The rise and fall of the Roppongi Hills 'tribe'

I'm surprised the story doesn't mention the poor lad who was crushed to death in the revolving-door entranceway to the building.

I'm not shedding a tear for these selfish & greedy people. To bad life's a gamble. Hahahaha !!!!

I know of a lot of gaijin headed down the same road... only difference is they run hard.

Roppongi Hills is not cursed. Just a few white collar criminals and idiots.

Roppongi Hills is a boring overpriced labyrinth of architecturally inspiring yet inevitably tiresome urban landscape which was a huge waste of money and will never recoup its initial costs despite the hype to keep it afloat. "If you build it, they will come" doesn't cut it here. Cursed or not, it is the biggest white elephant in Tokyo (next to Tokyo MidTown).

Roppongi in general is a modern-day portrayal of Dante's Inferno. I'm not sure which level the Hills is on, somewhere between the clinic that treats teenage girls with sexually transmitted diseases and the gauntlet one must run to escape persistent touting by denizens from the third world.

When I do venture into downtown (rarely), I prefer the older areas (e.g., Ueno). Nothing beats Yokohama though.

They should be called the Roppongi Hillbillies. "Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Horie . . ." I hate that place. It bores me to pieces.

Hey, they left out Lehman Brothers Japan (40th something floor of RH) going bankrupt in September '08, and setting off a financial crisis, too!

If only the ads for "The Hills Diets" food replacement jelly powder stuff would disappear. (Everything seemed to latch onto the "Hills" image for a while there.

I wonder how Omotesando Hills is doing. I've yet to set foot in it. (Still bitter about the loss of those lovely old ivy covered apartment buildings, with their interesting little shops, which it replaced)

Hi Taj,

Yes, I was also distressed to return and find those lovely apt. buildings gone with something I cannot keep visually fixed in my mind. Progress sux sometimes, it is true.

That place will certainly suck the cash right out of your bank account. But the life blood? Dunno. Maybe it has something to do with the type of people it attracts.

(Still bitter about the loss of those lovely old ivy covered apartment buildings, with their interesting little shops, which it replaced)

Indeed. I wish I could have lived in one of those.

which happened in one of the Hills apartments rented by Mika Noguchi, a Japanese female entrepreneur.

AKA the Peach John prez who didn't get charged for all the coke in her apartment. I wonder how many yaks live there...

They seem to tend to show themselves more attractive than they are, which seems to be need to improve their firms and to get new customers. But they sometimes do something illegal, tell lies. Because they have to pay salaries for employees, high rents for their offices in Hills, have to continue to make sales up to avoid losing their credit from customers and banks, and of course (the following is most important) they wanna earn much money.

Japan is a capitalistic country though, Japan is also a country under the rules of law. They sometimes tend to forget rules.

Well when the rents are that high you get the high flying risk takers which includes kiters and cheats. I say those who fell from grace should appreciate the fun they had while it lasted.

I see that rental prices haven't changed much since a generation ago. I will say this, IBM's HQS move from HK to Tokyo in 1983 contributed to the real-estate boom. Rents increased exponentially, especially for foreign ex-pats. IBM later moved to Singapore. Roppongi overall has had a major facelift more ways than one from the days of yore. Impressive, but different. Those who sold their property to the project received in exchange a condo in the complex to my understanding. Pretty good deal.

Hoofin at 04:15 PM JST - 17th March Hey, they left out Lehman Brothers Japan (40th something floor of RH) going bankrupt in September '08, and setting off a financial crisis, too!

I thought that as well. How could a reporter leave out that fact and forget that Lehman employed over 1000 people in that building??

Moderator: The story is about people who live in Roppongi Hills, not those who work there.

A friend was living in one of the residential towers, sharing the floor with two other apartments where a yakuza and a Japanese businessman lived. But once, a rival gang shot some bullets into the door of the businessman, either by accident or to give a warning to the Yak. The businessman was scared to death and moved out quickly, the yakuza also followed and he had the floor for himself...

Saw the former PM Mori at the gym there a few years back. He certainly seemed to be enjoying living there. The whole RHills complex is cursed. Don't forget that poor kid who died in the revolving door soon after the place opened.

read where google is moving into roppongi hills, maybe new group of tech dorks will fill up the apartments now

The rent levels noted in this article are exaggerated. 1 bdrms are currently renting for under JPY400,000/month in the main towers - not cheap, but nowhere near JPY1m/month. Also can't believe Lehmans not noted in this article - largest US bankruptcy in history and was the second largest tenant in RoppHills after GS.

it's a zero sum game. For each one of these losers, there's many that gained, or at least managed to keep their fortunes.

PepinGalarga: Yes, the kind of people who live there aren't salarymen, they are high profile, high flyer types whose fortunes come and go quickly. Roppongi Hills happens to have a concentration of them and that attracts attention.

Mysterious curse? I think not. More like life in the fast lane.

You know, Mr. Mori keeps spouting out this altruistic nonsense about wanting to "shorten commutes and provide families with a richer life" by building these tower communities, but none of them are in the least bit suited for the average salaryman family, price- or otherwise. I wish he'd just admit that he's after only the high-end market and isn't interested in making life easier for the hoi polloi 40 floors down and two hours away by train.

The slappers in Tartland (Heartland) are the ones you need to worry about...

Ah! Heartland. Love that bar. All you have to do is talk &%#t that you are a multi-bazillionaire and they are putty in your hands.

If they are shallow enough to only want a rich guy, I am shallow enough to pander to their fantasy.

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