ABSTRACT
Culture does make a difference. Despite common technology, similar construction, expanding commerce, and rising affluence, cities throughout the world retain features that emanate from distinctive cultural traditions. Other essays confirm this observation. Chinese cities, for example, display persisting indigenous qualities, fostered by the insularity of that massive nation. Middle Eastern cities, too, retain traditional features while assuming new ones, owing to the instability of international markets. Insularity and instability have also shaped the evolution of Japanese culture, as well as Japan's cities, which remain distinguishable from those of Japan's cultural cousins in both the Far and the Middle East.
