Urban Japan: Why Is It So Good?
This week starts a series revolving around the neighborhood below, a typical urban neighborhood in Japan. I say typical in that the makeup and elements are what you are likely to find within a few block radius in the typical Japanese city. What makes this place so good? Is it actually so good?
This drawing, and the drawings and writings to come, are based both on research, and on our years lived in a few such places — most notably in Osaka.
Looking at this drawing, a good deal of questions might come to mind. Questions like: what kind of bougie people must live here and what is their rent like? Or: how is it possible that there are factories in such a neighborhood? Or: hey, don’t people drive here, and if so where are all the cars? Or: why is a kindergarten sandwiched between a pub and a wine bar?
You likely have more questions. We will dive into the streets and alleys of this neighborhood, while trying to answer these questions and more. This means if you leave a comment with your question, we can try to find the answers together as we progress in this series.
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Before we get started though, we should look at the basic structure and makeup of this place. On the surface, there are eight large urban blocks surrounding a park — though not all are visible in the drawing. This makes for nine blocks in total. Each of these nine blocks is approximately the size of the park itself. Each block is also variously punctuated with small alleys and narrow streets, breaking up the mass of the mega block. Together these nine blocks cover an area of about 128,000 sq/m — for reference, that is about half the size of the main parking lot at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.
Within these nine urban blocks1 are:
— 320 buildings with a diverse range of rents and property values (rents range from $50 to $3000 a month).
— 2122 residents of many ages and socioeconomic backgrounds
— A multi-use urban park
— 172 commercial businesses
— 34 industrial or craft businesses
— 1,210 jobs
— 8 streets that can accommodate cars, delivery trucks, and emergency vehicles in various ways
— 27 alleys and footpaths that accommodate people and urban delivery vehicles such as the motorcycles and bicycles used by the post office and shipping companies
— Many pedestrians, bicycles, and kids playing
— Few cars and zero street parking allowed
But there is far more to this neighborhood than just the above data points.
In the coming weeks we will look at these points while also diving into the alleys, shops, homes, and the lives of the people in them. In doing so, we will wrap our heads around why a city might be built like this, what it is like to live there, and what it might mean for the places where we live.
That’s the idea, anyway. Wish us — me and you — luck.
—
Question: What questions do you want answered, about the illustration or the points above, or about urban Japan in general?
Next Week: Do you live in a neighborhood with free street parking? If so, you are likely paying large amounts of money for that parking without knowing it. Next time we look at the real cost of street parking, and why you don’t see it in the neighborhood above.
Another Story: In a precursor to this series last year, we explored a large park in Fukuoka that is woven into the city, its present and history. The park is a diverse zone of inter-species aliveness where city dwellers embrace cycles of nature in their region. You can read that story here:
—
Thanks for letting me into your world this week. You can help this little project grow by thinking of a friend or colleague who might like this work, and then sharing it with them:
If you are not signed up yet to get these stories to your inbox, you can go ahead and do it below. You can also join our supremely kind club of paid subscribers:
The statistics about these nine urban blocks are calculated from examples in the outer boroughs of Osaka, which are more inclined to local industry — Osaka has the largest number of small and medium sized ‘artisan’ manufacturing outfits in Japan — than a city like Tokyo.
I guess when I try and envision the American version of this, I see strip malls. So my first question is, are these businesses chain stores or small businesses? If the latter, how was that developed? Who owns the buildings? Are they renting it? If so, do they have freedom in their design aesthetic? (I’m thinking of the lack of creativity with strip malls)
You have me wondering (as a French living in Fukuoka) just how many cars there must be in the US. Here I often get annoyed by the fact that there are actually too many cars (and so often people are alone in them), or that the space alloted to pedestrians is too small / non existent. I live in Hakata-ku here, which has the particularity to be quite varied, so there are part of it like you've described and there's also the in-between, possibly a cross or transformation towards something more "car oriented" (which I associate with the US even though I've only been there once). Where I agree with you is that I can feel the space around me isn't made for so many cars (in fact the infrastructure make it seem like a lot), and yes infrastructures/houses are tiny ! I have just read your first post so I'll keep on reading the rest, of course !