Making Tokyo a more attractive and competitive metropolis sounds more like a policy than a business strategy.

But it makes total sense to Mori Building Co., and it's something the Tokyo-based urban developer takes seriously.

"Competition among global cities is becoming more important than that among countries. Mori Building has been stressing this for more than 20 years, and it seems like in the past few years more people are starting to believe it," said Mori Building CEO Shingo Tsuji in a recent interview with The Japan Times.