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While we are still pondering what kind of transformation Japan will undergo from “Heisei” to “Reiwa”, Tokyo’s urban planning has also entered a new era due to “Tokyo 2040”.
As a world city with great charm and personality in Asia, Tokyo has never lacked surprises and creativity. In the face of “Tokyo 2040”, after presenting beautiful visions in Paris, London, and New York, what is the color of Tokyo’s future?
After carefully reading at the desk for the first time, we gained a different experience: from a sense of crisis to proactive response, from urban vision to citizen ideals, with a pragmatic style that focuses on the future, human centeredness, and respects characteristics. Through detailed and exquisite text, it runs through the beginning and end, presenting us with a safe, colorful, and intelligent Tokyo.
01
Background and Vision
In September 2017, Tokyo formulated the latest version of its urban master plan, titled “The Grand Design of Urban Creation – Tokyo 2040” (referred to as “Tokyo 2040”). Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike wrote a preface to the plan, pointing out the need to address challenges, seize opportunities, and open up a hopeful future for every Tokyo resident.
The preface points out that in the face of the increasingly severe problems of low birth rate, aging population, and declining population in Tokyo by 2040, we should focus on long-term development, seize the opportunities brought by technological innovation and globalization trends for urban development, and promote the realization of three visions for the “New Tokyo”: “safe city”, “colorful city”, and “smart city”. We should provide a place where anyone can live healthily and create an excellent city where anyone can exert their abilities and be active.
After the 21st century, Tokyo successively issued multiple versions of urban development strategic plans, strategic action plans, and overall urban plans. Urban strategic planning mainly focuses on the overall development vision of the city, and based on this, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will further develop corresponding strategic action plans.
The latest version of the urban strategic action plan was released in December 2016, titled “Building a Citizen Centered New Tokyo – Action Plan for 2020”, focusing on practical preparations for challenges such as bidding for the Olympic Games and urban functional recovery after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The content of the overall urban planning is based on Japan’s Urban Planning Law, and usually strives to be consistent with the urban development strategic planning in setting urban development goals.
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Main Content
Taking Tokyo as the planning scope, based on the integration of relevant policies and planning, the planning focuses on adapting to the urban form and strategic measures for future socio-economic development.
Tokyo 2040 elaborates on the significance of planning, scenario predictions for Tokyo’s development in 2040, urban functional positioning, spatial pattern, key strategies, regional construction guidelines, and planning implementation guarantees. The 7 chapters under the plan are:
01: The responsibility of “grand design for urban construction”;
02: Social situation and activity of Tokyo residents in 1940;
03: Responsibilities that Tokyo should bear;
04: The new urban form that should be realized;
05: Strategy and specific work of urban construction;
06: Future forms of individual centers and regions;
07: Looking towards the future form of 2040.
The administrative area of Tokyo includes 23 special wards, 26 cities, 5 towns, and 8 villages; The area is 2193.96 square kilometers and the population is 13.7429 million (2017). The spatial scale is comparable to the six districts of Beijing.
03
Planning Features
1. Deeply understand crises and challenges, predict future scenarios from multiple perspectives
The challenges facing Tokyo in 2040 include unprecedented low birth rates and aging, population decline, globalization, significant earthquake threats, severe energy issues, and various other trends, as well as Tokyo’s further development demands as a global city. To gain a more accurate understanding of the impact of future challenges on urban development, the plan predicts future urban scenarios from three perspectives. Among them, with population trends as the background and the diversity brought by social change and technological innovation to urban activities, guided by the three development visions of “safe city,” “colorful city,” and “smart city,” the activity situation of Tokyo residents is accurately depicted.
(1) Population forecast for Tokyo. The population is expected to reach its peak in 2025, followed by a decline; In the 2040s, about one in three people will be elderly.
Development of Population by Age Groups in Tokyo
(2) Prediction of social conditions and technological innovation. The prediction of social conditions includes: “more active world communication, participation of the elderly and parenting population in social planning, diversification of values and achieving a balance between life and work, increased creative arts and cultural activities, countermeasures against natural disasters and new crises, and improvement of regional infrastructure. Technological innovation will help people overcome existing challenges, including “autonomous driving technology, energy and environmental technology, artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and information and communication technology”.
Imagined social changes and infrastructure construction form diagram
(3) Activity of Tokyo residents in 2040. Including being more active on the world stage, actively communicating with everyone, choosing colorful lifestyles, getting close to nature, and living in peace for a long time.
2. Focusing on putting people first, always emphasizing “opening up a hopeful future for every Tokyo resident”
Tokyo 2040 embodies a clear humanistic stance throughout the planning process, aiming to create a better living environment for “every Tokyo resident” through a plan that is easier for all Tokyo residents to understand. The plan is guided by solving the problem of “people” and closely revolves around the fundamental dilemma of “low birth rate, high age, and declining population”. It encourages the cultivation of diverse groups of people, pays special attention to specific groups, and emphasizes the reshaping of the social value of various groups of people, so that every Tokyo resident can thrive, cope with challenges, enjoy a relaxed lifestyle, and flexibly choose their way of life.
The planning vision contains three levels of human needs: ensuring a safe and secure life, a free and vibrant life, and meeting the differentiated needs of different groups of people to activate local prosperity.
In the prediction of future urban scenarios, it is specifically proposed that “elderly people and parenting groups will participate more in social life. In the process of further extending their healthy lifespan and continuous progress in science and technology, elderly people can use their experience and knowledge to make extensive contributions to society through participating in volunteer activities. At the same time, in order to help specific groups choose multiple flexible lifestyles in life stages such as birth, parenting, and nursing, mechanisms will be established throughout the region to assist in parenting and nursing, forming a society where people can actively exert their own abilities
3. Maximizing regional potential and optimizing urban spatial patterns by creating distinctive areas
To avoid uneven urban spatial development, Tokyo 2040 proposes not only to position the core functional clusters of economy and industry as urban centers at all levels, but also to encourage balanced development opportunities in various regions of the city, based on the self-organizing laws of urban development, and promote the formation of urban spaces with “regional characteristics”.
The urban centers that combine local characteristics include “areas around rail stations, areas with people’s living and communication centers, areas with historical blocks and artistic and cultural facilities, waterfront areas, green spaces, areas with expanded agricultural land, residential areas with abundant green resources, attractive commercial streets, commercial residential areas with charm, and areas with advanced manufacturing technology factory layouts”. By utilizing their respective characteristics, a relatively balanced spatial development pattern is formed, further enhancing the overall vitality and charm of Tokyo.
The balanced development pattern of the urban center area envisioned in the planning
4. Guided by spatial planning implementation, construct a planning framework of “Vision Strategy Policy Guidelines”
The 7 strategies and 30 space policies for Tokyo 2040 include:
Seven strategies provide different emphasis on supporting and implementing three visions:
04
Inspiration for the Planning and Construction of Domestic Capital Cities
Beijing, situated in the same context of globalization and facing the same challenges of aging population, regards people-oriented as its fundamental principle, seeking to shift from total expansion to structural optimization, from factor driven to innovation driven, and from high-speed growth to high-quality development. Beijing’s urban planning and implementation can draw on the ideas and methods of Tokyo 2040 in many aspects.
1. Promoting urban development through technological innovation
In terms of implementing the strategic positioning of the capital and ensuring people’s livelihoods, we can draw on Tokyo 2040 to promote urban development through technological innovation, vigorously explore the coordinated development path of technological innovation and urban development, and actively and flexibly accept the practical achievements brought by technological innovation in various fields of urban planning and construction.
In 2040, all three global functional positioning of Tokyo are related to advanced technology:
01: Possess inclusiveness and cultivate communication among diverse populations and cultures. Based on the gathering of various services and industries such as politics, economy, and culture, it serves as a showcase and experimental market, while creating colorful charm and new technologies;
02: Establish and promote advanced solutions for urban issues. Utilize experience and technology to address challenges in areas such as population, society, and urban safety;
03: Combining tradition with advanced technology to create new value. Combining tradition with cutting-edge technology and advanced art, unleashing Tokyo’s unique personality, creating new business models, lifestyles, and cultural values, and promoting them to the world.
Tokyo 2040 places special emphasis on improving everyone’s labor productivity, ensuring effective maintenance and renewal of public infrastructure, and achieving efficiency in urban operating costs through the achievements of technological innovation and people’s subjective efforts in the process of declining birth rates and aging populations. The combination of urban planning and construction with technological innovation is mainly reflected in:
Promote urban agriculture: Utilize cutting-edge technology to promote the development of modern agriculture and create multi-level agricultural spaces. For example, near residential areas, promote diversified experiential farms where people can grow vegetables and enjoy rural life.
Improve the urban environment: introduce advanced environmental and energy technologies, popularize the application of ecological houses, and address the urban heat island effect through roof greening, wall greening, thermal insulation pavement, subtle spray and other means.
Showcasing Culture and Art: Combining advanced technologies such as digital art with traditional Japanese art to showcase Tokyo’s unique art and culture.
Accessible transportation: Promote the use of autonomous driving technology, facilitate staggered commuting and remote work, and support diverse transportation needs; Centered around the station, we combine diverse modes of transportation such as rail transit, ground buses, taxis, and bicycles with cutting-edge technology to create a transportation environment that is convenient for everyone to travel.
High value-added utilization of public spaces: Utilizing advanced technology to organize financial, scientific research, international exchange and other activities in various urban public spaces.
2. Humanistic care strategies for all types of people in society
Beijing can learn from the Tokyo 2040 Plan in the preparation of special plans for various public service facilities and various special actions for urban governance, focusing on specific groups such as “children, childcare groups, the elderly, young people who are ready to start their own businesses, foreigners, and the disabled”, so that the elderly and the disabled can reshape their living and social values, enable children to grow healthily, enable childcare groups to have children at ease, enable all people to more freely and easily choose their way of life and work, and provide diversified and distinctive support in terms of living, working, and leisure.
Creating a reassuring living space: creating living spaces suitable for specific groups of people in the city center and around rail stations; By renovating old communities and vacant houses, we aim to create diverse residential spaces such as apartments, detached houses, senior residences, student dormitories, homes for parenting, and communities where three generations can live up close;
Provide employment security: increase employment opportunities for parenting, elderly, and disabled individuals in community and regional centers;
Realizing free communication and transportation: By enriching the circular and radial public transportation, fundamentally improving the travel situation in the region, ensuring high standards of transportation convenience, supporting the lives and participation of elderly people, parenting groups, and people with disabilities in social activities, and creating free communication opportunities for them; Addressing the travel needs of specific transportation groups such as the elderly and disabled in the blank areas of public transportation;
Meet the diverse needs of specific populations with intensive functions: promote the aggregation of basic living and employment functions such as commerce, medical care, disaster prevention, elderly welfare, childcare facilities, and support for entrepreneurship in urban centers, around rail stations, commercial vibrant areas, and large residential areas, and promote flexible choices of work and lifestyle for specific populations;
Improving the living environment for international talents: guiding the construction of medical, educational, parenting and other living facilities and service apartments that can provide foreign language services.
Introducing diverse urban functional form maps in conjunction with the updates of large residential areas
3. Activate regional potential through comprehensive development of rail stations and surrounding land
As a city built on rails, Tokyo provides a reference for the comprehensive construction and renovation of Beijing rail stations and surrounding land, aiming to meet diverse activities, exchanges, and lifestyles. By utilizing various relevant systems of urban renewal and construction, Tokyo guides the integrated development of rail stations and surrounding areas, and strengthens local characteristics.
Create a multifunctional, convenient, and vibrant public space: guide the gathering of diverse functions such as parenting, disaster prevention, and commerce around the rail stations; Guide the creation of public space forms such as creative squares, sunken gardens, and pedestrian platforms.
Improving accessibility between rail stations and surrounding areas: For stations with multiple lines converging or inconvenient transfers, new channels should be established to expand station space and promote the improvement of station facilities; Strengthen the connection between short distance transportation such as buses and shared bicycles and rail stations;
Increase accessibility facilities: achieve barrier free access on and above ground by integrating rail stations with surrounding areas as a whole;
Promote the flexibility and compatibility of land use in the surrounding areas of the site, providing guarantees for “unrestricted work”, “integration of residence and office”, and “compatibility of residential land with service facilities such as cafes and restaurants”, and promoting the spontaneous creation of new development momentum and vitality in the region.
Maximizing the display of local characteristics and combining art and technology to create high-quality urban exhibition spaces.
Scene description around the subway station
4. Promote space resource utilization and planning implementation with multi-objective orientation
Beijing can learn from Tokyo 2040, which is guided by planning and implementation, breaking through the traditional category of land use classification, covering comprehensive fields, reflecting multiple development goals, and forming a planning content based on space and ultimately implemented in spatial resource allocation, promoting the formation of a multi-level and multi-disciplinary joint construction, management, and governance approach for planning and implementation.
Taking agricultural land as an example, in Tokyo 2040, it not only undertakes the function of agricultural output, but also supports strategic goals in land intensive development, natural resource protection, urban green quantity guarantee, application of scientific and technological achievements, and disaster prevention
In terms of land use, it is explicitly stated to protect and efficiently utilize agricultural land, and promote urban construction. Using land exchange methods to collect subdivided agricultural land, idle agricultural land, and the expected increase in vacant land after demolishing vacant houses, and dividing management work areas while protecting the total amount of greenery; When large-scale development is required, it is necessary to submit a study on the evaluation plan for agricultural land protection to ensure that the development and construction do not affect the environmental quality; Encourage people to purchase and inherit designated protected agricultural land through measures such as deferred tax and loan systems.
Work form diagram for protecting urban agricultural land
In terms of urban greening, agricultural land serves as a park and green space, increasing the total amount of urban greening and achieving the goal of seeing greenery when going out. By encouraging the construction of commercial experience farms, rooftop vegetable gardens, and agricultural scenic cultivation areas near the community, residents can personally experience agricultural technology guidance and plant crops in their leisure time, allowing the “pastoral breeze” to blow into urban life.
Areas that carry out urban agriculture to produce high-quality branded vegetables and fruits
By combining advanced technology, developing modern agriculture, cultivating high-quality agricultural products, and attracting more young people to engage in high-tech agricultural production industries.
At the level of disaster prevention, while constructing agricultural experience facilities, agricultural wells and other disaster prevention facilities should also be built to beautify the environment, enhance vitality, and have disaster prevention functions. Flexible and efficient use of spatial resources provides an additional guarantee for urban safety.
05
conclusion
The inspiration brought to us by Tokyo 2040: dare to face challenges, seize opportunities, objectively judge future development trends, promote the integration of tradition and innovation, respect the inherent laws of urban development, and accurately respond to the characteristics of the times and local personalities of urban development. The most fundamental thing is to truly achieve the ideal of a city while ensuring and enhancing the survival and social value of every individual in the city.