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Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

bbc.com

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Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#41

Post by numbers_guy »

fidotron wrote: post #17
stringsandchars wrote: post #9

> It's a concept that's difficult to replicate elsewhere, but Lydon compares it to what made old Main Street America so special. Designing at a people-first scale pays off. "The smell of fried croquettes drifting onto the streets, small shops run by the building owners, easy public transit access, a feeling of safety and community for all ages… it's hard to overstate how well this all works." Honestly, even though I…

> smell of fried croquettes drifting onto the streets, small shops run by the building owners, easy public transit access The genius of the BBC is to gloss over that in a culture that isn't Japanese these things all easily become negatives. Who wants the smell of other people's food, maybe from a cuisine you hate? Or new local businesses cannot start because they can't buy property limiting options for consumers? And…

Exactly what I was thinking. In Europe (e.g. UK or Germany) people often complain when chip shops or other fried food establishments open below them, because of the constant smells.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#42

Post by giwook »

prteja11 wrote: post #35
danudey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or come to downtown Vancouver. I live in a small apartment, but within four blocks I have a community centre with gym, a pharmacy, a post office, a grocery store, a small bakery, the best liquor store in the city, three banks, a hot pot restaurant, a physiotherapist/massage therapist office, a vet, a dispensary, multiple hairdressers, an optometrist, several restaurants, two places to get gelato, a public plaza with…

While you are correct about Vancouver downtown, once you get o suburbs like Langley, Coquitlam, they are no different that what you are calling out American cities for. If we limit this to downtowns, there are several cities in America that are similar (Boston, Seattle, SF, SanDiego, Austin, NYC to name a few).

I think OP must be in their early 20s and has not experienced much of life yet.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#43

Post by timr »

mikhael wrote: post #29
timr wrote: post #21

I had to laugh when they put a quote from a wheelchair user at the top of the article. Japan is many good things, but friendly to wheelchair users is not one of them. As western tourists always seem to find out when they land with their gigantic suitcases, many Tokyo train stations require stairs to enter or exit.

on tokyo train and subway stations specifically: maybe in the past they weren't accessible, but at least since the olympics, they've become so. i believe they're closing in on 100% now.

Not even close. They're better than they used to be, and the major stations that tourists go to are mostly kinda-sorta OK, but the median station has 1 elevator if you're lucky, and probably around the same number of accessible entrances.

...and we haven't even discussed the fact that riding the train with a wheelchair typically involves reservation of a staff member on each end of the journey, to help you get on and off.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#44

Post by meerita »

danudey wrote: post #23
stringsandchars wrote: post #9

> It's a concept that's difficult to replicate elsewhere, but Lydon compares it to what made old Main Street America so special. Designing at a people-first scale pays off. "The smell of fried croquettes drifting onto the streets, small shops run by the building owners, easy public transit access, a feeling of safety and community for all ages… it's hard to overstate how well this all works." Honestly, even though I…

Or come to downtown Vancouver. I live in a small apartment, but within four blocks I have a community centre with gym, a pharmacy, a post office, a grocery store, a small bakery, the best liquor store in the city, three banks, a hot pot restaurant, a physiotherapist/massage therapist office, a vet, a dispensary, multiple hairdressers, an optometrist, several restaurants, two places to get gelato, a public plaza with…

America is too big to compare it with one single city of Canada.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#45

Post by billfor »

sys32768 wrote: post #2

#4 "Maintain Manners" is hardly simple.

That's the key one -- it should be first and maybe the only one on the list. Japan is mono-culture and high-trust. They are all on the same page. You can't replicate that in western cities any more, such as the US or Europe. In some ways it's at odds with the idea of globalization and multiculturalism.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#46

Post by shevy-java »

> "Japan is built to work for everyone," says Josh Grisdale

Well - the article does not talk about the more recent hostility to gaijin in Japan.

Example (article) from a year ago:

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/09/21/j...

You can find similar articles by other media outlets. Japan has changed - and is changing. I've also noticed this on youtube, e. g. Paolo from Tokyo suddenly praising new restrictive laws. That was a strong indicator that Japan really fundamentally changed here. An old chinese stratagem is to hide the dagger behind the smile: https://www.echineselearning.com/blog/chinese-slang-hide-a-d...

I am not in any way applying that this applies to all japanese as such, of course; but I am more referring here to a trend where things are changing to the worse. Also, cost of living is high and there is an overcrowding problem in many of the cities. Even then I think the only city that would interest me is Tokio.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#47

Post by shevy-java »

meerita wrote: post #44
danudey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or come to downtown Vancouver. I live in a small apartment, but within four blocks I have a community centre with gym, a pharmacy, a post office, a grocery store, a small bakery, the best liquor store in the city, three banks, a hot pot restaurant, a physiotherapist/massage therapist office, a vet, a dispensary, multiple hairdressers, an optometrist, several restaurants, two places to get gelato, a public plaza with…

America is too big to compare it with one single city of Canada.

Canada wins either way. You can notice this on reddit discussions too - they are absolutely upset about the orange king. And that motivates Canadians to do better than Americans now - after all you don't want the orange king to be able to ruin Canada here.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#48

Post by mikhael »

timr wrote: post #43
mikhael wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

on tokyo train and subway stations specifically: maybe in the past they weren't accessible, but at least since the olympics, they've become so. i believe they're closing in on 100% now.

Not even close. They're better than they used to be, and the major stations that tourists go to are mostly kinda-sorta OK, but the median station has 1 elevator if you're lucky , and probably around the same number of accessible entrances. ...and we haven't even discussed the fact that riding the train with a wheelchair typically involves reservation of a staff member on each end of the journey, to help you get on an…

i'd be interested learning how you've come up with that - it's disinformation. i'm speaking from extensive, direct experience.

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#49

Post by timr »

mikhael wrote: post #48
timr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even close. They're better than they used to be, and the major stations that tourists go to are mostly kinda-sorta OK, but the median station has 1 elevator if you're lucky , and probably around the same number of accessible entrances. ...and we haven't even discussed the fact that riding the train with a wheelchair typically involves reservation of a staff member on each end of the journey, to help you get on an…

i'd be interested learning how you've come up with that - it's disinformation. i'm speaking from extensive, direct experience.

> I'd be interested learning how you've come up with that - it's disinformation. i'm speaking from extensive, direct experience.

I live here and have eyes. But tell me more about "disinformation."

Tokyo metro's standard for accessibility is to have one route that is accessible from street level to the platform. That's fine, but it's a far cry from every entrance being accessible, or even just ensuring that you don't require staff support to make it through that route. Consider Takadanobaba [1] -- a major transit point that I know well. Yes, it's technically "one route", but just taking into account subway station exits (and not Seibu or JR line transfers, which are harder), it qualifies only because it has a single elevator that goes to ground. Literally every other exit is inaccessible.

[1] https://www.tokyometro.jp/lang_en/station/takadanobaba/index...

Re: Four simple rules behind Japan's most liveable cities

#50

Post by gilthelander »

danudey wrote: post #23
stringsandchars wrote: post #9

> It's a concept that's difficult to replicate elsewhere, but Lydon compares it to what made old Main Street America so special. Designing at a people-first scale pays off. "The smell of fried croquettes drifting onto the streets, small shops run by the building owners, easy public transit access, a feeling of safety and community for all ages… it's hard to overstate how well this all works." Honestly, even though I…

Or come to downtown Vancouver. I live in a small apartment, but within four blocks I have a community centre with gym, a pharmacy, a post office, a grocery store, a small bakery, the best liquor store in the city, three banks, a hot pot restaurant, a physiotherapist/massage therapist office, a vet, a dispensary, multiple hairdressers, an optometrist, several restaurants, two places to get gelato, a public plaza with…

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