EDITED BY MONOCLE

Welcome

If you've been to Japan, there's a good chance this thought crossed your mind: everything works. It's not often you can say that about a ountry. In Japan the trains run on time, the service is unfailingly professional and courteous, the streets and parks are clean, safe and pedestrian-friendly and the food – both high-end fare and the everyday – is nuanced and flavourful. It's hard to fathom that cities so large and crowded can also be so liveable.
With its hi-tech advancements, innovations, elegant designs and sublime architecture, Japan is brimming with ideas that other countries would benefit from. Look at the Shinkansen bullet train's safety record, efforts to hook up renewable energy to the grid and the newly developed materials used for bridges, cars and robots. That's not to mention the utensils for chefs being made by artisans, the array of tailored technological solutions for farmers or the worldclass art that's reinvigorating ageing remote communities. Never before has "Made in Japan" had such a ring to it.
It's not what you might expect from a country that's only now clawing its way back from more than two decades of economic stagnation and the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011. But it's there for all to see: Japan is constantly moving onwards and upwards.