Japan

Japan's four major highway operators will drastically lower their tolls, thanks to a generous government economic stimulus package aimed to encourage motoring during the major holidays. The operators are preparing for the enormous traffic jams.

May 5, 2009 - Bloomberg.com

How the "road tribes" — the impenetrable scrum of bureaucrats, politicians and industry that benefit from an ever-expanding program of road construction — are literally paving the road to national ruin in Japan.

April 25, 2009 - Japan Times

 At a company presentation about environmental impact the other week a colleague included a historic photograph of Scollay Square in Boston.  You are pardoned if, even after visiting or living in that city, this doesn’t sound familiar because all prominent characteristics of the area were summarily obliterated in the mid-twentieth century to make way for a potpourri of brutalist-style administrative buildings and renamed Government Center.  Urban redevelopment arguments aside, the photograph reveals a particularly interesting detail about the function and use of streets virtually erased from our minds over the last century.   

April 20, 2009 - Ian Sacs

High speed train technology is progressing at a rapid pace in Japan, where mag-lev bullet trains are planned to travel at speeds of more than 310 miles per hour by the year 2025.

March 25, 2009 - Los Angeles Times

Young Japanese men and women are ditching the car as a status symbol, sparking concern for car companies.

January 7, 2009 - The Oregonian

At the Japanese website Nioibu.com, visitors are geomapping odd odors, from gasoline fumes to curry.

December 12, 2008 - Boing Boing

A stray cat born and raised at a Japanese train station has been named its official stationmaster -- and become a tourist attraction that's successfully boosted the local economy by more than $10 million.

October 10, 2008 - AFP

Tokyo finds solution to commuter bicycle parking shortage by building high-tech robotic garages.

September 8, 2008 - The Washington Post

In Kamikatsu, Japan, waste is not a problem -- mainly because new policies practically forbid it. But citizens have adapted to their new zero-waste lifestyle.

July 15, 2008 - BBC

Another week has passed, and some more exciting and interesting ideas have taken root in the world of urban planning.

April 4, 2008 - Nate Berg