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Tokyo has grown from a feudal million city of Edo to a global supercity with a population of more than three millions without loosing much of the historical spatial structure. Mixture and/or juxtaposition of old and new, East and West, small and large or the like characterize this metropolitan region as if it has no concrete idea of city planning. Superficially it has lost most of its historical, traditional characteristics as exemplified by the fact that the overwhelming trend in the construction of buildings and house have been directed toward internationalization or Westernization. Nevertheless, this supercity still preserve, negatively or positively, a great deal of spatial structure largely formed in the feudal period or early modern period. Tokyo's geographic location characterized by the nearly central location in the Japanese archipelago is thought by many to look to a brighter future, positively supported by two other geographic coditions : the Kanto Plain which is by far the largest in Japan, and the bay-head site on Tokyo Bay which enables to cater for a great amount of maritime interactions. Situated at a joint site between East Asia or Asia as a whole and the Pacific, its development as an international information center for finance and other creative activities has been accelerated these days. Mushrooming office towers, intelligent buildings, fashionable waterfronts, fashion towns, amenity-seeking residential neighborhoods, and many other new phenomena characterize this changing supercity. Influx of foreigners, many of whom are job-seeking workers from developing countries, is now considered to be an urgent topic of urban problems which need to be solved before entering a stage of ethnic struggles. With some one percent of the total metropolitan population of Greater Tokyo, minority ethnic groups, mostly Asian, has to find a way to a better future within such large numbers of Japanese mass which is naively thought to be monoethnic in most cases. Recent changes in Tokyo's townscape, social structure and daily activities are too fast to be grasped by scientific, objective eyes. Need to understand geo-image may be applied to the study of Tokyo accordingly. Urban renewal often proceeds at the sacrifice of cultural and historic assets and also of desirable environments. Tokyo is no New York, no Paris. It is Tokyo, and it must have its identity., 東京の巨大化はさらに進みそうである．江戸時代後半の大江戸は，徒歩交通都市としては世界最大の人口規模に達したが，明治以後の近代化の過程で，まずは鉄道，次いで鉄道と自動車の両者を主交通手段とする巨大都市への道を歩んできた．現在の大東京は3,000万を越す巨大人口の集中で特徴づけられる．この3,000万都市の形成は，人類史上最初のものである．しかし，必ずしも満足できる都市環境・構造をもつものではなく，さまざまな都市問題を内包している．1億2000万以上の人口をもつ日本の地理的中心という位置条件と太平洋圏の興隆に支えられ，東京港頭に立地する東京は，関東平野の存在とともに，さらに巨大化する可能性を示す．最近の大東京は，国際化の大波の中で，その発達史で初めての経験をしている．欧米的景観や生活様式が異国的でなくなり，ハイテク利用の施設・設備がかなり普及し，海外旅行者が急増している．さらに強烈な変化は，円高と労働不足による外国人の合法的，非合法的流入である．大東京では少くとも30万ものこれらに人がおり，さらに増加している．これは僅か1%の人口比ではあるが，長らく「単一民族社会」と思われてきた日本，東京にとって，大きな社会的変化であり，地域構造や都市景観にも変化が現われてきている．しかし，国家経済力および3,000万都市という規模の割りには，人の面の国際化はあまり進んでいない．物の国際化と情報の国際化はかなり進んだが，人の国際化の面では相対的におくれており，今後の大きな課題である．1人当りGNPが15,000ドルを越す高度先進国の首都としての東京は，このように3,000万を越す巨大人口を大都市圏内にもち，しかも急速な改変を伴っている．木造住宅が多く，また「保存に値しない」建築が多いこともあり，増改築，新築が一般化している大東京では，そのインナーシティにおいても，欧米型の改造はそれほど緊急性をもっていない．しかし，ウォーターフロント問題に見られるように，産業中心の土地利用からアメニティ指向の土地利用・景観・環境造成へと大きく方向が変りつつあるのが現状である．, 論説, ARTICLES

Japan's experience in the development of transportation systems since the Meiji Restoration of 1868 could demonstrate some meaningful answers to the future developments of many of the Asian regions which are densely populated.