ABSTRACT
Since Meiji times, Western comprehensive planning ideas have been introduced to Japan and have stimulated some large scale visions. Planning the capital city, Tokyo, for example, gave Japanese architects and planners chances to discuss new urban concepts and develop planning ideas. Further occasions were provided by the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and other neighboring countries, particularly in the 1930s, but also by the reconstruction period after World War II. Similar chances for visionary planning generated numerous ideas and discussions in the West, the number of planning visions in Japan is however small and their influence on urban reality is limited. What is more, these visions do not seem to have functioned as long term guidelines and have not induced particular historic and scientific interest.
