City Planning - Parks in Tokyo and San Francisco

Speaker: Tomoko Takeuchi, Chief Planner, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Visiting Scholar, Asia/Pacific Research Center

Everyone likes a city full of parks and open space. But why has more and more open space been lost in Tokyo, while other metropolitan areas such as San Francisco succeed in keeping greeneries?

Based on the research and work experience in both Tokyo and San Francisco, Tomoko Takeuchi analyzes why greenery areas are disappearing in Tokyo and proposes a recovery plan.

The discussion topics include:

- Current problems of the park planning in Tokyo.

- Social, historical, and natural comparison between Tokyo and San Francisco

- Advantages of San Francisco's park planning over Tokyo's

- Recommendation for the city planning policy of Tokyo

Tomoko Takeuchi is a chief city planner at Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan and currently a visiting scholar at A/PARC, Stanford University. She obtained a master degree in landscape architecture from the University of Tokyo