Combination of factors make Tokyo top place to live among world's biggest cities

Second in a two-part series

TOKYO ROUNDTABLE

TOKYO — My old friends Hiroki Allen, the former West Point grad, Special Ops officer, Georgetown MBA and Wall Street analyst, and Max Tensai, Canadian management consultant in Tokyo and friend of Hiroki from Georgetown, both longtime Tokyo residents, had their own theories about what made the city work, They expressed them during a three-man summit on Tokyo one night at the FCCJ not so long ago.

“No. 1 Is Monocultural, Bob,” Hiroki said to me over several mugs of Asahi draft beer “Monocultural. Remember that word. Tokyo is Japanese and the city’s culture is a vibrant amalgam of Japan but one that is tailored to big city life. Tokyo is the only capital city of a G7 nation that is monocultural, a celebration of the unique Japanese experience that stands in contrast to the questionable multicultural experiments of some European and American cities.

“There is more chance of converting the entire Middle East to Christianity than there is of converting Japan. This is not just because of the prevalence of Buddhism and Shintoists, but because of the fact that the Japanese already have their own religion: Japan.”