Urban experiments in Japan, which lessons for France?

The Fondation France-Japon has launched a new research project on urban experiments in Japan, focusing in particular on the case of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. This project mobilises diverse partners from academic institutions but also from private sector.

While the previous Games were an opportunity to demonstrate the power of cities and states through the construction of major infrastructures, the next two editions in Tokyo and then Paris will seek above all to build on their pre-existing infrastructures.

The Games of 2020 (postponed to 2021) and 2024 are presented as the embodiment of good management, social and territorial cohesion and ecological sobriety. The objective is not to "shake up" the city, but to accompany and support its dynamics, in particular through the development of public transport and urban regeneration. The ambitions are no longer for major Olympic projects, but for experimenting with sustainable and complementary mobility solutions in urban spaces fitted out for the occasion as a laboratory. The postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games implies many transformations in order to adapt to a new, changing and uncertain context. In all respects, Tokyo 2020-2021 will be an exceptional event. The aim of this research program is to identify under what conditions the Olympic Games, through the capacity they give city actors to mobilise the resources necessary to improve urban performance, can serve as a springboard for profound transformations in urban mobility.
http://ffj.ehess.fr/urban_exp.html