Hi there.
I was doing an essay on Tokyo last year.
From what I read, commercial activity is highly concentrated in central Tokyo(like 90% of land use in the central is commercial?). Most people work in central Tokyo but live outside of this area, kind of like the situation in London.
But I also heard a lot of saying that Tokyo is a mix-used and compact city, that residential and commercial areas are kind of mixed together.

I'm quite confused...is land use in Tokyo the kind of mixed use(like Taipei) or clearly seperated(like many other western cities)?

As what I observed from the google satellite map, there are three main highrise clusters in Tokyo: shinjuku, from Tokyo station to Roppongi; and the area near the Rainbow bridge. I think these districts are clearly commercial, but what about the mass areas in between these three clusters? They are mostly midrises, are they mostly commercial? residential? more kind of mixed?

I have no official stats for this, but based on experience Tokyo feels this way:

(i) JR Yamanote Line area: about 40km2, high concentration of commerce, pop. about 0.8 million, feels like downtown everywhere
(ii) The rest of Tokyo 23-ward area: about 600km2, pop. about 8 million, approximately one train station out of 4 feels like mini-downtown (with dept. stores, restos, bars, etc), the other stations are residential-only.
(iii) suburbs: pop. about 22 million, similar arrangement to tokyo 23-ward area (excl. yamanote line) but with 2-3 times lower pop. density.

http://www.toshiseibi.metro.tokyo.jp/seisaku/tochi_c/data/tochi_1-01.gif

■ offices ■ shops, restaurants and such ■ governmental buildings ■ factories ■ apartments ■ detached houses

As you can see, while the historical center around the Imperial Palace is continuously of commercial use, newly developed areas such as Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro are surrounded by innumerable mid-rise apartments. And as a whole, all these downtowns, connected by the efficient railway system, where the Yamanote line plays a primary role, are generally considered one huge CBD.

love this map :cool:

Unsing, where did you get it from? Which website?

ありがとう,unsing and seoulprince!
That map is surprisingly helpful.
Is such multi-centred mega-downtown usually the case in other major Japanese cities?

Unsing, where did you get it from? Which website?I found it by image googling. It was on the website of the Bureau of Urban Development of TMG.

ありがとう,unsing and seoulprince!
That map is surprisingly helpful.
Is such multi-centred mega-downtown usually the case in other major Japanese cities?I don't think it's true. Though they don't have distinct skyscraper district like American cities, commercial areas are certainly concentrated in one place, in most cases around the central station.
Osaka also has a lot of CBDs due to its size, but they don't seem apart from each other.