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The tradition of planning for polycentricity in Tokyo saw outer suburbs designated as Business Core Cities (BCCs). However, as the national economy and population growth have stagnated and Tokyo’s needs as a world city have come to the fore, the outer suburbs have been left exposed. Despite attempts to reinforce outer suburban growth with the BCC policy, Tokyo’s is a story of edge city denied. At a time when attention has turned to planning for the increased urbanity of suburbs or arresting inner suburban decline, Tokyo speaks to a phenomenon of outer suburban decline barely conceivable in mature economies.

Tokyo’s suburban territory now forms part of an increasing multi-dimensional urban–suburban divide in socio-demographic, economic and political and administrative (fiscal) dimensions. Drawing on the Tokyo case we argue the need for theory to take more seriously shrinkage in suburban fortunes. Specifically, we highlight the double meaning of shrinkage as a complex, multifaceted and path-dependent process and as a municipal-level political and policy response. In this paper we offer a theoretical framework for understanding urban (sub)transformation attuned to Japanese conditions and, by extension, other developmental states. We go on to explore the multi-dimensioned isolation of Tokyo’s suburbs in terms of metropolitan-wide inter-governmental, inter-sectoral and inter-actor dynamics. In conclusion we observe the need for theory to be inclusive of the range of trajectories of suburbanisation and for politics and policy to adopt redistributive metropolitan spatial imaginaries.

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<p>The suburbs of Tokyo Metropolis are experiencing path-dependent, multifaceted shrinkage in socio-demographic, economic, and political and administrative (including fiscal) dimensions. The following two contradictory processes taking place in the opposite direction are at work, namely: the political and administrative decentralization of authority and responsibility (although without much fiscal devolution), and the socio-demographic, economic, and fiscal recentralization of workplaces, residences, and municipal finance. As Tokyo’s suburbs confront these contradictory processes of decentralization and recentralization, they fall into the gap between, on the one hand, policies that prioritize the internationally competitive metropolitan center by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and, on the other hand, policies that address the growing problems of lagging provinces by the Government of Japan. These phenomena are affecting radical, but barely visible, changes in public affairs of municipal governments on the lowest tier. We thus examine the emerging modalities of intra- and inter-municipal affairs in Tokyo’s shrinking post-suburbs. First, we explore the intra-municipal upheavals, incorporating instabilities and disarrays, of ideas and practices inside a municipal government. Next, we investigate the inter-municipal upheavals that involve oscillations between unification and fragmentation among municipal governments. These interrelated intra- and inter-municipal upheavals hinder the consistency and timeliness of planning and decision-making in the local arena. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of taming these upheavals and creating integrated governance systems by exploiting the emerging sense of the increasingly intertwined future among municipal governments. This is vital to strengthen local solidarity and promote inter-municipal collaborations at scales that can ensure metropolitan and suburban sustainability.</p>