The serpentine expressways, abutted by village-like lanes; the hyperbolic architecture, strung with electric cables like so much knitting; the ranks of vending machines and the disembodied voices greeting, admonishing, thanking in elevators and on escalators and at traffic lights; the solid-suited salarymen and the punk-draped teenagers, the schoolchildren garbed in Victoriana; the dearth of names and numbers on the streets and buildings; even the depiction of the railway system seems like a Tokyo Mind Map.

If you think the city’s confusing, try taking a look at the financial situation. The media has been full of doom and gloom over the performance of the Japanese banking sector. Losses amounting to trillions of yen attracted swathes of headlines, prompting central bank governor Toshihiko Fukui to warn that Japan could suffer a financial crisis at any time. Things don’t look much better on the political front, with Liberal Democrat prime minister Junichiro Koizumi—he of the wavy hairdo and affection for loud rock music —under fire at home for his economic policies and criticized in China and Korea for visiting the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which honors a number of convicted war criminals.

Cut to Roppongi Hills, a $2.5 billion, 9.6-hectare “lifestyle” development, which opened in April. Centered around a 54-story office tower, there’s a nine-screen Virgin cinema, the glistening Grand Hyatt, more designer-label retail outlets than you can poke a blunt credit card at, a museum, an arts center, the studios of TV Asahi, a school, a private club, luxury residences (top monthly rental $30,000) and a temple.

What’s most astounding in this new and very acceptable face of Tokyo is that customers are swarming through the shops and actually lining up to get into the restaurants. Can this really be the same city whose bankers are having the jitters about their bottom lines?

The brains (and financial brawn) behind Roppongi Hills—and nobody can ever sneer at the area for being a gaijin ghetto any longer—is Minoru Mori, billionaire CEO of his eponymous corporation and a passionate believer in making cities more livable.

“Tokyo’s tradition of privately owned, small-plot real estate has not changed in hundreds of years and has resulted in a sprawling, low-rise megalopolis that is horizontally dense but vertically low, leading to inefficient growth,” he says.

“Recently I visited major cities around the world, and every time I came back to Japan, I got frustrated with the situation in Japanese cities and the urban development policies, which were full of unnecessary regulations.

“I think the completion of Roppongi Hills came at the right time. If people see what is happening in this city-within-a-city, I hope they will know what urban redevelopment should be and that this will help develop a consensus with regard to the new grand design of the big city.”

However, not everyone in Tokyo is wildly enthusiastic about seeing skyscrapers shoulder aside the low-rises.

“It all feels forced—it’s as if people are making an effort to live in these grand new condos,” says Isamu Ishiyama, professor of architecture at Waseda University. “I’m not a nationalist, but the Japanese spirit is tied to the earth, and deep down, we don’t really want to leave it. We long for a one-story house with a garden.”

The total transformation of Tokyo is of course still a long way off; however, there are signs that attitudes in the city are changing, albeit slowly, and not simply with new development projects.

“Japan today has reached a turning point, and there’s a real need for change in the corporate culture,” says Midori Kaneko, communications director for the Nestlé Japan Group.

“It’s always been the tradition that you ‘hammer down the nail that sticks out’—everybody is supposed to tag along and conform. But now the feeling is that we have to change to survive. What’s needed is strong, charismatic and visionary leadership. We also need people who aren’t afraid to take risks, and who are prepared to be innovative. The Japanese term sen mitsu means ‘three out of a thousand’; that is three out of a thousand new projects or ideas will survive and go on to be successful. We need people who are prepared to take that risk.”

Foreigners have often been put off by the prospect of entering into business in Japan, a notion that causes long-term resident Ian de Stains to scoff.

“What we’re seeing here now really flies in the face of what you might be reading in something like the Financial Times,” says Mr. de Stains, who is executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce.

“When Louis Vuitton opened its store in Omotesando—Tokyo’s Champs-Elysées—last November, the queues stretched for 1¼ miles overnight. When the doors opened they let people in 50 at a time, and they were spending an average of $4,250 each.

“For sure the banks have some problems, but they were taking huge margins for years and can take their time writing off some losses now.

“In general, the outlook is very positive; Roppongi Hills is just one of several such projects which are being built around the city, and there are plenty of opportunities out there.”

One prime example of a recent arrival in the land of the rising sun is TeamStudio, a multinational software development specialist. Finding there was no competition in Japan, and a ready market for its products, CEO Steve Crane flew in and set up for business in a record-breaking eight weeks.

“We felt initially we needed help with Japan, as the market was so far away from ours in terms of language and culture,” says Mr. Crane. “But we did indeed set up here very quickly, as we wanted to move fast before any competitors got into our space.

“We employed great local staff, who are well educated, very committed and hardworking. It’s a relatively cheap time to get started here, as many costs such as office space are coming down and great deals are available.

“People are keen to learn new ideas and technologies, and we have built on this very successfully by running monthly education seminars which are always well attended. From my experience, this just would not happen in Europe or the United States.”

Mr. Crane is also enthusiastic about prospects for the future. “Foreign companies should take off the blindfold and view the opportunities in Japan in a positive way. Overseas media often portray the economic situation in Japan in a very poor light, but from my experience the opportunities here are huge. There is no question that establishing a business here is tough, but the potential rewards are massive, so this is a very exciting time to be in Japan.”

Adds Mr. de Stains: “It’s never been easier to get into Japan. Good staff are available and premises are relatively easy to acquire. The Foreign Chambers Information Group ran a business confidence survey in April—while nobody foresaw much change to the economy in the coming 12 months, they did forecast positive results for their own businesses. And they still see Japan as the land of opportunity with the majority looking for further growth.”

Change might be in the air, but for the moment Japan remains both deeply Asian and deeply Confucian. Western logic does not necessarily apply in Tokyo’s boardrooms, where the focus may be on productivity rather than profitability. While TeamStudio’s superfast launch was a stunning success, a rather more stately progress is the norm.

Experienced hands advise new arrivals that initial meetings are solely to sound you out, that the people you’re meeting are talkers rather than decision makers and that the real business won’t take place until much later. Japanese thoroughness, and commitment, mean that proposals have to be examined over time. Nobody wants to make a bad decision and then have to back down, with all the loss of face that would involve.

More personal dos and don’ts are similarly important: get business cards printed in Japanese, wrap gifts smartly, pay due respect to senior personnel and Japan itself, and never, never blow your nose in public.

Tokyo’s contradictions—world-class supercity versus layers of ancient village communities, go-ahead business center versus bureaucratic mire, calls for a new entrepreneurial spirit versus Confucian ideals—are but part of its attraction. The future is likely to be in the hands of Mr. Mori and Ms. Kaneko; but how long their vision will take to be realized remains open to question.