Tokyo – ASIAN CITIES RESEARCH

“Post-war Japan since the 1920s was in need of development of a strong industrial trading sector for national economic survival. The Japanese government passed policies that encouraged the industry along coastal line, resulting in extensive landfills in tidal bays including those in Tokyo, the capitol… However, there was a major problem in the Japanese zoning system, which only consisted of four zones: residential, commercial, industrial and quasi-industrial. There were little standard in housing and land development, let alone subdivision control. That caused Tokyo to become a chaotic mosaic of high-density residential and commercial areas next to industrial plants with few green areas… These negative effects to the city brought by rapid urban growth and limited planning effort by the government led to the rise of avant-garde architects with visions of finding a new solution that could cope with modern society. This also led to the subsequent rise of Metabolist architects.”

– Caroline Fok, “Transformation in the 1960s,” 2014

Narratives

Tokyo Decentralization V: Decentralization as a Catchphrase

Leung Janice

As evidenced by the growing population and employment densities in the suburban rings of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, indicating patterns of polycentric development occurring (Sorensen, 2001), there are questions emerging on whether the apparent phenomenon is directly resulted from the planning policies advocated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG). Indeed, some studies discover the lack ...

High and Low of Tokyo – Yamanote and Shitamachi

Mak Yuen Ching

5/ Regional Culture of Tokyo The development of Tokyo maintains its territorial regional characteristics throughout history. Tokyo can be identified as two regions, the Yamanote Region and the Shitamachi Region. Both district has their unique characters and together they forms a Tokyo containing both elements of an economic center and a historic capital. I. Natural Limitation Tokyo can ...

Tokyo Decentralization I: Shinjuku Emerging as New Center

Leung Janice

The new-found centrality of Shinjuku is a grand strategy to decentralization in Tokyo as proposed in the second long term plan, to refabricate the city into what planners call a ‘multi-nodal metropolis’ (see Decentralization Process of TMG and the 2nd Long-Term Plan). The main idea is to alleviate congestion problems in the existing CBD in ...

Tokyo Decentralization IV: Conflicts on Dispersal of Functions

Leung Janice

To remediate the overconcentration of the urban center of Tokyo which was expanding from Marunouchi to the whole Yamanote Loop Line area, discussions about dispersion of capital and office functions into suburban centers arise, and the concept of Business Core Cities (BCCs) is emerged in the Fourth National Capital Region Development Plan (NCRDP) in 1986, ...

Hometown But Not Bedtown – Housing in the 2nd and 3rd Long-Term Plan

Yin Yue

Tokyo Metropolitan Government has budged ¥7.37 trillion for the new 3rd long-term plan in 1991. The major purposes of the new plan are for the coming 21st century as well as the “My Town Tokyo” concept. Governor Suzuki stressed that it is essential and urgent to create Tokyo as a better living city. Therefore in ...

Surpassing the Precedent – JR East

Mak Yuen Ching

4/ JR East As the largest Japan Railway Group company, JR East serves the eastern and Kanto parts of Tokyo which covers the Yamanote region. While Yamanote region is a well-developed cluster of city cores, the JR East has made great profit in this large market. Not only had the JR East Group learnt from the ...

Tokyo Decentralization II: Decentralized Town but Centralized Power?

Leung Janice

Along with discussions on whether the relocation of the Marunouchi center to Shinjuku is legitimate, some critics have commented on the whole philosophy behind the plan, questioning whether there is a surging sense of centralization in the thinking behind, although it is claiming to decentralize. Shunichi Teranishi, associate professor of economics at Hitotsubashi University, criticized the ...

The Ubiquitous Legend – The Tokyu Group

Mak Yuen Ching

3/ The Tokyu Group The Tokyu group is a large private enterprise started off as Musashi Electric Railway in 1908, outlived railway nationalization as a railway division of the Den-en Toshi Corporation, it then merges with the Megoru-Kamata Dentetsu and some other railways, finally become the Tokyu Corporation in 1942 and continued development with the strategy ...

Railway Backfire? Tokyo Multi-core Planning

Mak Yuen Ching

2/ Transit-oriented Multicore Urban Planning In 1987, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) ex-Governor Shunichi Suzuki announced the 2nd long term plan of Tokyo. One of the aims of the 2nd plan was to ease the overcrowding and congestion problem in Tokyo city center. By making use of the existing railway, Tokyo ex-Governor Shunichi Suzuki’s proposal was ...

Tokyo Decentralization III: Changing Perceptions of Center

Leung Janice

The strongly promoted development in the Yamanote loop subcenters as a means to decentralize the existing core is not as effectively done as said. According to urban planner David Mammen, the second plan does not take a positive stand toward decentralization; the efforts to disperse activity out of Tokyo have failed, and the center will ...

Saving the Railways – JNR to JRs

Mak Yuen Ching

1/ Railway Privatization In 1987, Japanese National Railways (JNR) stopped running and was divided into 7 new privately owned railway companies namely Japan Railways (JR). This act was due to the heavy debt suffered by JNR and the lack of competitiveness with other transportations. The disintegration of JNR has brought great changes to the railway business ...

“My Town Tokyo” or “World City”? TMG From 1981 to 1992

Yin Yue

The concept of “My Town Tokyo” is first brought up by Shunichi Suzuki, the Governor of Tokyo in 1981. The image he wants to create is a town where all the residents could live safely and vigorously by calling Tokyo hometown. This theme is emphasized earliest in the 1st Tokyo Metropolitan Long-Term Plan which published in ...

2nd and 3rd Long-Term Plan: Urban Issues, Decentralization and Transportation

Yin Yue

The 2nd long-term version is published in 1987, and the 3rd version is in 1991, by Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The 3rd long-term plan is based on the 2nd plan, and tried to tackle the remaining urban problems and plan for the future. The major urban problems before 1987 are traffic congestion, imbalances use of land, vulnerability ...

Decentralization Process of TMG and the 2nd Long-Term Plan

Yin Yue

To make Tokyo an attractive, vigorous, dignified city and an international center, Tokyo Metropolitan Government promulgated 2nd long-term plan in 1987 by upgrading the urban functions for internationalization and sophisticated information techniques. The most urgent task is to rectify the single-core structure in central areas. Office buildings, business centers, commercial and cultural activities are integrating ...

The Social Context of 1980s Behind the 2nd Long-Term Plan

Yin Yue

The population of Tokyo reached 11.83 million in 1985, and became the largest in the nation. It has continued to rise since 1920, except for the war period 1940-1945. After the wartime, the population in Tokyo has increased rapidly before the 1970s, and after that Tokyo experienced a slowing of population growth. More people ...