“Urban solutions” as the state’s crisis management strategy: the decades-long reproduction of Tokyo’s built environment

This article examines the state’s role in promoting urban solutions as a strategy for crisis management by increasing investment in the urban built environment to stimulate economic activity. Drawing on recent urban studies literature, it highlights the state’s agency in directing capital flows into the urban built environment, with Tokyo as a case study. The article argues that urban policies and monetary policies function as two wheels for implementing urban solutions. The Japanese state created a favorable monetary environment for real estate investment, initially through conventional interest rate policies and later via non-conventional policies such as zero interest rates and quantitative easing. Simultaneously, neoliberal urban policies deregulated existing regulations, enhancing real estate investment profitability. Tokyo’s construction cycles, particularly in housing and commercial spaces, exemplify the implementation of urban solutions. Using Granger causality tests, the study demonstrates a relationship between monetary policies and Tokyo’s construction output, revealing how successive Japanese administrations have coordinated urban and monetary policies to direct capital flows into the built environment in response to economic crises.