Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prides himself on his plain-spoken approach to politics. His popularity guarantees that people listen to everything he says, and because what he says tends to be simple it has the power of a pronouncement, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense.

Last October, Koizumi had dinner at the Imperial Hotel with Shigeru Ito, a professor of city planning at Waseda University. Ito told the prime minister that the section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway over Nihonbashi represented one of the great "flawed legacies" of the city.

Koizumi was moved and right there over his entree declared that he would endeavor to open the sky above the famous Nihonbashi bridge. He has since charged a panel of business leaders and academics to come up with a feasibility plan before he leaves office in September. He said that if the expressway can be removed and the "prosperous atmosphere of Edo restored," then the project can stand as a model for urban planning that stresses open-sky views.