For Kyoto to continue growing as a tourism-oriented city, it must take steps that combine landscape planning with services, the mayor says.

Fortunately, many aspects of Japanese culture that originated in Kyoto have gained international recognition in the past 20 years, even as the economy stagnated, Daisaku Kadokawa said in a recent interview with The Japan Times during a visit to Tokyo.

The ancient capital, known for its centuries-old temples and shrines, was named world's best city in a 2014 poll by readers of the U.S. magazine Travel + Leisure. Two years earlier, it had become the first city in Japan to break into the top 10, reaching ninth.