In this compelling essay, authors Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava take a look at Tokyo's post-war development and explore how lessons learned from its unplanned growth may be useful for other rapidly urbanizing Asian cities today.
In a recent addition to the Rockefeller Foundation's Informal City Dialogues, Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava show how user involvement, incremental development, and the integration of neighborhoods into a larger urban system, led to an "economic miracle" in Tokyo. They illustrate how this "Tokyo Model" could be applied in cities and slums in the developing world, potentially redefining "good urbanism" in the 21st century. The authors delve deeply into the Tokyo's unplanned history and features today, which, in fact, “[resemble] the low-rise, high-density habitats one normally associates with cities like Mumbai and Manila”. They affirm that “[t]his is incremental Tokyo, the foundation upon which the world’s most modern city is built.”
They further explain that, “Tokyo was built with loose zoning rules to become a fantastically integrated mixed-use city, where tiny pedestrian streets open up to high-speed train lines.” And when considering Tokyo's post-World War II reconstruction, they explain how “a collection of semi-autonomous neighborhoods” came together through self-reliance, especially in the provision of new housing. Through this, “[l]ocal construction practices, family-owned businesses (including manufacturing units), flexibility of land uses and live-work arrangements created a shadow, homegrown economy that went hand-in-hand with the city’s global-scale, export-orientated industrial development.” They claim that it was this decentralized, organic development that “informed the city's economic success”, challenging today's more commonly accepted narrative that “large-scale, foreign investment” leads to greater social and economic prosperity in developing cities.
The authors point to how mixed-uses, and multi-functional living spaces abound in Mumbai, making the assertion that, “Mumbai’s tool-house is also an avatar of postwar Tokyo’s home-based manufacturing unit.” They conclude that Dharavi, one of Mumbai's notorious slums, could follow Tokyo's path and "bloom into a world-class manufacturing hub.” They warn, however, that any future prosperity “depends on [Mumbai's] local authorities heeding the lessons of Tokyo,” and call on them to jettison policies of slum-clearing and redevelopment, which are currently the norm.
FULL STORY: When Tokyo Was a Slum
Where 2024 Presidential Candidates Stand on 12 Issues Important to Urban Planners
Whether you’re yet undecided or have already cast your early vote, here is a roundup of the key positions of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on important urban planning policies.
Commentary: New Bill Holds Key to Solving US Housing Crisis. We Just Have to Pass It.
Two bills currently moving through Congress could make mass production of prefabricated, affordable housing possible on a large scale.
America’s 10 ‘Greenest’ Cities
A new analysis ranks cities based on their environmental quality, energy consumption and production, transportation, density, and other factors.
How Seattle Achieved Safe Routes to School Goal
SDOT has installed safety improvements at more than 260 public schools since 2015.
Auto Insurance Rates Spike Due to Extreme Weather
Car insurance costs around the country are going up as insurers receive more claims from areas struck by storms and other climate disasters.
California Approves $10 Billion Bond for Water, Clean Energy, and Environmental Projects
Funds will be used to support water, wildfire prevention, environmental, and park projects, reflecting strong public support for climate resilience.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
University of Southern California
City of Meridian
University of Calgary
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
Detroit Regional Partnership
San Joaquin LAFCo
City of South Portland