[nessex]

> Because there are so few of them. Most of the time you can walk in the middle of the street, so rare is the traffic

This is a bit of a stretch. There are cars everywhere you go in Tokyo, it's pretty well set up for driving given the size and population. That said, I've lived here without a license for years, and rarely had the need to hop into any cars. Speed limits are generally low, and lights are everywhere, which often makes the train or sometimes even a bike a faster option than a car or a bus.

It's only when you have multiple connections in your route or when you get well outside the city that you start to see consistent benefit from a car.

One reason it's so easy to get by without a car in most of Tokyo is that the shops and attractions are distributed well. Zoning means there are tiny shops everywhere, and the bigger shops are present at many of the train stations in the city. You are pretty much always within walking distance of everything essential. One more reason is that the postal system is excellent. If you order something from Amazon, you'll receive it about 24 hours later in most parts of Tokyo. Who needs a car when you pick up everything essential on a 10 minute walk from your house, and everything you want will be at your door tomorrow?

[MichaelZuo]

Perhaps to put it in NA terms, the 'downtown core' of Tokyo is absolutely enormous, but in the suburbs and exurbs you likely still need a car to live a convenient life, commute to a workplace somewhere else in the suburbs/exurbs, etc.

[presentation]

Not really though. Plenty of people live in the burbs, take the bus or bike to a station and then express lines can whisk you downtown in no time. I guess it depends what you mean by the suburbs, but a home I lived in literally had a farm next to it and I still didn’t need a car there. Was 15 minutes by bus or 10 mins by bike to the nearest station, and then 20km from there to central Tokyo which took 20 mins on the train. Car would mostly be an optimization, or for some, a hobby.

[MichaelZuo]

Optimization of time is definitely part of the convenience I meant. Especially when travelling to another place not in the 'downtown core'.