I think it's worth noting that change in urban development is most often top down. Westerners have adopted and gotten use to car-centric infrastructure. Indeed, it is the only thing they know, so it is the only thing they feel comfortable with.
With this said, prior to the automobile, western cities (both in Europe AND American), cities were dense in a similar way that Japanese Cities are. it was the norm. The silver lining in all this is if we were to return to sensible urban planning, people would view walking, instead of driving as the norm, and the preferred mode of transportation. Culture is always downstream of politics.
I've lived in Japan about half of my life. You get some things and miss some things. Not having a private shower (or bath) is because there isn't a strong showering culture, there's a strong BATH culture (often shared public bath). Go on a hike, and at the end, there's a bathhouse (onsen), usually with a nice restaurant, too. Japan is a tightly controlled state, but, as a foreigner, you are not a part of that social control (unless you, like some recent tourists, do something truly egregious, like the elder man who carved his name into a temple (he was arrested and deported). Japanese aren't buying big SUVs because so many are struggling financially, the economy has stagnated for years, and many talk about their frustrations about this, working so hard, and not being where they expected. I think there is a Japanese concept of suffering that the West does not buy in to anymore. There is a consideration for others that makes every day life pleasant. On the walk to my son's school, for example, there is a 2 way road between a few sharp corners, and when cars pass each other, one has to pull up and wait or pull up on the curb and inch past the other one. This happens fairly often, with parents on bikes also passing, and kids as young as 6 walking themselves to school. I can't even imagine such as a scenario in NYC (where I'm from), it would be an accident every time.
It's a good reminder that, as Europeans, we shouldn't only look at American cities and pat ourselves on the back for the 'liveability' of our cities, but also at other examples like Japan that do many things better than us. Then again, we should also make a distinctions between larger cities (Brussels, Antwerp, Paris) and mid-sized cities (Ghent, Bologna) - the latter often striking a better balance.
This piece makes some solid points. Those of us living in the Western bubble rarely realise that while things may be different elsewhere, and the norms unfamiliar, that doesn’t automatically make them worse than our own. Too often, we live under the illusion that here in the West, we’ve somehow figured out life’s big questions better than everyone else. In some areas, we have. But we should also be willing to admit that in certain respects, other parts of the world are ahead of us – and in genuinely positive ways.
I think it's worth noting that change in urban development is most often top down. Westerners have adopted and gotten use to car-centric infrastructure. Indeed, it is the only thing they know, so it is the only thing they feel comfortable with.
With this said, prior to the automobile, western cities (both in Europe AND American), cities were dense in a similar way that Japanese Cities are. it was the norm. The silver lining in all this is if we were to return to sensible urban planning, people would view walking, instead of driving as the norm, and the preferred mode of transportation. Culture is always downstream of politics.
TL;DR non-Whites ruin White and other homogenous nations
And here's a post about Japanese urbanism from someone who actually understands it! https://thepossiblecity.substack.com/p/urban-japan-shotengai-the-street
I've lived in Japan about half of my life. You get some things and miss some things. Not having a private shower (or bath) is because there isn't a strong showering culture, there's a strong BATH culture (often shared public bath). Go on a hike, and at the end, there's a bathhouse (onsen), usually with a nice restaurant, too. Japan is a tightly controlled state, but, as a foreigner, you are not a part of that social control (unless you, like some recent tourists, do something truly egregious, like the elder man who carved his name into a temple (he was arrested and deported). Japanese aren't buying big SUVs because so many are struggling financially, the economy has stagnated for years, and many talk about their frustrations about this, working so hard, and not being where they expected. I think there is a Japanese concept of suffering that the West does not buy in to anymore. There is a consideration for others that makes every day life pleasant. On the walk to my son's school, for example, there is a 2 way road between a few sharp corners, and when cars pass each other, one has to pull up and wait or pull up on the curb and inch past the other one. This happens fairly often, with parents on bikes also passing, and kids as young as 6 walking themselves to school. I can't even imagine such as a scenario in NYC (where I'm from), it would be an accident every time.
It's a good reminder that, as Europeans, we shouldn't only look at American cities and pat ourselves on the back for the 'liveability' of our cities, but also at other examples like Japan that do many things better than us. Then again, we should also make a distinctions between larger cities (Brussels, Antwerp, Paris) and mid-sized cities (Ghent, Bologna) - the latter often striking a better balance.
This piece makes some solid points. Those of us living in the Western bubble rarely realise that while things may be different elsewhere, and the norms unfamiliar, that doesn’t automatically make them worse than our own. Too often, we live under the illusion that here in the West, we’ve somehow figured out life’s big questions better than everyone else. In some areas, we have. But we should also be willing to admit that in certain respects, other parts of the world are ahead of us – and in genuinely positive ways.