Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro: the same "sub-centre" label, three different businesses for an investor

Hong Kong buyers tend to say these three names in one breath, as if they were three versions of the same choice. But "sub-centre" is an urban-planning label, not an investment category — Shinjuku sells scale, Shibuya sells a story, Ikebukuro sells its residential hinterland, and the entry price and the way you make money differ in each. This piece takes them apart, including what Toshima's decade from "possible-extinction municipality" to off the list tells you about reading a district.