Public–private partnership in a smart city: A curious case in Japan

Previous studies have overlooked how partnerships between public and private actors (PPPs) play out as an effect of cultural and historical conditions in the context of a smart city. Our analysis investigates the peculiar context of Japan, where smart city initiatives stem from a historically and culturally embedded “partnership” between government and businesses. Unlike other smart city settings, the adoption of a neoliberal logic of an all-embracing market world by prioritizing business interests over other civic issues is not inevitable. This paper contributes to the literature on PPPs and smart cities by presenting the case of a partnership between public and private actors that overcomes the antagonistic and transactional relationship problematized in previous studies. We demonstrate that the workings of PPPs are historically and culturally embedded. Thus, we caution policy-makers against adopting a universal framework for partnerships in smart city initiatives. In the case of Japan, we advocate for long term orientations of projects instead of the short-term goals espoused by smart city initiatives.