Kawasaki, hip hop city: Urban culture as city planning in Japan

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dc.check.date2026-10-31
dc.contributor.authorNg, Jason
dc.contributor.authorRollefson, J. Griffith
dc.contributor.funderTaighde Éireann - Research Ireland, Grant agreement No. 2023/1543
dc.contributor.funderEuropean Research Council, Grant agreement No. 819143
dc.date.accessioned2026-03-30T08:50:06Z
dc.date.available2026-03-30T08:50:06Z
dc.date.issued2026-01
dc.description.abstractThis paper examines Kawasaki City's innovative cultural policy development, which strategically integrates hip hop culture into city-building initiatives. Long recognized as an industrial hub, over the last decade Kawasaki has reimagined its urban identity through youth culture and creative expression, positioning hip hop as a key driver for cultural regeneration and social cohesion. By supporting local hip hop practitioners, such as dancers, musicians, and visual artists, Kawasaki has fostered a dynamic creative ecosystem that supports arts on the periphery, linking the city’s history of progressive politics to hip hop’s iconically urban and forward-looking swagger. This article highlights key initiatives, including the International Street Festival Kawasaki and the Kawasaki Mural Art Project (KMAP), which reflect the city’s commitment to cultural inclusivity. Through the critical analysis of policy frameworks alongside first hand and archival interviews with practitioners and government officials, this study highlights how Kawasaki City incorporates hip hop’s traditional four artistic elements—breaking, rapping, deejaying, and graffiti writing—into its urban planning in ways that satisfy hip hop community-centred goals. As part of the ERC CIPHER project’s study of global hip hop knowledge flows, we argue that Kawasaki’s model of incorporating hip hop into city-building processes is a transferable one, offering valuable insights into how cultural policies can achieve social inclusion, foster creative economies, and contribute to progressive civic engagement.en
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported by the Research Ireland under the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral (GOIPD) Fellowship (Grant agreement No. 2023/1543) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (CIPHER Grant agreement No. 819143).
dc.description.versionAccepted Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidNg, Jason
dc.identifier.authororcidRollefson, J. Griffith§0000-0002-9072-2060
dc.identifier.citationNg, J & Rollefson, J G 2026, 'Kawasaki, hip hop city: Urban culture as city planning in Japan', Popular Music, vol. 45, no. 3.
dc.identifier.issn0261-1430
dc.identifier.issued3
dc.identifier.journaltitlePopular Music
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/18671
dc.identifier.volume45
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherCambridge University Press
dc.rights© 2026, the Authors. Published by Cambridge University Press.
dc.rights.accessrightsembargoed access
dc.rights.licensenameAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.statusPeer reviewed
dc.subjectGraffiti
dc.subjectRap music
dc.subjectBreaking
dc.subjectCultural policy
dc.subjectCultural economy
dc.subjectUrban development
dc.subjectYouth culture
dc.subjectAuthenticity
dc.subjectCreative placemaking
dc.subject[FilmMusicTheatre]
dc.titleKawasaki, hip hop city: Urban culture as city planning in Japanen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)
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