • Asahikawa Design Producer Training Program for local designers and business owners	• UNESCO Creative City Summit for High School Students
Usuki [Rural City]	Foreign tourism and eco-tourism	• Certification system for farms and support for fishery and forestry • Promote owner-operated farms	• Exchange of chefs with cities of the UCCN • Bolster the use of the city’s cultural facilities	• Food education in School (farm stays, tours, lectures) • Foster marine protection with Marine Science High School

.

• Physical Urban Space: The construction of new cultural facilities is a recurrent output of the creative city policy, and it can be presented as the “signature project” of the creative city commitment to the urban space (see Yamagata and Hamamatsu). Projects may take place in former 19^th-century buildings with remarkable architecture, with the aim to foster and preserve the historical legacy of the city. Sometimes, the established facilities bear multifunctional purposes and provide the opportunity to put together stakeholders from different horizons, as in the Sapporo Community Plaza Center and in the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center. Kobe is the only city to mention a public transport project (the “Port-loop” articulated bus). In addition, through the redevelopment of Sannomiya city center, Kobe connects its creative city agenda with urban quality in encouraging a “people-oriented city” vision. Similarly, Sapporo integrates its 2011 Ekimae Dori underground project (prior to its UCCN certification in 2013) into its agenda as proof that the city spurs the development of a “comfortable city”.
• Culture Production: Following the previously stated cultural amenities production, cities systematically link culture production with the organization of festivals and conferences, in addition to the family’s and children’s workshops. Exhibitions in unoccupied buildings, as in Nagoya and Tamba-Sasayama, are presented as a means to spread access to culture and revitalize the area. Ainu culture (an indigenous ethnic minority residing in northern Japan) is occasionally quoted as a catalyst for new cultural experiences or technique refinement in Hokkaido’s cities (i.e., Sapporo and Asahikawa). As opposed to commodity logic and mass production, craft cities and gastronomy cities cheer on the consumption and use of locally made craft products while promoting traditional cuisine using local products.
• Citizens’ Activity and Social Inclusion: From one city to another, “Creative Café”, associated with “Creative City Conference”, is outlined as a means to gather citizens and discuss the creative city agenda. The most mature bottom-up projects appear to be in Hamamatsu through the “Our Creative Hamamatsu” initiative. The organization supports initiatives organized by civic groups and companies in order to submit ideas to the city. Between 2012 and 2018, the project received 440 suggestions, and the city adopted 222 initiatives. When social inclusion is mentioned, it is under the prism of persons with disabilities (PWDs) autonomy and integration into urban life (only in big cities). Apart from that, Kobe highlights projects aiming at helping the daily life of foreigners living in the city through the creation of official city forms using a minimal number of kanjis (Chinese characters used in written-style Japanese) and organizing bakery classes for the elderly. Lastly, Tsuruoka mentions workshops and cuisine classes organized annually by foreigners living in the city to enable cultural exchange and inclusion.
• Environmental Sustainability: Some claims about the UNESCO SDGs are present in the analyzed reports. The recent MMRs (posterior to the 2015 Agenda) included more voluntary actions toward environmental sustainability compared to the previous ones. In big and regional cities, some actions aim at raising awareness through educational events (see Nagoya and Asahikawa) or recycling workshops (see Kobe). It is in the rural cities of the set that detailed initiatives can be found. They are mostly related to circular economy (in the food industry from gastronomy cities in particular), sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, and biodiversity preservation (see Tamba-Sasayama).

The details of the outputs of creative city policies in the ten cities, along with the four criteria used for the comparative review, are presented in

Table 6. Creative cities’ main outputs.

City	Physical Urban Space	Cultural Production	Citizens’ Activity and Social Inclusion	Environment Sustainability
Nagoya [Big City]	• International Design Centre in Nagoya • Exhibition in vacant spaces of Nagoya’s Port • Construction of a new theater (Renovation of the Civic Hall)	• Aichi Triennial Festival • Family-oriented workshops • Welcome international forum on Design • Hosted UNESCO Conf.	• Creative Cafes • Online forum during COVID-19 • Open Talk for community building	• SDGs IDEA FORUM with university students
Kobe [Big City]	• Kobe Design Center • Redevelopment of Sannomiya city center • Flower Road Alley near the port • New bus line “Port Loop”	• 078 Kobe Cross-Media Festival • Fashion Festival KOBE COLLECTION • Kobe’s next farmer system • Family-oriented workshops	• Integration of foreigners with the “Simple Japanese initiatives” (simplifying official documents) • Bread Making class for seniors	• Markets with local product initiatives • Plastic recycling initiatives • Children’s workshops recycling scrap materials
Kanazawa [Regional City]	• Renewal of the city craft school • New Kanazawa College of Art • Constructed Future City Creation Center • Preservation of the local districts	• Festivals related to crafts • Contemporary art exhibitions • EaT Kanazawa Festival (Content industry) • New craft-related shops	• Creative City Conference (until 2022) • SDGs Café	• No mentions
Sapporo [Big City]	• Sapporo Ekimae Dori underground • Redevelopment of Yukiterrace • Renew of the city Planetarium • Preservation of Shyryokan Building • Construction of Community Plaza	• Media Art Performances during the Snow Festival • Sapporo International Art Festival • Link Art and Technology projects	• After COVID-19, invitation of citizens as board members of the Culture Promotion Council • Link PWDs with the art creation process • Modeling class for disabled children	• No mentions
Tsuruoka [Rural City]	• Construction of Gastronomic Experience base (with kitchen, training room)	• Preservation of the Heirloom crops • Tsuruoka Grand Industrial Festival • Shonai Sake Festival/Food Festa • Food Film Festival	• Annual food workshop event with foreigners living in the city	• Circular economy • Recycling wastewater • Local Biogas production • Workshop for awareness
Hamamatsu [Big City]	• Renovation of the Museum of Musical Instruments • Establishing a new Civic Music Hall	• Sound Design Festivals • Concerts in Public Spaces • Cultural Access for Children	• “Our Creative Hamamatsu” NPO formulates propositions for the city • PWDs inclusion (dance project)	• “Our Creative Hamamatsu” initiatives on water quality and local food
Tamba- Sasayama [Rural City]	• Traditional townscapes renovation projects	• Historic Street Art Festival: contemporary art in traditional buildings • Pottery and Gastronomy-related festivals • “Tamba Style” brands for local goods	• Saikyo-Kaido Project: renovation of local traditional gardens by local associations	• Circular economy circuits • Maruyama village project: preservation of the environment, landscapes, and endangered species
Yamagata [Regional City]	• Renovation of an old school for the Yamagata Creative City platform Project • Construction of a new civic auditorium	• “Renaissance Project” aims at reframing the culture of the city toward films • Yamagata Doc Library events for citizens	• Creative Cafés every month • Creative City Conference	• No mentions
Asahikawa [Regional City]	• Asahikawa Design Center	• Preservation of the carving wood design from Ainu Culture • Design Week Festival	• No mentions	• SDGs education project for University and High school students
Usuki [Rural City]	• Usuki Compost Manufacturing Center (constructed before the UNESCO nomination)	• Healthy food habits in Usuki	• No mentions	• Reduce the use of chemical fertilizers • circular economy • Preservation of the water cycle

.

4.2. Case Study in Kanazawa

Following the previous comparative review, this sub-section presents the results of the case study conducted in Kanazawa. The city of Kanazawa is located in the Hokuriku region, on the coast of Honshu Island. With more than 400,000 inhabitants, Kanazawa is a core city in Japan, and it is an economic and cultural hub in the Ishikawa Prefecture. The city is sometimes referred to as “little Kyoto” [23] thanks to its well-preserved traditional districts, its historical castle, and its local craft workshops. Figure 4 presents the main features of Kanazawa’s downtown area and specifies the locations of facilities associated with its creative city policy.

Due to its remoteness from the Pacific Coast, Kanazawa avoided rapid industrialization during the 19th century and escaped drastic changes in its economic structure as well as in its urban physical shape [6,9,22]. The city’s industrial development eventually began in the 1890s, and soon after, Kanazawa became the top location for the production of silk for export and power looms [64]. However, the city continued to develop small and medium-sized firms in traditional industries inherited from the 17th century during the Edo era. Consequently, an independent urban economic tissue could flourish in Kanazawa’s metropolitan area, based on endogenously developed companies [22,23]. Later, this endogenous development ensured the circulation of income and capital within the Hokuriku region, limiting dependence on exogenous investments during the 20th century. Nonetheless, traditional industries experienced a peak in 1996 before beginning to decline in output and workforce [6]. In the following decades, the city invested in cultural amenities, following national trends in Japan, to revitalize cities through cultural value and development [21,22,23]. Kanazawa thus renovated the old red-brick warehouses that formerly housed textile industries to create the citizens’ art village in 1996 and built the 21st-century Museum of Modern Art in 2004 in a former urban wasteland (Figure 4).

In 2009, Kanazawa officially became a UNESCO Creative City of crafts and folk arts and implemented its strategy through three pillars: “Linking culture and business”, “Training Successors in Traditional Industries”, and “Attracting International Attention” [59,60]. Attention is given to culture and urban quality through recent renovation projects. As shown in Table 6, the city recently renewed the Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo craft school and relocated the Kanazawa College of Art to a brand new building (Figure 4). In addition, the city invested in a new creative facility, Kanazawa Future City Creation Center, taking place in a renovated former elementary school that closed because of the population decline in the Nomachi district (Figure 4). Eventually, the preservation of the traditional cityscape also leaves room for various protection ordinances.

Although environmental sustainability prospects are not explicitly tackled in the retrieved MMRs of Kanazawa [59,60], Kanazawa possesses planning documents [61,62] as well as an SDG strategy (Imagine Kanazawa 2030 [63]) aiming at addressing the issues raised by the climatic urgency and the 2030 Agenda.

Table 7. Overview of environmental sustainability initiatives in Kanazawa.

Plan	Kanazawa City Wood Culture City Plan	Kanazawa City Basic Environmental Plan	IMAGINE KANAZAWA 2030
Covered Period	2023–2033	2018–2028	2019–2030
Responsible Bureau	Urban Development Bureau	Environment Bureau	Urban Policy Bureau
Main Goals	• Incorporating wooden products into daily life • Actively using wood in public facilities and spaces • Managing forest development areas • Fostering synergies among stakeholders in the wood industry	• Preventing global warming • Protecting nature and biodiversity • Promoting environmental Education • Encouraging citizens’ collaborative initiatives	• Encouraging urban development based on nature, history, and culture • Creating a recycling-oriented society • Lowering carbon dioxide emissions
Related Initiatives	• Information campaigns for the citizens and private sectors (symposiums, workshops…) • Training programs and education for targeted labor (architects, artisans, forestry…) • Support for commercialization and project development	• Incentives to reduce waste • Promotion of renewable energies and energy-saving • Strengthening waste disposal • Urban greenery development • Supporting environmental conservation activities	• Building and using green infrastructure • Fostering the consumption of locally produced food and goods • Promoting energy-saving practices

Sources: [61,62,63].

presents the main elements addressed in the city’s Basic Environmental Plan [61], the “Wood Culture City” plan [62], and the Kanazawa SDGs document [63].

In 2023, Kanazawa enacted the “Wood Culture City” plan (Ki no bunka toshi in Japanese) [62], aiming to reinforce the presence of wood in the cityscape. The plan covers a ten-year period and has the purpose of increasing the use of wood in the city’s architecture, street furniture, and daily use objects while preserving the surrounding forests of Kanazawa (Table 7). Therefore, the plan aims not only to preserve the traditional cityscape but also to establish a recycling-oriented society, manage the regeneration of forests, and to revitalize the local economy by promoting industries related to wood [62]. For instance, the renovation project of Kanazawa Future City Creation Center is an example of this project since the extension part of the building was made of wood.

As Japan faces significant seismic activity, the plan must comply with stringent safety regulations and fire prevention measures in the aftermath of major earthquakes. Similarly, the document emphasizes the need for the city to secure a sufficient supply of a qualified labor force. Kanazawa’s narrative of “wood culture” is also integrated into its broader policy frameworks. In its SDGs objectives document, Kanazawa advocates a sustainable urban development model based on harmony with nature, history, and culture [63]. Moreover, the city aims to reduce waste and improve recycling to foster the creation of a recycling society, as well as to promote the use of renewable energy and enhance building energy efficiency [61,63].

The interview conducted with the craft division of the Kanazawa city government took place in Kanazawa City Hall (Figure 4) in November 2024. The craft division is working in collaboration with the tourism and cultural preservation department to formulate recommendations for the city within the framework of creative policies (Figure 5). When initiatives are from the private sector, the division can also provide assistance to the most elaborate projects.

The first part of the interview confirmed some findings of the initiative review in 4.1 about the support of creative industries, since the main motivation of Kanazawa to apply for the UCCN was the UNESCO branding power, whereas networking was seen as a solution for the decline of the traditional craft industries since it made possible the connection with international networks. However, the second part of the interview revealed that creative city planning appears isolated in terms of policy articulation, especially with environmental policies (Figure 5). In Kanazawa, creative city policies mainly emanate from policies related to craft industries, culture preservation, and tourism. In this sense, the mention of the Basic Environmental Plan [61] and the “Wood Culture City” [62] project did not resonate with the craft division officer when discussing environmental issues and urban planning, even if the creative city concept is explicitly mentioned in the “Wood Culture City” plan. As for SDGs [63], it appears that even if the topic is discussed during the conferences Kanazawa is invited to, the division does not understand how to integrate it into the creative city plan other than through educational events or informative booths during festivals. Lastly, citizens’ participation in the creative city is only tackled from the point of view of civic pride through the recognition of the city’s cultural capital by UNESCO and some volunteer contributions during the organization of workshops.

In addition to the hearing survey with the Craft Policy Division, a field survey was conducted in November 2024 in Kanazawa Future City Creation Center. The facility takes place in a former elementary school in the Nomachi district (Figure 4). The project is a public–private partnership managed and operated by Kanazawa City, with the business activities being carried out by CLL [66], a general incorporated association that was selected through a public proposal process. In the last MMR (2017–2020), Kanazawa Future City Creation Center is presented as a four-story educational innovative hub seeking to facilitate entrepreneurship, the development of human resources, and children’s creativity [60]. The center opened in late 2021 and has been conceived as a multifunctional facility. It welcomes the Kanazawa Institute of Food Tech & Art (which gathers traditional recipes of Kanazawa cuisine and carries out experiences for new dishes), Tenjo Kanazawa (which supports young entrepreneurs), Vivistop Kanazawa (an NPO for developing creative projects with children), and a café. A field survey was conducted in the building, as well as an informal discussion with a staff member from the NPO Vivistop Kanazawa in November 2024.

The first floor of the building is dedicated to the café, while the next floors gather co-working spaces, meeting rooms for seminars, and bureaus of business associations aiming at supporting young entrepreneurs. The Kanazawa Institute of Food Tech & Art recently held an exhibition dedicated to the Future Town Farm Project, aiming at developing compost initiatives in Kanazawa. Surrounding citizens are invited to bring their leftovers in order to be turned into natural soil fertilizer at Nomachi farm, which, in return, provides vegetables for the center’s restaurant. The third floor of the building is occupied by the NPO Vivistop Kanazawa, which aspires to stimulate children’s creativity. Children can benefit from lectures and workshops organized by professionals from various sectors (craftsmen, designers, entrepreneurs, artists…) while enjoying equipment such as music studios, 3D printers, and even cooking facilities without paying any membership fees. The NPO is funded by the city and currently gathers a hundred children, who decide for themselves the project they want to carry out. Climate change issues are systematically presented to children through lectures and workshops to inform them about current environmental sustainability challenges and give them some inspiration for personal projects. One successful project dealing with fish industry waste caught the attention of a designer company and may lead to the commercialization of fish-based leather with an associated recycling structure. Similarly, plastic recycling issues led some children to design objects made of recycled PET bottles that the elderly from the Nomachi district had brought to the center. The discussion with Vivistop staff also revealed that the elderly of Nomachi district had often come to the center since the implementation of the compost project (between Kanazawa Institute of Food Tech & Art and the building’s café), as it was an opportunity for them to recreate social links.

The field survey thus revealed that if the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center was originally presented as an innovative hub mainly for business creation and education purposes, it is also a room for prospects toward environmental sustainability through local compost initiatives and plastic recycling. One can note that social cohesion with the elderly of the district through their participation in the recycling project is also a possible indirect result.

5. Discussions

This section aims to compare the findings of the synthesis in operationalization of the creative city policy in Japan, outlined in 4.1, with considerations of the literature and UNESCO’s agenda. Its objective is to discuss and critically assess the identified trends in the implementation of the creative city concept in light of the theoretical framework initiated by Landry [1] and subsequently refined in the literature. Furthermore, it offers commentary on the urban narratives present in the MMRs, particularly concerning environmental sustainability. Finally, this section eventually discusses the opportunities and challenges for the integration of environmental sustainability into the creative city agenda of Kanazawa in light of the results of the case study underlined in Section 4.2.

5.1. Discussions on the Content of the Analyzed Cities’ Creative City Policies

5.1.1. Economic Emphasis and Social Prospects

The Literature Review section emphasized that various scholars discussed the economic aspects of the creative city and the related cultural development model. In general, scholars agree on the necessity to find an equilibrium between the production system and the urban cultural environment [3,13,24,40].

The Results section confirmed that the reports emphasize creativity as a means to stir up local industries and promote value creation in the urban space. This value creation is realized through support for creative industries and entrepreneurship, aiming at “expanding of sales channels” and “cultivating human resources”. In this sense, the monitoring reports sometimes integrate what one could call a corporate lexical field that is normally found in big corporations’ milieu. Put another way, this approach is a solution for some cities within the set that was found to counter the decline of these local industries that can hardly compete with international firms in a globalization context (especially in the regional and rural cities). The development of creative industries thus relies on branding strategy, coupled with the UNESCO logo [18] and the commercialization of cultural goods for tourists, who year after year always come to Japan in more numerous numbers. The production is nonetheless usually culture-based and far from mass production models. When mentioning tourism, cities refer to the Creative Tourism concept coined by UNESCO during the 2008 Santa Fe Conference [57]. If tourism is an effective way for the cities to promote their distinctive place-specific characteristics (through cultural goods or experiences), there is nonetheless a risk of commoditization of these cultural assets over truly cultural value [4,15,40,58]. Following concerns in urban quality formulated by Scott [3], and Trip and Romein [13], the study sheds light on the establishment of new cultural amenities and artist-in-residence programs, showing cities’ consent to invest in facilities and programs that do not forcibly bring direct financial gain but contribute to increasing their cultural supply. Furthermore, artists can be used to revitalize old urban wastelands (see the Assembridge project in Nagoya port) or abandoned buildings due to depopulation in Tamba-Sasayama. As for education aspects, Table 5 shows that actions toward children were systematically mentioned in all analyzed cities. The comparative review indeed show a real concern for initiatives related to children’s access to culture through multiple workshops and partnerships with museums. The role of universities and research institutes as idea generators might be a moot point, as their mentions vary from one city to another, although Sasaki [24] considers it a requisite condition for a creative city to have pro-active educational facilities. Sapporo mentions projects, including students, researchers, and artists, in the city’s new community plaza. At the same time, Kanazawa sheds light on renovation and relocation projects of some higher education facilities while integrating scholarships into its creative city budget. Naturally, the size of the city impacts the presence of some higher education facilities. In small cities, collaborative projects can emerge, as in Tamba-Sasayama, where the city’s Rural Innovation Lab was established with Kobe University.

In 2016, Kakiuchi [10] urged for more consideration toward social welfare in Japanese creative city policies. The previous section showed that the question of social inclusion is evoked in the selected cities through the enhancement of cultural supply and civic pride within the urban spaces. This is consistent with previous research [31] showing that fostering city identity was one of the main objectives of Japanese creative cities (and not only those certified by UNESCO). The study also retrieved initiatives related to the integration of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). If the integration of PWDs is without a doubt a tall order in the urban space, the literature usually stresses the need to reintegrate homeless persons in urban life [1,17] and address minorities’ issues [24], as it is a condition for the sustainability of the creative city project [40]. The synthesis work did not reveal any projects aiming at tackling such issues, although some successful projects exist in Japan, such as the reintegration of former homeless men in Osaka under the support of NPO-led actions [17,24]. In addition, in a country experiencing an aging population, one could expect more initiatives related to the integration of elderly people in creative city plans (Kobe only briefly refers to it). Similarly, when considering the case of minorities, social inclusion could have been an opportunity to discuss the question of Ainu through discrimination rather than the cultural promotion prism in Sapporo and Asahikawa. In parallel, the analyzed reports leave little space for NPOs and citizen-led initiatives despite the literature’s remarks advocating that NPOs are conducive to creativity as they are not guided by economic purposes [1,17]. Rather, organizations quoted in the reports mention public–private partnerships and city-established structures playing an intermediary role between the city, the private sector, and the citizens. Except for “Our Creative Hamamatsu”, independent NPOs and bottom-up initiatives seem not to play a preponderant role in project implementation, nor within the establishment of the creative city action plan in the set of cities.

Therefore, the present paper details the content of creative city policies in a variety of Japanese cities. In all cities, economic prospects dominate the creative city plans compared to social questions that are superficially evoked. The policies indeed target tourism and creative industries as a means to revitalize the local economy and resist the industrial decline induced by unavoidable globalization. In addition, increasing the cultural supply and enhancing urban quality, with new cultural facilities and artists-in-residence programs, are also the object of various initiatives in the selected cities. Finally, yet importantly, the study showed that actions towards children were explicitly mentioned in all reports, probably serving an indirect purpose, namely, encouraging young couples to have children and thereby counteracting the declining birth rate.

5.1.2. Environmental Sustainability Aspects and Urban Narratives

UNESCO 2024 Evaluation report about the UCCN’s activity states that “discussions on global sustainability challenges are generally not present in MMRs” [20]. The expressions “climate change”, “environmental sustainability”, or “planet boundaries” appear rarely or are absent from the reports, since the cities prefer the use of expressions like “development in harmony with nature” or “eco-friendly city” without detailing the content of such considerations. In the 2017 Sapporo MMR, the city included in the appendices the main elements of the Sapporo City Development Strategic Vision, in which a chapter is dedicated to environmental measures. The analysis of the MMRs suggests that currently, cities consider environmental sustainability not to be explicitly in the scope of the creative city conceptual framework, as it is already tackled by some other plans. Does this mean the creative city policy is just one of many concepts and plans the selected cities have? This is not necessarily the case since Section 4 showed that the analyzed MMRs already span multiple policy areas such as cultural promotion, industrial development, urban design, tourism, and education. In addition, the Japanese body of academic literature recalls that the creative city policy has the goal of being a comprehensive plan covering diverse policy areas [31]. Similarly, Oka and Yoshimura argue that the concept of the creative city is not just about industry–academia collaboration or the formation of an economically oriented industrial cluster: they call for action plans that have spillover effects on other fields related to welfare [30].

One explanation for the absence of integrated discussions within the MMRs might be found in the imaginaries that shaped the creative city. In [15], Pratt points out that creative cities’ representations are an “assemblage that is represented by the interweaving of the ideas of culture, creativity, and liberalism and their association with the city”. Similarly, Andres and Chapain investigated the “culture-centric” and “econo-centric” prospects that dominate creative city approaches [46]. Lastly, Grodac [67] points out that the creative city is above all the results of three economic-led narratives (staging the city for consumption, replacing the manufacturing economy with cultural industries, and gentrification in attracting artists) that were aiming at “urbanizing cultural policy”. Consequently, when it comes to the creative city imaginaries, scholars point out that urban imaginaries were mainly shaped by neoliberal prospects, post-industrial transitions, and cultural policy [15,46,67].

There is evidence suggesting that the 2007 financial crisis and the resulting austerity measures in Northern economies contributed to the evolution of creative city narratives. These changes have indeed emphasized the need for urban planners to reinvest in the role of creativity as a means of fostering social cohesion, particularly as social welfare systems weakened under the simultaneous pressure of rising unemployment and increased social expenditures [17,24,33]. By contrast, it appears that counter-imaginaries centered on an eco-creative city, using creativity to address ecological consciousness, sustainable practices, and resilient urban planning, are still struggling to emerge, even though recent articles discussed the idea of a creative city that is more respectful of the environment [42,43,44,45,47]. A 2024 article focusing on the Saint Marti District in Barcelona nonetheless concluded that the practical implementation of the creative city could deviate from the entrepreneurial and economic imaginaries usually shaping the institutional narratives [44]. The article eventually stresses the need to challenge the traditional antagonistic view of the “creative city” vs. “sustainable city” [44]. Following the concerns of previous research, this article directly examined how the operationalization of the creative city concept in Japan engaged with environmental sustainability, specifically by identifying initiatives that address climate change or reference concepts related to planetary boundaries [36].

The comparative review conducted in Section 4.1 did not reveal ambitious actions aiming at addressing environmental prospects. However, the analysis retrieved creative city projects that actually present potential to be integrated as environmentally sustainable projects, particularly concerning the “Physical Urban Space” criterion. For example, when presenting the redevelopment of Sannomiya city center toward a more “people-oriented space” through pedestrianization projects and the opening of the new bus line “Port-loop”, Kobe does not evoke the potential benefits in terms of carbon dioxide emission reductions of these projects, nor the impact on air quality. Similarly, the requalification of former urban wasteland into exhibition spaces, such as those in Nagoya’s port (Table 6) and Kanazawa’s former Nomachi School (Figure 4), emphasizes renovation over new construction. Rather, the representations of such projects are oriented toward accessibility, comfort, and the cityscape aesthetic. New considerations of the creative city in light of environmental sustainability are nonetheless emerging in Japanese creative cities: the study revealed encouraging perspectives in the rural cities of the set. In this sense, the gastronomy cities of Tsuruoka and Usuki draw the shape of a new form of creativity centered on a recycling-oriented society, fostering the consumption of locally produced food, while Tamba-Sasayama advocates a sustainable rural model through circular economy circuits and the preservation of local biodiversity. Moreover, the role of children’s workshops as a means of raising awareness about environmental sustainability also encompasses sustainability goals related to recycling and sustainable consumption patterns.

This rethinking of the notion of creativity centered on environmental challenges was probably the goal of UNESCO with the integration of the 2030 Agenda into the UCCN’s scope. The work realized in the previous section highlighted an interesting point: the most recent MMRs usually included more mentions of sustainable environmental initiatives compared to the old ones. This suggests that the integration of the SDGs agenda into the UCCN network nonetheless contributed to pushing the cities to include more (yet sometimes vague) references related to environmentally sustainable development. Thus, even if the integration of the SDGs initially disoriented the member cities at first [11], it may have had the merit of initiating introspective work among cities about the possibilities for integrating environmentally sustainable development into their creative city agendas and initiating a new narrative within the creative city concept.

Since the end of World War II, the Japanese central government has exercised strong control over local governments through legal regulations and budgetary allocations. Despite the implementation of decentralization policies after 2000 (such as the “Omnibus Decentralization Law” [68] and the “Trinity Reform” [69]), which strengthened the authority of local governments in planning, fiscal decentralization has lagged, thereby limiting their autonomy. It is thus noteworthy to relate to the poor integration of environmental sustainability within the creative city framework with the Japanese legal context. Indeed, the strong influence of the central government often results in local government lacking autonomy to implement integrative policies addressing local environmental challenges effectively [70]. In light of the challenges raised by depopulation and Tokyo pursuing concentration, decentralization movements have nonetheless continued since the 2010s, as exemplified by regional revitalization policies (chihou sousei) led under the Abe administration, to further empower local areas.

Additionally, the top-down nature of SDG implementation, combined with the previously mentioned political constraints, may render certain goals less compatible with local realities and resemble a one-size-fits-all approach. In the light of these challenges, more flexible, locally tailored strategies—potentially driven by initiatives arising from creative city policies—could provide alternative avenues for embedding environmental sustainability within urban development policies.

5.2. Opportunities for Environmental Sustainability in Kanazawa’s Creative City Plan

One can assert without hesitation that Kanazawa already has urban policies that, while not being seen as creative city policies, actually contribute to environmental sustainability [61,62,63,70,71,72]. Yet, these prospects are not present in the creative city action plans of the city, although some of them can be connected to Kanazawa’s creative industries.

One explanation for the absence of environmental sustainability prospects in the creative city action plans is that the scope of the creative city in Kanazawa may be too narrow compared to the transversal approach advocated by Landry [1] and Sasaki [21,22,23,24,25] or, to a lesser extent, compared to UNESCO’s vision through the SDGs. In Kanazawa, the concept of creativity is still centered on economic and cultural representations (Figure 5). Another explanation, confirmed by the hearing survey with the craft division, might be the still compartmentalized aspect of the Japanese administration, leaving few opportunities for synergies inside the decision process, as Sasaki previously acknowledged [24]. In this sense, Figure 5 shows few articulations of the creative city policy with urban planning other than the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center. Therefore, encompassing a broader scope in the creative city plan by rethinking the notion of creativity through an environmental sustainability prism might be the opportunity for Kanazawa to serve two goals at once. On one hand, it would be a milestone in the integration of the SDGs into its action plan, as required by UNESCO [20]. On the other hand, it would enable fostering synergies within the city divisions while improving environmental sustainability and enhancing urban planning.

This new value of creativity aligns with Kanazawa’s local context and opens an avenue for a better integration of environmental sustainability prospects, as illustrated by Figure 6.

Given the local context of the craft industries, which are highly dependent on wood quality, the “Wood Culture City” [62] project may present an opportunity to bridge the gap between Kanazawa’s creative city policy and environmental sustainability initiatives. As explained in the case study, the plan spans multiple policy areas. Not only does it address economic prospects related to the wood and forest industries, but it also aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the construction sector (the plan indicates that for residential housing, the wooden housing emissions per surface unit are almost twice as low as for non-wooden buildings [62]). By enhancing the architectural value of the city with more wooden textures in the urban space, the “Wood Culture City” can also align with the creative city policy by capitalizing on the ongoing branding strategy of “Creative City of Craft”. Despite these gains, this integration faces several notable hurdles, chief among them being the strict safety regulations imposed due to Japan’s high seismic activity. In addition, as the global economy shifts toward services and the knowledge economy [1,2,3,4,5], the sustainability of the workforce might also become a moot point, as the plan targets crafts and forestry-related industries. These industries are indeed struggling to attract the young generation, and Kanazawa dedicated one entire pillar to tackling this issue (“Training Successors in Traditional Industries” [59,60]). This concern is especially relevant in areas like the Hokuriku region, where population decline and aging are ongoing issues.

In parallel, circular economy circuits and compost initiatives spearheaded by the Kanazawa Institute of Food Tech & Art present an opportunity to initiate discussions on implementing a large-scale circular economy circuit in the Hokuriku region, highlighting the socio-environmental effects of such initiatives. Furthermore, they comply with the objectives of implementing a recycling-oriented society in Kanazawa and the promotion of eating locally produced food (Figure 6). Following this idea, the field survey revealed that the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center appears to be a hub of ideas, providing an environment conducive for creative ideas centered on actual socio-environmental challenges, in addition to its initial economically driven purpose. Yet, as inflation hits Japan and wages remain stagnant, the consumption of locally produced food or even organic products may be limited by high prices, even with a consistent labeling system.

The paper thereby contributed to re-examining the notion of creativity, suggesting pathways to bridge the gap between “environmental sustainability” and the “creative city” in Kanazawa. The conducted case study indeed unveiled notable opportunities to connect existing plans in the city, tackling environmental challenges with the local creative city plans (Figure 6). These discussions on Kanazawa do not aim at being generalized, as environmental sustainability prospects shall avoid the one-size-fits-all approaches. However, they stress the need to rethink creativity with respect to environmental sustainability. One limitation of the research is the applicability to this rethink of creativity in other municipalities with fields like literature, music, or film. Indeed, as UNESCO [20] noticed, “Some examples of contribution to environmental sustainability can be found in Cities of Design, Crafts, and Gastronomy, which show awareness of the importance of the natural environment to their value chains”. Further research may explore these issues for cities in which the natural environment is not directly connected to their value chain.

6. Conclusions

This paper examined the detailed content of creative city policies in ten UNESCO-certified Japanese cities, drawing on a qualitative review of Membership Monitoring Reports (MMRs) submitted by the cities to UNESCO. As shown in the qualitative analysis, the creative city concept is, above all, a means to counter the current issues Japan is facing, namely the downsizing economy and the birth decrease. Action plans thus focus on the support for creative industries and the related human resources while promoting the increase in tourism. In this sense, the UCCN brought to the selected cities an international aura that could be used in branding strategies for tourism and industrial promotion to expand the sales channels of the creative industries. These strategies also foster the internationalization of the workforce and help stimulate the local culture-based economy facing cut-throat competition raised by globalization. In parallel, as Japan is facing depopulation, many initiatives related to families and children were included in the action plans, potentially serving as indirect strategies to create a supportive environment for raising children amid demographic decline. Japanese UNESCO creative cities also emphasize their motivations to improve access to culture for the new generation through collaborative cultural projects, including schools and museums, as well as providing new cultural and creative facilities. When it comes to governance and citizens’ participation, the initial vision of Charles Landry, aiming at fundamentally changing governance at every level, is not explicitly present in the implementations of the selected cities. Though the analyzed plans span multiple policy areas, they remain an operational tool in a persistent vertical organization, proper to the Japanese administrative system. From the urban space perspective, creative city policies enable the establishment of new cultural amenities and creative city platform projects in renovated buildings, the production of people-oriented space, and the preservation of traditional cityscapes.

Though some projects retrieved from the analysis may contribute to environmental sustainability (such as pedestrianization projects or renovation of urban wastelands), the paper pointed out that these prospects are generally overlooked in the analyzed reports. It is in the rural cities (usually cities of gastronomy, crafts, and design) that the most ambitious actions were retrieved, with initiatives addressing circular economy, natural resource management, and biodiversity preservation. This absence of environmental prospects can be explained by the narratives of the creative city. Discussions showed that the imaginaries of the creative city relating to creativity to tackle environmental issues are still marginalized, as the representations of the creative city gravitate only around economic, cultural, and social prospects. Integrating environmental sustainability into the creative city agenda thus requires rethinking the notion of creativity within the current urban narratives.

Furthermore, this paper examined Kanazawa as a case study to explore the intersection of creative city policies and environmental sustainability. The hearing survey conducted with the Craft Policy Division indicated that the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the UNESCO agenda has not substantially influenced the formulation of the city’s planning strategies. Indeed, environmental sustainability is not prioritized as a primary concern since it is addressed by other plans across various divisions. Nonetheless, the paper elucidates potential pathways for connecting Kanazawa’s creative city policy with environmental sustainability initiatives. For example, leveraging its branding strategy of “Craft Creative City” alongside support for craft industries, Kanazawa could integrate its creative city framework with the utilization of timber in the construction sector to facilitate the decarbonization of buildings. Additionally, findings from the field survey at the Kanazawa Future City Creation Center—one of the outputs of the creative city policy—revealed spontaneous actions toward environmental sustainability, such as local recycling initiatives and education on ecological challenges for children. Consequently, the case study suggests that Kanazawa may expand the scope of its creative city policy to include and foster existing environmentally sustainable initiatives. This integration would not only align the city with UNESCO’s SDGs but also enhance urban spaces in a manner that respects the local context while contributing to the development of a new representation of a more ecologically oriented creative city.

Therefore, this paper provided significance for urban planners in detailing and synthesizing the content of creative city policies across various cities (from rural cities to densely populated metropolitan cities) while discussing the integration of environmental sustainability within the creative city plan. However, the current study has several limitations. A more robust approach to analysis could include quantitative indicators to assess the scale and the impacts of the retrieved initiatives. Additionally, future research could examine cities that are currently seeking certification from either the UCCN or the Creative City Network of Japan (CCNJ). This would provide insight into how environmental sustainability is integrated into creative city strategies before the influence of these institutional frameworks takes hold. Finally, as stated in the introduction, focusing only on Kanazawa City in the case study is one of the research gaps of the present paper. Kanazawa is a regional city whose urban policies have been centered on historical and cultural preservation since the 1990s, creating de facto a conducive environment to implement a creative city strategy in the early 2000s. Consequently, the findings of the case study shall be generalized to cities that have continuously implemented ambitious cultural policies over the last decades and are surrounded by natural environments as well.