Faced with crises in housing, health care and a stagnant economy, Canadians may feel like their challenges are insurmountable. But solutions may not be that hard. To see how we might do things differently, we could look to Japan’s cities for ideas.
Take the two capitals, for starters. Ottawa has about a million residents, Tokyo some 14 times that. Yet Tokyo occupies less space. You would think that with that kind of density Tokyo, which after all is one of the world’s great metropoles and a global corporate and financial hub, would be an expensive place to live. Yet average house prices are lower there than in Ottawa.
