Bucky wrote:I always catch my wife (born and raised in Tokyo) saying "well, in Japan. . ." and I know full well that she only knows and means "well, in Tokyo . . ."

After having lived somewhere in Japan other than Tokyo (Hokkaido) as well as Tokyo, it is always interesting to me how people from Tokyo have their perochial concept of what is Japanese. Many Tokyo-ites have no clue what the rest of Japan is like.

"Oh, in Japan you can just get on the subway and go anywhere."

Well, sister, not in rural Hokkaido, you can't.

IkemenTommy wrote:So much for the decreasing overall population.

Buraku wrote:...the only problem was the J-government never got off its fucking ass and "De-Centralization" remained just a buzz word despite the millions of yen spent on studies, reports etc

canman wrote:So yeah I think a lot of foreigners have no clue what life is like outside of Tokyo.

Mulboyne wrote:It's a steep price tag, so probably not worth buying, but "Tokyo Nobody" by Masataka Nakano is an interesting collection of Tokyo photographs without a soul in them. They aren't photoshopped, he set up during major holidays and snapped away.

ichigo partygirl wrote:I am a big fan of his and own most of his books including this one.

Mulboyne wrote:Did you ever find "Shadows"?

Mulboyne wrote:Did you ever find "Shadows"?

Mulboyne wrote:They aren't photoshopped, he set up during major holidays and snapped away.

ichigo partygirl wrote:Mulboyne i finally got a copy! A few popped up on Amazon.jp and i managed to get one in mint condition for a little less than the original price. I guess now its been out a while less people are trying to find it. Very happy

Mulboyne wrote:Great news. Glad you didn't have to pay through the nose for it. I was lucky enough to get a free copy of Naoki Honjo's "Small Planet" recently. I'd never heard of him before but he has an interesting technique too: he uses a "tilt-shift" which makes real places look like models.

The population of Tokyo might break 13 million as early as next year, five years earlier than estimated by the national population research institute and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, because the capital has become a magnet for people fleeing sluggish economies in the rest of Japan. According to estimates made in May 2007 by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the population of Tokyo will climb to 12.9 million in 2010 and peak at 13.1 million in 2020 before sliding back to 13.04 million in 2025. In March, the government of Tokyo predicted the population would grow to 13.08 million in 2015 before falling to 12.94 million in 2020.

But the actual population has been increasing at an annual rate of around 100,000 since 2000. As of Dec. 1 this year, it stood at 12.9 million, the same as the institute's earlier estimate for 2010, due to a net yearly increase of some 70,000. "We may have underestimated the pace of the population growth," said a statistician at the Tokyo government. While Japan's overall population is decreasing with the aging of society and a fall in the birthrate, the accelerating concentration of people in Tokyo could sap local economies of vital energy.

Okinawa, located far from the four main islands, used to attract a significant number of new residents from the rest of Japan, including baby boomers born in the late 1940s, because of its unique culture and for other reasons. But the prefecture saw a net decrease in its population in 2006. In light of this, Moritake Tomikawa, president of Okinawa International University, believes that the population of Okinawa will decline after peaking in 2010, 15 years earlier than forecast by the national institute. Because of the high unemployment rate in Okinawa, young people are leaving, Tomikawa said. "We urgently need to promote tourism and other local industries."

omae mona wrote:I'm equally curious to know what the trending is in the general Tokyo metropolitan area. When you count neighboring Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa, the figure's way larger than twelve million, of course. Wikipedia actually has a very good page with the population statistics (between 33 and 36 million depending on which definition you use). But those statistics are only up-to-date as of 2000. Anybody have anything newer?

The population of the area in and around Tokyo, which takes in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, increased to 34.83 million--27.3 percent of the national figure.