“Scientists should stop trying to be neutral & instead embrace their values. The neutrality myth is harming the reputation of science right when we need it most.” Had recently precisely the same kind of debate. But is that neutrality if we acquiesce to climate denial? v @brenttoderian.bsky.social

It gives me great pleasure to share the release of my decade-in-the-writing critical biography of filmmaker/activist Adachi Masao. Pink Auteur, Red Outlaw: Adachi Masao and Japan’s Cinema of Revolution is out September 1 via Awai Books. awaimedia.com/WilliamAndre...

Alison Sant's important reminder that cycling is also a gender-equity issue. #Tokyo may be walkable& mixed-use, but many women, children, and elderly residents still face barriers to cycling safely. The true measure of a cycling city is not how many people cycle, but who feels safe enough to do so.

Dutch tourist comes to Japan, thinks he can do the Tokyo Drift, but does it in Utsunomiya instead of Tokyo, gets caught on camera, and ends up on national news with his name attached. Guys, please behave abroad the way you’d expect overseas tourists to behave in your own country.

This isn’t rocket science, but it’s always useful to generate comparative data that reminds us how much urban form matters. I try to get 8–10k steps in on my walk to work—a benefit of living in a hyper-walkable city like #Tokyo.

Repeat after me. A habitable planet is more important than the profits of a few fossil fuel companies. Pass it on. #ActOnClimate

“Just being unsure about the enforcement creates a huge barrier to cycling.” ... riding on the sidewalks may be chaotic but ... less than 6% of crashes were caused by cyclists while more than 88% were caused by drivers. [Kosuke Miyata] says [Tokyo's] new rules address “the symptoms, not the cause."

Alison Sant's important reminder that cycling is also a gender-equity issue. #Tokyo may be walkable& mixed-use, but many women, children, and elderly residents still face barriers to cycling safely. The true measure of a cycling city is not how many people cycle, but who feels safe enough to do so.

ProPublica spoke to dozens of people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.” We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words. ➡️ This is what they wrote: https://propub.li/4veRIqA

Japan's inclusive zoning helped preserve mixed-use neighbourhoods& many qualities of the 15-minute city by default. While exclusive zoning elsewhere reduced walkability& mixed uses, Japan's flexibility kept them alive. Yet that same flexibility can also enable risky land-use patterns like this one.

Migrant populations are scapegoated worldwide. Japan’s case is distinct because a real influx of workers is arriving in cities with little experience of large-scale immigration. Japan needs migration—but even more, it needs proactive integration policies.

If you get scared of big STARTER PACKS, here’s just 25 accounts on CITIES & URBANISM that i hope you’ll follow, and share. And if you want more, check out my OTHER starter packs too. My packs are the actual examples profiled in the official “BLUESKY FOR DUMMIES” book! go.bsky.app/6fWyVZf

Photographs as Action: The All-Japan Students’ Photo Association and the Making of Eco-Critical Photography in Japan, 1960s–2020s www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This is a common claim, but do we have solid evidence that public spaces in large Japanese cities once had significantly more waste bins? Or is it possible that the cleanliness of these cities has always been driven primarily by a cultural norm of people taking responsibility for their own trash?

On my daily commute in Tokyo, I enjoy walking through naturally traffic-calmed streets where pedestrians and motorists share public space harmoniously, guided less by regulation than by everyday courtesy and mutual respect.

#IdeasAtWork Appeciate the platform @brenttoderian.bsky.social Follow some stellar urbanist within this Starter Pack like @reneedsc.bsky.social @remmid.bsky.social @michaelemann.bsky.social @oliver-moore.bsky.social @cathytuttle.bsky.social @carlosmorenofr.bsky.social & @nondriver.bsky.social

There are a LOT of great global Bluesky urbanists and organizations that are definately worth following — this past STARTER PACK of mine is just a taste. Who is it missing? I hope a lot more are joining and participating here every day. Please help spread the word. #UrbanistShoutOut

Thanks so much for including me alongside such esteemed colleagues. I do my best to share insights on Japanese urbanism, with a focus on Tokyo, its public spaces, communities, and the many social, cultural, and political forces that shape the city. Honoured to be part of such excellent company.

I really, really think it's about time media stopped treating these people as if they were some kind of visionaries as opposed to the unethical, unimaginative, greedy dullards that they are.

As Japan’s population ages, labour shortages become a pressing challenge, affecting both provision of public services & economic vitality. These pressures are particularly acute in rural areas experiencing depopulation, where shrinking workforces & declining populations compound existing challenges.

A good life for the 99% is possible． There’s really no serious argument against this，if you start from a position of caring about people & planet． Cautionary note；We’ve long known how to tackle the climate crisis but collectively chose not to．How to start acting collectively is the real challenge.

Well into the 1950s, excrements were a valuable commodity traded in urban Japan that was needed as fertiliser for feeding the rapidly growing cities. It is encouraging to see that the resource crunch resulting from the Hormuz crisis helps us to (re)discover smarter, more sustainable ways of farming.

What about tackling the root causes instead of just scratching at the surface? More street trees, cool roofs and pavements, Passive House standards, permeable parking lots, and sponge city design. These are proven ways to reduce urban heat and build resilience—not just treat the symptoms.

Reminds me of policies that mandate helmet use for cyclists. Rather than addressing root causes of danger—reducing vehicle speeds, imposing stricter penalties for speeding& failing to yield@ crosswalks, or investing in safer, greener cycling infrastructure—policymakers resort to tokenistic measures.

A real privilege to be co-hosting André Sorensen for a talk and panel discussion tomorrow in #Tokyo —exploring path-dependency, timing, contingency, and emergence in the context of #Tokyo's urbanisation. If you happen to be around, please do join us. All welcome! #urbanhistory #theoriesofchange

After 'Peak Child' or the Childless City: Children shape cities in ways far beyond demographics—they influence public space, sustain schools & community institutions, and bring the spontaneity, play, and intergenerational life that give neighbourhoods their sense of continuity.

Bäume in Großstädten – die Zeilen sind Tokyo, NY, Phoenix, Paris, Sidney, Shanghai. Paris, Sidney und vor allem Shanghai wow, Tokyo leider meh.

Research finds that Tokyo lost tree canopy equivalent to 256 Tokyo Domes in just 9 years. While summers grow hotter, street trees keep disappearing. While cities such as New York, Sydney, Paris, or Shanghai expand tree cover in response to climate change Tokyo continues to lose green infrastructure.

The car commercial that accidentally exposes just how inefficient cars truly are and how much space they occupy. I am also struck by how thoroughly we came to mistake social isolation for freedom. This ad doesn't make me want to buy a car. It just makes me want to live in a world without them.

So well put. Too many papers scatter references without any real engagement with the sources—it feels more like name-dropping than scholarship. That’s sad, because we’re all standing on others’ shoulders and owe their work genuine respect.

Another example of “homification” of public space in (urban) Japan. Architectural theorists have noted that people are accustomed to removing their shoes at the entrance and stepping up into the home. Could this cultural practice help explain it—treating public space with the same care as our homes?

In Japan, people often remove their shoes before putting their feet on street furniture. A small gesture of consideration towards other fellow urbanites—but also a quiet act of “homifying”& personalising public space. For a brief moment the anonymous city becomes intimate, almost like a living room.

The 'homifying' framing is lovely. It also feels related to how shoes-off at the genkan turns a small apartment into a clear inside, and the city kind of borrows that same gesture outward when someone sits on a bench.

An auditor for the Ontario, Canada government found that AI agents tasked with turning doctor/patient conversations into structured notes routinely hallucinated false treatments, replaced drug names with entirely different drugs, and missed crucial information

This once again exposes how unsustainable the push for ever more inbound tourism has become. Without a serious strategy for responsible tourism, Japan’s overtourism burdens a few communities where some profit while many suffer. Meanwhile, most regions seem to see little regeneration.

When comedians are so much braver than seasoned GOP senators, or many of the currently serving admirals and generals … Thank you so much for your bravery SNL team!

Preparing for the coming energy crisis. Countries like Japan, heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels, may soon face serious strain because of the Hormuz Crisis, just as summer heat will peak. Our new 4m² portable PV panel is cooking on this sunny day. Call me a prepper if U like. Are U prepared?

Many people are still unsure when I ask about the “endgame” of our work. Back in 2014, we held a #deepadaptation bootcamp & mapped out root causes of the #planetarycrisis. Yet, despite accelerating change, far too many still assume a business-as-usual future. → rci.nanzan-u.ac.jp/ISE/ja/publi...

In this paper we explored how local climate initiatives in Japan often pursue very different agendas from the government. We showed that climate action is driven less by “climate change” itself than by immediate local social, economic, and environmental concerns. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

It’s an incredible honour to be included in this starter pack. I’m sure there are many people far more deserving than me. I’ll do my best to share thoughtful material on Japan urbanism — especially Tokyo — along with other ideas and resources I find compelling. Thank you, @brenttoderian.bsky.social

In Japan, people often remove their shoes before putting their feet on street furniture. A small gesture of consideration towards other fellow urbanites—but also a quiet act of “homifying”& personalising public space. For a brief moment the anonymous city becomes intimate, almost like a living room.

The cascading polycrisis is also an opportunity: to finally move beyond fossil fuels, invest in organic farming, and restore soil health in order to reduce import dependency and build real #resilience. Going green is no longer just environmental policy — it is national security and geostrategy.

Let that sink in: the “loneliness epidemic” is by no means unique to Japan. The term was popularised by then–U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in his 2023 advisory ‘Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation’. Building more convivial cities is one important key to address this pressing issue.

A must-visit for any scholar of Japan!

Interesting points worth pondering: What role do language& cognition play in communicating urgency of the climate crisis; building shared awareness? How can they strengthen international cooperation & solidarity? And how to translate supposedly universal ideas across culturally specific worldviews?

It’s an incredible honour to be included in this starter pack. I’m sure there are many people far more deserving than me. I’ll do my best to share thoughtful material on Japan urbanism — especially Tokyo — along with other ideas and resources I find compelling. Thank you, @brenttoderian.bsky.social

Artikel zu unserer studierenden-produzierten Ausstellung zu urbaner Arbeit in Tokyo: „Tokyo Labourscapes“ nutzt Tokioter Kleinbetriebe als Forschungsplattform – und untersucht, wie sich urbanes Produzieren zwischen Arbeit, Alltag und Stadt neu organisiert. www.baunetz-campus.de/news/machiko...

Bendell arguing that the assumptions underlying progress are no longer valid. Deep adaptation as grief work before it becomes strategic planning. The question he forces: can you plan for a future you're not sure exists, and if so, how?

As cities around the globe scramble to face the unpredictable local impacts of runaway climate change and a growing polycrisis, the question is clear: how do we plan and build resilience? Here’s my take on the Resilience Project of the world’s biggest city, #Tokyo.

This is so impressive! Unfortunately, here in Tokyo, hardly any new trees are being planted and the few that are brought into streets are never really allowed to grow tall. The culture of street trees would be surely a book, worth writing!