Shibuya Center, Tokyo

Abstract

Gigantic commercial centers exist at principal transportation nodes in several large Japanese cities. A model generalizes characteristic components of these centers: a transportation hub, a staging area, zones for department stores and office towers, an area of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, specialized shopping streets, an amusement quarter, and a love-hotel zone. These places attract huge crowds, and Shibuya is a representative center that is popular with students and young company employees. THE purpose of this article is to describe the internal spatial structure of a large commercial center in Tokyo, Japan, and to examine its characteristics in the context of contemporary Japanese society. The emphasis is on the role of the center as a place for after-school and after-work socializing and recreation. Many commercial centers in the largest Japanese cities contain facilities for these functions, which are expressed most clearly in the mixture of businesses that surround railroad stations at key commuter interchanges. Each workday hundreds of thousands of riders transfer from one railroad or subway line to another at these centers. They provide outstanding opportunities for observation of daily routines of the urban middle class and for commentary on numerous themes about Japanese customs of work and leisure. This article also is in the tradition of efforts by foreigners to understand Japanese material culture and behavioral patterns. In other words, the text reflects the fascination that foreigners in Japan often display for societal details and distinctive attributes of the built environment.1 The methodology assumes that the built environment reflects societal context and that analyses of spatial patterns and physical morphology at a place offer insight into the complex interplay of cultural traits, historical circumstances, political and social systems, and other factors that shape the characteristics of a place. As an essay in landscape interpretation, this article follows a long-standing tradition in geography, but with a focus on relationships between society and urban environment.