I don’t really buy this idea that Japan’s urban environment has been the key factor to create its immense specialization in crafts. Compare it to Berlin where rents have been incredibly cheap and zoning mixed but without the necessary human capital the only thing those factors generated were cheap bars.
https://resnikoff.substack.com/p/why-osaka-gets-to-have-nice-things
A bit ostensibly about a rice cooker but in fact much more about post-war architecture and social relations in Japan.
Crucially, at street scale, on-street parking is not allowed, which opens up the streetscape for people, on foot and on bike, for conversation and activities, and yes, for moving goods and people around but as a secondary ‘enabling’ activity to the life of the street itself.
https://medium.com/slowdown-papers/18-from-lockdown-to-slowdown-tokyo-as-slowdown-city-822dc0b6f3cc