ABSTRACT
Japan has experienced a speed and scale of urbanisation probably unmatched anywhere else in the developed world and to the degree that over half the Japanese people now live in cities with populations in excess of 100,000 inhabitants (Figure 3.1). An economic revolution, ignited and still substantially fuelled by industrialisation, has in less than a century transformed Japan from an introverted, largely rural country with a meagre material resource-base into one of the most powerful and successful nations in the international community. An integral part of this revolution has been the remarkable growth of the Tokyo metropolis, propelled by a dynamic mix of industry and commerce, providing leadership in so many facets of national life and epitomising the fruits of an uninhibited capitalism. Today Tokyo not only enjoys an unchallenged pre-eminence in the Japanese urban system, but its economic progress has raised it to the status of a leading world city (Hall 1977). However, as in other countries, economic success has generated its wake of societal problems, such as housing shortages, traffic congestion and deterioration of the physical and biotic environment. The desired solution of these and other problems has prompted the gradual emergence in Japan of an essentially ‘ameliorative’ mode of planning (Berry 1973). Much less forthcoming has been recognition of the need for a more positive calibre of planning oriented rather more towards the formulation of developmental policies and which takes a longer-term view of Tokyo's growth and its repercussions on the rest of the country.
