21st Century (2000–present)

Yokohama MM21 – later phases (North/East Districts)

2010s– · Japan · East Asia – Japan · Post-industrial regeneration and waterfront urbanism · Planned by City of Yokohama

Minato Mirai 21 block plan (街区開発状況図): the City of Yokohama's official district plan showing the numbered blocks of the Central, Shinko and Yokohama Station East districts · © City of Yokohama — used with credit · City of Yokohama, Urban Development Bureau — Minato Mirai 21 block development status plan

Core idea

Completion of office/residential waterfront

Why it matters

Sustained realization of portfront CBD

Description

The later development phases of Minato Mirai 21, Yokohama's waterfront central business district begun in the 1980s on former shipyard and railway land. From the 2010s the City of Yokohama guided the build-out of the remaining northern and eastern districts, filling long-vacant blocks with corporate headquarters, research and development campuses, music arenas and residential towers to complete the office and residential waterfront envisaged in the original plan. The city retained design guidance over massing, ground-floor uses and the public waterfront promenade.

Significance

MM21's later phases demonstrate the sustained, decades-long realisation of a port-front central business district, a rarity among large waterfront projects that often stall after initial phases. The district is frequently cited in Japanese planning as a model of patient municipal land management and incremental completion, and its recent shift towards research campuses and entertainment venues reflects the changing economic content of waterfront regeneration.

What shaped it

Landscape urbanism (Waldheim) (1997-2006)
World becomes majority urban (2007)
Global financial crisis (2007–2009)

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →

hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.