**1. Introduction**

*1.1. Research Purpose and Preceding Research*

Japan's urban planning system has changed in various ways through the Tokyo City Improvement Ordinance (1888) and the City Planning Law (1919). From 1895 to 1945 (Japanese colonization era), Japan applied and tested its urban planning in Taipei (1895–1945), Seoul (1910–1945, Gyeongseong, reported as Seoul in the text except for the maps and laws), and Beijing (1936–1945). The present study aims at examining the characteristics of Tokyo's urban planning and revealing how Japan's urban planning transformed these cities in East Asia, which had different cultures and styles, during Japanese colonial rule (see Figure 1).

There has been a pile of previous studies on each city's urban planning during Japanese colonial rule. Studies on Tokyo's urban planning include Yorihusa Ishida's study on the history of Japan's land readjustment systems [1], Akira Koshizawa's study on Tokyo's urban planning [2], and Terunobu Fujimor's study on urban planning in Tokyo [3].

Studies on Seoul's urban planning during Japanese colonial rule include Koshizawa's study on social capital rebuilding [4], Son Jung-mok's historical study [5], Yasushi Goto's study on street renewal in Seoul [6,7], and Yum Bok-gyu's study on urban planning process and urban expansion [8].

Studies on Taipei during Japanese colonial rule include Koshizawa's study and Hwang Se-maeng's historical study [9,10] and Goto's study on the formation of households in

**Citation:** Lee, K.; Yang, S. A Comparison of Urban Planning in Eastern Asian Capitals during Japanese Colonial Rule: Tokyo, Taipei (1895), Seoul (1910), and Beijing (1936). *Sustainability* **2023**, *15*, 4502. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054502

Academic Editors: Lucia Della Spina, Maria Rosa Valluzzi, Paola Pellegrini, Antonia Russo and Angela Viglianisi

Received: 22 December 2022 Revised: 26 February 2023 Accepted: 27 February 2023 Published: 2 March 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

Taipei [11–13]. Studies on Beijing include Koshizawa's historical study [14] and Yoon Hyung-jin's study on urban planning [15].

**Figure 1.** Research sites.

Comparative studies include Goto's research on the system of urban renewal in Seoul and Taipei [16,17]. Goto analyzed the changed use of spaces due to the collapse of feng shui geomancy and explained the renovation and formation of downtown Seoul and Taipei as urban renewal. Bae Hyun-mi's comparative study focused on the formation of downtowns in Korea and Japan [18] and Kim Baek-young's comparative study investigated urban renewal in Seoul and Tokyo [19]. Goto's study compares each ordinance's establishment process and practical differences in Joseon's Seoul, Taiwan's Taipei, and China's Dalian and Manchuria under colonial rule [17].

Prior studies have either focused on various topics of cities under Japanese colonial rule or compared them to Tokyo. The capitals of East Asia possess the characteristic of being traditional cities prior to Japanese colonial rule. This study aims to uncover the distinct characteristics of urban planning by comparing and analyzing the effects of Japanese urban planning on the capitals of East Asian countries during the colonial era.
