The economic boom of the 1980s turbocharged longer term trends and patterns of daily life in the city, as money flowed freely and the world seemed to be Japan’s oyster. Tokyo grew into a financial powerhouse as a seat of global finance, a hub of media and information, and a center of high-tech innovation. Real estate prices soared, and the government eyed the redevelopment of the waterfront. The global capital also flexed its cultural muscle, exporting creations such as Hello Kitty and sushi to enthusiastic audiences around the world while importing goods and services with an international flair for Tokyoites to consume. The city became more multiethnic and unevenness in concentrations of money were reflected in its social geography, not so much in socioeconomically distinct islands as in its patchwork of neighborhoods. As the economy deflated in the 1990s, in what would later be dubbed the “lost decade,” consumption and tastes moderated but Tokyoites continued to live and work in an undeniably global and thoroughly consumerist society.