Word: nagoya
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Twenty kilometers outside the city of Nagoya in central Japan, on ground that was the Aichi Youth Park, a glittering futurescape has risen at the site of the 2005 World Exposition. Visitors at the expo's Mitsui-Toshiba pavilion are taken on a multimedia journey through outer space that speculates on the feasibility of travel to distant reaches of the universe. At the Japan pavilion, saltwater red snapper and freshwater carp live side by side in the same pool-a marvel accomplished by infusing the tank with "oxygenated nanobubbles." Throughout the 173-hectare grounds, more than 25 robots...
...Standard World's Fair fare, really. But what's different about the Nagoya exhibition is this: when the show is over in September and all 15 million expected visitors have gone home, the government will raze the expo, recycle the construction materials and reinstate the children's park. Other former expo host cities may proudly flout their rusting space needles and rocket-ride pavilions on postcards as reminders of glory days past, but not Nagoya. This city is moving too fast to be anchored down by white elephants-in-waiting. After all, in 30 years we may all be breathing...
...Above all, Nagoyans do not see themselves as quaint-not now, not in the future. Ditching the expo is the kind of unconventional thinking that has turned greater Nagoya (pop. 7.2 million) into Japan's most vibrant region. While the rest of the country wheezes in and out of the economic recovery room, Aichi prefecture has become Japan's most reliable and energetic commercial engine. Specializing in high-value, high-tech manufacturing, Aichi has posted one of the top economic growth rates in the nation in recent years. It boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates, the second highest household...
...late 16th century, the area was home to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the country's greatest shogun. But Ieyasu abandoned it in 1603 when he established his new capital in what is now Tokyo. Overshadowed not just by Tokyo to its east, but also by Osaka to its west, Nagoya languished, developing a reputation as a backwater among many Japanese (and a complete cipher to most foreigners) despite being Japan's fourth largest city. When a new generation of bullet trains between Tokyo and Osaka was introduced in 1992, the original schedules didn't even include a Nagoya stop. Two decades...
...avenues and green ribbons of urban parks abut rows of gleaming shops, department stores and restaurants. Some of the women out for shopping or dinner have dyed-brown hair piled high with looping curls and ultra-feminine (and frequently pink) outfits replete with bows and frills. These are the "Nagoya Gals," a look that swept Japan last year when Tokyo fashion bible JJ gave it its stamp of approval. "Nagoya Gal Kits" flew off Tokyo department-store shelves, and toymaker Takara released a "Nagoya Gal" edition of Rika-chan, the Japanese equivalent of Barbie. Says Maiko Takagi, editor of Nagoya...