Taking on a topic as big as Japan’s post-war economic miracle for my book project requires a good structure and solid preparation. I have used this blog before to digress on economic topics (e.g. here and here) but have so far shunned the main prize: how did Japan manage to pull off one of the most remarkable episodes of economic growth in human history?
Today I climbed Atago Forest Tower’s sky deck for the views. Unfortunately, it was a little too bright and hazy towards the south west, where a lot of nice buildings are.
Towards Shinagawa, Tokyo Tower.
The flat which a friend of mine has kindly offered to me for the last two weeks of my Tokyo stay is a short walk from the Chinese embassy. With tensions between Japan and China running high, it is no surprise that protests take place here from time to time. Just as I was walking by this Sunday, two uyoku dantai (literally “right wing groups”) vans were trying to make their way through police blockades.
Just down the road from where I live (until Wednesday!), a building has been rising to the sky relentlessly, floor by floor since we arrived in Tokyo five months ago. On 1 March, a press release revealed (to me at least) what this is all about: it’s Mori’s new mega-project, now officially christened Toranomon Hills after the area it is situated in. It is the developer’s largest since Roppongi Hills got opened ten years ago and at the heart of the whole area’s redevelopment.
Work in progress… a geographical representation of the buildings discussed on this blog to date:
View 60s/70s buildings of Tokyo in a larger map
Taking the south exit of Nippori station, you reach the neighbourhood of Yanaka. Many of the area’s buildings survived both the Kanto Earthquake and the carpet bombing of WWII. Walking the small streets, you get a feel for how Tokyo must have looked like a long time ago.
Looking back at the twentieth century, Olympic Games often marked pivotal moments in the host nations’ histories. Just three years before World War II, the 1936 Games in Berlin were intended to present an assertive yet somewhat tolerable Nazi Germany to the world. The Moscow and Los Angeles Games of 1980 and 1984 respectively made the Olympic idea play second fiddle to the realities of the Cold War. The Tokyo Games in 1964, on the other hand, told the tale of a now peaceful nation that had successfully emerged from its wartime past and was eager to show the world just how it had changed.
I just backed two of my friends in their respective crowd funding endeavours.
Christoph and I lived together during university. A few years ago, he and his friend and fellow ex-SOAS student Guy, embarked on quite a special journey.
They founded Planetary Collective, a multidisciplinary and multimedia initiative set to nurture a sense of interconnectedness amongst us: amid a growing ecological and ideological crisis, a new worldview is necessary.
Part of their inspiration draws from the experience astronauts recount from seeing earth from space.
Their milestones on this journey have been nothing short of impressive. Their short documentary about the Overview Effect has already garnered more than 1m views on Vimeo:
Now they are proceeding with their feature-length piece, set to be released in early 2014. Continuum will present the views of a whole list of thought leaders from the field of science and philosophy. Planetary now need $80k+ to finalise post production as well as shoot additional interviews.
Their fantastic Kickstarter image film has plenty of Tokyo footage – Christoph and Guy stayed with a mutual friend while here in Japan last year, before my arrival:
My friend Brett has a somewhat smaller yet no less ambitious project: exploring the themes of his forthcoming book in more detail and with great interactivity, Brett wants to start a London-based School of Financial Activism.
Brett and I studied at Cambridge together and he has been living the “dream” of a freelance consultant, writer and activist for a good part of the last couple of years.
What I like in Brett’s work is that he has travailed the serious realm of high finance for a few years and thus understands the jargon and, what is more perhaps, has less of a refusenik style than many anti-establishment writers.
I think a major reason I have been relatively at ease with my recent “career step” (i.e. quit my day job and plunge into the unknown of a break as yet undefined in length) has been the experience of friends like Christoph and Brett.
For their inspiration I want to thank them. To their worthy projects I gladly give!
Despite the constant scrap and build here in Tokyo, you can find old “normal” buildings here and there. They do look out of place very often, like this one here in Akasaka, right in the centre of town near the government district. Situated next to a McDonald’s, one can only speculate as to what happened (or didn’t) to the wooden building or its owners.
Exploring the city with the baby of a visiting friend, one of our trips led us to Yebisu Garden Place in Ebisu. Built in the mid-90s, this is a city-within-the-city complex quite typical of Tokyo (think Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown, etc.): A large hotel, an office tower, complemented by shopping as well as residential units. Yet, at the end of the ensemble, something rather unexpected: a French chateau.
