Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- New York is the most attractive city for business and innovation, outranking London, Paris and Tokyo, according to Japan’s Mori Memorial Foundation’s second Global Power City Index.

The survey covers 35 of the world’s major cities and provides a “comprehensive power” ranking, according to the foundation, which was started by Taikichiro Mori, the founder of Mori Building Co., Japan’s largest privately held developer.

Ranking is based on the categories of economy, research and development, cultural interaction, livability, ecology and natural environment, and accessibility. Cultural interaction includes elements such as sports facilities, dining and shopping and how much cities appeal to visitors from overseas.

The index also measures the attractiveness of a city from the viewpoint of what it calls global and local actors: managers, researchers, artists, visitors and residents.

For livability New York was ranked 21st and 30th for its natural environment. The city was awarded the top spot in the categories of economy and research and development.

New York was designated as the world’s most attractive for artists, visitors, residents and researchers and second place for managers. London took the top spot in the manager category.

Cultural Plaudits

“I wasn’t very surprised by the results,” said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. “America, especially New York, still draws a lot of people.”

London received the highest points for cultural interaction and was second to Paris for space and accessibility. London scored few points for livability, only beating Seoul and Cairo. For the economy category, the city was in third place, following Tokyo in second place.

Paris was voted the most livable and accessible city. The lowest score it received was in the natural environment category at 11th place.

Tokyo remained in fourth place overall, the only Asian city listed in the top 10 last year. Singapore moved up to replace Vienna in fifth place from 11th last year. Vienna fell to seventh place this year. Singapore was behind Tokyo in all categories except culture, livability and accessibility.

Tokyo was the only city in the top five to rank high in the categories of economy and the environment, according to the survey.

“Tokyo is doing well in the economy category,” Nagahama said. “But seeing as it is said China will overtake Japan in GDP next year, we can’t be complacent.”

The top four are categorized as “super cities” or “all- round cities.”

Asian cities tend to rank high in the economy category. Shanghai was given 21st place overall and eighth in economy, while Beijing was 26th in the general ranking and Shanghai ranked eighth in the economic category.

European cities were given high marks for livability and the environment, with more than seven cities ranking in the top 10 for those areas.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Kitanaka in Tokyo akitanaka@bloomberg.net; Eijiro Ueno in Tokyo e.ueno@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 22, 2009 05:30 EDT