I came across this article. Shibuya’s redevelopment appears to be stalling. While skyscrapers like Shibuya Scramble Square and Shibuya Stream have been rising one after another, and a pedestrian deck is under construction to resolve the drastic elevation differences—long a weakness of the district—many commercial facilities are struggling to fill their tenants, with some shops seeing scant customer traffic. The demand for Shibuya has not grown nearly enough to justify the explosive increase in floor area that accompanied these high-rise projects, and the district’s erstwhile charm—rooted in its lively disorder—has faded. Despite their talk of “urban development,” the limitations of the so-called “railway operators” such as the Tokyu Group, JR East, and Tokyo Metro—whose true aim was a localized real-estate bubble—are being laid bare in Shibuya with ruthless clarity.
“There is no sky in Shibuya.” As if recalling Kotaro Takamura’s poetry collection Chiekoshō, the sky visible around Shibuya Station has recently grown extremely narrow. The ulterior motive of Tokyu, JR East, and others to maximize rental revenue from Japan’s prime downtown land has resulted in skyscrapers that shut out the sky. Their attempt at atonement takes the form of elevated pedestrian walkways spanning the Yamanote Line and connecting high-rise buildings.
However, there is a world of difference between a street at ground level—where people walk with their feet on the earth—and an elevated pedestrian deck. Traditional street-level stores that have long taken root…
The remainder of the article required payment, but I happened to be able to read it using the remaining free quota on SmartNews. To summarize, it said roughly the following:
Because each railway company has sought to maximize the value of its assets and rental income from a narrow, self-serving perspective, the result has been oversupply. Newer buildings and those in slightly less convenient locations are particularly plagued with vacant lots. Visually, rows of sprouting high-rise tenant buildings have thinned out Shibuya’s distinctive feel as a city. Although they are now trying to link buildings with elevated walkways—much like in Hong Kong—the ground-level streetscape lacks the charm found in comparable cities, diminishing Shibuya’s overall appeal. With no genuine urban-planning vision, Shibuya also lacks green spaces where people would want to linger, such as those realized in Osaka’s Grand Green Osaka redevelopment. The article suggests that Shinjuku, which is undergoing similar redevelopment, may end up facing the same issues.
Indeed, when I recently walked through Akusyu, I was struck by how many units remained empty, and Sakura Stage felt rather deserted as well—clear signs of oversupply. The problem, I feel, is that so many new buildings have emerged with so many different names that I can no longer keep track of which is which, nor can I easily grasp what makes each commercial facility distinctive. (The diagram above is taken from the Sakura Stage website.)