what the 1964 olympics can tell us about 2020

Urban Tokyo Reimagined: What the 1964 Olympics can tell us about 2020

“It is difficult to imagine what Tokyo looked like before the 1964 Summer Olympics. Beyond the credential of first Asian host city, the ‘64 Games were a catalyst for radical urban development in Tokyo, changing not only the face of the city but its fundamental character. “An entire city, it seemed, was transformed—10,000 new buildings. It was dramatic,” says Robert Whiting, an author and journalist who has written extensively on Japanese sports culture and the ‘64 Games.

When explaining this urban revival, the first development Whiting points to is Tokyo’s infrastructure. The Shinkansen, a transportation innovation that linked Japan’s distant commercial centers, broke ground as part of the Olympic development plans. So did the Haneda Airport monorail and the Metropolitan Expressway system, the network of roadways that to this day weaves between high-rises and stands elevated over the city’s major thoroughfares. Alongside these massive infrastructure projects was the germination of real estate developments throughout the city, ushering in a boom era in concrete architecture.

While it would be easy to limit are understanding of the effect of the ‘64 Games to construction initiatives, it was in practice so much more than a hard hat fad. “In the late ‘50s, Tokyo was rat-infested. You couldn’t drink the water; 40% of the Japanese had tapeworms. There were no ambulances and infant mortality was 20 times what it is today,” explains Whiting. “Moreover, narcotics use was endemic and it was considered too dangerous to walk in public parks at night. Yakuza numbers were also at an all-time high.” The pre-Olympic Tokyo Whiting describes will feel foreign to any long-term resident of the city, as it should. The ‘64 Tokyo Olympics jump-started the decades-long process of molding this city, one still healing from the scars of firebombing raids and occupation, into an international capital. While it would be naïve to see the Olympics as the sole factor in resolving Tokyo’s former ills or a solution without its share of consequences, it is difficult to overestimate the historical impact of the ‘64 Games. Whiting doesn’t mince his words: “Some people call it the greatest urban transformation in the history of the world.”

Read the full cover story at metropolisjapan.com