In Osaka's Senboku area, where an industrial zone was formed from the mid-1950s to 1960s, industrial structural change has been closing many factories and generating vast idle land. Particularly, the North Sakai Bay District has the largest number of former factory sites. Studies to redevelop this district, taking advantage of the Osaka Bay Area Development Law, into a model urban nucleus of the Osaka Bay Area Development Project, are now being conducted. By making temporary use of unused land, park green zones have been developed in part of this district.
http://mic.e-osaka.ne.jp/sakai-k/

    Authorized as one of the national government's Urban Renaissance Projects and Intellectual Cluster Formation Projects, the Kobe Medical Industry Development Project has an ongoing campaign to attract additional research institutions and businesses from overseas. On Port Island Second Stage, such key facilities as the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation, the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, and the Clinical Research Information Center have already been opened, and siting of more medical-related companies is underway. The key urban axis that connects Sannomiya in downtown Kobe and Kobe Airport runs through the Port Island West area. Already a model area where an international base of Life Science is being formed, the area is also evolving into an attractive new urban center on the sea, made possible by converting the site of a former container berth in the northwestern part of the island into an area with urban functions. Furthermore, this entire area is designated as a part of the "Kobe Enterprise Zone," for which a wide range of incentives are made available to industrial clusters.
www.city.kobe.jp/cityoffice/06/015/iryo/index_e.html

    In the coastal area of Amagasaki, where there is considerable unused land, including former factory sites, Hyogo Prefecture and Amagasaki City are working together on the "Forest of the 21st Century" project, through which they are aiming at recovery of the natural environment and creation of a space that exists in harmony with the environment. Both governments are communicating the details of this leading model urban development for the 21st Century, the Century of the Environment, to the rest of the world. The core zone, including the "Forest of Amagasaki Central Green Space" will be developed in about ten years.
web.pref.hyogo.jp/morikoso/(Japanese only) www.city.amagasaki.hyogo.jp/web/contents/info/city/city03/rinkai/(Japanese only)