CREATIVE CITY

Creative cities is a concept developed by Charles Landry in the late 1980s, encouraging a culture of creativity in urban planning and solutions to urban problems. It has become a global movement that inspires a new planning paradigm for cities and it is related to the concept of learning cities.

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network

The Creative Cities Network connects cities to share experiences, ideas and best practices aiming at cultural, social and economic development. There are currently 25 cities appointed in seven thematic areas in 2004. Edinburgh was the first city to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Cities apply to join the Network because they want to:

• showcase their cultural assets on a global platform
• make creativity an essential element of local economic and social development
• share knowledge across cultural clusters around the world
• build local capacity and train local cultural actors in business skills cultivate innovation through the exchange of know-how, experiences and technological expertise
• promote diverse cultural products in national and international markets

The Creative Cities Network has devised seven thematic networks from which the cities may choose only one. 

1. UNESCO Cities of Literature (e.g; Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City & Dublin)
2. UNESCO Cities of Cinema (e.g; Bradford)
3. UNESCO Cities of music (e.g; Bologna, Gent, Glasgow, Harbin & Seville)
4. UNESCO Cities of Crafts and Folk Art (e.g; Aswan, Icheon, Kanazawa & Santa Fe)
5. UNESCO Cities of Design (e.g; Berlin, Buenos Aires, Kobe, Montreal, Nagoya, Shenzhen)
6. UNESCO Cities of Media Arts (e.g; Lyon)
7. UNESCO Cities of Gastronomy (e.g; Chengdu, Ostersund & Popayan (Columbia))

Here I attached One  example of research about Creative Cities in Japan

http://www.japan.uni-muenchen.de/download/wise0910/ccc/presentations/sasaki.pdf