Greater Tokyo — the sprawling amoeba formed from the fusion of the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki — is the largest concentration of human beings that the world has ever known. On paper it sounds like a gruelling place to live. Thirty-seven million people exist in a megalopolis as big as Cyprus, sealed in a crust of concrete, steel and asphalt.
Its areas of greenery are a fraction the size of those of London or New York, and a lack of planning or preservation laws fosters an architectural landscape which is a jumble of clashing styles (according to its own mayor, Shintaro Ishihara, “present-day Tokyo looks like vomit”). Most alarming of all, it is subject to earthquakes, the last of which, in 1923, killed