This paper attempts to survey and analyze the public use systems of the street space in six European and U.S. cities, through a study of the control on sidewalk cafes, and to suggest the way of making the most of the street space in Japan in order to enhance the attractiveness of the urban environment. To sum up, the conclusions of the study are the following : 1) European and U.S. cities positively promote the public use of the street space, while they prepare the explicit rules to control multiple use of the street space and prevent confusion. 2) European cities control the use of the street space by the strict ordinance, while U.S. coordinate it more flexibly by the guidelines. And the recent policy in European cities tend to control the cityscape more consciously as well as the physical use of the street space.