Kaohsiung congressman draws on Japan’s experience to promote sunshade cooling strategy

Gao City Councilors Zhang Boyang and Li Yahui held a meeting on sunshades and urban cooling strategies with Japanese scholars. After the meeting, they called for learning from the experiences of Japan and South Korea to promote designs similar to "urban cool spots."

Tsubasa Yoshiji, a member of the Japanese Society of Urban Planning and a scholar at the University of Tokyo, came to Taiwan to exchange views on urban cooling policies. After seeing news related to Kaohsiung's promotion of parasols on the Internet, Yoshitsugu conducted on-site inspections and exchanges with Kaohsiung City Councilors Zhang Boyang and Li Yahui, who proposed urban cooling policies such as parasols, as well as the Kaohsiung Urban Development Bureau, MRT Bureau, Parks Department and other units.

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Yoshiji Tsubasa said that extreme weather has had a substantial impact on Japanese business and civil activities, including businesses shortening business hours due to high temperatures, religious and large-scale events rescheduling due to extreme heat, and even the construction industry may suspend construction due to excessive temperatures. How cities respond to high temperatures has become an important issue in Japanese urban planning.

He mentioned that according to surveys, nearly 50% of Japanese people will deliberately choose to walk on routes with shade, and more than 60% will take long detours in order to walk in the shadows. More data shows that in the Japanese people's imagination of a "livable city", cool neighborhoods where buildings are connected to the shade of trees and can be moderately shaded are important conditions for nearly 50% of the people.

Yoshiji Tsubasa explained that there is currently an experimental installation similar to Kaohsiung's parasols in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, called the "Cool Feeling Base Project (Cool Feeling Base Project)". By setting up temporary cooling bases (クールスポット) in parks, pedestrian crossings, etc., a temperature difference of up to about 10 degrees Celsius can be formed between the inside and outside of the base.

Zhang Boyang and Li Yahui believe that Kaohsiung can refer to Japan's experience and apply similar designs to new parks where natural shade has not yet been formed, or in renovation projects of existing parks, as transitional cooling facilities during the growth of trees. At the same time, Kaohsiung can refer to the Japanese government-private cooperation model. In addition to providing urban cool spots where pedestrians can rest and cool down, it can also be combined with commercial activities and attract private industry investment through advertising and other incentives.