British GQ - 09.2019

Weird to think it now, but the last time the Olympics came to Tokyo, in

1964, there wasn’t much of a Tokyo to speak of. Skyscrapers had yet to

start scraping skies (precisely one existed and it was just 72 metres tall)

and only 25 per cent of homes had flush toilets. Yet the Games heralded

a transformation that was barely believable: within five years Tokyo had

10,000 new buildings, subway lines, an airport monorail, five-star hotels

and, in the Shinkansen bullet trains, the fastest mass- transport system

on earth. Japan as we know it was born.

Over a half-century later, the Olympics are once again set to transform

Japan. However, while this land of singing toilets and robot restaurants

no longer needs to be brought up to date, it does need to open up.

Wander around Tokyo and you will realise how un-cosmopolitan it is.

Westerners stand out. You can wave at each other.

But that’s now changing – and Japan is trying to change. Last year,

prime minister Shinzo Abe relaxed Japan’s strict immigration laws to

permit entry to 345,000 foreign workers over the next five years. Almost

four per cent of Tokyo’s residents are now foreign, compared to just two-

and-a-half per cent a decade ago. Previously, even simple navigation was

tricky – station signs were only in Japanese script, so it wasn’t unheard

of for tourists to take a bullet train to the wrong end of the country – but

now the Roman alphabet is dominant. Last year, tourism rose to record

Asia’s next superpower

is no longer LOST

IN^ TR ANSL ATION

Are you ready

FOR JAPAN’S

second coming

Edited by Bill Prince Story by Stuart McGurk Photograph

Taisei Corporation, Azusa Sekkei Co Ltd

and Kengo Kuma and Associates

09-19DetailsTravelJapan.indd 56 05/07/2019 12:17