Metropolitics

The Postponed Tokyo 2020 Games: From Planning Conflicts to Covid

Raphaël Languillon-Aussel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2022-09-09T05:00:00Z

One of the many consequences of the Covid‑19 pandemic was the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in summer 2021; however, the health crisis was not the only issue to adversely affect the Games. Here, Raphaël Languillon-Aussel looks behind the scenes of Tokyo 2020 and examines the multiple conflicts and stakes that beset the Games.
On March 24, 2020, the Japanese central government announced its decision to postpone by one year the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games that were

- From the Field / coronavirus, development, Tokyo, Japan, Covid-19, Olympic Games

Mitigating urban decline through the compact city? Reflections on 15 years of urban recentralization policies in Japan

Sophie Buhnik — 2017-12-07T05:00:00Z

To cope with a rapidly spreading and now pervasive phenomenon of urban decline, Japanese authorities have actively promoted “compact city” strategies. However, 15 years after the launch of the Urban Renaissance Special Measure Law, designed to rejuvenate the downtown areas of Japan's largest cities, the neoliberal-oriented rationale that underpinned many compact city projects is now met with mixed opinions in Japan, especially in light of its contrasting effects on seniors' access to urban

- From the Field / aging, periurban, downtown, city centre, Japan, shrinking cities, urban decline, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, periphery, compact city

The Tokyo skyline, or the hidden order behind opportunistic construction

Raphaël Languillon-Aussel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-11-13T06:00:00Z

Behind the apparent disorder, Tokyo's current skyline in fact complies with complex rules. While the first towers in Tokyo appeared in the late 1960s, the “verticalization” of the city has in reality taken place over two distinct periods: the 1980s – the era of the construction of the global city – and the 2000s – Tokyo's renaissance. Since the 2000s, the skyline has tended to respect certain spatial codes, specific to the Japanese context, against a backdrop of dynamic tension between the

- Essays / architecture, culture, skyline, towers, development, Tokyo, Japan, space, verticality

After Fukushima: The Silence of Environmental Organizations on Nuclear Catastrophe

Michael Dreiling & Nicholas Lougee & Tomoyasu Nakamura — 2015-09-22T05:00:00Z

The nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plants in Japan in 2011 raised global awareness of the massive dangers inherent in nuclear energy and led to the shutdown of almost all reactors in the country. Today, Japan is reopening reactors despite public opinion against it. In this article, the authors show that the silence of most environmental organizations reveals their widespread co‑optation by a political and industrial establishment that has, since the Kyoto Protocol, promoted nuclear energy

- Essays / catastrophe, disaster, environment, energy, nuclear, Japan, global warming, mobilization

The burst bubble and the privatisation of planning in Tokyo

Raphaël Languillon-Aussel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-02-05T05:50:00Z

Since the early 1990s and the collapse of Japan's asset price bubble, developments in Marunouchi – Tokyo's main business district – have revealed a turning point in planning policy with regard to commercial real estate. Instead of letting laissez-faire prevail, the public authorities have actively involved private developers such as Mitsubishi Jisho in order to increase functional diversity and redefine public spaces.
Marunouchi is the most central business district in the Tokyo urban area,

- From the Field / developers, urban planning, urban policy, urban development, privatization, development, business district, Tokyo, Japan