Property rights in land are often regarded as among the most inflexible of the institutional structures that shape urban change, particularly when enshrined in a written constitution. This paper argues that the meaning and specification of property rights in the city are continually contested and in flux and that the evolving practice of city planning is a significant element that contributes to change. A better understanding of the mechanisms of such change is valuable for our understanding both of city planning and of property rights. A historical institutionalist analysis suggests that property rights display significant elements of path dependence, yet also show characteristic patterns and processes of incremental change over time. This analysis of evolving systems to regulate permissible development in Japanese cities during the period since the environmental crisis of the 1960s is revealing of the structured ways in which property rights are contested and change over time.
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