Disparities in access to sustainable dining options across the Tokyo Metropolis

Urbanization and fast-paced lifestyles have shaped diverse culinary landscapes in global cities. Yet, access to sustainable dining options remains highly uneven due to complex interactions between socioeconomic systems and individual behaviors. Here we introduce an integrated framework for evaluating sustainable dining accessibility, leveraging data from 3,649 menu items and 112,892 restaurants in Tokyo, Japan. Our findings highlight a pronounced clustering of restaurants around railway stations, underscoring the pivotal role of transit-oriented development in shaping urban dining patterns. Then, a sustainable dining choice was assessed through a multidimensional approach that incorporates economic preferences, environmental impacts along the supply chain and the nutritional quality of menu offerings. Further analysis uncovers severe inequalities in sustainable dining accessibility across station vicinities, railway lines and administrative wards, with up to 9 million daily passengers exposed to unsustainable dining environments. To address these disparities, we propose targeted interventions, including optimized restaurant spatial distribution, to enhance accessibility in underserved areas. By integrating these solutions, this study offers actionable insights for urban planners, policymakers and citizens, contributing to planetary health and advancing sustainability in urban dining systems. Access to dining options is a key concern for urbanites as is, increasingly, sustainable options. This study finds dining options in the Tokyo Metropolis area clustered around railway stations and with millions of such passengers with no access to sustainable dining options.