Economist.com Cities Guide: Tokyo Briefing - June 2006

News this month

People who need people

It is no secret that Tokyo, and the rest of Japan, is experiencing a demographic shift: for years politicians have fretted about the ageing population, declining birth-rate, ensuing labour shortage and rise in social-security costs. New statistics help justify this anxiety: in 2005 the Tokyo fertility rate, which measures the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, dropped below the 1.0 level for the first time, according to the health and welfare ministry. But this trend is being offset, in part, by immigration. Foreigners are coming to the capital at an unprecedented rate, drawn by the recovering Japanese economy. The number of foreign residents in Tokyo has swollen to 348,000, a record high and more than 4% of the capital’s population, compared with 1.2% nationally.

Some politicians, including Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister, have welcomed foreigners as a partial antidote to Japan’s population problems. Faced with news that the population declined last year for the first time since the second world war, Mr Koizumi has pointed to immigration as a way to fill labour gaps, drive consumer spending and invigorate the economy. But others worry that too many foreigners will move to Japan. In late May Taro Kono, the vice minister of justice who is leading a special immigration panel, suggested limiting the share of foreign-born residents to 3% of the total population, far less than the 5-10% welcomed in many other countries.

Attack of the metre maids

A new private-sector army of traffic wardens and a massive, state-sponsored crackdown on illegal parking may change the face of Tokyo’s streets forever. For decades drivers in the capital—like those in Japan’s other big cities—have enjoyed an extraordinary atmosphere of leniency. They have been free to park on the curb when they felt so inclined, abandon their vans when making deliveries or park obstructively on narrow streets, secure in the knowledge that parking violations would rarely be punished. But all this changed on June 1st, when draconian new traffic rules came into effect.

Glittering in their green uniforms, some 1,600 parking wardens were unleashed on the streets of Tokyo with strict instructions. Any car, motorbike or scooter that is illegally parked has exactly five minutes to move on, or its owner will be fined instantly. The wardens, who work for private companies contracted by the police department, have been given a goal of dishing out more than 3m fines each year, double the present number.

Artistic licence

A golden figure in Tokyo’s art world has been stripped of one of Japan’s most prestigious prizes. Yoshihiko Wada, a 66-year-old artist, had staged an acclaimed exhibition of oil paintings in Tokyo last year and this spring won Japan's Art Encouragement Prize for his work. But after two months of basking in considerable glory, Mr Wada surrendered the prize in May amid an investigation by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs that his paintings, which depict urban Italian life, might plagiarise the work of Alberto Sughi, an Italian artist.

The panel that awards the prize reconvened to decide whether Mr Wada’s paintings too closely resembled those of Mr Sughi. After just two hours of deliberations, the panel concluded that the likeness was too strong to be ignored. Mr Wada denied plagiarism but returned the prize “to protect its honour”.

O2 be relaxed...

Japan’s burgeoning craze for all things stress-relieving has created a market for that most elemental commodity: air. The salary men and women of the capital may soon be hooked on pocket-sized containers of oxygen. The country’s largest retail chain, 7-Eleven Japan, has begun selling small canisters of “O2 Supli” at its 11,000-strong network of convenience stores. The chain is carrying particularly large stocks of the cans in its stores in Tokyo’s office districts, which are packed with the stressed and supposedly oxygen-starved.

To the ranks of Japanese workers who believe in the health benefits of oxygen, the 35 measured snorts of 95% pure oxygen in each spray-can are the answer to their prayers. Advertisements for the cans claim that “modern stress-fighters” can finally have oxygen at their fingertips. Overwork, long hours in a stuffy office, lethargy or a scolding from a boss will all melt away after a two-second blast of invigorating grapefruit- or peppermint-scented oxygen. Some doctors are more sceptical, advising consumers to save themselves the cost of a $5 can of oxygen and achieve a similar effect by breathing regularly and occasionally having a good, old-fashioned yawn.

Catch if you can

June 2006

Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent

Until August 31st 2006

This exhibition, with 140 works by 84 artists from 25 countries, shows an Africa of many faces. Here is the continent as most of us have never seen it, captured in a “remix” of sculptures, paintings, drawings, videos, photos and music. Among the depictions of voodoo and local gods look for a drawing of a frog—a river god—by Cyprien Tokoudagba, an artist from Benin. Other noteworthy pieces include “Transformable Shoe”, ingenious footwear by Congo’s Francis Bume, and Julie Mehretu’s “Ruffian Logistics”, an abstract painting in ink and acrylic, in which reds and yellows explode all over the canvas. All credit to the Mori, perched on the 53rd floor of an office building, for bringing this show of African art to Asia. Drink in the exhibition, then the sumptuous views of the city below.

Mori Art Museum, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower 53F, Roppongi 6-10-1, Minato-Ku. Tel: + 81 (0)3 5777-8600. Open: daily, 10am-8pm (until 5pm on Tues). Subway: Roppongi station, Hibiya or Oedo lines. See the museum's website.

More from the Tokyo cultural calendar