What Does it Take for a Rooftop Lifestyle to Become More Popular in Japan?

Back when I was living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 2012 and 2015, one thing that I noticed was the sheer prevalence of people doing things on rooftops. The city was home to dozens of high-rise condominiums and office towers, and almost every single one of the high-rise's rooftop was being used, either as a bar, a restaurant, or in the case of many condominiums, pools and just a simple open activity space for the building's residents. The prevalence of open rooftops was so commonly accepted that people would assume that, whenever there is a high-rise, the rooftop would be accessible.

The situation, quite surprisingly, is very dissimilar in Tokyo. Like Kuala Lumpur, the city is filled with high-rises of all kinds, yet the idea of open rooftops has not taken off. In many high-rise condominiums, the rooftop is strictly off-limits to everyone but professionals for the purpose of building maintenance, and in many office buildings, the highest floor is often used for high-end bars and restaurants, but they are enclosed spaces with views of the city behind large windows, not a gateway to the open sky. Rooftop dining does exist but compared to all the available high-rises in the city, rather unusual.

The question is why. The simple answer would be regulations. In a country that takes food safety extremely seriously, serving edibles rather under the open sky is a risk that health authorities may be quite keen on avoiding. Since laws already prevent restaurants from customers taking their own leftovers home in doggie bags and obtain a separate license for doing takeaways, there is no doubt the laws' enforcers would scrutinize every request to allow food to touch the open air with God-knows-what in it. Given the regulatory difficulties, plenty of entrepreneurs may simply give up their rooftop dreams.  

Maybe the lack of open rooftops goes beyond simple health concerns. In a country notorious for its high suicide rate, having low railings facing the streets below out on the 20th floor is just asking for trouble. Nothing can kill off an expensive, stylish rooftop business faster than even one client that fell off to his or her death from its premises, whether the fall is intentionally or accidentally due to too much alcohol imbibed. The latter is made all the more likely given the unfortunate Japanese habit to take alcohol consumption to its local extremes even in a casual social setting.

It is a shame that such an ultra-cautious attitude toward open-rooftops has become the norm in Japan since the concept is not that unfamiliar to the average Japanese person in his or her daily life. An average Japanese elementary, middle, and high school building would often allow students to casually access the rooftop, usually an open area where students would gather to socialize during time outside class. Many teenage dramas portray dreams and romances told on the rooftops. And more mundanely, the average Japanese single-building family house would have access to the rooftop, used for hanging laundry.

Translating the everyday interactions with open rooftops in their backyards should be big business in Japan, but because laws make the set up of rooftop establishments so difficult, the few that manage to operate have no choice but to go upscale to offset the regulatory risks. The result is a market in which anything that goes on the rooftop is perceived as fancy, expensive, and foreign, not to visited casually without some serious intent to drop big money. The perception leads to a vicious cycle, in which a growing sense of exclusivity forces rooftop bars and restaurants to further cater to only the rich.

The only way to break the exclusivity of Tokyo's few operating rooftops is to utilize the rooftops for the mass market, even if it is simply for non-commercial purposes, to get the population to see them not as haunts of the rich, but accessible public spaces for all. If regulations make it difficult to serve food and beverage, then make rooftops activities centers that do not allow eating of any kind. And if railings are too low to stop people from falling, put up laws that compel the building of higher glass walls that stop people from going over but can still see the beautiful panorama of the metropolis.

Thankfully, this shift to a more mass-market rooftop is happening. The emergence of rooftop futsal and tennis centers is notable in some parts of Japan, often utilizing more publicly accessed buildings like government offices and shopping centers. The next step may be to persuade real estate developers to open up their rooftops to residents, as an extra amenity to the usual slew of public spaces they advertise to sell high-rise flats. As the private sector gradually expands operations on building tops for non-food-related purposes, maybe one day the average Japanese would not see eating on the roof as a luxury.