普利兹克奖得主建筑师山本理显（Riken Yamamoto）批评东京当前以大型项目为主的再开发“是重大失败”，并预测将出现“一波又一波”重建，因为现有旗舰项目会很快过时。山本现年80岁，因强调建筑回应社会需求而于2024年获奖。他认为当下开发更多由商业逻辑驱动，而非地方社区需要，从而削弱东京既有的社会结构与邻里生活。

他将东京与委内瑞拉加拉加斯的“Barrio Initiative”对比，后者通过清理贫民窟与建设社会基础设施，把大量非正规聚居区（barrios）纳入正规城市体系，被他视为更具可持续性的社区导向实践。相对地，他称东京近年代表性综合体如Roppongi Hills与Toranomon Hills“无用”，并直言其在“摧毁地方社区”，因为建筑与功能并非面向当地居民。

山本点名涩谷站周边再开发：开发商称其为“一世纪一次”的转型，且已进入将延续到“第三个十年”的最后阶段；但他认为涩谷已从“美好的社区场所”变成大型商业楼群，难以服务居民，并警告若不改变路径，许多新建筑可能在20年内沦为“废墟”。他同样批评筑地鱼市场旧址周边再开发，认为拆除长期餐馆与住宅掏空了东京文化与旅游核心。他主张以居民舒适与长期愿景为中心，并强调从最早阶段就让社区、建筑师、规划者与开发商协作，才能减少反对并提升项目可持续性。

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Riken Yamamoto argues Tokyo’s current wave of megaproject-led redevelopment is “a major failure,” predicting repeated cycles because today’s flagship projects will soon become obsolete. Yamamoto, 80, won the 2024 Pritzker in part for stressing architecture’s responsibility to social demand. He says Tokyo’s redevelopment is driven by commercial logic rather than local community needs, eroding the social fabric and neighborhood life that once characterized the capital.

He contrasts Tokyo with Caracas’ Barrio Initiative in Venezuela, which seeks to integrate extensive informal settlements (barrios) into the formal city through measures such as slum clearance and social infrastructure. By comparison, Yamamoto says much of what Tokyo is building is “not at all for the local people,” calling developments like Roppongi Hills and Toranomon Hills “useless” and destructive to community life.

Yamamoto highlights the Shibuya Station area redevelopment, marketed by developers as a “once-in-a-century” transition now in a final stretch that will extend into its third decade. He says Shibuya shifted from a “wonderful community place” to a landscape of large commercial buildings that fail residents, warning that without a change many new structures could become “ruins” within 20 years. He also criticizes redevelopment around the former Tsukiji fish market for hollowing out cultural and tourism value by removing long-standing restaurants and homes. He calls for a resident-centered long-term vision and early-stage collaboration among communities, architects, planners, and developers to make new projects broadly acceptable.