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Really excellent article by @ad-mastro.bsky.social on how Japan's tiny businesses are a product of the country's loose business regulations and zoning laws. I also want to add historical context to this: these types of businesses used to be the norm in America before zoning came along. 1/🧵

A hundred years ago it was completely normal for American buildings to allow both commercial and residential uses - even in the smallest towns. For example, this is a ~1920 example from Keystone, West Virginia, population 176. Offices on the first floor, apartments above. 2/

This loose regulation also enabled the worst excesses of the tenement era. For example, these are cigarmakers rolling cigars in their homes in the late 1880s in New York City. This is full-on industrial production. It's a far cry from the type of remote email jobs you see today. 3/

Part of the reaction to these horrific tenement conditions was to physically separate industrial, residential and commercial uses by establishing zoning laws, which is the norm today in America. 4/

Racism also played a part. City councils would separate residential, commercial and industrial in rich, white neighborhoods, but nobody gave give a damn if poor people or minorities had to live next to factories and other businesses. 5/

A century ago, Boyle Heights in LA had working-class Jews, Japanese and Mexicans; the Lower East Side in NYC had poor Italians, Irish, Jews and Chinese. You can bet that the city council didn't try to ban factories there! (pic: the old Breed Street Synagogue in LA, now vacant) 6/

When American cities separated commercial and residential spaces, it had the side effect of eliminating small neighborhood commercial spaces. Even today, most of the small-scale commercial in cities is old and grandfathered in. 7/

This really threw the baby out with the bath water, because small neighborhood grocery stores and restaurants are a Good Thing. 8/