Recently I visited a friend who lives in an upscale apartment building, a part of one of Tokyo's massive redevelopment projects. When I saw there was a taxi parked in one of the spaces assigned to her floor, I asked if a neighbor were now commuting by taxi instead of company car. My assumption was incorrect. Her neighbor is a taxi driver.

Previously the area had many small businesses and timeworn independent houses. A few of the people held onto their land, refusing to sell. Progress, however, is irreversible, and in time the holdout tenants were made to see the futility of their resistance, but only after they were offered an exceptionally strong incentive: apartments in the new complex at very acceptable terms. Her neighbor is not unique. She has heard that there are also a small vegetable-store owner and a "soroban" (abacus) teacher happily in residence.

A lot of people write about problems in finding an apartment under any conditions. They are foreigners. Perhaps they make preliminary queries by phone in perfect Japanese. When they arrive at the office, one look and suddenly the apartment is no longer available. They may be Koreans, Arabs, other Asians, Americans, black, white; it doesn't matter when the owner or agent has that mind set. They aren't Japanese.