The defeat of Japan marks the end of World War II. The country was devastated by the consequences of war bombings. However, with the help of the United States, Japan quickly recovered. By 1950, Japan had already entered the era of “high-speed growth” and is currently the world's third largest economy. This unprecedented speed of development has led to rapid urbanization of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Has the population quadrupled from 3.5 million in 1945 to nearly 14 million today, making Tokyo the most populous metropolis in the world? The purpose of this essay is to study the urban development of Tokyo from post-war developments to the present day, examining how culture and politics have played a role in Tokyo's transformation from the devastation of post-war period to the urban giant that we all recognize today. The first part of the essay will dive deep into Japanese consciousness, focusing on how religion has affected the Japanese way of life and how urban spaces are created. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay The second part of the essay will examine Tokyo's urban planning policies and their effects on urban conditions and the quality of current life in Tokyo. Tokyo is an intensely moving city. It seems to be endless, stretching into infinity no matter which direction you look. The buildings are densely constructed, seemingly without any regulations; structures are clustered together with colorful neon signs, symbols and billboards everywhere, sometimes hiding the building entirely; while crowds of shoppers and businessmen rush to and from major train stations. This is the chaotic urban reality of Tokyo, which seems similar to cities in other developed countries with equal levels of urbanization and wealth. However, Tokyo is also a city rich in tradition, hidden beneath all the chaos and confusion. This duality is what makes Tokyo so fascinating to know. Botond Bognar proposed that this urban chaos is caused as much by the rapid progress of the consumer society as by traditional Japanese cultural beliefs and traditions. To understand Tokyo, you have to start by taking an interest in its culture. Raymond Williams defined culture as “the process of intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development of a people.” This essay will primarily focus on the spiritual development of the Japanese people. Throughout history, Japan's indigenous religion has been Shintoism and is considered by many to be the foundation of Japanese culture. It developed with the influences of Taoism, Confucianism and especially Buddhism. The ideas of Shintoism and Buddhism were incorporated into the spiritual life of each devotee. Buddhism considers variability to be one of the fundamental truths of nature. Nothing in nature is ever static, nature is dynamic and constantly changing. Taking this idea into account, Shinto promoted the harmonious relationship between man, nature and the gods. The Japanese learned to live with nature and constant change through this school of thought. Isozaki identified the Japanese view of life as jinen (nature), "an attitude of letting the natural process of becoming decide its own course, that is, intuitively understanding the course of nature and follow him.” He proposed that it was “Japaneseness”. Traditional Japanese buildings werebuilt with perishable and lightweight materials and often had to be modified, rebuilt or moved. An example of this would be the constant demolition and reconstruction of the Shinto shrine every 20 years. It is a ritual practice aimed at reaffirming community and spiritual connections, while ensuring that the skills of the artisan are passed down from generation to generation. It is a symbol of change but also of continuity. Ordinary buildings in Tokyo have also had to be rebuilt several times due to the repeated natural disasters they have experienced. Huge fires destroyed parts of the city in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the earthquake and fire of 1923 almost razed the city and wartime bombings almost halved the population. Despite being reduced to rubble and ashes, Tokyo has risen again and again, undefeated. Of course, this endless cycle of births and rebirths is one of the most important essences of Buddhist beliefs. Yoshinobu Ashihara depicts and compares Tokyo to living organisms, first calling it the "amoeba city", it is constantly evolving and the development of urban exploration resembles a pulsating and moving body of the organism. When damaged in one region, it regenerates again in another. The attitude of the Japanese people towards nature and adapting to its changes is strongly reflected in the way people perceive their urban environment. For them, each part of the city represents the whole, with no clear center or focal point. All parts of the city are equally important and useless. This in turn is reflected in how Tokyo ended up developing in ways that no city in other countries has. Ashihara further likened Tokyo's urban expansion process to a silkworm gnawing on a mulberry leaf, with no clear direction or master plan, slowly but surely overtaking the surrounding countryside. The final form of Tokyo is very unstable, without a definitive outline. Vladimir Krstic commented on this particularity of Tokyo's development: "it developed without any apparent conception of its totality." This stands in stark contrast to the way cities have generally developed in the west, where planners begin by identifying the city as an overall entity, with clear boundaries and an obvious city center, and then move on to its parts. However, for Ashihara, there is a "hidden order" in this chaotic urban environment, and thanks to it, Tokyo's large population is able to live in relative harmony. He proposed that Mandelbrot's concept of a "flexible ordered structure encompassing chance" is how Tokyo manages to operate, where each level of this structure has some tolerance for chance so that changes in the environment can be absorbed – just like how genes operate in development. of a multicellular organism. The city is constantly changing and developing. Ashihara's depiction of Tokyo as organic entities not only shows how urban developments follow the Buddhist idea of ​​changing nature, but also draws parallels with the Buddhist belief of the "transience of all things". Isozaki suggested how historical cultural events contributed to the urban qualities of modern Tokyo, where the city center remained vague and the city's borders still undefined. He observed that throughout history, Tokyo's community events have never been fixed, with street markets, festivals, and religious rituals all being temporary events taking place in vague areas. Isozaki highlights howthis characteristic could come from the way traditional rituals of invitation to the gods are performed. A himorogi is a ritual device built temporarily to invite the gods. During the ritual, the evergreen Sakaki tree is set up for the gods to enter, and after the ritual everything is taken down, leaving no trace. This type of space can be created anywhere, and Isozaki argues that this laid the foundation for how the Japanese accept that spaces are temporary and transient. Ashihara points out that the Japanese lifestyle is another factor that influences how Japanese people perceive urban spaces. In a traditional Japanese house, the emphasis is on the floor rather than the walls, with interior walls rarely solid, with most spaces partitioned by sliding and removable panels. This gave the Japanese home a flexibility that profoundly affected Japanese lifestyles. The interior spaces are multifunctional and not dedicated to a specific activity, giving it a fluid quality. Ashihara suggests that this is what caused the Japanese people not to engage in their beliefs and behaviors, as the Japanese have always viewed traditional dwellings as being, to some extent, temporary. This explains Tokyo's ever-changing cityscape, with most of its buildings having a short lifespan. When a building becomes obsolete, the Japanese will immediately build a more efficient one in its place, without hesitation. There is no point in clinging to something that has served its original purpose, Buddhism has taught us that life itself is transitory. and therefore Tokyo is a city without memory. Buddhism considers variability to be one of the fundamental truths of nature. The second part of the essay will examine different factors contributing to the failure of Tokyo's urban planning policies to prioritize the social needs of Tokyo residents in terms of public interest, and how this influenced Tokyo's urban development post-war. To a novice observer, the entire Tokyo metropolitan area would seem too chaotic and crowded to live in. There were no regulations restricting land subdivision until 1992, landowners were free to divide their land freely. This has given Tokyo a disordered appearance, where the mixing of different land uses prevails. However, just a few steps from the bustling centers, quiet neighborhoods lie behind the main street. This has generated a distinct duality in Tokyo, where the "before" (plus) side can present a "characterless" city, where the ultimate goal of consumption has taken precedence over all meanings and values, making Tokyo like the others. city ​​oriented towards consumption where everything is transformed into merchandise. However, hidden behind this, the “back” side (a), presents a completely opposite atmosphere. Small shops and houses lined the narrow streets, low-rise wooden buildings created a warm and comfortable space, restrictions on cars created an exceptionally livable city. stable, close-knit communities, combined with vibrant urban spheres, have made Tokyo a perfect example of Jane Jacob's concept of healthy urban living. This charming character of Tokyo's urban life presented the best aspect of its urbanization process, where the contribution of urban planning to its development and maintenance was insignificant. “Tokyo's cityscape is surprisingly… vast, a tangle of dead ends and concrete slabs stretching to the horizon. But behind this gray exterior hides a city of surprising human dimensions. JunKinoshita and Nicholas Palewsky On the other hand, the lack of action by planning authorities has not contributed to improving the quality of life in Tokyo. With Japan ranking third in economic success, Japanese people still frequently complain "rich Japan, poor Japanese." The Japanese government largely ignored the notion of public interest until the 1990s, when it was for decades the driving force behind modern Western urban planning strategies. This is mainly because postwar Japan's main priority is to achieve economic growth, and planning in the public interest would hinder development. As a welfare state, Japan has successfully implemented systems such as unemployment benefits, family allowances, pensions and a national health service. However, the housing supply remains significantly below international standards. The 1979 EC report described an average middle-class home in Tokyo as a “rabbit hutch,” and the quality of life there would always be lower than in other OECD countries. The lack of open space and green spaces likely also contributed to the low quality of life. Compared to the per capita park space in other cities like New York of 29.3 square meters and London with 26.9 square meters, Tokyo has only 3 square meters. This lack of open space likely worsened the damage from earthquakes and fires, with the Great Kanto Earthquake killing 142,807 people in 1923. Despite living conditions in Tokyo, the cost of living is very expensive , in 1994 it cost on average 13 times the annual average. the country's income, which is a stark comparison with New York at 3 times and London just below at 7 times. How could this happen in one of the richest countries in the world? An important factor in the neglect of planning in the public interest is the Japanese government's decision to concentrate all its resources on economic development while devoting the absolute minimum to social capital. The Japanese people were encouraged to work hard and live with the bare minimum to help the nation achieve its goal. Priority was given to maintaining GDP growth by producing infrastructure, where planning and development controls hampered private investment freedoms, and therefore remained weak and negligible. The local government was unable to develop independent policies to regulate land use planning because its spending was tightly controlled by the central government. Policies have also been adopted to absolve industries from being responsible for the pollution they have caused, which has led to damaging environmental problems, affecting ecosystems and human health in the long term. The Japanese government was able to introduce these harmful policies by presenting them as the people's choice. It is common for a Japanese individual to integrate their identity into their national identity. Japan was very successful in nation building towards post-war modernization and the people supported the government without question. People also had doubts about planning, as Japanese civil societies were not developing in the same way as their Western counterparts. While Western civil societies are primarily made up of non-profit organizations working to improve urban conditions, Japan's earliest urban developments were the work of a small group of elite bureaucrats and urban planning policies were imposed without any public involvement. Under these circumstances, the public began to.