> on the vibrant business and street culture in Japanese cities and the seemingly very, very low barriers to entry for regular people to participate.
An astute observation that allowing markets to operate without onerous licensing schemes and regulations often has wonderful upsides, allowing the quirky and niche interests to survive and even flourish.
A similar situation was true of Melbourne's small bar scene vs Sydney's. Sydney had more expensive/onerous licensing requirements were prohibitive for tiny bars. Whereas Melbourne's licensing was more permissive and less expensive, resulting in an abundance of quirky and interesting venues. Possibly my favourite example was a tiny indy video game bar (it shut down during covid, I think). https://barsk.com.au/skgames/?p=done
dataviz1000 · 1h ago
I entered a jazz izakaya in Kanazawa with only two stools and no room for anyone else. There was an old man on one stool and a bartender in his 70s or 80s. It is rude to tip and they will not except it but offering to buy a drink for the bartender is encouraged. I ordered a Japanese whiskey and offered the old man and bartender one. There were piles of knickknacks and maybe $15,000 worth of stereo equipment including a record player, planar magnetic speakers and a vacuum tube amplifier in this little room. I heard the distinctive sound of Sonny Rollins saxophone and used the translation app to say I saw Sonny Rollins play live at the Monterey Jazz Festival and he played an encore of La Cucaracha for close to two hours where his band eventually left the stage and he kept playing and playing. The bartender pulled out a Sonny Rollins record from his stack of vinyl and put it on the record player. The three of us sat there for 40 minutes not saying a word listening.
If you are in Kyoto, I recommend a similar style bar called Brown Sugar. They tend to have these types of names, for example, in Sapporo there is one called Jim Crow. [0] However, if in Sapporo, I recommend the half note. [1] Most bars and restaurants for that matter will not serve me because I do not speak Japanese, so they say. If I wanted a drink I would stick to Karaoke and jazz bars. I made some friends in Kyoto who were finishing their 4th year studying engineering at University of Kyoto who were from Africa -- these kids are African royalty. They spoke perfect fluent Japanese and they couldn't get access into bars that would let me in. So the names are fitting and likely they know exactly what they mean.
I recently heard Craig Mod[1] in an interview. He has walked thousands of miles in Japan and has produced books that document some of what he has seen. The photographs he has published online are beautiful, but I've never seen any of his books so I can't comment on those.
Anyway, in the interview, he talked about places that sound like what you are describing in the first paragraph but he called them kissas.
I’m fairly certain that it’s a shortened version of 喫茶店 (kissaten).
Dracophoenix · 50m ago
These small cafés/bars are called kissa (kee-sah). Unlike a regular café, the kissa is designed to create an atmosphere allowing for a quiet appreciation of the music while drinks are served as an accompaniment.
For the interested, Chris Broad (Abroad in Japan) interviewed the owner of such an establishment (Basei) located in Ichinoseki: https://youtube.com/watch?v=1-9RMSbl_Uo
> (There’s one that’s chock-full of Star Wars memorabilia, for example.)
I'd definitely like to know where this one is.
altairprime · 38m ago
Nijo Koya, at 382-3 Mogamicho, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto.
lubujackson · 2h ago
It doesn't feel run down because it isn't run down. No dust in the corners, no dents in the wall - this is the difference between patina and "old crap": a lifetime of care.
wrp · 14m ago
> this obviously aging little structure doesn’t feel ugly or rundown.
That made me cringe a bit. The whole look of the place is deliberate. I mean, somebody put in a lot of effort to make it look just that way. Notice how every inch of it is spotless and nothing could be said to be out of place.
munificent · 51m ago
This is a really excellent observation. In addition:
> It’s such a curious, almost uncanny, feeling to enter one of these places. The inside feels much bigger and grander than the outside.
It makes sense for people to have an innate desire to be in places that are, you know, good for people to be in. The most obvious way to tell if a place is good for you is if it carries evidence that it has historically been good to other people.
Maybe we have some subsconcious processing that picks up on signs of human activity. That means wear and tear, built things, modifications. The way humans leave their mark on an environment when they spent time on it. All of that spent time is like accumulated votes that "yup, this is a good human place."
At the same time, we don't want to find ourselves hanging out in a dumping ground, slag heap, or other environment that humans have left their mark in by expoiting it. That's not a good place to be, because it's not just used, it's used up. So what we want to look for is not just signs of human activity (which a landfill has in spades), but a certain kind of caring activity. Marks in the space that seem to have been done to leave it more appealing to be in.
I think that's what the author is picking up on here. These tiny, aged spaces have a deep accumulation of caring attention. They feel bigger than they are because we pick up on that huge information density of all of the past people that have left their mark on a place. The place isn't large spatially, but it's large in time.
It's the exact opposite of how walking into a giant mall or corporate office can still feel claustrophobic because there's nothing—no things—there, no sense of history or connection to any lived experience.
0xbadcafebee · 19m ago
It's also large in usability. That's hard to do with a small space; you have to think different. To think like that, you first need to live in a small space, and organically develop solutions around it.
Now, you could do that with any space, like a machine shop. But the "good human place"-ness of the shop will depend on the forces that shape that shop. If all the forces are purely commercial, you're going to end up with something that works commercially, but might not be so human-friendly. I think the disconnect between bland American commercial spaces and more intimate Japanese ones is the relationship of the owner-proprietor to commercialism.
In the US, I have been in a few cafes where I had to step back outside to check if I had accidentally walked into someone's living room. Same for hostels; the best ones feel like you're in someone's home. Their layout was not driven by commercial interest, but by a person just wanting to feel cozy. The space is them.
Whereas a Starbucks isn't a person, it's a chemical factory. If the music is too loud, it doesn't matter if I complain; the factory workers (supposedly) can't control the music. If the air is too cold, it doesn't matter if I'm shivering; the factory workers are paid to make coffee, not care about my discomfort. Our human connection to the space is irrelevant to the manufacturing and selling of chemical stimulants.
jamestimmins · 53m ago
Thought similarly. It looks very clean, is well lit, the decisions look purposeful (no random crap on the shelves), and the materials wear well (wood vs e.g. cheap plastic chairs).
wagwang · 3h ago
I went to a cafe in kyoto near the bamboo forest where it was literally an old ladies house and in the moment, being there conjured deep resentment within me towards urban planners and zoning.
ecshafer · 1h ago
Japan has zoning but its done very sensibly.
In the US our zoning is done very restrictively: in this place you can build a detached single family home with this kind of set back and up to this height. In this spot you can build low density commercial. Etc you can ONLY build what the zoning board says. Then there are also complications from HUD, like they dont give FHA loans for condos or if developments have straight roads.
In japan the national government has a zoning policy. The most common zoning is “light industrial”. But if you have a zoning policy, you can build anything at that level or below. So in light industrial you can build a coffee shop, or a house or an apartment or a machine shop.
anon-3988 · 2h ago
Man, I know it is a meme but Japan simply have mastered "aesthetics". It is especially incredible given that they achieved this in an urban area.
For example, consider the vines that are growing on that shed. Is that dirty? Should we clean them to get a pristine shed? Yes, you have to sweep the floor everyday to clean the dust, but should you cut down that small plant growing between the cracks of your building? Or the vines overtaking the roof? I think if you answers no to this, then you understand that sense of aesthetics.
For some people tho, they think its a bad thing (1), which I simply don't understand? I don't understand how people can willingly spend every couple of hours every week to trim their lawn to a pristine, perfect cube of grass. Is this beautiful? I think not. In my apartment, I have trees growing from the cracks of the building, and I think that's beautiful.
I don't know how they do it, it is not simply just being clean. I think parts of it is "allowing nature to take its course" which gives a typical structure depth and age.
> I have trees growing from the cracks of the building, and I think that's beautiful.
It probably is beautiful. It may also be inconvenient or outright dangerous. As the trees continue to grow and expand the cracks, the building’s structure becomes ever more compromised. Maybe the cracks will expand and more rain will come in, causing mold and making your home less effective at keeping its temperature. Or maybe they’ll expand in a way that a whole wall will fall off.
Seeing plants sprouting from the ground in cities is fun and aesthetically pleasing, I agree. But it is not always safe to let them keep growing.
appreciatorBus · 2h ago
It's a 1 storey building. Even if the vine means it will only last 50 years instead of 100 years, the risks are low and the cost to replace is low.
If we were talking about public infra where thousands will die if a structure fails prematurely, then sure, let's be careful about vines. But if a private land owner wishes to grow vines (or allow vines to grow) on their private building, I think it's fine.
latexr · 1h ago
> It's a 1 storey building.
I’m not talking about the building in the article, or even Japan specifically, but addressing the general point of trees and other growths which cause literal cracks and compromise structural integrity.
> If we were talking about public infra where thousands will die if a structure fails prematurely
That is exactly what I’m talking about. Well, maybe not thousands, even a four story building with a compromised structure can lead to unnecessary deaths.
mlhpdx · 1h ago
> I’m not talking about the building in the article, or even Japan specifically, but addressing the general point of trees and other growths which cause literal cracks and compromise structural integrity.
Structural integrity or uniformity (or some other qualitative)? Yes, occasionally there is an actual structural problem (MSME here) but far, far more often things are torn down or discarded when a slight repair would suffice (other than the preference).
card_zero · 1h ago
This shouldn't really matter, but it matters to insurance. So landlords cut down trees.
Chris2048 · 2h ago
> the building’s structure becomes ever more compromised
on what timescale though? and in an invisible way?
I believe buildings are seen as more temporary in japan than in the west;
maybe point at which the damage is excessive would outlive the building?
potatolicious · 1h ago
> "on what timescale though?"
Depends on how extensive the growth is and how structurally stable the thing is in the first place. But expect major problems on the decades-timescale.
> "and in an invisible way?"
Yes. This is the main problem with allowing unconstrained plant growth near/in/under structures - the degree of structural compromise is hard to assess (especially without spending a lot of $$$), and failure can be sudden. You're not gonna get as much warning as you'd want.
In the US it's a popular look to have vines growing against brick walls. They're beautiful but often hazardous for structural safety, especially if not proactively maintained and constantly monitored (which is $$$!)
[edit] I think overall the focus on the "pleasantly ramshackle" aesthetics of the shack misses the forest for the trees. There's a lot of daylight between "permit small businesses in possibly unsafe structures" and "western status quo norms for business licensure".
I think something Japan gets done really well is making it easy and inexpensive to run businesses, especially hobby businesses. There are a ton of policies that encourage this outcome, and we can and should adopt entire rafts of them without changing existing regs about the physical structural stability of said businesses ;)
latexr · 2h ago
> on what timescale though?
Short enough to kill you or your direct descendants. These things can look fine for years and then collapse in one day.
> and in an invisible way?
Makes no difference how visible it is if you don’t understand the risk and do nothing until something happens. And the longer you wait, the harder it will be to remedy.
> I believe buildings are seen as more temporary in japan than in the west
I’m not talking about Japan, I’m addressing the general point.
TechDebtDevin · 2h ago
I've never been to Japan, but lived in Norway for a couple years and I always felt like they had mastered western "aesthetics". Norwegians seemed to really appreciate Japanese/zen styles as well. One thing I always found interesting is most homes in Norway will have fresh flowers, despite living in a climate not conducive to that at all.
They have this word called koselig that we don't have in English that means cozy plus a lot more things, and these Japanese coffee shops really do embody that word.
Swoerd · 2h ago
We have a word for that: Japandi. "Japandi is an interior design and architecture style that blends Japanese minimalism with Scandinavian functionality."
PaulDavisThe1st · 45m ago
> I don't understand how people can willingly spend every couple of hours every week to trim their lawn to a pristine, perfect cube of grass.
I do ours because our lawn is 70% tumbleweeds (kochia) and cutting it before any of it can go to seed increases the chance that one day it will be only 30% kochia.
1024core · 1h ago
I remember roaming around the back alleys of Tokyo, as I'm wont to do to get a true feel for any place I'm visiting, and came across bicycles parked on sidewalks, covered with vines. Those bikes must've been there for several years.
Coming from SF, a couple of thoughts came to mind: first: wow these bikes have been sitting here for a long time. And second: this must be a _really_ safe place, because in SF, a bike parked outside won't last a day or two.
Funny thing is: the area didn't look rundown or anything. It was clean and well maintained. Except for the bikes in vines.
thfuran · 2h ago
> I don't understand how people can willingly spend every couple of hours every week to trim their lawn to a pristine, perfect cube of grass.
I once went out of town for two weeks figuring much the same and came back to a freshly cut lawn and a five-day-old notice from the town posted at my door stating that I had three days to trim the lawn or they'd do it for $300.
RankingMember · 2h ago
The western obsession with lawns is well past due for a paradigm shift.
mlhpdx · 1h ago
Regarding plants, my English influenced yard in the US contains no “tortured little trees”[1], but is also intentional and beautiful. Investing in beauty without ego is difficult and unusual but not exceptional.
[1] The Essential Pruning Companion by John Malins
hapara2024 · 2h ago
There is "no nature taking its course" here. Japanese garden also require good deal of trimming, it's just that the style is difference :)
2cynykyl · 2h ago
So true. I once saw a gardener removing weeds from a moss patch with tweezers. Very meticulous.
buildsjets · 1h ago
Oooooh so that's how to deal with the grass sprouts in my Irish Moss.
enaaem · 1h ago
Pristine lawns were originally a status symbol thing. You would show off how much land and resources you could waste.
hn14442 · 2h ago
Yes, the vine being planted ( or let to grow ) is a deliberate choice :). It's not unique to Japan thou.
> I don't understand how people can willingly spend every couple of hours every week to trim their lawn to a pristine, perfect cube of grass.
The funny thing is that you will fine plenty of Western-style gardens in Japan too: perfectly trimmed, symmetrical, sometime even next to Japanese garden. Japanese aristocrats quite love this back in the day.
anon-3988 · 2h ago
> The funny thing is that you will fine plenty of Western-style gardens in Japan too: perfectly trimmed, symmetrical, sometime even next to Japanese garden. Japanese aristocrats quite love this back in the day.
And I dont think that part of Japan is pretty when I visited it. I understand that its not all perfect, of course.
hn14442 · 1h ago
You don't think it's pretty or you just find in uninteresting because it similar to what you already have back home ?
Both are very beautiful to me, because I haven never seen either of them.
> Is that dirty? Should we clean them to get a pristine shed?
What do you mean? Are trees dirty?
anon-3988 · 2h ago
Dirty as in it is something to be dealt with.
SSJPython · 3h ago
There's just something about Japan that makes its simplicity so beautiful. Yes, we all know Japan has dealt with economic problems, lost decades, declining fertility, etc.
But they still manage to keep the beautiful simplicity of life that makes their culture one of the world's richest.
shermantanktop · 55m ago
Jazz—classic jazz, not Kenny G- is common in urban Japan. Very common to hear Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck in a restaurant, coffee shop, etc.
frereubu · 2h ago
This reminds me very much of one of my favourite series on Netflix, Midnight Diner (not Midnight Diner - Tokyo Stories, which is a Netflix remake with many of the same cast, but not as enjoyable as the original in my opinion). Most of the action centres around a group of regulars talking while at a small izakaya in Shinjuku, Tokyo, which is run by someone known only as "Master" and only opens from midnight to 7am. You see a bit of their lives outside, but it always reverts back to the izakaya where they debate on various topics. Given the setting, each episode feels a bit like a theatre play.
sho_hn · 2h ago
I tend to react a bit allergic to the Japan-everything fetishizing so prominent on Hacker News (although I've come to realize that it's mostly Americans holding up an example of everything they feel they lack domestically, and in that sense isn't so much about Japan as it is about America), but perhaps it's an interesting data point that at as a grumpy cynic I still want to second this recommendation. :)
For one reason or another, the Japanese school of story-telling has a pretty prominent streak of this type of low-stakes, downtempo "slice of life" premise like this, that I find very satisfying. The director Hirokazu Koreeda has made many films of this type as well. For a while my wife and I would alternate watching Spanish films by Pedro Almodóvar and Koreeda on movie night, working through both catalogs, which somehow made a lot of sense together.
latexr · 2h ago
> Japan-everything fetishizing so prominent on Hacker News
It’s far from exclusive to Hacker News. In fact, it doesn’t seem to be that prevalent here, as when it’s mentioned it at least tends to be in relevant context. Reddit, Tumblr, Imgur, and plenty of other communities both on and offline have an appreciation for Japanese culture.
> although I've come to realize that it's mostly Americans holding up an example of everything they feel they lack domestically, and in that sense isn't so much about Japan as it is about America
Also not related to America at all. It’s just as common in Europe and western countries in general. Generation probably plays a role. Find anyone who had their mind blown by an anime at a formative age, and you’ll find someone who to this day is likely to have some degree of fascination with Japan.
sho_hn · 2h ago
> Also not related to America at all.
I'm honestly convinced it's a bit more prevalent in America, and I've explored this in earnest conversations with American friends. I don't mean to villify it either, as it makes a certain amount of sense. Their take is roughly that Japan is the benchmark case for a sufficiently alternative/different culture from an American POV and thus invites comparison. As in, yes, you could also cite equivalent examples in Europe (say, cozy hole-in-the-wall cafés in 200 year old structures with vines hanging off of them ...), but since the cultural overlap is much larger (or presumed to be), it's less striking. To quote one friend, "if you're going to make the comparison, why not go for the maximum you can?"
Add the surplus in shared history, the far greater exposure to Japanese products (e.g. car brands) inviting more interest, and so on.
Sure, you can find manga/anime fand pining for that Japanese lifestyle also in Europe, and Europeans are certainly no strangers to orientalism through the ages. But the incidence of finding "look at how the Japanese are doing it differently" in random mainstream media is a lot higher in US publications. And it's also largely been US-based consulting companies and/or organizations that have taken the hoishin and the kaizen and what not global in corporate culture and particularly in tech.
Klonoar · 1h ago
It’s far from exclusive to HN, but HN is still a prime example of it.
There’s a ridiculous number of Japan-centric things that make it to the front page compared to any other culture. Tech has always had a Japan obsession.
latexr · 1h ago
> There’s a ridiculous number of Japan-centric things that make it to the front page compared to any other culture.
But is there a ridiculous number of Japan-centric things that make it to the front page compared to any other community? Are Japan-centric things discussed on HN more than Reddit, Tumblr, Imgur? Because that was my point; Japan is popular in general, not just popular on HN to the point it’s even worth singling out.
prideout · 1h ago
I have never seen a Koreeda film but he sounds compelling -- which movie would you recommend for a first-timer?
sho_hn · 1h ago
Shoplifters was a recent international success and is maybe the most accessible. My favorites of his are After the Storm and Maboroshi, though. All of them feature wonderful characters and quiet adult moments.
On the arthouse circuit, I think he's best known for After Life, which is a bit more challenging (honestly: I found it a bit dull) but worth biting into.
Do you know that pang of melancholic joy-and-regret you feel after you've had a wonderful day and you know no matter how much you and the others involved try, you can probably never quite recreate that magic a second time? Grateful for the memory you'll always have, yet at the same time sad? That's how his movies feel to me, where I'm often both happy and sad I've seen them. It's pretty damn great when a movie can do that.
flobosg · 1h ago
I can second the Shoplifters recommendation.
the_af · 46m ago
Interesting. I think I've only watched After Life and indeed found it very dull (and for the record: I enjoy slow-paced Japanese movies with "quiet adult moments"). I actually thought the premise of the movie wasn't well explored at all.
So maybe I would enjoy his other movies, if you liked them!
Turntable on a speaker - I thought that was not advised.
meesles · 2h ago
Why though? Because vibrations from a speaker can cause the turntable to move and move the arm or cause the needle to move.
In a jazz cafe, I assume the music plays low most of the time and so it probably doesn't matter much.
buildsjets · 1h ago
The motion of the speaker feeds signal back to the needle/input device. It matters even more in Jazz/syncopated music. The needle tracks with a force of only 1.5 grams or so, and any motion is greatly amplified. Also if you listen to jazz with the volume low you are doing it wrong. Do you link the volume was low in the club when Sun Ra was recording?
But besides that, those speakers are placed terribly for stereo imaging. Even tucked in the cubby, why place them with the drivers together rather than apart? And those speakers appear to be dreadful anyway. A single 12" driver in a vented / untuned baffle with no midrange or tweeter elements?
So this is definitely set up for aesthetic, not sound quality.
gwbas1c · 7m ago
Feedback
2b3a51 · 1h ago
Depends how well the turntable is decoupled from its plinth. Think in terms of a lumped systems model with a mass on a spring being driven by (probably lower frequency) vibrations from the speakers.
"Now that I think about it, there was nothing in this shop that would tell you it isn’t still, say, 1960."
I'd go for 1980s based on the amplifier, turntable and speakers. It would be a radiogram, probably valve based, in actual 1960s. Nice though.
MarkusWandel · 2h ago
What's also magical is that businesses like that can exist without being run aground by bureaucracy. In my city it is nearly impossible to even get a permit for a mobile food stand.
fitsumbelay · 40m ago
This ROCKS
Wabi-sabi spaces are awesome regardless where in the world they are. Portals? Even better.
Awesome post.
timr · 1h ago
Hah, hilarious. I used to live not far from this place. [1]
I don't know the story behind the structure, but it was a re-purposed storage shed [2] that someone was either subletting or owned outright. Probably the former -- the area is not remote, and is surrounded by new housing. Most likely is that some landowner is making a little bit of cash by renting out the space, and the business owner is exploiting the niche of having a cheap property so near to Nijo castle (a tourist black zone in Kyoto).
Setting aside the aesthetics, the most "Japan" thing about this is that it's possible at all to get a license to run a food establishment, electricity service, etc. in such a marginal space. It would never be allowed in the US.
Secondarily, leaseholder rights in Japan are pretty different than in other parts of the world. It's fairly common, even in major cities, to find underdeveloped, tiny little plots of land where there's a lessee who has a ~perpetual right to the space, independent of the "owner". Landowners will buy and sell the underlying rights to the rental cashflow, almost like a long-term bond, with no hope for redevelopment, and the lessee can independently sell the rental rights [3]. Again, I don't know if that's what is going on here, but it wouldn't surprise me. These kind of situations make it feasible for a business owner to invest in creating a business in what is essentially a potting shed -- one of the major risks would be that no one rationally would want to keep that old building in place in an area of Kyoto that could be more fully developed. But as you can see, this building is completely surrounded by new construction, and has been for many years.
[2] I could be wrong about this part. The roof is tiled, which is pretty fancy for a shed. My recollection was that it was far too small to ever have been a house, but it's possible that it was originally a section of a larger machiya, which would make sense for the area and the geometry of the lot.
[3] This is sort of like mineral rights or air rights in the US. It's not a totally foreign concept to us, we just don't do it for houses or...shacks.
This streetview gives a better perspective on exactly what is around it -- you have new development in front and behind, and the area immediately to the front of the shop is a dedicated parking area for a nearby business. I suspect that the shop and the parking area are part of the same parcel, owned by the business.
Biggest thing I miss from Osaka is the vinyl record izakaya that I frequented (I do not remember the name but there are a bunch in the area). Just a little hole in the wall where the owner/baretender/chef/dj would spin whatever the heck he wanted.
during our visit to Kyoto last year we noticed dozens of unmarked restaurants/bars while walking to our hotel at night. we saw packed bars through the blinds of houses indistinguishable from any other around them. we wondered if maybe they are coop bars or something? we never intruded because all were unmarked and at capacity
mostly forgot about it until reading this article because there is a lot to take in while visiting Japan from the US
timr · 15m ago
There are "unmarked", membership-only places, but most likely you just didn't see or understand the sign.
Many restaurants and bars are small mom-and-pop places that gain clientele through neighborhood word-of-mouth, and don't invest in advertising.
mupuff1234 · 2h ago
It all goes back to zoning laws and regulations.
jonpurdy · 2h ago
There are two great videos specifically on Japanese zoning and narrow streets:
And economic viability; can the owner make a living wage with this setup, or do they have other income sources? What is their total cost of living?
GoatInGrey · 2h ago
That comes with zoning regulations. That coffee shop is illegal in most of North America due to being a commercial place-of-sale (outlawed in many residential areas), too small, and not having off-street parking.
When you're able to operate a place like that, your fixed costs (i.e. rent) are drastically lower and you are able to sell at lower prices because of it. With more housing, your employees don't need high wages to afford a basic apartment.
ericmay · 2h ago
Yes. Also you can look at falling rates of entrepreneurship in the United States and connect the dots with the article. We have some neighbors who wanted to run a flower shop out of their garage. Can't get business insurance because it's not a separate location - i.e. your home and business cannot be the same place for physical goods.
Issues like that, while perhaps sensible to someone, are barriers toward economic prosperity.
But a new oil change location? Approved, insured, permitted in 5 minutes. Construction done in 2 months.
We're really hellbent on making anything but the new highway to the new Wal-Mart and $60 Starbucks dinner (paid over time of course) for the kids on the way to soccer practice in the Jeep Wagoner illegal.
1776smithadam · 2h ago
Again, goes back to zoning laws.
Housing is the biggest expenditure for people in America and many parts of the world. Housing is cheap is Japan so people can get by on much less.
spacemadness · 2h ago
The one country that seems to do housing right and not consider it an investment vehicle. Unlike our depressing situation that is tearing society apart.
timr · 45m ago
Housing is absolutely an investment vehicle in Japan. It's just that Japan has been economically stagnant for 30+ years, bordering on deflation, and anywhere outside of a first- or second-tier city is effectively dying. Couple that with the Japanese cultural distaste for pre-owned housing, and this is the outcome.
If you operate a rental in any area outside of the core of the major cities, you are in the business of charging a significant monthly premium over a property value that is rapidly depreciating to zero. This is fundamentally different than the US.
ajmurmann · 2h ago
That it's considered an investment vehicle is downstream from the rising markets due to tight regulation which limit supply. In Japan what zones exist is standardized across the country and what zone applies to a given area is defined by the government in Tokyo. This prevents local homeowners to lobby for tighter regulation to strangle supply.
Barrin92 · 1h ago
>That it's considered an investment vehicle is downstream from the rising markets
That's not what its downstream from, that's restating the same thing in financial terms. What it's actually downstream from is that Japan is a fully urbanized society. The reason why Americans cannot implement this is because houses are their little homesteads and castles, Fukuyama used the term "suburban villager" for this attitude (also prevalent in Greece and Eastern Europe etc.)
asimpletune · 2h ago
That's interesting. So at least in this sense Japan seems like an excellent place for one to sell their home and downsize.
joshmarinacci · 2h ago
That is indeed what's happening. The countryside is emptying out and people are moving to the big cities.
dfxm12 · 2h ago
If you don't have to worry about work requirements for life's necessities along with zoning laws to support them, the economic viability of operating unique, niche establishments goes up.
That said, there are probably 0 employees and long hours involved.
ajmurmann · 2h ago
Many small business like this are also run by retirees who want to meet people and bring some value to their community. It's legal to run a small business from a certain percentage of your ground floor in any location in Japan.
It also doesn't have to be your primary source of income. If you can run it from a structure like this you could just operate a cocktail bar on the weekends. Even in the US I know of a small pizza place that offers takeout only on a few days each month and it's operated out of the owners mom's kitchen. Not sure how legal that is and turning that inti a sit-down place would certainly be an issue.
ajmurmann · 2h ago
Yes! Every zoning and housing regulation commission should evaluate every proposal by the question if it enables our cities to be as quirky and wonderful as Japanese cities. If not, it's out!
antonymoose · 31m ago
Sadly, I think the lack of care for the other, and for social cohesion in Western nations preclude this.
Several years ago our next door neighbor applied for a zoning variance to allow their home to be used as an AirBNB. All was fine for the first month or two, then a graduation party booked it, 20 vehicles show up and parked on all the neighbors yards, loud party late into the night, etc.
All of this was reported for noise violations, parking violations, etc. to both the police and to AirBNB. Neither took any action.
Months later a college fraternity booked this AirBNB for the entire summer. All of the above plus nightly backyard ragers going until 2 AM. Neither the police nor AirBNB did a damn thing about it. We reached out to zoning to see if we could protest the variance after the fact and told no, the only way for the variance to be revoked would be for the police to make so many calls to the house that it is deemed a public nuisance. Except the
police won’t show for nuisance calls and even if they did it would take years of this for a hearing to be held which may or
may not decide on our favor.
So… as much as I love the idea of the Japanese civic style. I would never give up strict zoning in America for it. People suck.
jgon · 1h ago
I generally agree with the sentiment behind this, but like many other things, underneath the zoning issues what it actuallyactually goes back to is cultural issues. For a large number of other countries you could loosen zoning up and ultimately someone would start operating an abattoir next to an elementary school and it would make the 5 o'clock news and then the city council would throw a bunch of new regulations in and the whole thing would be over.
I hate to even sound like this, I hate the cynicism in my comment, and maybe the answer is to actually just do it and not declare premature defeat, but having watched how other initiatives in my own local area have gone I can't help but feel that we don't have the real secret weapon that works for places like Japan, and makes stuff like Star Trek work outside of all the fancy tech, and that's sufficiently advanced culture to not immediately race this all to the bottom.
SSJPython · 2h ago
I think that is part of the reason. Japanese zoning is very liberal and loose compared to the US.
agcat · 1h ago
I am bookmarking this for my visit! :D
carabiner · 31m ago
I went to a cafe in Niseko that looked straight out of a ghibli movie. Stacks of older records in the corner, pothos vines draped over window sills. If you know Niseko, you know this is not the vibe at all since the whole town is mostly Australians (who are louder and more boisterous than Americans). I went in there and it was only a few Asian tourists. So peaceful. Then one American came in, and the entire vibe shifted for the worse as he tried talking over me and shouting across the room to the other table. Sigh.
rockostrich · 1h ago
As someone who loves coffee as well as the culture around locally owned coffee shops, visiting Tokyo (and to a lesser extent Seoul) this past April was like a dream come true.
When my partner and I travel, we don't do a ton of planning for specifics so if we're in a big city we'll usually pick a neighborhood or 2 for the day and bebop around until we're tired. The start to any day is almost always finding a coffee shop and doing the crossword during our first cup. In Europe depending on the city this can be difficult because a lot of coffee shops just pump out overextracted espresso and then give the option to add water for an americano. There's still tons of amazing cafes in the European cities I've visited. Some really memorable ones are Café Tacuba in Lucerne, Faro in Rome, and Monks Coffee Roasters. in Amsterdam.
In Tokyo, we actually started off with a pretty mediocre coffee because nothing opened before 10 besides a cafe chain, but after we got adjusted we couldn't stop finding great spots. The first day we were going to the national museum and found AOYAMA COFFEE ROASTER in Yanaka. At first the owner was a bit standoffish because we were 2 Americans coming in at the very beginning of the day and I assume she has a lot of bad experiences with tourists, but we started talking after she noticed my portafilter/coffee plant tattoo and had a really great time. For the rest of the week, we walked into shop after shop that had at most 4 or 5 seats with one barista making drinks and each one felt special.
The one that connected me most to this post was the one from our day in Sumida City when we were going to a bunch of small museums (highly recommend the Hokusai museum). We stopped into CHILL OUT COFFEE &...RECORDS and it was one of the coziest coffee experiences I've ever had. The shop is a coffee bar with a couch and a couple of chairs. I forget what kind of cup I had but I remember it being just a really balanced cup with a little bit of berry and chocolate notes. I wish we could've stayed longer but after about 15 minutes a family of tourists with 2 toddlers came in and we figured it was time to go after we finished our drinks.
In Seoul, the shops we visited were all a lot bigger but one thing I couldn't help noticing was that all of the baristas were so deliberate in their movements. This is something that was probably true of folks in shops in general in Tokyo and Seoul, but I noticed it with baristas because I tend to think about it a lot when I'm making drinks at home. You could show me a silhouette of baristas making drinks in Tokyo and some western city and it would be night and day. I feel like that goes a long way in illustrating the differences between eastern and western culture even though we're all making and enjoying the same hot bean water.
ryantando · 1h ago
Blog post like this made me back to 2010 lol
criddell · 2h ago
How was the WiFi?
low_tech_punk · 1h ago
Probably faster than Starbucks in the US
Mistletoe · 3h ago
As a vintage audio lover, I’m legally obligated to ask what the speakers and amplifier are.
No comments yet
renewiltord · 2h ago
Beautiful. I think a lot of what makes Japan wonderful in this respect is:
* Poor economic mobility
* Individual compliance with the social contract
* Liberty to run small businesses
* Good land use laws
Perfect mobility is awful because all the capable people get to maximize earnings. The better The Sort (as patio11 calls it) the more capable people move out of doing things with high positive externalities.
Dracophoenix · 1h ago
> Poor economic mobility
Maybe you mean poor job mobility for office work. Economic mobility as a whole is high enough for whole towns and villages to become desolate as former residents decamp for the cities.
spongebobstoes · 2h ago
romanticizing poverty is a privilege that the poor don't have
hapara2024 · 2h ago
what kind of conclusion are we drawing from a 2 minutes clip of a cafe here ?
ergsef · 2h ago
Who are "capable" people? Do you think if the cafe owner was born in the US they would be working at Google?
Lots of people in North America work in jobs with positive externalities (teachers, nurses, etc) and they're generally treated like shit compared to 9-5 office workers. I don't think the issue is that the former is group is less capable, they're just not sociopathic resource-collecting robots.
An astute observation that allowing markets to operate without onerous licensing schemes and regulations often has wonderful upsides, allowing the quirky and niche interests to survive and even flourish.
A similar situation was true of Melbourne's small bar scene vs Sydney's. Sydney had more expensive/onerous licensing requirements were prohibitive for tiny bars. Whereas Melbourne's licensing was more permissive and less expensive, resulting in an abundance of quirky and interesting venues. Possibly my favourite example was a tiny indy video game bar (it shut down during covid, I think). https://barsk.com.au/skgames/?p=done
If you are in Kyoto, I recommend a similar style bar called Brown Sugar. They tend to have these types of names, for example, in Sapporo there is one called Jim Crow. [0] However, if in Sapporo, I recommend the half note. [1] Most bars and restaurants for that matter will not serve me because I do not speak Japanese, so they say. If I wanted a drink I would stick to Karaoke and jazz bars. I made some friends in Kyoto who were finishing their 4th year studying engineering at University of Kyoto who were from Africa -- these kids are African royalty. They spoke perfect fluent Japanese and they couldn't get access into bars that would let me in. So the names are fitting and likely they know exactly what they mean.
[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=sapporo+japan+bar+jim+crow
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=sapporo+japan+piano+ba+half+...
Anyway, in the interview, he talked about places that sound like what you are describing in the first paragraph but he called them kissas.
[1]:https://craigmod.com/
[0] https://xkcd.com/1053/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_kissa
For the interested, Chris Broad (Abroad in Japan) interviewed the owner of such an establishment (Basei) located in Ichinoseki: https://youtube.com/watch?v=1-9RMSbl_Uo
> (There’s one that’s chock-full of Star Wars memorabilia, for example.)
I'd definitely like to know where this one is.
That made me cringe a bit. The whole look of the place is deliberate. I mean, somebody put in a lot of effort to make it look just that way. Notice how every inch of it is spotless and nothing could be said to be out of place.
> It’s such a curious, almost uncanny, feeling to enter one of these places. The inside feels much bigger and grander than the outside.
It makes sense for people to have an innate desire to be in places that are, you know, good for people to be in. The most obvious way to tell if a place is good for you is if it carries evidence that it has historically been good to other people.
Maybe we have some subsconcious processing that picks up on signs of human activity. That means wear and tear, built things, modifications. The way humans leave their mark on an environment when they spent time on it. All of that spent time is like accumulated votes that "yup, this is a good human place."
At the same time, we don't want to find ourselves hanging out in a dumping ground, slag heap, or other environment that humans have left their mark in by expoiting it. That's not a good place to be, because it's not just used, it's used up. So what we want to look for is not just signs of human activity (which a landfill has in spades), but a certain kind of caring activity. Marks in the space that seem to have been done to leave it more appealing to be in.
I think that's what the author is picking up on here. These tiny, aged spaces have a deep accumulation of caring attention. They feel bigger than they are because we pick up on that huge information density of all of the past people that have left their mark on a place. The place isn't large spatially, but it's large in time.
It's the exact opposite of how walking into a giant mall or corporate office can still feel claustrophobic because there's nothing—no things—there, no sense of history or connection to any lived experience.
Now, you could do that with any space, like a machine shop. But the "good human place"-ness of the shop will depend on the forces that shape that shop. If all the forces are purely commercial, you're going to end up with something that works commercially, but might not be so human-friendly. I think the disconnect between bland American commercial spaces and more intimate Japanese ones is the relationship of the owner-proprietor to commercialism.
In the US, I have been in a few cafes where I had to step back outside to check if I had accidentally walked into someone's living room. Same for hostels; the best ones feel like you're in someone's home. Their layout was not driven by commercial interest, but by a person just wanting to feel cozy. The space is them.
Whereas a Starbucks isn't a person, it's a chemical factory. If the music is too loud, it doesn't matter if I complain; the factory workers (supposedly) can't control the music. If the air is too cold, it doesn't matter if I'm shivering; the factory workers are paid to make coffee, not care about my discomfort. Our human connection to the space is irrelevant to the manufacturing and selling of chemical stimulants.
In the US our zoning is done very restrictively: in this place you can build a detached single family home with this kind of set back and up to this height. In this spot you can build low density commercial. Etc you can ONLY build what the zoning board says. Then there are also complications from HUD, like they dont give FHA loans for condos or if developments have straight roads.
In japan the national government has a zoning policy. The most common zoning is “light industrial”. But if you have a zoning policy, you can build anything at that level or below. So in light industrial you can build a coffee shop, or a house or an apartment or a machine shop.
For example, consider the vines that are growing on that shed. Is that dirty? Should we clean them to get a pristine shed? Yes, you have to sweep the floor everyday to clean the dust, but should you cut down that small plant growing between the cracks of your building? Or the vines overtaking the roof? I think if you answers no to this, then you understand that sense of aesthetics.
For some people tho, they think its a bad thing (1), which I simply don't understand? I don't understand how people can willingly spend every couple of hours every week to trim their lawn to a pristine, perfect cube of grass. Is this beautiful? I think not. In my apartment, I have trees growing from the cracks of the building, and I think that's beautiful.
I don't know how they do it, it is not simply just being clean. I think parts of it is "allowing nature to take its course" which gives a typical structure depth and age.
1. https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/comments/vs1n0n/help_wh...
That’s not what you should be worrying about.
> I have trees growing from the cracks of the building, and I think that's beautiful.
It probably is beautiful. It may also be inconvenient or outright dangerous. As the trees continue to grow and expand the cracks, the building’s structure becomes ever more compromised. Maybe the cracks will expand and more rain will come in, causing mold and making your home less effective at keeping its temperature. Or maybe they’ll expand in a way that a whole wall will fall off.
Seeing plants sprouting from the ground in cities is fun and aesthetically pleasing, I agree. But it is not always safe to let them keep growing.
If we were talking about public infra where thousands will die if a structure fails prematurely, then sure, let's be careful about vines. But if a private land owner wishes to grow vines (or allow vines to grow) on their private building, I think it's fine.
I’m not talking about the building in the article, or even Japan specifically, but addressing the general point of trees and other growths which cause literal cracks and compromise structural integrity.
> If we were talking about public infra where thousands will die if a structure fails prematurely
That is exactly what I’m talking about. Well, maybe not thousands, even a four story building with a compromised structure can lead to unnecessary deaths.
Structural integrity or uniformity (or some other qualitative)? Yes, occasionally there is an actual structural problem (MSME here) but far, far more often things are torn down or discarded when a slight repair would suffice (other than the preference).
on what timescale though? and in an invisible way?
I believe buildings are seen as more temporary in japan than in the west; maybe point at which the damage is excessive would outlive the building?
Depends on how extensive the growth is and how structurally stable the thing is in the first place. But expect major problems on the decades-timescale.
> "and in an invisible way?"
Yes. This is the main problem with allowing unconstrained plant growth near/in/under structures - the degree of structural compromise is hard to assess (especially without spending a lot of $$$), and failure can be sudden. You're not gonna get as much warning as you'd want.
In the US it's a popular look to have vines growing against brick walls. They're beautiful but often hazardous for structural safety, especially if not proactively maintained and constantly monitored (which is $$$!)
[edit] I think overall the focus on the "pleasantly ramshackle" aesthetics of the shack misses the forest for the trees. There's a lot of daylight between "permit small businesses in possibly unsafe structures" and "western status quo norms for business licensure".
I think something Japan gets done really well is making it easy and inexpensive to run businesses, especially hobby businesses. There are a ton of policies that encourage this outcome, and we can and should adopt entire rafts of them without changing existing regs about the physical structural stability of said businesses ;)
Short enough to kill you or your direct descendants. These things can look fine for years and then collapse in one day.
> and in an invisible way?
Makes no difference how visible it is if you don’t understand the risk and do nothing until something happens. And the longer you wait, the harder it will be to remedy.
> I believe buildings are seen as more temporary in japan than in the west
I’m not talking about Japan, I’m addressing the general point.
They have this word called koselig that we don't have in English that means cozy plus a lot more things, and these Japanese coffee shops really do embody that word.
I do ours because our lawn is 70% tumbleweeds (kochia) and cutting it before any of it can go to seed increases the chance that one day it will be only 30% kochia.
Coming from SF, a couple of thoughts came to mind: first: wow these bikes have been sitting here for a long time. And second: this must be a _really_ safe place, because in SF, a bike parked outside won't last a day or two.
Funny thing is: the area didn't look rundown or anything. It was clean and well maintained. Except for the bikes in vines.
I once went out of town for two weeks figuring much the same and came back to a freshly cut lawn and a five-day-old notice from the town posted at my door stating that I had three days to trim the lawn or they'd do it for $300.
[1] The Essential Pruning Companion by John Malins
> I don't understand how people can willingly spend every couple of hours every week to trim their lawn to a pristine, perfect cube of grass.
The funny thing is that you will fine plenty of Western-style gardens in Japan too: perfectly trimmed, symmetrical, sometime even next to Japanese garden. Japanese aristocrats quite love this back in the day.
And I dont think that part of Japan is pretty when I visited it. I understand that its not all perfect, of course.
Both are very beautiful to me, because I haven never seen either of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi
What do you mean? Are trees dirty?
But they still manage to keep the beautiful simplicity of life that makes their culture one of the world's richest.
For one reason or another, the Japanese school of story-telling has a pretty prominent streak of this type of low-stakes, downtempo "slice of life" premise like this, that I find very satisfying. The director Hirokazu Koreeda has made many films of this type as well. For a while my wife and I would alternate watching Spanish films by Pedro Almodóvar and Koreeda on movie night, working through both catalogs, which somehow made a lot of sense together.
It’s far from exclusive to Hacker News. In fact, it doesn’t seem to be that prevalent here, as when it’s mentioned it at least tends to be in relevant context. Reddit, Tumblr, Imgur, and plenty of other communities both on and offline have an appreciation for Japanese culture.
> although I've come to realize that it's mostly Americans holding up an example of everything they feel they lack domestically, and in that sense isn't so much about Japan as it is about America
Also not related to America at all. It’s just as common in Europe and western countries in general. Generation probably plays a role. Find anyone who had their mind blown by an anime at a formative age, and you’ll find someone who to this day is likely to have some degree of fascination with Japan.
I'm honestly convinced it's a bit more prevalent in America, and I've explored this in earnest conversations with American friends. I don't mean to villify it either, as it makes a certain amount of sense. Their take is roughly that Japan is the benchmark case for a sufficiently alternative/different culture from an American POV and thus invites comparison. As in, yes, you could also cite equivalent examples in Europe (say, cozy hole-in-the-wall cafés in 200 year old structures with vines hanging off of them ...), but since the cultural overlap is much larger (or presumed to be), it's less striking. To quote one friend, "if you're going to make the comparison, why not go for the maximum you can?"
Add the surplus in shared history, the far greater exposure to Japanese products (e.g. car brands) inviting more interest, and so on.
Sure, you can find manga/anime fand pining for that Japanese lifestyle also in Europe, and Europeans are certainly no strangers to orientalism through the ages. But the incidence of finding "look at how the Japanese are doing it differently" in random mainstream media is a lot higher in US publications. And it's also largely been US-based consulting companies and/or organizations that have taken the hoishin and the kaizen and what not global in corporate culture and particularly in tech.
There’s a ridiculous number of Japan-centric things that make it to the front page compared to any other culture. Tech has always had a Japan obsession.
But is there a ridiculous number of Japan-centric things that make it to the front page compared to any other community? Are Japan-centric things discussed on HN more than Reddit, Tumblr, Imgur? Because that was my point; Japan is popular in general, not just popular on HN to the point it’s even worth singling out.
On the arthouse circuit, I think he's best known for After Life, which is a bit more challenging (honestly: I found it a bit dull) but worth biting into.
Do you know that pang of melancholic joy-and-regret you feel after you've had a wonderful day and you know no matter how much you and the others involved try, you can probably never quite recreate that magic a second time? Grateful for the memory you'll always have, yet at the same time sad? That's how his movies feel to me, where I'm often both happy and sad I've seen them. It's pretty damn great when a movie can do that.
So maybe I would enjoy his other movies, if you liked them!
In a jazz cafe, I assume the music plays low most of the time and so it probably doesn't matter much.
But besides that, those speakers are placed terribly for stereo imaging. Even tucked in the cubby, why place them with the drivers together rather than apart? And those speakers appear to be dreadful anyway. A single 12" driver in a vented / untuned baffle with no midrange or tweeter elements?
So this is definitely set up for aesthetic, not sound quality.
"Now that I think about it, there was nothing in this shop that would tell you it isn’t still, say, 1960."
I'd go for 1980s based on the amplifier, turntable and speakers. It would be a radiogram, probably valve based, in actual 1960s. Nice though.
Wabi-sabi spaces are awesome regardless where in the world they are. Portals? Even better. Awesome post.
I don't know the story behind the structure, but it was a re-purposed storage shed [2] that someone was either subletting or owned outright. Probably the former -- the area is not remote, and is surrounded by new housing. Most likely is that some landowner is making a little bit of cash by renting out the space, and the business owner is exploiting the niche of having a cheap property so near to Nijo castle (a tourist black zone in Kyoto).
Setting aside the aesthetics, the most "Japan" thing about this is that it's possible at all to get a license to run a food establishment, electricity service, etc. in such a marginal space. It would never be allowed in the US.
Secondarily, leaseholder rights in Japan are pretty different than in other parts of the world. It's fairly common, even in major cities, to find underdeveloped, tiny little plots of land where there's a lessee who has a ~perpetual right to the space, independent of the "owner". Landowners will buy and sell the underlying rights to the rental cashflow, almost like a long-term bond, with no hope for redevelopment, and the lessee can independently sell the rental rights [3]. Again, I don't know if that's what is going on here, but it wouldn't surprise me. These kind of situations make it feasible for a business owner to invest in creating a business in what is essentially a potting shed -- one of the major risks would be that no one rationally would want to keep that old building in place in an area of Kyoto that could be more fully developed. But as you can see, this building is completely surrounded by new construction, and has been for many years.
[1] It's here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3KtWnTAkmatMqN9b6
[2] I could be wrong about this part. The roof is tiled, which is pretty fancy for a shed. My recollection was that it was far too small to ever have been a house, but it's possible that it was originally a section of a larger machiya, which would make sense for the area and the geometry of the lot.
[3] This is sort of like mineral rights or air rights in the US. It's not a totally foreign concept to us, we just don't do it for houses or...shacks.
This streetview gives a better perspective on exactly what is around it -- you have new development in front and behind, and the area immediately to the front of the shop is a dedicated parking area for a nearby business. I suspect that the shop and the parking area are part of the same parcel, owned by the business.
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.0112669,135.7504895,3a,89.9y...
https://archive.thevinylfactory.com/features/kankodori-karao...
mostly forgot about it until reading this article because there is a lot to take in while visiting Japan from the US
Many restaurants and bars are small mom-and-pop places that gain clientele through neighborhood word-of-mouth, and don't invest in advertising.
Life Where I'm From, on zoning: https://youtu.be/wfm2xCKOCNk
Not Just Bikes, narrow streets: https://youtu.be/jlwQ2Y4By0U
When you're able to operate a place like that, your fixed costs (i.e. rent) are drastically lower and you are able to sell at lower prices because of it. With more housing, your employees don't need high wages to afford a basic apartment.
Issues like that, while perhaps sensible to someone, are barriers toward economic prosperity.
But a new oil change location? Approved, insured, permitted in 5 minutes. Construction done in 2 months.
We're really hellbent on making anything but the new highway to the new Wal-Mart and $60 Starbucks dinner (paid over time of course) for the kids on the way to soccer practice in the Jeep Wagoner illegal.
Housing is the biggest expenditure for people in America and many parts of the world. Housing is cheap is Japan so people can get by on much less.
If you operate a rental in any area outside of the core of the major cities, you are in the business of charging a significant monthly premium over a property value that is rapidly depreciating to zero. This is fundamentally different than the US.
That's not what its downstream from, that's restating the same thing in financial terms. What it's actually downstream from is that Japan is a fully urbanized society. The reason why Americans cannot implement this is because houses are their little homesteads and castles, Fukuyama used the term "suburban villager" for this attitude (also prevalent in Greece and Eastern Europe etc.)
That said, there are probably 0 employees and long hours involved.
It also doesn't have to be your primary source of income. If you can run it from a structure like this you could just operate a cocktail bar on the weekends. Even in the US I know of a small pizza place that offers takeout only on a few days each month and it's operated out of the owners mom's kitchen. Not sure how legal that is and turning that inti a sit-down place would certainly be an issue.
Several years ago our next door neighbor applied for a zoning variance to allow their home to be used as an AirBNB. All was fine for the first month or two, then a graduation party booked it, 20 vehicles show up and parked on all the neighbors yards, loud party late into the night, etc.
All of this was reported for noise violations, parking violations, etc. to both the police and to AirBNB. Neither took any action.
Months later a college fraternity booked this AirBNB for the entire summer. All of the above plus nightly backyard ragers going until 2 AM. Neither the police nor AirBNB did a damn thing about it. We reached out to zoning to see if we could protest the variance after the fact and told no, the only way for the variance to be revoked would be for the police to make so many calls to the house that it is deemed a public nuisance. Except the police won’t show for nuisance calls and even if they did it would take years of this for a hearing to be held which may or may not decide on our favor.
So… as much as I love the idea of the Japanese civic style. I would never give up strict zoning in America for it. People suck.
I hate to even sound like this, I hate the cynicism in my comment, and maybe the answer is to actually just do it and not declare premature defeat, but having watched how other initiatives in my own local area have gone I can't help but feel that we don't have the real secret weapon that works for places like Japan, and makes stuff like Star Trek work outside of all the fancy tech, and that's sufficiently advanced culture to not immediately race this all to the bottom.
When my partner and I travel, we don't do a ton of planning for specifics so if we're in a big city we'll usually pick a neighborhood or 2 for the day and bebop around until we're tired. The start to any day is almost always finding a coffee shop and doing the crossword during our first cup. In Europe depending on the city this can be difficult because a lot of coffee shops just pump out overextracted espresso and then give the option to add water for an americano. There's still tons of amazing cafes in the European cities I've visited. Some really memorable ones are Café Tacuba in Lucerne, Faro in Rome, and Monks Coffee Roasters. in Amsterdam.
In Tokyo, we actually started off with a pretty mediocre coffee because nothing opened before 10 besides a cafe chain, but after we got adjusted we couldn't stop finding great spots. The first day we were going to the national museum and found AOYAMA COFFEE ROASTER in Yanaka. At first the owner was a bit standoffish because we were 2 Americans coming in at the very beginning of the day and I assume she has a lot of bad experiences with tourists, but we started talking after she noticed my portafilter/coffee plant tattoo and had a really great time. For the rest of the week, we walked into shop after shop that had at most 4 or 5 seats with one barista making drinks and each one felt special.
The one that connected me most to this post was the one from our day in Sumida City when we were going to a bunch of small museums (highly recommend the Hokusai museum). We stopped into CHILL OUT COFFEE &...RECORDS and it was one of the coziest coffee experiences I've ever had. The shop is a coffee bar with a couch and a couple of chairs. I forget what kind of cup I had but I remember it being just a really balanced cup with a little bit of berry and chocolate notes. I wish we could've stayed longer but after about 15 minutes a family of tourists with 2 toddlers came in and we figured it was time to go after we finished our drinks.
In Seoul, the shops we visited were all a lot bigger but one thing I couldn't help noticing was that all of the baristas were so deliberate in their movements. This is something that was probably true of folks in shops in general in Tokyo and Seoul, but I noticed it with baristas because I tend to think about it a lot when I'm making drinks at home. You could show me a silhouette of baristas making drinks in Tokyo and some western city and it would be night and day. I feel like that goes a long way in illustrating the differences between eastern and western culture even though we're all making and enjoying the same hot bean water.
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* Poor economic mobility
* Individual compliance with the social contract
* Liberty to run small businesses
* Good land use laws
Perfect mobility is awful because all the capable people get to maximize earnings. The better The Sort (as patio11 calls it) the more capable people move out of doing things with high positive externalities.
Maybe you mean poor job mobility for office work. Economic mobility as a whole is high enough for whole towns and villages to become desolate as former residents decamp for the cities.
Lots of people in North America work in jobs with positive externalities (teachers, nurses, etc) and they're generally treated like shit compared to 9-5 office workers. I don't think the issue is that the former is group is less capable, they're just not sociopathic resource-collecting robots.