The Establishment and Development of Neighborhood Associations in the Post-War Naha City of Okinawa Prefecture

Abstract

This paper discusses how neighborhood associations in Naha City were formed and termed jichi-kai after World War II (WWII), and it explores the role of the administrative area, which is referred to as gyohsei-ku, for forming jichi-kai associations. Jichi-kai is a new type of local entity and is expected to take the place of existing long-established local communities, often referred to as Aza. After WWII, many people from all over the Okinawa islands hurried to get jobs in Naha, which caused the Naha population to grow and urbanize. This, in turn, lead to the development of new associations called kyohyu-kai. Not surprisingly, association with a kyohyu-kai is based on a person’s origin, which makes membership in these organizations exclusive. Eventually, some kyohyu-kai associations arose that were essentially equivalent to the jichi-kais. By the same token, membership in the Aza communities has been restricted since ancient times, and this system has since been renamed jichi-kai, which is also restricted. Aza communities exclude people from different neighborhoods from joining because some Aza communities have particular assets, such as shared land, that they can use to generate financial benefits, like renting land for military bases. That is why the participation rate in Naha City associations is unusually low―2030%―compared with the participation rates for neighborhood associations in other Japanese cities. From this background information, this paper extracts four types of associations. The first two are authorized neighborhood associations: one is here referred to as “Azatype jichi-kai” and the other is referred to as the “Non Aza-type jichi-kai.” The third type is simply called kyohyu-kai, in which people are able to mutually receive comfort and assistance. Finally, the fourth is known as an assent-management entity, which gives large sums of financial support to neighborhood associations.