The extraordinary efficiency of Japan’s Edo economy

Between 1603 and 1868, Japan entered an era of unified rule and isolation known as the Edo period, named after the city of Edo – modern-day Tokyo – which was the seat of government. This TED-Ed animation explores how Edo, which grew from a minor castle town to one of the largest cities in the world during the period, avoided ecological collapse by adopting a ‘circular economy’. Drawing on Buddhist values, Shogunate leadership emphasised local production, low consumption and optimal efficiency, including efforts to repurpose everything from kimonos to human waste. In his exploration of Edo, the philosopher Roman Krznaric both highlights an alternative way of viewing economic efficiency compared with today’s consumption-driven economies, which so often leave environmental wreckage in their wake, while also offering an honest perspective on the downsides of the Edo approach, including its authoritarian strictures.