original article tokyo station city: the railway station as urban … · 2017. 8. 27. · original...

Original Article

Tokyo Station City: The railway station as urban place

John Zachariasa,*, Tianxin Zhangb and Naoto Nakajimac

aDepartment of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, Montreal, CanadaH3G 1M8.E-mail: [email protected] of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871 China.E-mail: [email protected] of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, 5322 Endo, Fujisawa, Kanagawa252-0882 Japan.E-mail: [email protected]

*Corresponding author.

Abstract Railway stations in Japan and elsewhere are undergoing redevelopment to accommodate newspaces of consumption and leisure. Tokyo Station redevelopment is a representative case illustrating theexperiment of integrating new facilities into an existing spatial system. The station’s image is being recast as animportant urban centre in Tokyo with a particular mix of prestige business, shopping and unique entertainmentvenues. The walking network is being reconfigured in a larger space with a complex set of new land uses,leading to new spatial configurations and patterns of behaviour. These transformations support a new role forthe station. The station redevelopment, along with related investments in the surrounding space represent adistinctly Japanese approach to transit-oriented development. This article examines the urban design strategyunderlying these transformations.URBAN DESIGN International (2011) 16, 242–251. doi:10.1057/udi.2011.15

Keywords: train station; pedestrians; redevelopment; spatial behaviour

Introduction

Nowhere in the world can one find railwaystation complexes as large as in Japan. Therailways themselves play a central role in urbantransportation in Japanese cities, connecting sub-urb to centre, and city to city. The urbanizationthat Japan experienced in the twentieth centurywas accompanied by rapid development of therailway network within urban regions. At thesame time, Japanese city centres were deeplyaffected by railway station development andredevelopment (Onishi, 1994).

Transit-oriented development (TOD) in Japan isa fundamental characteristic of all central cityurban development, and is almost exclusivelyrail-based and specifically not intermodal. TODrefers to the land use characteristics of areaswhere transit is being promoted (Dittmar andOhland, 2004; Lund et al, 2004). Higher density

development and mixed land uses have beenused in North America and elsewhere to promotepublic transit use. TODs in North Americatypically combine road-based transportation andone or more forms of public transit. After theSecond World War, the railway became one of themost important tools for development in Japan,particularly in the context of a weak planningsystem (Sorensen, 2002). As a result of suburba-nization with relatively undeveloped road infra-structure, commuting by train and subwaybecame the most effective way to travel for mostpeople who live in the suburbs and work in citycentres. This urban spatial development createdunprecedented demand for railway services,which were then met by the railway companies.In the late 1990s, the train line density was1.01 km of line for every square kilometre with86 per cent of all travel in Tokyo by rail. The com-parable figures were respectively 0.74 km/km2

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and 65 per cent in London and Paris, and0.41 km/km2 and 61 per cent in New York (Focas,1998). In spite of the large part of the travelmarket occupied by the railway and the intensityof the operations, the companies are involved inmuch more than rail operations. Since 2000, railwaystation redevelopment has become one of the mostsignificant new urban regeneration programmesunderway in major Japanese cities. The stations andadjacent railway properties are undergoing physicaltransformation to accommodate new urban func-tions and to enhance the passengers’ travel experi-ence. The surrounding neighbourhoods are alsoinvolved due to their multi-layered connection withthe stations as well as their close proximity. Railwaystations are consequently performing a differentrole in the city than that of transport hub, becomingcultural symbols, social communication hubs andbusiness centres.

These projects parallel similar investment pro-grammes in Europe, but with characteristics thatare particular to Japan. The layouts, designs andactivities of these redesigned stations reflect theoperational structure of the railway companies, thelocation and physical condition of the stations,the close relationship with the surrounding urbanspace and building complexes, as well as theimportance of rail-based travel in Japanese cities.Railway stations in Europe seldom attract high-endbusiness and retailing activity although seriousefforts are being taken to correct this historicalproblem (Bertolini and Spit, 1998). The trend inJapan is to combine commerce, leisure, media,fashion, information, as well as other advancedindustries into a new ‘city’ within the city, so as tomake the stations important spaces for creation andinnovation. Such a focus on creative industry ishardly associated with TOD as practised in NorthAmerica or Australia, for example. While continu-ing to serve the needs of travel within the city andbeyond, the railway stations are becoming signi-ficant places in their own right and at or near thetop of the hierarchy of such urban places.

The development of stations is in keeping withthe TOD idea of attracting people from the nearbyareas on foot. Major pedestrian facilities are thenrequired to support the heavy flows of peoplethrough these local areas. In Japanese cities, as inEuropean and North American examples, there isan immediately adjacent area which is in closerelationship with the station. But uniquely in theJapanese case, the station building complexes are anaccumulation of all kinds of functions, and notmerely a point of distribution. Some private railway

companies built station-based department storecomplexes before the Second World War. The JapanNational Railways built many ‘station departmentstores’ after 1950. The pattern of new centres after2000 is therefore in some continuity with earlierdevelopment practices, but at a higher level inquality, service and volume of clientele.

In recent years, the design and functions of thenew underground station facilities in Japan areincreasingly the object of research (for example,Tanimoto et al, 2004). Visitor preferences in facilitydesign, lighting and social ambiance are receivingincreasing attention. How people find their wayand understand such underground spaces is alsoan important topic of investigation (Moriyama,2009), for reasons of evacuation safety but alsofor the efficient functioning of commercial space.Scholars argue that rising rental rates and com-mercial benefits have encouraged projects toimprove daily services for the white collar work-ing population in the area (Yoshida, 2007).However, the special features of Japanese stationredevelopments have not received enough atten-tion. For example, there are few studies touchingon the organizational mechanism underlyingthe redevelopment of railway stations. Nor isthere enough attention given to the features of theJapanese approach to TOD, which has had suchpowerful effects on urban structure and hasachieved very high ridership for rail-based travel.It is apparent that this country-wide investmentprogramme is worthy of investigation in its ownright because it is at an early stage of innovationand experimentation. What is learned from theJapanese case will also be of interest to plannersworking on railway station developments inEurope, China and North America.

In recognition of the above, this article exam-ines one such railway station redevelopmentproject, Tokyo station, from the urban designperspective. Firstly, we discuss why the railwaycompanies operating at Tokyo station are makingthese particular investment decisions. Secondly,the programmes themselves are examined fortheir contribution to the making of a new urbanplace in the constellation of such places in theTokyo metropolitan region. Thirdly, how thespaces and their associated activities are accom-modated within the physical constraints of thestations and the surrounding environment isconsidered. Finally, we evaluate the effects ofstation restructuring on surrounding urban space,with particular attention to a pre-existing shop-ping facility adjacent the station.


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Redevelopment of Railway Stationsin Japan

A new phase of station redevelopment beganin the 2000 decade, when railway companies them-selves invested in their properties, together withfinancial partners. Major stations such as Tokyo,Yokohama, Nagoya and Fukuoka saw large-scaleredevelopment. The projects included extensions tothe pedestrian system, the provision of newcommercial facilities and public leisure spaces,atmospheric effects, and high-rise office buildings.

The common goal of Japanese railway stationredevelopment projects is to enhance the in-station commercial function among many others,making the station a powerful magnet for visitors.These projects are mostly initiated by the stationcompanies, who need to diversify their operationsunder the Japanese railway system organizationand operations.

There are roughly three types of railwaycompanies: Japan Railways Group, which wasfounded as a result of the privatization and break-up of the Japanese National Railway in 1987,private companies and city-owned companies.Each company operates one or several lines. Mostof the stations are also operated by the railwaycompanies, whose railway lines pass through thestation. When several lines of different companiesintersect at a certain station, they normally sharethe intersection space and related facilities. Thestation is consequently operated collaborativelyby several companies. In most cases, one of thecompanies acts as the chief owner. In order tointerconnect with each other, the companies haveto work together to achieve a reasonable spatialdistribution plan that allows efficient interchangebetween the various lines. This often makes thestation space very complex.

Until the 1970s, the Japan National Railwayscompany operated many rail routes all over thecountry. They began to face economic difficultiesin the late 1960s and had accumulated large debtsby the beginning of the 1980s. To help the com-panies achieve financial health, the governmentbegan privatizing the railways, dividing JR intosix passenger transportation companies accor-ding to their geographic locations. The privatiza-tion accompanied a change in regulation whichallowed the newly privatized railway companies,like JR East, the major owner-operator of Tokyostation, to accumulate profits through commercialactivities in addition to pure transportation uses(Ieda et al, 2001). In exchange, railway companies

became responsible for recovering capital invest-ment through their operations and related invest-ment decisions. Although rail-based travel inJapan, as a proportion of all travel, is the highestworldwide at about 36 per cent of all kilometerstravelled, many observers consider the railwaysystem in Japan to be underinvested. Railwaycompanies hold territorial monopolies, whichdiscourage them from making investments inrailway services. To make such improvements inservices, these private companies must either raisefares or derive benefits from other operations.Improving rail services has become increasinglydifficult as the cost of providing infrastructure hasrisen very rapidly. Expected decline in passengernumbers, as a result of demographic decline, is anadditional reason companies are reluctant toinvest (Ieda et al, 2001). On the other hand, theirterritorial monopolies encourage the companies toinvest in ancillary services, which are also highlyprofitable, and represent an increasing proportionof the railway companies’ revenues (Kanemotoand Kiyono, 1995). These services enhance thetravel experience, do not add to travel cost andexploit the lands under control of the railwaycompanies.

In an early study of redevelopment of inner cityareas in Japan, it was observed that the additionof a department store or shopping centre hada significant positive effect on land value. Thegreat majority of such developments that resultedin increased numbers of shoppers in the last twodecades were at railway station locations (Onishi,1994). However, the investments in ancillaryservices at railway stations are not evenly distri-buted over stations. One of the reasons for uneveninvestment is the availability of lands for suchdevelopment. Another important reason is thatcommuters making non-work-related stops aremost likely to make those stops at the commutingterminal and at the work place zone (Nishiiand Kondo, 1992). As a consequence, interchangestations with good accessibility in the railwaynetwork attract office development and relatedcommercial and personal services. Among theseinterchange station areas, a limited number ofstations with both good accessibility and con-nectivity between urban and regional transportinfrastructure are developing as important placesin the urban region. Examples in Tokyo includeTokyo, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ueno stations.In the larger metropolitan region, new rail-basedcentres have sprung up in Yokohama, Chiba andOmiya. As a consequence, once-simple and direct

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daily travel patterns have become much morecomplex, multi-directional and multi-purpose.

The land development policies of the Japaneserailway companies are not unique to Japanalthough they have particular characteristicsthat distinguish them from the parallel activitiesof the European railway companies. In France,for example, rail passengers were spending22 per cent of their travel costs on products andservices within the railway station in the late1990s (Perrin, 1998). The investment policies ofthe French, Dutch and German railway com-panies emphasize services related to travel andthe improvement of the ambience of the station.The European railway station is increasingly animportant place in the city, a destination in itsown right and a magnet for related investment(Reusser et al, 2008). Commercial space never-theless remains highly oriented to travel, whereasin Japan the station hosts a comprehensive set ofservices and products, equivalent to city coreshopping districts. The highly integrated devel-opment of real estate with railway services in theJapanese cases is in part due to structural differ-ences in the railway companies. The French,Dutch and German railway companies have dis-tinct and relatively autonomous real estate divi-sions (Priemus and Konings, 2001). The Europeanpractice has been to hive off real estate no longerrequired for the core transport operations of therailway companies. The real estate developmentson former railway lands are urban districts intheir own right, accessible to the railway stationbut primarily a component of the city fabric.Developments have been designed to revitalizestation-adjacent areas that suffer from poor con-nections to the rest of the city and a negativeimage (Staudacher, 2001). In Japan, however, therailway lines are an integral component of thecity fabric, as are the stations. As a consequence,the real estate operations are an increasinglyimportant part of railway activity, within thestations, on lands owned by the railway compa-nies and in the immediately adjacent urban space.In this respect, the redevelopment of stations isequivalent to city centre revitalization.

Tokyo Station Redevelopment Projects

The status of Tokyo station in Japan

The redevelopment of Tokyo station is among themost prominent projects in the national trend of

redevelopment. It is particularly important due tothe station’s symbolic status, important location,and its role in Tokyo’s transportation system.It has national and global status because ofthe important districts immediately adjacent thestation. Regarded as the entrance to and theface of Tokyo, it is surrounded by such importantareas as the Imperial palace, and the Ginza andNihonbashi commercial areas (Figure 1). On thewest side of the station, the Marunouchi entranceleads to the Imperial palace and the office area.On the east, the Yaesu entrance leads to theimportant office buildings of Yaesu area.

Tokyo Station is the busiest railway station inJapan in terms of the number of trains. Thenumber of passengers entering the station dailyreaches 380 000, ranking fifth among stationswhere the East Japan Railway Company is anowner. In contrast, income earned by the com-pany within its station premises reaches 260million yen per day, which places Tokyo stationfirst in terms of benefit, ahead of Shinjuku station,for example, which earns the company some 160million yen per day (Yoshida, 2007). On the otherhand, Shinjuku station has far higher transitingpassenger volumes than Tokyo station so thatmore space in the station is actually devoted tomovement. The goods and services that wouldotherwise invest the station are displaced toneighbouring sites.

The operational system of Tokyo station and itsvicinity

Tokyo Station is primarily owned by East JapanRailway Company (JR Higashi Nihon or JR-EAST), the privatized company once part of Japan(National) Railways (JR). The Shinkansen high-speed railway through Tokyo Station, along withspace above and below the tracks is owned andoperated by the Central Japan Railway Company(JR Tokai).

The Marunouchi side of the station has longbeen Tokyo’s most prestigious office district.From 2000, high-rise towers were added to thelow-rise blocks with efforts to preserve thefacades of many buildings, including several thatpredate the Second World War. To compensate forthe higher density currently being practiced inMarunouchi, Tokyo Metropolitan Governmentrequired an extensive and generously dimen-sioned underground walking system that con-nects many of the renewed buildings to Tokyo



Station (Figure 2a). The major owner of realestate in Marunouchi is the Mitsubishi companywhose headquarters is immediately oppositeTokyo Station entrance. This company’s extensivereal estate holdings facilitated the developmentof the underground system, since most of theunderground corridors connect their own build-ings under the streets. The building of theunderground system provided the opportunityto redesign the street environment as well. Today

the streets of Marunouchi are traffic-calmed andtree-lined, hosting sponsored public events,public art and luxury retailing.

On the east or Yaesu side of the station, majorproperty owners include the Mitsui real estatecompany, the Kajima Yaesu development com-pany, the International Tourism company andthe Shinnihon Sekiyu (Nippon Oil Corporation,currently JX Nippon Oil and Energy Corpora-tion). The Yaesu side has always been associated

Figure 1: Tokyo Station in the local environment of central Tokyo with other recent developments along the railway corridor.

Figure 2: The pedestrian system of Tokyo Station (a) and the recorded pedestrian flows of First Avenue and Yaesu shoppingcentre (b).

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with everyday business, entertainment and living.The world-famous Ginza shopping district iswithin walking distance as is the Tsukiji whole-sale fish market, the world’s largest.

The configuration of Tokyo station area

Tokyo station is complex in configuration(Figure 2a). There are five platforms and 20 lineson the ground level; four platforms and eightlines underground serving urban railways; fiveplatforms and 10 lines on the ground level for theShinkansen; and finally, one platform and twolines for the subway lines. In addition, there arethree station concourses and two layers ofpedestrian system. There are three entrances fromthree main directions, namely Marunouchi at thewest, Yaesu at the east, and Nihonbashi at thenorth-east, with the main pedestrian flow bet-ween the west and the east.

The ground level pedestrian system is at gradeat its eastern, Yaesu entrance while elevated a fewsteps at the west exit, because of a slightdeclination toward the Imperial gardens andpalace. The underground pathway system isentirely at the same level, immediately belowthe street and the three controlled station con-courses. The underground level is linked to theground with regularly spaced stairwells leadingdirectly to uncovered sidewalks.

Despite the fact that the station offers onetoll-free corridor that connects the east and thewest, the huge volume and the complex spacemake Tokyo Station a major barrier between eastand west, accentuating the different roles andcharacter of Marunouchi and Yaesu. Bars andrestaurants proliferate in the nearest reachesof Yaesu, supplying the Marunouchi businessdistrict which has little such activity of its own.As the railway companies begin to emphasizeplace-based activity and consumption, there isa new need to promote pedestrian linkagebetween the various components of the emer-ging underground system. Such undergroundfacilities are exceedingly expensive to retrofitto existing station facilities, given the exiguityof the spaces and the abundance of complexunderground infrastructure. It is important thatthe linkages work well and pedestrian flows aresufficient to support the costly commercial spacecreated in this restructuring effort. The lastsection of this article examines one such linkageeffort.

Redevelopment projects at Tokyo station

Considering the important status of Tokyo stationin Japan and its role in the city, the key urbandesign challenge becomes firstly, to heighten thesymbolic status of Tokyo station by emphasizingits unique identity; secondly, to make better linksbetween the two sides of the station; thirdly, tomake the station an integral part of the city.

There are two projects that show how Tokyostation responds to the above challenges. One isthe Tokyo station city project for the whole stationarea, and the other is the First Avenue project forthe underground pedestrian system.

Tokyo Station City projectAs the main station company, JR East collaboratedwith other companies and launched a major re-investment programme known as ‘Tokyo StationCity’ (Figure 3). Its ambitious pursuit is to makeTokyo station a leading urban place in Tokyo.With this goal in mind, the redevelopment projecthas several components. The first is the restora-tion of the early twentieth-century station, dama-ged during the Second World War, to its originalarchitectural form. This work accompanies thebeautification project consisting of a tree-linedboulevard from the symmetrically arranged sta-tion through the Marunouchi district to the Impe-rial Palace. This vista is symbolically extendedacross the station to the Yaesu side by demoli-shing the Tetsudo Kaikan buildings on the Yaesuside, symbolically uniting the two sides of thestation (Figure 4).

High-rise office buildings were constructedaround station facilities at the Yaesu side and con-nected directly with station entrances. By trans-ferring development rights to Yaesu side from theMarunouchi side, the historical station buildingcould be restored in place while promoting newdevelopment on the other side of the station site.These new buildings include the Sapia tower,and GranTokyo North and South towers, all con-nected directly with the station’s Marunouchi andNihonbashi entrances through the GranRooffacility (Figure 5). The Sapia tower is owned bythe station company, while the GranTokyo build-ings are owned jointly by other companies. TokyoStation City’s office buildings are intended tobe the most technically advanced in Japan. ‘Sapia’derives from the Greek ‘sapience’, meaningknowledge or wisdom. More than merely a com-mercial venture, such buildings are intended to



act as crucibles of research and education, withfacilities devoted to university activities, forexample. The GranSta facility opened in late2007 and has become the main commercial spaceinside the station complex. A three-floor deck isunder construction between the GranTokyo Northand South towers, which will incorporate moreshops and open spaces (Figure 5). The StationSquare at the Yaesu side will be renewed by 2013.A great deal of design effort characterizes these

projects, intended to give Tokyo station a pre-eminent position in the city and contribute to afavourable national and international image.

First Avenue projectAlong with the large-scale Tokyo Station Cityproject, there are also big changes in the pedes-trian system. For example, Tokyo Station Devel-opment Company Limited, a subsidiary of station

Figure 4: The proposed vista from the Imperial palace andgardens through Marunouchi to Yaesu, with the restoredstation facade.Source: Gransta: Tokyo Station in Evolution and ‘Tokyo StationCity’, Tetsudo Kaikan, 2009.

Figure 5: The Gran Roof facility connecting the recentlycompleted towers at the Yaesu side of the station.Source: Gransta: Tokyo Station in Evolution and ‘Tokyo StationCity’, Tetsudo Kaikan, 2009.

Figure 3: Tokyo Station City project as proposed by the developer.Source: Gransta: Tokyo Station in Evolution and ‘Tokyo Station City’, Tetsudo Kaikan, 2009.

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owner Central JR, opened the first phase of itscommercial development known as First Avenuein 2008 (Figure 6a and b). First Avenue is locatedparallel to and two levels below the Shinkansentracks at the underground level, directly con-nected to the north side passage between theMarunouchi and Yaesu sides of Tokyo station andat the same level as the long-open passage. Itis also directly connected to the Yaesu ShoppingCentre with one existing and two new connec-tions. Kitchen Street, also developed by TokyoStation Development Company, is directly con-nected to the sole pedestrian link between theMarunouchi and Yaesu sides of the station. The‘free’ passage leads directly to Kitchen Street,First Avenue and the new Daimaru departmentstore. First Avenue runs the length of the stationwith two new tunnels cut through to the Yaesushopping centre, to facilitate linkage between

First Avenue and the existing shopping centrealthough the two facilities are owned and ope-rated by different companies. The First Avenuefacility currently houses 102 shops, about one-third of which are devoted to food services. Twoblocks of First Avenue are known as Tokyo Cha-racter Street, where 15 shops sell signature goodsrelated to popular television shows. Anothersegment of this development, known as TokyoRamen Street, will fully open in 2011 and houseeight famous noodle restaurants.

The case of First Avenue illustrates the place-based strategies of the railway station owners.The latest trends in products and services arefinding their way into the stations, attracting anew clientele of younger people, countering theimage of Tokyo Station as a somewhat staid,conservative business location. By specializingsegments of the pedestrian walking system thecompanies have created a sense of place, even ifplace in this case is underground and connectedto other places only with the pedestrian system.

The First Avenue project is a link between theexisting pedestrian system and the Yaesu shop-ping centre. Although a place in its own right,attracting long lines of customers to the newrestaurant venues, for example, it is also con-nected to the Yaesu shopping centre through thetwo new underground connections. Althoughunder separate ownership, the companies havean interest in connecting with each other andbenefitting from each other’s trade. The pedes-trian volumes recorded in 2009 in the FirstAvenue and Yaesu shopping centre show to whatextent the visitors are shared among thesedifferent facilities (Figure 2b). The counts revealstrong flows between the facilities with inputsfrom the office buildings and from the Yaesudistrict, but also from the Marunouchi side.

Pedestrian volumes in this part of Tokyo stationreach as high as 6000 persons per hour. High peaktraffic is no longer restricted to mid day onworking days, but is repeated in the late afternoonand early evening as visitors discover the TokyoStation area as a place for consumption andeducational activities. The success of the FirstAvenue project is leading a re-examination of theYaesu shopping centre operation. That centre waspositioned as a convenient service centre forbusiness people in the vicinity and from theMarunouchi district, but also as a climate-con-trolled pathway into the station from the east.Traditionally, this centre paid much less attentionto its place-based characteristics. The centre has a

Figure 6: First Avenue phase 1 opened in 2008 (a); Phase 2under development in 2009 (b).



wide variety of affordable and readily availablegoods and services, mixed together in the variouscorridors. Until now, the operators have tried toidentify the corridors thematically by colour andsymbol, but not by the content of the operationsor centre image. This approach seems likely tochange as the visitors to Tokyo station gravitate tothe newest venues. Already, the centre has begunto introduce new activities and design elements inthe corridors nearest First Avenue in an attempt tocapture more of the movement.

Overall, the various operators in Tokyo stationcompete and cooperate. Limited pedestrian accessand the restrictions of building underground haveforced the various property operators to considerhow to use common facilities, including the pede-strian system, to their own advantage. While oneof the greatest challenges of building in under-ground space is creating a viable and sustain-able image in the long term, these experimentsat Tokyo station illustrate one approach usingactivity themes concentrated at places with atten-tion given to the connections between such places.

Conclusion and Discussion

Japanese station redevelopment projects show adistinctive approach to TOD, in which the centralstation complex becomes more multifunctional,and the linkage system is more thematic to satisfya diversity of needs.

This change is made possible through closecooperation between the land owners. In theTokyo station case, although JR East, Central JRand Mitsubishi are able to undertake their ownredevelopment projects, the social and commer-cial success of the whole system depends to aconsiderable extent on cooperation among thesecompanies. Cooperation includes the develop-ment of linkage between the various componentsof Tokyo Station, largely through the further deve-lopment of the underground pedestrian system.

In these redevelopment projects, the stationsare no longer taken as an exclusively transporta-tion-oriented facility, but rather as integrated cityspace. They begin to represent the cutting edge ofthe city by including fashion trends and newideas in an up-to-date physical setting. Thesedevelopments are transforming the railway sta-tions. From their beginnings as a pure transporta-tion hub, the stations also became commercialoperations designed to serve business travellers.These commercial operations expanded to serve a

larger segment of the population, adding leisurefacilities and reasons to remain in the space forlonger periods. The station areas are evolvingagain into places for the exchange of ideas and thepromotion of lifestyle, within a physical frame-work that incorporates innovations in buildingand space technology. The railway stations are ineffect becoming nerve centres for the so-called‘intelligent’ city, in which the transportation func-tion plays a supportive role and no longer acentral role. Such places have the particularadvantage of being exposed to the highestvolumes of foot traffic in the city.

To achieve these ends, all the new facilities andspaces are tightly interwoven within the pedes-trian system. This makes for a richer pedestrianexperience but also one where the whole space ishighly accessible. Because of early attention to theconnectivity between surrounding areas andthe railway stations, achieved through pedestrianfacilities on the surface, the station is assureda steady flow of inbound pedestrian traffic(Figure 7a and b). The indoor walkable ‘city’ is

Figure 7: The Yaesu entrance and the new Daimaru departmentstore (a); The Nihonbashi entrance to Tokyo station (b).

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thus connected to the larger space around thestation, which is also undergoing transformationin keeping with the new and expanded role of thestation itself.

Western countries can learn from this Japaneseredevelopment process in a number of ways.A different organizational system makes theJapanese case difficult to copy directly. Never-theless, Japanese railway stations show a highlyefficient land use model, which makes maximumuse of the space under, over and beside thestations. Strapped by limited land resources, thenecessary concentration of facilities became one ofthe most positive features of the redevelopment.In this way, Japanese railway stations have avoi-ded the experience of European railway stationswhere there persists a zone of lower value andless accessible space in the immediate vicinity ofthe station. In the European case, this persistentproblem has delayed redevelopment of thoseinner city lands, even as the stations themselveshave been upgraded. In the Japanese case, thestation is enclosed by new developments andpedestrian facilities that have largely overcomethe historical disconnect between the transporta-tion facility and the surrounding environment.

The next phase of development is of particularinterest. The evolution of the station as an impor-tant centre for creation and exchange provides aninteresting template for the development oftransportation hubs elsewhere. A place of transitbecomes also a place for exchange and commu-nication at the city’s cutting edge.

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