Community empowerment has emerged as a critical element in urban regeneration, yet its interpretations and institutional manifestations differ significantly across East Asia. This study undertakes a systematic review of empowerment mechanisms in Japan, China, and South Korea to elucidate how varying governance structures influence the extent and limitations of community involvement in redevelopment processes. Utilizing peer-reviewed studies, government documents, and comparative policy analyses published between 2000 and 2025, this review explores three dimensions of empowerment: institutional arrangements, participatory practices, and socio-spatial outcomes. The findings indicate that Japan’s "machizukuri" system provides relatively stable avenues for neighborhood-level decision-making, whereas community participation in China is expanding but remains entrenched within state-led governance frameworks. South Korea presents a more hybrid model, where community autonomy is promoted through social innovation programs and locally driven initiatives. Nonetheless, throughout the region, empowerment is consistently hindered by uneven participation capacity, fragmented institutional mandates, and the predominance of administrative actors in the final decision-making. The comparative framework connecting legal and administrative arrangements to the actual scope of community influence in regeneration processes, while underscoring the need for more empirical research on how these mechanisms function across different project stages. This review lays the groundwork for future empirical research on how empowerment can be translated into more equitable and sustainable forms of urban governance in East Asian cities.

Authors:
Shuhan Zhao, Waseda University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Shuhan Zhao is a doctoral student in environmental law and urban policy at the Graduate School of Social Sciences, Waseda University, Japan.

See this presentation on the full schedule – On Demand Schedule

Bookmark