https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X18773471 Journal of Planning Education and Research 1–14 © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0739456X18773471 jper.sagepub.com Research-Based Article Introduction In contrast to the nucleated dispersion of people and jobs made popular in the notion of edge city (Garreau 1991) in the United States, employment and population dispersion across European cities has been more muted in light of greater urban containment, the lesser embrace of automobility, and conscious efforts by planners to steer development to new towns and suburban centers. Attempts to plan the polycentric metropolis have been stronger still in East Asia, albeit under a variety of economic, demographic, spatial, and transporta- tion planning frameworks. Among East Asian cities, Tokyo has perhaps the longest continuous tradition of planning for a polycentric metropo- lis (Sorensen 2001). However, it presents a cautionary tale of planning for polycentricity in the context of changes in economic fortunes and demographic patterns. Discourse on urban shrinkage has been evident in Japan from the 1960s but has only figured strongly as part of national and local urban planning policy from the 2000s (Hattori, Kaido, and Matsuyuki 2017). The increasing gravity of Tokyo’s outer suburbs seemed inexorable as recently as the 1990s to the point that it demanded the designation of outer Business Core Cities (BCCs; Gyomukaku-toshi) and spatial imagi- naries that aggrandized them as a counterweight to the twenty-three special wards of Tokyo. However, as the national economy and population growth have stagnated and the needs of Tokyo to compete internationally as a world city agglomeration have come to the fore (Tsukamoto 2012), the status of the outer suburbs has been called into question (Sorensen 2011). In this article, we set ourselves two related research questions. First, and updating Sorensen (2001), how have the outer suburbs of Tokyo performed in economic and population terms during the period 1995 to 2010? Second, how have BCC policies contributed to this performance? We address the first question with reference to a review of policies and secondary data. We address the second ques- tion with recourse to secondary data on BCCs and original interview research on two outer BCCs—Tachikawa City and Hachioji City. We begin by setting our Tokyo case in a wider context of urban polycentricity. We pass on to describing the methods used to collect the data upon which this article is based. Drawing on secondary and original interview data we recount how, despite the attempts of planners to reinforce outer sub- urban growth based around existing transit infrastructure, and despite some of the superficial “free market” similarities with the United States (Li and Monzur 2018), Tokyo’s is a story of edge city denied. We conclude by noting some of the wider international implications of the Tokyo case. At a time when planners in many mature national urban systems have turned their attention to increasing the urbanity of suburbs 773471JPE XX X 10.1177/0739456X18773471Journal of Planning Education and ResearchPhelps and Ohashi research-article 2018 Initial submission, September 2016; revised submissions, August 2017, February 2018; final acceptance, February 2018 1 Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, London, UK Corresponding Author: Nicholas A. Phelps, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H0NN, UK. Email: n.phelps@ucl.ac.uk Edge City Denied? The Rise and Fall of Tokyo’s Outer Suburban “Business Core Cities” Nicholas A. Phelps 1 and Hiroaki Ohashi 1 Abstract 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. Keywords polycentric city regions, Business Core Cities, edge cities, Tokyo, outer suburban decline