Minutes into exploring Takenawa Gateway City, I learn an important lesson: Walking is for suckers.?

A woman and her child silently glide past me on one of the development¡¯s self-driving, hydrogen-powered ¡°Iino¡± transports, a curved, wood-paneled people mover that looks more like minimalist furniture than public transit. Shortly after, a group of businessmen drift by on another Iino, followed by a father and son, all effortlessly overtaking those of us still hoofing it.?

Most tourists who come to Tokyo eventually return home insisting the city ¡°lives in the future.¡± If Japan¡¯s newest megadevelopments are to be believed, the future looks like a really pleasant shopping mall.

In fairness, that impression is at least partly intentional. These urban destinations increasingly present themselves as highly engineered visions catering to populations decades from now, as architects and developers grapple with the realities of an aging, shrinking population and a more international workforce.?

Opened in March by JR East, the sprawling Takanawa development bills itself as a ¡°global gateway¡± looking 100 years into the future. One of the country¡¯s largest redevelopment projects, it includes a Kengo Kuma-designed landmark, the Museum of Narratives, alongside offices, retail, greenery and vast open spaces stitched directly into the surrounding transit infrastructure.

The development is also central to JR East¡¯s broader vision for what it¡¯s calling the ¡°Greater Shinagawa Area¡± as Tokyo¡¯s next major international business and transit hub, particularly ahead of the future opening of the Chuo Shinkansen maglev line linking Tokyo and Nagoya.

The managed city

The future-facing branding may sound like marketing copy, but it reflects a practical reality. As Japan¡¯s population shrinks and becomes increasingly concentrated in urban centers, mixed-use developments like Takanawa Gateway City are reshaping how cities function, attempting to create environments where people can work, shop, socialize and linger in the same carefully managed space.?

Tokyo¡¯s train stations are notorious for their crowds. Takanawa Gateway Station, on the city¡¯s main Yamanote Line, is designed to avoid the pitfalls of other stations and move passengers from ticket gate to destination as seamlessly as possible.?

Opened in 2020, the station was also designed by Kuma, who took inspiration from origami and shoji screens for its structure. The space feels like the lobby of an upscale wellness retreat with bright interiors, curved wooden seating, greenery and a water feature. Small Wi-Fi-enabled workstations cater to commuters needing to fire off one last evening email. Even on an overcast weekend, the entire space appears engineered to soften the stress of commuting through one of the world¡¯s largest cities.? ? ?

Jun Mitsui is the CEO of Jun Mitsui & Associates, an architectural and urban planning firm that contributed to another major mixed-use development, Azabudai Hills, which opened in 2023. He says these projects seek to blend into the neighborhoods they occupy.

¡°If you live in Tokyo, you don¡¯t sense the boundary between public ownership and private ownership. You go from the sidewalk to the inside of a shop or restaurant ¡ª there is no gate,¡± he says, explaining that this is an important psychological effect that makes the space feel accessible. ¡°That sense of ¡®no boundary¡¯ is very important.¡±

Many of the city¡¯s newest hangout spots increasingly exist in a gray area between civic infrastructure and commercial property: Miyashita Park, which opened in 2020; and the Shibuya Station-adjacent Sakura Stage, which opened in 2024. While these developments are designed to encourage social meetups, they are also highly managed environments shaped by private developers, retail strategy and behavioral design.?

Not everyone sees the new wave of mixed-use developments so positively. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect Riken Yamamoto that many of Tokyo¡¯s large-scale redevelopments risk turning the city into what he described as a ¡°colony for the rich,¡± prioritizing luxury aesthetics and commercial efficiency over the messier social character that once defined many neighborhoods.

But the narrow alleys and stairways of older areas like Golden Gai aren¡¯t always easy to navigate for elderly residents or parents pushing strollers.?

¡°We need to make the outdoor space very comfortable, because that¡¯s for everybody,¡± Mitsui says, stressing that hubs like Takanawa Gateway City aim to cater to the needs of a wide variety of residents.?

Though smaller, Meiji Park Market, close to Sendagaya Station in central Tokyo, possesses all the ingredients for the capital¡¯s new public spaces: proximity to public transportation, a leafy respite from the dense clusters of cement office buildings and cultural programming in the form of weekend events.

A nice jog and the promise of a latte may be enough to make the locals happy, but retail remains the economic engine underpinning larger redevelopments. For Takanawa Gateway City, that means the inclusion of a NEWoMan complex, similar to the one anchoring Shinjuku Station¡¯s New South Exit area. The Takanawa version includes floors of upscale retail, restaurants and Luftbaum, an impressive indoor garden that includes seating amid a miniature indoor jungle.

Here the crowd is a mix of families queuing for spots at cafes, tourists wheeling luggage through the meticulously outfitted boutiques and worn-out shoppers perching on sleek benches ¡ª all backdropped by a view of the shinkansen snaking its way northward to Tokyo Station.?

¡°Essential infrastructure such as supermarkets and drugstores is necessary,¡± a spokesperson for the mall says, adding that the ¡°experiential¡± component was carefully considered with retail partners. At Takanawa Gateway City, that translates into offerings like the fashionable Saunas, which includes a wellness area, steam rooms and a workspace for those under pressure, and Mimure, a space that flows from a supermarket stocking locally sourced pickles and ?1,300 miniature pineapples into a polished open dining area framed by bubbly lighting sculptures and manicured greenery.

In an era of online shopping and algorithmically curated feeds, a really nice place to sit and enjoy your ?1,300 slice of fruit starts making a strange kind of business sense.

Ludo Pittie of the international landscape and built-spaces firm WSP says mixed-use developments around the world are being forced to rethink what physical retail should offer as online shopping and digital entertainment consume more of people¡¯s time.

¡°How do we bring people out to our shops?¡± he says. ¡°It¡¯s really maximizing that idea of making the experience as unique, enjoyable and memorable as can be ¡ª not just visiting the shop but everything from how you get to that destination to finding the shops and curating that experience in a way that makes it a memorable experience that far exceeds scrolling on your phone.¡±?

Designing for longevity?

Plenty of developments feel exciting in their first few months. The real question is whether anyone will still care about them 30 years ¡ª?or 100 years ¡ª?from now.

Pittie notes that the world¡¯s most enduring public spaces are often deceptively simple in design but effective in bringing people together over generations.

¡°We¡¯ve been creating public spaces ever since we¡¯ve started creating cities,¡± he says. ¡°There are spaces that are centuries old that work amazingly.¡±?

That question of longevity carries a particular weight in Japan, where developments like Takanawa Gateway City are increasingly being designed around the realities of a rapidly aging society. According to the Cabinet Office¡¯s latest annual report on aging, 29% of Japan¡¯s population is now 65 or older, while 16% are over 75. By 2070, those figures are projected to rise to roughly 38% and 25%, respectively.??

Pittie says designers around the world are increasingly grappling with how aging populations will reshape public spaces, particularly how to avoid isolating older generations from the rest of society.?

¡°We need to find ways to keep society together because that intergenerational interaction is fundamental to aging well,¡± he says.

Mitsui says these developments are also part of Japan¡¯s broader push toward ¡°compact cities,¡± where housing, services and public infrastructure are concentrated into more centralized urban hubs. Besides reducing transportation distances, the model is intended to make cities easier to navigate and support as the population ages.?

But accommodating older residents is only one challenge shaping Tokyo¡¯s newer developments.

¡°There didn¡¯t use to be so many lifestyles,¡± Mitsui says. ¡°Now we have more than 4 million foreign residents living and working in Japan ¡ª?and we also live longer. Our life expectancy is almost 100 years.

¡°There may be a 100-year-old person shopping, and then there may be kids, and their (needs) are very different.¡±?

Mitsui has his own measure for whether Tokyo¡¯s increasingly common megadevelopments are truly successful: whether they can become ¡°hometowns¡± for the people who live in and around them.

¡°In order to make a development into a ¡®hometown,¡¯ you have to have diverse places for kids to play and (spaces) elderly people can enjoy at the same time,¡± he says, adding that intergenerational spaces foster stronger feelings of community.?

¡°If you make friends there, you feel attached to the neighborhood,¡± he says. ¡°And then the neighborhood becomes your hometown.¡±?