An Even More Urban Future in Japan

But some worry that some of the major developments coming to the country are killing its urban diversity.

"[E]ven in the almost 20 years since the economic bubble burst, there's still a sense of confidence that's been incorporated into super-urban Japanese settings-best-exemplified by ambitious developments in Tokyo such as ‘Artelligent City' Roppongi Hills, the trendy new buildings that comprise the Marunouchi district by Tokyo Station and the modern facilities of Tokyo Midtown, which debuted with much fanfare in 2007. All have emerged over the past 10 years, each time stirring the imagination of locals and visitors alike and changing the neighbourhoods they dominate dramatically.

But Worrall asserts that while these sorts of developments are created with good intentions-for example the Tokyo Midtown complex as ‘an environment of high-end, good-taste design, luxuriously appointed and fastidiously executed'-in the end they can become something that's ‘devoid of the urban diversity' that is boasted as being their guiding principle."