The Mori Memorial Foundation has published a Global Power Inner City ranking which puts Tokyo in second place behind London and New York. Other cities in the survey are Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai. This shouldn't be confused with the Global Power City Index, covering 35 cities, from the same foundation. That index looks at the whole sprawl of major cities in the world while this new index looks at data from collected from both a 5km radius and a 10km radius from the city centre. You might be asking yourself the point of this exercise. The foundation is a think tank sponsored by the Mori brother behind Roppongi Hills and it's his personal mission to raise Tokyo's competitive status in the world, especially against other Asian cities. A whole host of factors comes into consideration which you can see in the table below right:
Tokyo scores in first place for being the headquarters for many of the world's leading 500 companies and having top ranked restaurants (courtesy of Michelin). The project's leader, Professor Hiro Ichikawa of Meiji University, says Tokyo's weaknesses are also clear from the report. The city needs faster access to Narita, more greenery and more luxury hotels to improve its position.
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