Cities around the globe experienced a transformative period in the 1960s. Tokyo’s population surpassed the 10 million threshold, its citizens benefited from the Japanese economic miracle, and the 1964 Olympics symbolized Japan’s return to the global stage. Although the world’s largest metropolis struggled with negative consequences of rapid urbanization, its future was seen with great optimism. This presentation discusses Tokyo as a world city in the making and introduces imagined urban futures. Empirically, it focuses on the journal Ekistics that was launched in 1957. Its voices range from members of ‘the visible college of urbanists’ like architects Kenzo Tange and Fumihiko Maki to Tokyo’s ragpickers. Through the specific lens of Ekistics, Tokyo as a world city in the making can be observed, revealing a process without a predetermined trajectory embedded in the global exchange of knowledge. Details and registration here

Speaker:
Eric Häusler, Sophia University