2003 -
Daiwa Foundation
Tokyo’s insertion into the ranks of world economic and cultural centres alongside New York, London and Paris was both sudden and dramatic. The mechanics that gave rise to the material transformation of the city are by now well known. Little, however, has been said about the process that saw Tokyo re-scripted as one of the world’s ‘capitals of cool,’ an enduring transformation that has so far resisted the long economic downturn. The creation of a new image for Tokyo as centre of fashion in many domains from clothing to architecture was intimately connected with political and ideological strategies and with the economic processes that saw the massive recycling of funds into property. The research project investigates clusters of images that have dominated the discourse of urban change – Tokyo as organic, unplanned, cybernetic and transient. The influence of English-language material on perceptions of the city is also examined, as are the celebration of specific sites and neighbourhoods.