[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'.