Reader-added tags for now consist of "Relieved of duties" and "Do they have animals for the porpoise?" (Originally, "Do they have them or not?", punning iru ka (Is X there?) with iruka (dolphin).)

For some reason the built environment of Japan in photographs always looks bleak, a kind of modern featureless blankness, and at night plentiful lights especially neon...

Since Japan is home to one of the greatest art traditions in the world, I wonder if it's the photographers' faults or that it is even more reliant on concrete than the rest of us.

Claverhouse said:

For some reason the built environment of Japan in photographs always looks bleak, a kind of modern featureless blankness, and at night plentiful lights especially neon...

Since Japan is home to one of the greatest art traditions in the world, I wonder if it's the photographers' faults or that it is even more reliant on concrete than the rest of us.

I'm pretty sure it's a sort of McMansion type of problem - anywhere near urban environments, all the land is either owned and developed or owned and being sat upon until someone wants to buy and develop it. If it's developed, people want to turn it all into housing or businesses that turn a profit, and if it's not developed, you don't live there, so you don't care how ugly a pile of mud it is.

The abundance of concrete is in part because it was seen as a somewhat cheap solution to withstanding natural hazards, particularly by those doing the building.