Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,

The heated debates over the construction of a massive aquarium in Kyoto's Umekoji Park, the plans to level parts of Shimokitazawa in Tokyo for a questionable road project, and the infamous quasi-privatization of Shibuya's Miyashita Park suggest that public space in Japan has become an endangered species.

It was your predecessor Keizo Obuchi that set up a commission in 1999 under the chairmanship of the late thinker Hayao Kawai to seek ways to overcome the lost decade and prepare Japan for a competitive and global future. The final report called for "individual empowerment and better governance in the new millennium," with civil society on a par with government. "Tough yet flexible individuals (would) participate in and expand public forums on their own initiative" and thus help to create "a society that addresses pioneering challenges, and is more creative and imaginative."