1. You own a ______ restaurant, and you are interested in moving to Rokko Island. Where would you locate your business? Why?
*Map of Rokko Island Yellow – Industrial | Green – Residential | Pink – Commercial | Blue – Educational | Red – Recreational
As the first step to expanding our business on Rokko Island, I’ve decided to locate our new convenience store in the Marine Park area. We plan to have it in Marine Court, a vacant area thats located right below Marine Park station. I chose to expand our business in the Marine Park area based on its land use. The area around Marine Park is mainly used for educational and recreational use.
For educational use, schools such as Canadian Academy, Rokko Island Highschool, Kobe International University, and Yumenohoshi Kindergarden locates there. Konan University also has several sports grounds and infrastructure around the area. Therefor students usually commute using the Rokko Liner and Marine Park station. Although there are many convenience stores at Island Center, there are no stores between Marine Park and the schools itself, therefor it will be very convenient for students if there is a convenience store around the area, which they will be able to access easily during their commute. I chose to expand our business in Marine Park because we will have a large group of students as our target consumers. There for we will have many customers and our sales would be very high.
Marine Park is also very popular for its recreational areas. Just few minutes by walk, you are able to access Dekapatosu (water park), Skate Park, Rokko Island Futsal Stadium, and the public grass field + dog run. Due to these facilities, there are many families that visit Marine Park during the weekends. Even though there are many recreational facilities, there are no convenience stores (closest one is 2 and a half block away).
If we locate our new convenience store in the Marine Park area, it will be very convenient for the target consumer (families who came to visit the recreational area), therefor we will have many customers.
2. You work for the Urban Development Office of Rokko Island. You are trying to identify areas of improvement for land use on Rokko Island. Make two recommendations to the Mayor of Kobe that you think Rokko Island should do over the next 5 years related to land use.
Rokko Island has an very diverse form of land use. Despite the fact that I haven’t mapped out Rokko Liner/transportation, Rokko Island has every type of land use. Although Rokko Island has every type of land use, it is very biased in terms of scale. For example, the industrial land use takes up majority of the area outside of green belt, while the commercial use of Rokko Island only takes a small portion of the island. Rokko Island could be used much more effectively through having a better balance of land use.
Inorder to make the Rokko Island an better place, I would recommend the Mayor of Kobe to invest more on recreational and commercial land use. The current Rokko Island isn’t very lively. Most people come to the island for work and education, not for the recreational areas. Although there are few recreational areas such as the Skatepark, waterpark, futsal field, and the river mall, these only attract a specific range of young people. Since Rokko Island already has a good population of students, the island should focus on building recreational areas that attracts a wide range of people. These would be things such as a shopping mall, amusement parks, bowling center, karaoke, game center, etc. By having these facilities the island will be much more appealing to young people, especially the students that commute there. Since there are many vacant areas on Rokko Island, it wouldn’t be a vital problem to find a large mass of open land.
Another recommendation I will make to the Mayor of Kobe will be to invest more on commercial areas. Recreational areas go most effective when placed near commercial areas. In most places where young people focus, there are often combinations of recreational and commercial areas together. For example in Sannomiya they have multiple shopping streets and food chains. Inorder to effectively sell out these commercial areas, they also have facilities such as game centers, karaoke, bowling centers, movie theatres, and such recreational spots where young people tend to visit. Commercial areas can be located in Rink, where it is empty from the third floor and above. By conducting both recommendations, Rokko Island will be a much more lively place where young people will visit often.
3. You are the Project Manager for the Coastal Management Task Force for Rokko Island. You need to make three recommendations for future coastal management for Rokko Island. List out your three recommendations, explain why you are recommending them, list any disadvantages they may have. Finally, explain how the stakeholders related to the changes would feel.
There are many improvements that can be made for Rokko Island’s coastal management. Rokko Island’s coastal management can shift basis on tourism. The current coast of Rokko Island is mainly used for transportation of cargo. Despite the great view (during the night especially, i.e. Osaka and Harborland), Rokko Island isn’t taking any advantage of it. Although there are few benches by the sea side, nothing beyond. There are two restraunts, they both don’t seem to be having many customers at all times. More commercial areas should be opened next to the seaside, along with a lot of advertisement so that people would actually visit there. By having more tourism along the sea side, Rokko Island will have more visitors, which is directly proportional to the islands income. Although there may be great benefits, there are great disadvantages to conduct this coastal management. It is hard to find shops that are willing to open their business on the island. More of all, they wouldn’t be more willing to open in the Island Center area where all the commercial areas focus. Due to this it is close to an bet to open business by the seaside. If they fail to get a good amount of customers, they will have no choice to shut their store, causing a lot of economic loss.
Another recommendation is to expand the ferry system. The current ferry system on Rokko Island has three routes, all of them goes to different parts of Kyushu. The ferry system will be even more attractive if they had routes that go to Osaka. An possible route will be from Rokko Island to Universal City. Universal City has Universal Walk, which is an recreational and commercial area made based upon Universal Studios Japan. The current transportation methods from Kobe to USJ is only by train, which requires a lot of exchange of lines. This may be very complicated and time consuming, therefor it will be very convenient if there is an ferry that takes you straight to Universal City. Also ferry’s can be accessed very cheaply and is also very enjoyable. Although this may sound like an good recommendation, there are also some disadvantages that follow along. Rokko Island will have to invest money on labor costs, ferry fees, and the current facilities. The current ferry station is located on the edge of Rokko Island, which is very hard to access by walk. There are busses that connect from Island Kitaguchi to the ferry station, however there are only about 3-4 that run everyday. Conducting this coastal management will affect many people. The ferry company of Rokko Island will have much more work to do, regarding organizing the facilities and running the ferries.
Another recommendation that can be made to the current coastal management is the improvement of wild life habitats. The current image of Rokko Island’s coast seems to be that it is very polluted and dirty. There for not many people visit the seaside, due to their low expectations. However, in fact there are many fishers amongst the coastline, meaning that their are many fishes. If we can improve the current conditions for the wild life habitats and increase their population, people will have much better impressions on the seaside. Although this may sound like an good idea, there can be many disadvantages. The current coast of Rokko Island is mainly used for transportation of cargo. Inorder to make the water less polluted, Rokko Island will have to balance out the amount of transportation, compared to other factors such as tourism and wild life habitats. Conducting this coastal management may greatly affect the commercial areas by the seaside. The two restraunts that reside by the seaside may have an increase in their amount of customers.
Daiki Yamamoto's 