The Mori Memorial Foundation’s Institute for Urban Strategies, a research body established by Mori Building, Tokyo’s leading urban developer, announced Thursday its Global Power City Index (GPCI) 2023 report on the overall strength of the world’s 48 major cities. There was no change in the rankings from 1st to 7th, and Tokyo (3rd) and Paris (4th) remained close, neither managing to grow their scores from last year.
Among other top 10 cities, Dubai rose from 11th to 8th, becoming the first Middle Eastern city in the top 10, while Shanghai dropped from 10th to 15th and Berlin fell two places to 10th. London (1st) and Singapore (5th) improved their scores by renewing strengths that had stagnated during the pandemic.
Global conditions such as international conflicts, high inflation and changing work styles had a significant impact on this year’s rankings overall as well as in six urban functions and 70 indicators. In many cities, “Number of Air Passengers” and “Number of Arrivals and Departures at Airports” under the Accessibility function remained below 2019 levels, indicating continued stagnation in the international aviation sector.
In Livability, “Price Level” and “Housing Rent“ rankings changed significantly, likely due to the cost of living. Scores generally declined in “Number of Retail Stores” and “Number of Restaurants,” especially among U.S. cities, suggesting that recent work-from-home trends as well as cost of living continued to impact city centers. In Accessibility, “Commuting Time” continued to decrease in the majority of cities since 2019 based on data collected through residential surveys in each city.
Looking at each of the six functions, starting with Economy, Tokyo lost much of its strength and dropped five places to 10th, mainly due to less competitiveness in “Variety of Workplace Options” and “Wage Levels.” In R&D, continued strength was exhibited by New York and other U.S. cities that made up half of the top 10. London showed overwhelming strength in Cultural Interaction, especially with recovered performance in “Number of Foreign Visitors,” and Dubai also expanded its presence in this function. Livability saw the most change due to rising costs of living. In Environment, European cities, especially those with populations under one million, continued to dominate the top ranks, as they did last year. Strong “Commitment to Climate Action” influenced rankings, as in the case of Geneva, which gained significant strength in this indicator. In Accessibility, Amsterdam was No. 1 for the first time due to high scores in “Commuting Time” and “Average Driving Speed,” whereas in previous years the top cities tended to score well in “Number of Air Passengers” and “Direct International Flights.”
This year’s Mori Memorial Foundation report includes a new index, “GPCI–Financial Centers,” which is positioned as a derivative of the GPCI and reflects the growing importance of measures taken by major cities to improve their status as international financial centers. This year’s report ranks the competitiveness of the GPCI’s 48 cities in this function, using 14 total indicators in four categories.
© Japan Today
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isabelle
I'm a little surprised that London is still No. 1 after Brexit, but I guess it still gets a lot of investment and a huge amount of tourism.
Looking at the top ten in the link, I'd said that Tokyo is my favorite city among them, but Amsterdam is awesome too. Berlin is also a pretty good place. I find Paris to be very overrated... and so do many French people, both Parisians and non-Parisians, I've spoken to :)
Japantime
Usually Vancouver wins this award
Fighto!
Big up to London, congrats to Londoners! I recall several years ago many remainers predicting the UK would lose relevance and become a "small Britain".
All eyes everywhere are still on London it seems. Enormous power - and refreshingly a city of democracy and citizens who love freedom.
I think they win the "quality of life" awards - a bit different to Global Power.
Antiquesaving
You haven't seen Vancouver lately!
It is a drug addict, panhandler paradise!
Crime is still said to be "moderate" but property crime is up every year.
Drug use it ranked very high!
Businesses are moving out because of drug use!
It is crazy that you cannot smoke a cigarette on the street or drink alcohol but can sit infront of a store and shootup intervenes drugs!
It is now the city with the most overdoses.
Ontario has 14 million people
BC has 5 million
Ontario has 2501 overdose deaths in 2022
BC had 2342 the vast majority in and around Vancouver!
It was once a great city but not anymore and dropping fast!
Onlooker
"Power city #3"!? No wonder it's a stressful place. Good luck for those who are addicted to adrenaline.
3RENSHO
"You haven't seen Vancouver lately!"
Hello JT poster 'Antiquesaving'...I always enjoy your postings. Always vote up. I have visited Vancouver once, around '91 or '92...
I was walking along Hastings (?...memory fails) Street and a young woman walking in front of me happened to be eating a piece of fried chicken. She finished eating her piece of chicken, and instead of searching for a wastebasket; instead of simply putting the waste into her bag; she FLUNG HER GARBAGE straight up into the air...And laughed!
Antiquesaving, I truly do not want to ever visit Vancouver ever again. My brother lives there, but I guess that I will not see him again...
Antiquesaving
I wouldn't judge a city or country on just one silly person some 30 plus years ago.
Around that same time just a fewer years earlier my first 24 hours in Japan, I was on the Shinkansen on my way into Tokyo early morning with my them wife, a man in a business suite got off in shin-yokohama as he did so, he banged on the window where we were sitting from the platform call my wife a vulgar name in Japanese and spit on the window.
Good thing I didn't judge Japan, Tokyo, Yokohama, etc..by that man's actions!
Vancouver was once a nice place and sorry but back in 92 I was there and it was a great place, my cousin lived there and he loved it but today he has left due to the drugs and poor city management.