Yokosuka's Disappeared Ghost Village

One stop to the north of JR Yokosuka Station is Taura Station .... and, like other parts of the City, since there is not a lot of flat land  near the coast, over the years residents built their homes up in the hills and bluffs, often concentrating together in small valleys called: 谷戸 (yato).

One such area was the 4-Chome section of Taura, where two small clusters of houses were built in green-gloomy vales, only accessible via narrow roads (usable by walking or two-wheels) .... the irregularly-shaped areas are shown below, shaded in orange, on the left-hand-side of the small red circle on this map of the Taura area:       

People lived normally in the (inconvenient) Taura 4-Chome until the 1990s, when a land development company came up with a scheme to buy up the housing lots and build a large high-rise housing complex called "Shonan New Town" .... however, the project never materialized, and the area was left untouched for the next 20 years, turning it into 田浦廃村 (Taura Ghost Village) .... and it became famous in among the those who visit, photograph, record, and write/blog about 廃墟  Hai-kyo, or modern ruins .... As one blogger states:

    "Haikyo simply means ruins in Japanese. But haikyo also describes the Japanese version of the hobby known as urban exploration. Haikyoists visit abandoned towns, houses, hospitals, schools, industrial sites, theme parks, and virtually any forgotten or abandoned place. I have explored those beautiful ruins for many years."

Here are examples:

  https://haikyo.org/     

  https://blog.gaijinpot.com/urban-exploration-japan-what-is-haikyo/

And due to its proximity to Tokyo, Yokosuka's haikyo -- Taura Ghost Village -- became famous .... and here are some photos of what it looked like (and a spooky video at the link):

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TOu_lL5Jik

However, a few years ago, Taura Ghost Village disappeared, as a new company started clearing the area for installation of a "Mega-Solar" electricity generation plant (currently under construction) .... this will be the second such installation in Yokosuka City .... The first one is located in the Takeyama hills area, and looks like this:

 













Taura's 4-Chome Ghost Village has really joined the ghost world .... All gone, except for ones and zeros, digital memories on the internet....

Coming of the Black Ships ... Biddle's Expedition

The first official American expedition to Japan, the diplomatic mission of Commodore James Biddle, which attempted to establish formal relations between the United States and Japan in 1846.

Although overshadowed by the famous and successful mission of Commodore Matthew Perry seven years later, the Biddle expedition deserves far greater fame.  It was, in fact, the first official contact between America and Japan, and certainly a necessary precursor to Perry's breakthrough of 1853.

The old and rare print images (below) depict Biddle's ships, Columbus and Vincennes, in Tokyo Bay during Biddle's visit of 20~29 July 1846.

Commodore James Biddle, a distinguished naval career officer and scion of a noted Philadelphia family, served his country in a diplomatic capacity on various occasions.  Because of this, he was a reasonable choice in 1845 to head a mission to exchange ratifications of the first treaty between the United States and China, after which he was to attempt to negotiate a treaty with Japan.

Biddle sailed from New York in June 1845, concluding the treaty with China early in 1846 and cruising along the Chinese coast throughout that spring.  In early July, he proceeded to the next part of his mission, sailing for Japan.

Rather than sail for the open port of Nagasaki, he decided to make directly for Edo (modern-day Tokyo), arriving on July 20, mindful of his instructions to "ascertain if the ports of Japan are accessible," but "not in such a manner as to excite a hostile feeling or a distrust of the Government of the United States."

Biddle's ships moved up Tokyo Bay on July 21, 1846, but were stopped by numerous small vessels carrying armed soldiers.  His ships remained at anchor about fifteen miles below Tokyo (offshore Yokosuka) for the duration of their visit. 

After an initial confrontation in which Japanese officials demanded that the Americans surrender their weapons, peaceful relations were established and numerous Japanese visited the ships, bringing many supplies as gifts.

Biddle continued negotiations to be received on shore, without success.  Finally it was arranged that he would present an address to suitable Japanese officials (the Shogun's Magistate in Uraga, present-day Yokosuka) on board a Japanese vessel, and he arrived in full uniform for the occasion.

However, upon boarding the boat the Commodore was deliberately knocked over by a common sailor.  The Japanese officials professed to be mortified, and Biddle accepted their apology without insisting on harsh punishment for the offender.

Subsequently there was much debate over whether Biddle had helped or hurt the American position by losing face or being magnanimous, depending on one's point of view, and this dialectic is still pursued by historians today.  In any case, much of Commodore Perry's behavior in Japan seven years later was designed to avoid such an incident.

Feeling that he had carried out his instructions as far as they could be pursued, Biddle accepted from his reluctant hosts both supplies and a tow out to sea to catch the wind. 

For their part, the Japanese were happy to aid him in departing.  A small fleet of rowboats towed the American warships from their anchorage. 

After the departure on 19 July, Biddle made for Hawaii, where he learned of the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.  As a result, instead of heading home, the Commodore took his warships to the west coast of America to support the conquest of California, and spent the next year there.

Only in March 1848 did Biddle finally arrive back in Norfolk, Virginia.  Biddle arrived home in Philadelphia in April 1848 and died there on 01 October.

The Biddle mission to Japan paved the way for the later successful expedition of Perry, and the latter's famous "Opening of Japan" must be seen in the context of the 1846 expedition.  Perry came not as an isolated phenomenon, but part of an escalating American pressure campaign which was begun by Biddle.

Fuji View From The Flowers

In the Nagai section of western Yokosuka is Soleil Hill Park...

Links:

https://www.feelshonan.jp/en/sightseeing/938

https://en.japantravel.com/kanagawa/le-soleil-amusement-park-yokosuka/4011

From late-January through March, the 菜の花 (Na-no-Hana) are in bloom...

And Mount Fuji can often be seen, looking across Sagami Bay...

Some Objects Along Kaigan-Dori

Yokosuka's Shrinking + Aging Population

Like the rest of Japan, Yokosuka City is facing a demographic challenge, as its population grows older and numbers decline.

In 2013, according to a Japan National Government survey, Yokosuka topped the list of cities whose populations declined due to people moving away to other places.  A likely reason for the exodus being more jobs, opportunities, and excitement up in Yokohama and Tokyo...

Yokosuka's population peaked in 1992, with 435,337 residents.

However, by 2018, the number had declined to 395,000.

Also, as of 2018, for the population of Japan, the percentage of citizens over 65 years old was 28% .... But, for Yokosuka, it was 31% .... Lots of elderly residents, for sure...

What makes things even more challenging is that, back in the day, due to the lack of flat land near the naval harbor area (i.e., where most people worked), houses and apartments were build on-top of near-by bluffs and slopes .... And pretty much any bit of land, not matter how small or strangely-shaped, was used for that purpose...

So, Yokosuka's hills are jam-packed with homes, and many cannot be accessed by cars, requiring long walks up steep paths and stairways .... And as the folks who live in those places get older & more feeble, they are no longer physically able to trudge up to their dwellings .... So, eventually they move out and the result is a large number of abandoned "ghost houses", which are so old and inconvenient that no one wants to live in them...             

   



         

YRP ... Yokosuka Research Park

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/28/business/research-park-offers-high-tech-surrounded-nature/#.XhHaukczaUl

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Birds chirp under blue skies as luscious greenery stretches beyond. Researchers in white lab coats walk to and from the uncluttered chic and modern buildings. This is the natural and clean environment the Yokosuka Research Park (YRP) offers its tenants conducting business there.

Measuring a vast 58 hectares, YRP was originally home to a laboratory of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (the current Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, or NTT). After NTT left the site, the city of Yokosuka decided to court high-tech corporations specializing in information and telecommunications technology to the area. “Since our company owned the land, we cooperated with the city on the YRP project. Opened in 1997, we have worked very closely with the city to develop and promote this site,” explained Masaru Saito, deputy department chief of the Project Planning Department, Development and Administration of Facilities Headquarters of Keihin Electric Express Railway Co.

Originally functioning as the R&D hub for information and telecommunications technology-related corporations, YRP was eventually settled by various other industries. “This is because technological development, especially the evolution and progress of Internet technology, no longer required telecom corporations to operate in geographical proximity. As a result, several of those companies spread out. YRP now serves as home to 60 companies from various industries, while the number of people working there now stands at about 4,000,” said Saito.

Major tenants at YRP include NTT Docomo, the subsidiary of NTT and Japan’s largest mobile communications company; NEC Corporation, one of the leading electric-appliance makers in Japan; Denso Corporation, an automobile parts manufacturer; KDDI Corporation, a top telecommunications operator in Japan; Fujitsu Ltd., a general electronics maker-cum-IT vendor; Alpha Systems Inc., a Japanese independent system integrator; Yazaki Corporation, an auto parts, gas equipment, electric wire, optical fiber, air conditioner, solar equipment and household equipment maker; Nifco Inc., a leading industrial plastic fastener and precision parts maker; as well as the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.

A new addition at YRP in 2015 was Air Liquide Japan, a French company that is a world leader in gases, technologies and services for various industries, especially in the health arena. “We are proud that Air Liquide Japan chose YRP from the four candidate sites near Tokyo they had in mind,” said Saito. One strong point of appeal YRP offered the French company was undoubtedly its excellent natural setting. Furthermore, YRP’s accumulation of telecom industries as well as the “Internet of Things” (IoT), which is a mutually controlled framework of things connected over the Internet or cloud system, know-how was also highly attractive. On top of that, YRP’s convenience store and hotel, as well as its lineup of restaurants serving casual, French and Japanese dishes, turned out to be other points in YRP’s favor. Because companies have visitors coming to them all the time from around Japan and abroad, dining and lodging facilities are very crucial factors that are of concern to any tenants operating at YRP. “Offering proper food and comfortable accommodation to those guests could turn out to be very costly,” noted Saito. In fact, Saito says that he has received many favorable comments from the companies at YRP, since they do not have to worry about finding food or lodging.

Another infrastructural advantage of YRP is its easy access and proximity to the train station. “It’s only a seven-minute bus ride from YRP Nobi Station and it’s only about an hour from Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station. Furthermore, it’s only an hour by train from Haneda Airport,” said Saito. Additionally, since his company operates all the buses to and from YRP, as well as YRP Nobi Station and the trains, Saito said, “We go as far as running additional commuter buses from YRP to the station on the “No Zangyo (overtime) Days” of the NTT-affiliated companies located there.”

In order to make YRP a more comfortable place to work, Saito’s company also sponsors information exchange meetings several times a year, as well as a name card exchange party for the staff of different companies at the beginning of the year. Saito points out that “such occasions allow the researchers to get acquainted with each other and exchange interesting ideas.” He finds such meetings meaningful, as they could well turn into new ventures. Concurrently, Keihin Electric Express Railway collaborates closely with Yokosuka to attract more companies to operate at YRP. “Yokosuka is also very flexible in altering its city plans for YRP, to make the site more appealing for other potential tenants,” he noted.

Furthermore, to raise the overall awareness of nearby residents and nurture a more favorable global image of YRP, Yokosuka has been holding classes every summer at YRP. “This is done by acquiring help from YRP business operators and bringing over prominent British tutors to teach local junior and senior high school students. Accumulating teaching know-how through such action, Yokosuka seeks to ultimately start a new international school by 2020,” explained Saito.

YRP itself seeks to nurture a globally open innovative environment toward a future that contributes to expand YRP’s business scope and solve social issues. The main body for promoting such action is the YRP R&D Promotion Committee that has a membership total of over 160 companies from Japan and overseas. The members are specialists in telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as manufacturers in related fields, research institutions and government organizations. “The committee endeavors to concentrate R&D institutions at YRP and advance R&D in radio and information communication technologies,” said Saito. The current action plan of the committee drawn up according to its fourth Five-Year Vision (FY2012 — FY2017) calls for providing an environment for R&D and experimentation in optical and wireless communications and contribute to the development of advanced info-communication technologies and services. Additionally, the vision looks to support the global expansion movement for info-communication industries, while generating a synergistic effect by enforcing collaboration with enterprises, institutes, the local community and others.

A lush natural environment and state-of-the-art working environment, as well as the infrastructural support of the Keihin Electric Express Railway and Yokosuka are the strengths of YRP. Such features make YRP an ideal R&D and business hub for Japanese and foreign enterprises working on wireless communication technologies, optical communication technologies, big data and beyond. “Together with Yokosuka, Keihin Electric Express Railway looks forward to YRP formulating more outstanding projects and developing the relevant environment that contribute to society and future industrial growth of the area,” Saito concluded.