「梅小路」問題と日本の観光（NYT） - Living, Loving, Thinking, Again

HIROKO TABUCHI “As Kyoto Attractions, Wave Pools vs. Temples” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/business/08kyoto.html

京都の「梅小路公園」に水族館を建設するというオリックスのプランとそれに反対する住民運動；

KYOTO, Japan — A dolphin pool, a penguin park and a giant wave pool could soon join the imperial-era townhouses and ancient Buddhist temples in Kyoto, Japan’s former imperial capital.
As early as June, work will begin on a mammoth aquarium complex in central Kyoto, in leafy Umekoji Park at the center of the city. A brainchild of the Orix Real Estate Corporation, the project could breathe new life into Kyoto’s tourism industry by attracting more than two million visitors a year, developers say.
But to opponents, the proposed aquarium, set to open in 2012, is a misguided enterprise that threatens to destroy Kyoto’s historic ambience. Adding to the disgrace, they say, is Orix’s plan to showcase dolphins in a 19,000-square-foot pool at a time when the nation is under fire for hunting thousands of dolphins and porpoises each year.
“Kyoto should not be building concrete boxes,” said Shinsho Kajita, head priest at the Honen-in Buddhist temple in Kyoto and leader of a growing local protest movement against Orix’s plans.

また、Alex Kerr氏のコメント；

Nowhere is Japan’s weakness in tourism more evident than in Kyoto, said Alex Kerr, a longtime resident and founder of Iori, a company that since 2004 has restored 10 old townhouses, or machiya, in the city to rent out to visitors.
In the postwar period, Kyoto has shown little concern for preserving the traditional neighborhoods that would most appeal to foreign tourists, he said. The pace of destruction gathered speed in the 1990s; more than 40,000 old wooden homes disappeared from central Kyoto that decade, according to the International Society to Save Kyoto.
Though ancient temples and gardens remain in the city, they are overwhelmed by the sprawling mass of gray buildings and neon signs that dominate the skyscape — the product of ineffective zoning policies in the city, Mr. Kerr said.

それから、水族館のほかに京都で進められている箱物プロジェクトとしては、2014年オープンを目指しているJR西日本の鉄道博物館があるそうな。
記事の中で興味深かったのは日本の観光産業の現況；

Whether or not Kyoto gets the 118,000-square-foot aquarium, experts say that Japan clearly needs to re-examine its approach to tourism, a $944 billion industry worldwide — bigger than autos, bigger than steel.
Despite choice destinations like ancient Kyoto and modern, bustling Tokyo, as well as beach and ski resorts, Japan attracted just 8.4 million foreign visitors in 2008 — a small fraction of France’s 79 million, the United States’ 58 million or China’s 53 million, according to the World Tourism Organization*1. In 2009, the number of foreign visitors to Japan dropped an additional 18.7 percent, to 6.79 million, amid the global recession, according to Japan’s government.
Japan earned just $10.8 billion from foreign tourism in 2008, a tenth of the $110 billion the United States earned from overseas tourists that year. Ukraine and Macau each attract more foreign tourists a year than Japan.

また、日本の観光産業の問題点としての徹底した内需指向；

But critics point out that until now, the tourism market has been geared almost exclusively to domestic travelers, which means that much of Japan’s tourist infrastructure does not meet the expectations of foreign tourists.
Japan’s tourism strategy has also been driven by investment in engineering projects and theme parks rather than the protection of the country’s natural and cultural riches, an oversight that some experts say has cost the country dearly in tourism dollars.

また、Kerr氏のコメント；

According to Mr. Kerr, the government has long neglected investment in tourism, which it sees as an industry that supports only menial, low-paid jobs. Officials overlook the economic activity generated by architects, landscape architects and similar professions, he said.
“Making things has been a Japanese obsession, something that advanced economies do, while tourism was for poor countries,” Mr. Kerr said. “Now the importance has flipped: in today’s economy, it’s software over hardware. But they have been asleep in Tokyo.”

この記事の中で、「水族館」を推進する京都の商工会議所の担当者が「水族館」は中国人観光客を惹き付けることができる、中国には古い寺が沢山あると言っているが、「水族館」なら香港に大きなのがあるしね。また、中国における（日本政府が取材協力をしているような）京都や奈良に関する観光言説の殆どは、京都や奈良には中国では失われてしまった古い中国があるというノリのものだ*2。
「梅小路」問題については例えば、

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/umeten/20100307/p2

また、

「京都水族館（仮称）と梅小路公園の未来を考える会」http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~qzu03325/caring.html

「水族館」とは全く関係なく、『京都新聞』の記事を切り抜いておく；

「白川文字学」の世界一堂
立命大「文庫」１０日開設
　
　立命館大は、漢字研究の第一人者だった故白川静・名誉教授の蔵書や原稿など計１万７６９２点を収めた「白川静文庫」を１０日、大学図書館（京都市北区）に開設する。「白川文字学」の集大成となる著作「字通」の手書き原稿などの貴重資料を同日から初公開し、壮大な学問の世界を振り返る。
　立命大は、２００６年に９６歳で亡くなった白川氏の遺族から蔵書や原稿などの寄贈を受け、２年余りをかけて整理作業を進めてきた。完成した目録は５００ページに及ぶ。
　文庫は、研究対象とした甲骨文字や金文の研究書などのほか、１９４８年に発表した初の論文「卜辞（ぼくじ）の本質」や、漢字本来の意味や用法を明らかにした１９９６年の著作「字通」の手書き原稿、甲骨文字を写し取ったトレース紙など貴重な資料も含まれる。
　文庫の整理を行った芳村弘道・文学部教授は「文庫には、古事記や日本書紀などの研究ノートもあり、白川先生が『日本とは何か、東洋とは何か』を追究した足跡がうかがえる」と話している。
　文庫は、手続きをすれば貴重資料を除いて図書館内で閲覧できる。文庫の開設を記念した企画展が同図書館で１０日から開催され、手書き原稿など約６０点が公開される。６月２４日まで。祝日休館。
http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P20100508000037&genre=G1&area=K00

*1:http://www.unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/barometer/UNWTO_Barom09_update_sept_en.pdf

*2:建物の古さということだと、京都は奈良は勿論、鎌倉にも敵わないわけだが。