Urban Development In Japan

Whenever we wonder where is the best city in the world, there’s no doubt that Tokyo has to be listed on the conversation. The city enriches in traditional Japanese culture, gastronomy and most importantly the people. Tokyo is one of the largest mega-region in the world with the population of approximately 35 million. It has experienced a rapid growth in the twentieth century with various issues associated with urban form and urban environment. Some issues have successfully been solved while others remain yet to be solve. Furthermore, Tokyo is recognized as one of the most efficient, productive and sustainable mega-regions in the world resulting from rapid urban growth and development in the 20th century. However, Japan’s capital has been facing

In the beginning of 1920s, numerous private railway companies have purchased areas of land in the suburbs of Tokyo and developed housing estates or garden suburbs. These companies were able to pay for the railway constructions by the profits they earned from selling or leasing the developed housing estates and commercial areas around the stations. Effectively, the public corporations also developed large-scale housing estates along railway lines in the suburbs starting in the 1960s such as Tama New Town and Chiba New Town, where they were developed as garden suburbs of Tokyo. The rapid continuous development of Tokyo subway network led to “73% of morning commuters to Tokyo while 9% of the commuters used private automobiles such as cars, motorcycle and bicycles in 1998” (Nakamura et al 2004). Not only the railway system is well equipped, but also the season ticket discount for commuter was introduced since before the war. The railway ticket system enabled employer to pay commuting cost to employees. Major companies often impede employees to commute by a private car because there are limited parking spaces as well as avoiding the risk for car accidents. Additionally, traffic congestion during rush hours in Tokyo is unbelievably packed, making commuting to workplace to Tokyo from suburb areas impossible. Furthermore, the Japanese cultural aspect plays a huge role in this matter. The

The recent problem we faced everyday is the ongoing global warming crisis, where this has been raised as the need to enhance urban sustainability. To epitomize an energy-saving city and shifting to renewable energy, Tokyo has started its measure indefinitely. The very first measure is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing facilities by introducing Tokyo CO2 Emission Reduction Program. The program encourages large-scale factories, offices, commercial facilities and public facilities to develop 5-year plan for greenhouse gas reduction. After 5 years of the program, 70% of CO2 were being reduced as a results of sustainable plan by these industrial facilities. Thanks to TMG, Tokyo has become cleaner every single