“Friendly authoritarianism” and thebedtaun: public space in a Japanese suburb

In the West, public space ideally serves as the open, transformative core of urban democratic society. But what role does it play in a non-Western democracy with anti-individualist, authoritarian cultural mores, such as in Japan? The author used archival research, direct observations and informal interviews, as well as reference to key insights of actor-network theory (ANT) to investigate whether or not the public spaces of a Japanese suburb are conducive to individual freedom and expression. The paper concludes that these spaces help maintain what Sugimoto (1997) calls the “friendly authoritarianism” of Japanese society.