Tokyo-as-World-City: Reassessing the Role of Capital and the State in Urban Restructuring

• Published in: Urban Studies
• Main Author: Waley, Paul
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2007
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00420980701373511; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00420980701373511

The world cities literature has been enlivened by debate over the place of Tokyo in a conceptual model that appears to have clear North Atlantic roots. In recent years, it has been suggested that Tokyo is shaped to an unusual degree by interventions by the state. This paper reviews this discussion and argues that the role of capital in Tokyo's restructuring has been underplayed. The paper places Japan's capital within a wider context of urban theorising through the use of three conceptual categories: urban governance, the urban terrain and urban life-spaces. It follows the story of the restructuring of Tokyo's urban terrain and the squeezing of life-spaces, drawing out the ever more substantial role of business corporations in urban development projects, with national government cheer-leading and local government increasingly sidelined.