From economic turbulence to culinary innovation, this week’s episode shows how Japan’s evolving identity unfolds through Tokyo’s transformation.
In an ambitious and evocative episode marking the 60th anniversary of TV Tokyo, Japan Hour embarks on a journey through six decades of economic growth, societal transformation and culinary revolution in this episode, all told through the prism of Tokyo’s evolution from a post-war metropolis to a global beacon of innovation.
The episode begins with a stark commentary: “Humans are so arrogant,” laments a voice, framing the narrative with a sense of urgency about repeating past mistakes. But the mood quickly pivots to determination, spotlighting Japan’s Economic Revitalisation Plan, or the Japan Project, which seeks to find the “seeds” of how the nation can stay relevant into the next 60 years. As the narrator declares, “The key lies in Tokyo, a global city in constant flux,” viewers are invited to trace the city’s metamorphosis.
Historical context is richly layered, with key economic benchmarks: the Nikkei Average climbing from 50 yen in 1949 to nearly 39,000 yen by 1989 before the bubble burst, plunging Japan into stagflation and what became known as the “Lost Decades”. The eventual resurgence — with the Nikkei topping 40,000 yen in February 2024 — punctuates Japan’s economic resilience and sets the stage for Tokyo’s urban and cultural renaissance.
A major focus is on the vision of Minoru Mori, the second-generation president of Mori Building, who reimagines Tokyo not just as a place to work, but to live and thrive. Confronted with urban sprawl and a soulless cityscape where workers took long commutes daily to work, Mori asked, “Why not live in the sky?” He was the original part of the movement of creating office buildings in central Tokyo. Its skyline expanded rapidly to the point that buildings were given numbers rather than names. And with each construction, he became uneasy at how chaotic development was and how it emptied of people at night becoming a half-dead city. His answer materialised in Roppongi Hills, a city-within-a-city that housed 15,000 workers and 2,000 residents, surrounded by greenery, museums and even rice paddies. This concept gave rise to the term “Hills Tribe,” as tech entrepreneurs like Hiroshi Mikitani and Takafumi Horie flocked to the development.
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed awe at Mori’s approach, noting, “He didn’t just plant greenery on rooftops, he even grew vegetables. Even planning rice fields. That’s not something an ordinary person would conceive.” Mori’s belief in “precision” and “harmony and contrast” reflected his deeper concern that Japan could become “an insignificant country” if it failed to adapt.
Today, Tokyo is again undergoing a transformation — from the once-in-a-century redevelopment of Shibuya Station to the Tokyo Torch Tower, projected to be Japan’s tallest building upon completion in 2028. The city is undergoing a redevelopment boom with global corporations setting up shop. Tokyo now ranks third globally after London and New York, but is considered to have the greatest potential, thanks in part to a tourism boom.
Food is central to Tokyo’s global allure. Tokyo leads the world in Michelin-starred restaurants, with more establishments lauded than Paris or New York. This status was seeded in 1964 with the establishment in 1890, of the Imperial Hotel, a Meiji-era special hotel dedicated to serving foreign guests. Its cuisine has always known to be of cutting-edge.
The revolutionary who opened this restaurant and introduced the first buffet-style dining in 1958 was its late head chef Nobuo Murakami who was well regarded for his culinary innovations. One testament to his ingenuity was introducing frozen food to manage the demands of feeding 7,200 athletes and preparing over 660,000 meals during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
As Yoshiyuki Takahashi, the current head chef at the Imperial Hotel Osaka, recounts, Murakami’s innovations — including the use of 29,000 eggs per day and 15 tonnes of meat — were born from hard-won experience. As a wartime POW in Siberia, he once created a fake pineapple from sweetened apple slices to lift a dying comrade’s spirits. “The will to survive has come to me,” his comrade reportedly said. Murakami later reflected in a TV programme about his experiences: “There was never a time I had felt more glad to be a chef.”
The episode traces how his partnership with frozen food manufacturer Nichirei reshaped Japan’s food culture. A blind taste test, serving identical dishes made from fresh and frozen ingredients, convinced officials, including then-Olympics Minister Eisaku Sato, who said, “I couldn’t tell the difference. Everything was delicious.” Frozen food consumption in Japan would go on to increase 40-fold, with the market reaching ¥1.2472 trillion (S$11.2 billion) in 2023.
In the present day, innovation thrives in the kitchens of unconventional chefs like Jun Yajima, owner of the hidden ramen shop Junmugi. “It feels like raising a kid,” she says of her handmade noodles, “The noodle is cute!” Operating only three days a week and limited to 30 servings a day, her restaurant has attracted global attention. A pop-up in Atlanta saw guests booking weeks in advance, cementing her reputation as Japan’s “Ramen Queen”.
Also profiled is chef Hajime Yoneda of Osaka’s HAJIME, whose Michelin three-star restaurant features 16-course menus inspired by nature. His pièce de résistance, “Earth,” uses over 100 Japanese vegetables to depict ecological harmony. Trained in France and a former systems engineer, Yoneda brings scientific rigour to his art. “It’s like the soul is infused in the dish,” he says. “Without that, I don’t think people would be moved.”
Yoneda once abandoned French cuisine, and his stars, to find his culinary identity. “I didn’t feel like it was my true cooking,” he admits. Today, his dishes incorporate equations, his roots in mathematics evident. “At the end, even with the same sauce, by adding herbs A, B, or C, the flavour changes,” he explains. This analytic creativity is redefining Japan’s fine dining.
But both Yajima and Yoneda express concerns about Japan’s future. Yoneda warns, “If we focus solely on productivity and efficiency, the value will be lost.” In an era where AI and automation dominate, Japan’s culinary pioneers are fighting to preserve the emotional core of cooking.
Through its reflective narrative and deeply human stories, Japan Hour delivers a stirring exploration of Tokyo’s evolution and Japan’s place in the world. From sky-high skyscrapers to soul-infused ramen, it is clear the seeds planted over the last 60 years continue to blossom — with hope for another transformative 60 to come.
