Tokyo couldn’t be happier to shake off “most expensive city” from its name, especially now that it has been crowned the “world’s smartest city” by the IESE Business School in Spain.
Japan’s capital came out on top of this year’s Cities in Motion Index (ICIM), which ranks the world’s best/“smartest” cities when it comes to innovation, sustainability, and quality of life.
Among the 135 cities across 55 countries studied in the report, Tokyo snagged the world’s smartest city ranking with its impressive public administration, technology, economy, and human capital. The Japanese capital, however, ranked 125th for “social cohesion,” a common weakness among half of the top 10 cities.
Another Japanese city made it to the top 10. Osaka placed 8th with notably high rankings for social cohesion, technology, economy, and international impact.
London followed close at second in the world’s smartest city race with technology and international projection as its strengths. New York, in third place, had one of the highest levels in human capital and economy. Seoul, the only other Asian city, ranked ninth.
Barcelona made the best progress across all indicators, moving from 63rd to 51st place in only two years.
Switzerland is the country with the best results overall, with three of its cities appearing in the top 10.
Below is IESE’s full list of the top 20 cities:
1. Tokyo
2. London
3. New York
4. Zurich
5. Paris
6. Geneva
7. Basel
8. Osaka
9. Seoul
10. Oslo
11. Philadelphia
12. Los Angeles
13. Dallas
14. Copenhagen
15. Eindhoven
16. Amsterdam
17. Sydney
18. Stockholm
19. Chicago
20. Baltimore
Source: issuu.com/iese/docs/citiesinmotioneng
Image: Bunny Bissoux
World’s smartest city, Tokyo, Cities in Motion, IESE
