©Trevor Eccles

Although the Japanese are good at innovating within existing fields to make technology-driven enhancements—smaller microchips, faster trains and greener cars— “when it comes to game-changers, they fall flat,” says Fall. “Innovation is a creative and disruptive thing that forces you to broaden your horizons and change direction. Society here works against that. Change disrupts harmony, and harmony is what makes the trains run on time,” she adds.

It’s not that smart people in Tokyo aren’t creative; rather, that the idea of starting a spontaneous dance party in Shinjuku station would be squashed a hundred times over by the impulsive heels of bureaucratic conformity. The police say no; JR says no; your boss says, “Don’t bother asking.”

By contrast, Londoners these days will accept their daily routines being disrupted by disco-dancing weirdos because diversity is part of their daily lives. According to one recent survey, more than 300 languages are spoken daily in London.

Japan, on the other hand, has struggled with the question of how wide to open its door for centuries. Dryza says Tokyo could learn a lot from cultural melting pots like Melbourne, Australia, that have successfully integrated different ethnicities while retaining their high standards of living.

She also recommends “integrating science, the arts and technology to increase creativity and innovation—for industry, as well as government and education.”

Stockholm, February 4, 2009. Four days after its launch, Prêt a Porter Paris is over and Tekla Knaust of the New Blood Agency has disassembled her photography exhibition, boarded a plane at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and landed home in Stockholm.

Along with other northern European cities like Copenhagen, Helsinki, Munich and Zurich, the Swedish capital often tops league tables in terms of, variously, standard of living, creativity, innovation and design.

But for Knaust, Sweden isn’t cool; it’s downright freezing.

“It’s just so cold in Sweden,” she complains, “and it’s so far from everywhere that everyone longs to leave. The conversation in Sweden among young people always starts with, ‘When I leave for Tokyo or New York…’.”

Knaust’s view is a reminder that every city has its problems: Stockholm is too cold, Paris is too stuffy, Rio is too dangerous, Los Angeles is too polluted and Tokyo is too… [insert your own adjective here].

“Sweden is a very closed cold culture, a bit like the Japanese, I guess,” Knaust says. “I want people to be more open and less snobbish and less stiff, more like the Brazilians.”

Five by Fifty’s Fall has a different suggestion: take a pinch of style from Paris, some creativity from Stockholm, the joie de vivre of Rio, money from Los Angeles and efficiency from Tokyo. “It’s the recipe for the perfectly formed city of the future.”