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Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density, auto-dependent development on rural land, with associated design features that encourage car dependency
Going by this definition Tokyo's "sprawl" (say around Hachioji) while yes is "suburban" and almost "countryside" is still built "smartly" with public transporation in mind and trains service all these areas. You can get by with just a bike, bus and trains.
Yeah, the world really is a different place now. Japan has been slowly declining in quality of life for almost 2 decades. It's still modern and some of the aspects are still amazing, but Japan will have to watch out for a rapid decrease in population and the resulting decline of their economy. It's a similar story in Europe too. And I don't think people will start making babies again anytime soon because it's just too expensive to start families now. I see a population implosion, then a return to the countryside for some, or smaller cities, and a slow recovery that will take decades. Men and women will have to become accostomed to being stay at home parents more often because, let's face it, dual incomes raise commodity prices. If everyone who was married had a stay at home spouse, then producers would have to have prices at a reasonable level.
Though, in places like Japan, my hometown of Seattle, and in many places in Europe, it's affordable housing which is the biggest constrictor of population growth, but the drive to be a worker in a field of your own is a modern by-product of the "me" generation and feminism. Not saying feminism was a bad thing - heck no, some of the most talented engineers I work with are females - but expanding the workforce necessarily meant a drop in population and increase in commodity and home prices. If it continues, it will likely reach equilibrium once the population declines to a point where it is affordable again and people start having kids earlier. And let's face it, you take both men and women and force them through cultural indoctrination that you need to have a career, and you get a population crunch. It takes two to tango.
That is unless of course they open their borders to immigrants who can pick up the population decline.
Going by this definition Tokyo's "sprawl" (say around Hachioji) while yes is "suburban" and almost "countryside" is still built "smartly" with public transporation in mind and trains service all these areas. You can get by with just a bike, bus and trains.
Yup, Japan definitely has better mass transit. You're right, it's more suburban in areas, not sprawling by that definition.
Japan and germany are in the same boat when it comes to demographics as is South Korea (even worse) and many other european nations. However the recent economic Data shows that the EU did not fair that well the last quarter of 2009, while Japan has a record suprlus and exports are up because of rising china. Ironically Japan's once "rival" will probably be its saving grace as Japan rides the "China wave". Japan's trade surplus with asia is also at a high. Too bad that the DPJ sucks, but they are taking measures to help with child bearing. In 2009 China is now Japans largest trading partner.
Also the bank of Japan is a disgrace and does nothing about inflation. They could have easily fixed this 10 years ago but they don't. I seriously wish the Emperor would take control and take over the Bank of Japan and get something done, what good is he for anyways. Wages are going down because of inflation and the bank of japan does absolutely nothing.
Tokyo is 23 Special wards. Yes it is technically a prefecture but that is just semantics, it is a city which has many divisions to make governnance easier. Technically tokyo is 23 wards, 26 cities 1 district and 4 subprefectures. All of it is simply "tokyo". This "tokyo" has 35 million people. Now the traditional definition of Tokyo is the 23 special wards which has a population of around 12.8 million.
Last edited by Cornerguy1; 02-14-2010 at 03:25 PM..
Reason: orphaned content removed
That is unless of course they open their borders to immigrants who can pick up the population decline.
Not bloody likely. The US can barely handle it's xenophobia and we're one of the most diverse and tolerant societies on the planet. The Japanese pretty much define the term "Ethnic Purist"; heck, they don't even like white people (at least not as much as the other asian societies) and everybody loves us!
I think Japan would sooner sink into the sea than allow mass immigration. Unless they enact some really radical social programs--tax cuts and a few hundred thousand yen in incentives to parents ain't gonna cut it--they're destined for a long decline and contraction.
As long as population declines faster than the economy relative wealth might even increase. Also since Japan is an export economy and exports are surging with india and china, Japan will be affected less drastically than other developed nations. That's not to say that it's not a crisis, by all means it is but I believe we can pull through it, especially with androids lol.
Japanese don't like white people?? That wasn't true in my case when I was there. They treated me VERY well, much better than I would get treated here in L.A. The US has much more hate crime per year than Japan. People in the US are more likely to hate other races. Go to Lewrockwell.com and read articles written by Mike Rogers. I did that and it has opened up my mind.
I think Japanese are equally nice and polite to all races. My black american friends have told me the same thing. Japanese society as awhole might be xenophobic but I would not call it "racist" and definately not a hateful one.
I, too, was treated very well when I went to Japan every time I went. When I was dating my wife, I went to Japan to meet her family and they all welcomed me in. I'm a white guy who was dating a Japanese girl, and I went into the lion's den. No issues whatsoever.
Now, when you talk about the Chinese, yes, I would agree that they are generally racist and consider white people gwai-lo (white devils) and everyone else as below monkeys. But this thread isn't about hate or racism.
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