Stretching across the windswept plains extending beyond the outskirts of Toride, a commuter town in Tokyo’s neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture, is a vast sprawl of farmland that may soon be the site of one of Japan’s largest shopping malls.
The 676,000-square-meter property — bigger than Tokyo Disneyland — also represents the urban-suburban dilemma the world’s fastest-aging nation harbors as it struggles to mitigate financial drainage and meet changing demographic needs by containing its shrinking population in regional urban centers.
If the project is realized, retail behemoth Aeon’s new shopping and recreational hub could feature a shopping promenade, hot-spring spa and an outdoor nature park, among other facilities, and is expected to create thousands of new jobs while attracting tens of millions of visitors annually.