The Monocle Minute

News this week that the Tokyo Metro is part of a consortium that will run London’s Elizabeth line rail service from next May was greeted with a knowing smile from anyone who lives in the Japanese capital. With nine lines, 6.5 million daily passengers and a 99 per cent punctuality record, the almost century-old Tokyo Metro operates at a gold-standard level: reliable, clean and cheap. In my time in Japan, fares have barely changed – the rise in the basic fare to 180 yen (€1.10) in 2023 was the first increase in 28 years – while the London Underground seems to get more expensive with every visit.

The Elizabeth line, though, is the jewel in London’s transport crown. Its spacious trains, smart stations and impressive engineering surprised even sceptical Londoners, who seemed amazed that the city could produce such a marvel (even if the 2022 opening was four years late). Reliability, however, has become an issue, as the current operators – Hong Kong’s MTR – struggle with the network rail lines that it uses but has no control over.

This will be the first direct overseas operation for the Tokyo Metro, which was recently listed in the biggest IPO in Japan in six years. Both the Sumitomo Corporation trading house and Tokyo Metro will each own a 17.5 per cent stake in the consortium, with the former looking to boost retail around the stations, while the rest is held by the multinational transport group Go-Ahead. The challenge for Tokyo Metro will be producing Japanese levels of efficiency in an integrated system that it doesn’t run. And while operation standards are key to the metro’s success in Tokyo, so too is passenger behaviour. The noisy headphones and sea of free newspapers that are standard fare on the Underground might surprise visitors from Japan, where loud conversations are a no-no and courtesy posters exhort people to “be kind to everyone”.

The question of whether private operators should run public transport is a separate issue. But if the Tokyo Metro is allowed to do what it does best, passengers will enjoy the ride.

Fiona Wilson is Monocle’s Tokyo bureau chief and senior Asia editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Nicaragua’s leaders are tightening their already iron grip on power. Leftist Daniel Ortega, in his second stint as president (a role he has occupied since 2007), has proposed a reform to the constitution that would install him and his wife, Rosario Murillo, currently serving as vice-president, as co-presidents. Ortega’s Sandinista party controls the country’s congress, making the reform likely to pass. The Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) slammed the initiative, saying that it “rejects and repudiates” this attempt to institutionalise a “matrimonial dictatorship”.

The proposal means that Nicaragua, which already enjoys pariah status in Latin America, isn’t about to be brought in from the cold by the international community any time soon. “Frankly, Nicaragua’s reputation and isolation couldn’t sink any lower,” Chris Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House tells The Monocle Minute. “This is simply an extension of the Ortega-Murillo creation of a totalitarian system that the international community has been powerless to stop.”

Ford and Volkswagen have bet big on electric cars in Germany but the gamble hasn’t paid off. The two automotive giants face a difficult market in which buyers remain reluctant to leave gas guzzlers behind. In 2023, Ford injected €1.9bn into retooling its Köln factory for EVs, while Volkswagen restructured its Emden plant four years ago for similar reasons. But the investment is yet to reap dividends. Ford has announced that it would cut 2,900 jobs in Germany to remain competitive in Europe. Volkswagen, meanwhile, entered a third round of wage negotiations yesterday as it seeks to cut costs. Plant closure could be looming for Germany’s largest private-sector employer if no agreement is reached.

While carmakers blame politicians for poor charging infrastructure and ending state-environmental bonuses, the potential of one in four people losing their job in the country’s car industry promises to send ripples across Europe’s biggest economy. The automotive industry is a keystone of Germany’s economy. It needs to get back in gear.

What to give a dictator who has it all? The answer, it seems, is animals – and a lot of them. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has been looking to strengthen his bilateral relationship with Kim Jong-un, after the two leaders signed a “comprehensive partnership agreement” committing to military co-operation in June. Since then, North Korea has furnished Russia with artillery shells and 10,000 troops to fight in Ukraine.

In return, the Kremlin has sent Kim 24 purebred horses, as well as some goats. The latest gift is a transfer of more than 70 animals from a zoo in Moscow, including two brown bears, a lion and 40 mandarin ducks. The friendship between the two nations is clearly taking flight.

The 1980s, a decade of mammoth social and political upheaval, has been captured in a new exhibition called “The 80s: Photographing Britain”, which opened yesterday at London’s Tate Britain and runs until 5 May 2025. The exhibition traces the work of a diverse crop of photographers, including Syd Shelton, Martin Parr and Brenda Prince, as they document life in the UK against a backdrop of everything from the miners’ strike to the Aids crisis. Our photo of the week, shot by David Hoffman, depicts a kiss between a pair called Nidge and Laurence in London during a protest against a taxation policy introduced by then prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

We assess all the benefits that public green space brings to a city, visit one of the most German cities in Canada to see how the town glockenspiel brings residents together and investigate the ancient art of letter carving.

To hear more urban insights, tune in to ‘The Urbanist’ on Monocle Radio.