How do we define a good community? When my wife and I got married, the town where we chose to live was one with a lively “shopping street,” 「商店街」. Let’s not forget that even today in Japan, we can still find such places where people gather with a smile on their faces.

When asked about what a good community is, what sort of towns do we imagine? The town we selected, with its main street full of shoppers, provides diverse daily benefits for us. The mindful merchants at the fish store, at the tofu maker. Both our kids were born at the local health clinic. The street’s many “uncles and aunts” befriended them, since their grandparents lived elsewhere. When our kids went on shopping errands and found themselves short of cash, these local relatives would pass on a note saying, “Come with XX yen next time.” Until recently, these shopping streets indeed served as the town’s community center. With the imminent aging of society, the prevalence of the single-person society, we can only hope that this form of lively gathering place will endure, bringing together the new and young alike with the long-time residents who have frequented their favorite 「商店街」. While shopping online is now part of our everyday habits, “going out on the town” and “staying home” mutually remain as vital societal values. Face-to-face encounters, car-free zones where people young and old are its main characters – let’s continue to sustain the role that local shopping streets have served, to nurture a good community.

By Zenichi Irokawa / Urban Planner
Photos by the author

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What makes your own neighborhood a good community? How have you experienced this kind of “face to face” encounter? Submit your experiences through the contact page, Facebook, or on your favorite social media platform with the hashtags #goodcommunity #skymemo #etopos. We will continue adding ideas as they come in.