1. Introduction

The legacy of our predecessors who transformed Tokyo

This year marks exactly 150 years since Edo was renamed Tokyo. During the course of that history, a major trigger that spurred Tokyo’s evolution as a city was the project to reconstruct Tokyo following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 undertaken by Shinpei Goto, who had previously served as the city of Tokyo’s seventh mayor. The project, which was planned on a scale of 3 billion yen, over twice the national budget at the time, was eventually scaled back considerably. However, it created the framework for modern Tokyo, including major arteries such as Showa-dori Avenue and Yasukuni-dori Avenue, and modern bridges. Through this project, many new parks, which serve as places for Tokyo residents to relax, as well as evacuation areas and hubs for rescue activities in times of disaster, were also created, including Sumida Park, which is called Japan’s first authentic riverside park.

The Tokyo 1964 Olympic and Paralympic Games, symbolizing Japan’s post-war recovery, also drove the evolution of Tokyo. The Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line and metropolitan expressway built on the occasion of the Games, accelerated high economic growth, and continue to fulfill a crucial role today as the transportation and distribution network that supports the vitality of the capital. The 1964 Games built the foundation for today’s mature society. In addition to hard infrastructure, the Games produced pictograms, which transcend language barriers and can be understood by all, to be used as information signage throughout the city; contributed to beautification of the city by improving waste collection and making it more efficient; and advanced technological developments in frozen food, which became a method of supplying ingredients for meals to the Athletes’ Village, among other contributions.

Strategic initiatives for new advances

On the foundation of such valuable legacies created by those who came before us, Tokyo, powered by the dynamic activities of its people working toward a bright future, had developed into one of the world’s leading cities. For Tokyo to continue making progress and to ensure its mutually beneficial coexistence with the rest of Japan, Tokyo must evolve in new ways as a mature city and transform into a society that continues to generate growth even as the population declines.

The key to achieving this is to build an environment where diverse lifestyles are respected and anyone who lives in Tokyo can shine vibrantly using the Tokyo 2020 Games as the driving force. For example, as we are about to enter an era with a life expectancy of 100 years, we will provide support so that senior citizens can continue working, learning, and participating in society, according to their respective wishes and desires. Another example is advancing barrier-free improvements in not only hard infrastructure such as roads and public transportation, but in measures to promote mutual understanding, remove barriers to information access, and other “soft” ways to bring out the dynamism of each and every Tokyo resident. Such initiatives will lead to growth for Tokyo beyond 2020.

Cultivating Tokyo’s strengths to win in the ever intensifying competition among cities is also a crucial element for further growth. We must boldly take up challenges in growth areas, including realizing our vision to make Tokyo Asia’s number one global financial city and supporting innovative projects through the special economic zones system.

To quickly and steadily advance such policies, we recently positioned eight TMG-wide themes, including the aforementioned, as strategic policy themes, and established a system to speedily address these challenges under cross-bureau cooperation. As the leader of these efforts, I will also actively work to grasp the situation on the ground with my own eyes and listen to the voices of as many Tokyo citizens as possible to further advance initiatives to realize the “three cities” of Tokyo (Safe City, Diversity/Diverse City, and Smart City). Focusing on what I felt on the frontlines of metropolitan administration, I hope to accelerate the policies set forth in the Action Plan for 2020, and achieve solid outcomes that will realize the “three cities,” leading to the further evolution of Tokyo.