Yes, it's literally my only /faved/ story.

http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540845

Someone on HN posted a link to this article that compared Japanese zoning laws to American zoning laws.[0] There was also some interesting discussion.[1] The reason I thought of this is because in Japan the broad outlines of zoning laws are made at the national level, and cities can only make exceptions to them, unlike in America where cities make their zoning laws out of whole cloth. A bill like this is a small movement closer to the Japanese system.

0: http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8540845