> Also, is not the population density fairly high? There's not as much land to spread in low-density car centric suburbs like there is in (say) the US.

LOL no. Outside of the big neighborhoods of the big cities, Japan is endless urban sprawl. I know because I live in a small Japanese city of 40k people and it's just detached houses, small 2-story apartment buildings, a big box stores. Public transportation is almost non-existant and I need to drive my car everyday for everything.

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throw0101d 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> LOL no. Outside of the big neighborhoods of the big cities, Japan is endless urban sprawl.

And how many people live in those areas?

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan#Urban_di...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_weighted_density

Half the population lives in Tokyo (40M), Osaka (19M), and Nagoya (10M); one-third in the Greater Tokyo Area.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg5XHN_25HQ&t=7m38s

How many folks live inside versus outside the Tokyo-Osaka-Fukuoka rail corridor (Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansens)? Saoporo is probably the next-largest city outside of that stretch.

	▲	pezezin 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, I know that half the population lives in either the Greater Tokyo Area or the Keihanshin area. But you still have the other half scattered all around the country. And even within those areas, when you move to the outskirts it is not so dense. Take the train from Narita to central Tokyo and tell me what you see.