Culture | Tales of the megacity

Can Tokyo’s charms be replicated elsewhere?

Outsiders once disparaged Japan’s capital. Now it has lessons to offer

2A8TN80 Omeido Yokocho. Shinjuku district, Tokyo, Japan, Asia
|TOKYO

The real Tokyo, as any denizen of the world’s most populous metropolis knows, is found in the smallest of spaces. Japan’s capital is not a city of grand arterial boulevards. Its lifeblood flows instead through tangles of narrow alleys, up the stairs of slim buildings and into tiny shops and cramped eateries.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Tales of the megacity”

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From the November 26th 2022 edition

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