Study Trip: Learning From Tokyo

November 18, 2025

In this proceedings document, you’ll hear from our Global Exchange staff and delegates on lessons learned from the Tokyo Study Trip.

***

By Clara Parker

On our first evening in Tokyo, Forum delegates, staff, and hosts gathered for a traditional yakatabune dinner boat cruise. We sat on tatami mats at two long tables, enjoying yankiniku, tempura, sake, and, most of all, each other. As the cruise traversed Tokyo Bay and passed famous landmarks like the Rainbow Bridge, one of our hosts, Professor Masami Kobayashi from Meiji University, urged the group to stop being so engrossed in conversation and look out the window. Ultimately, we did both. We traced the sites we passed on the paper placemat maps at our tables. We went to the roof of the boat and took in the view of the Fuji TV building and the Statue of Liberty at Odaiba from the water. Our third and largest study trip was a balancing act of doing both: looking outward to learn from new sites and speakers and exchanging perspectives with fellow travelers.

Like trips to Berlin and Copenhagen, Tokyo left delegates with as many questions as answers. We know by now that we won’t find a tidy comparison to New York City, and we won’t leave with solutions that can easily translate across continents, governments, cultures, and economies. What we can do in five days is build community with a group of travelers and hosts at an accelerated pace. We can leave room for everyone to pursue their own areas of interest and take lessons back home with them. And we can build time into the itinerary for the learning to soak in on train rides between meetings, for debates and discussion to take place over ramen and beer, and for an interdisciplinary delegation to connect during izakaya crawls and karaoke. Even in a week of collective learning, delegates saw and absorbed very different examples of housing and urban development. The following essays highlight the multiplicity of experiences that can come out of a single trip.

Tokyo is not without its own challenges. While its population is expected to grow until it peaks in 2030, the rest of Japan is shrinking and aging. Despite a population decline, the country has had very limited immigration since the end of World War II. When it comes to housing development, however, Tokyo is succeeding where New York City is failing spectacularly. Tokyo has enough housing for everyone, and by 2030 there will be a surplus.

There are many motivations for global exchange, even when technical elements aren’t easily translated. Building partnerships with peer cities, seeing how things work in different contexts, and being immersed in a different set of values all widen our thinking for what is possible at home.

Why can’t we have a city with enough truly affordable and high quality housing for everyone? And what more is possible with shared values around the mutual benefits of caring for all?

Proceedings

How does Tokyo develop abundant housing in a fast-growing city — and can these lessons spark new ideas for New York City?

Explore this collection of reflections on the lessons learned from the Tokyo Study Trip, as delegates examined Japan’s permissive national development framework, transit-oriented development, frequent rebuilding, and more.

Read the Proceedings