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Renovated Tokyo Station Building opens

4 Comments

The restored Tokyo Station building opened on Monday morning after a five-year restoration project.

Originally constructed in 1914 in distinctive European-style red brick and designed by architect Kingo Tatsuno, the iconic Tokyo Station building includes new commercial facilities such as the high-end Daimaru Department Store and the Tokyo Station Hotel, which opens on Wednesday.

Tokyo Station was damaged in the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, but remained standing. However, the building was later burned and gutted in 1945 firebombings. Postwar reconstruction altered the terminal’s picturesque silhouette, resulting in the removal of the third floor and the replacement of the station’s original ornate cupolas with more octagonal domes, modeled on the Pantheon in Rome.

In 2006, a reconstruction project began that was designed to restore the Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building to its original 1914 charm and splendor.

According to East Japan Railway Co (JR East), Tokyo Station attracts over 1.1 million passengers every day. Tokyo Station attracts over 1.1 million passengers every day. As the hub of the financial district of Marunouchi, east of the Imperial Palace, 4,000 businesses representing 10% of the Tokyo Stock Exchange are based around the station, including 17 Fortune Global 500 firms (as of 2011).

Since 2000, Tokyo Station has become a fast-developing commercial center, with hundreds of new shops and restaurants opening up, and the brand new Mitsubishi Ichigokan Art Museum has hosted exhibitions since 2009.

© Japan Today

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4 Comments
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Well, you've been able to use the station for the last five years, and the uncovering of the outside isn't new. The only things opened now are a few of the main entrances to the stores that were previously unused.

Does look great though, 1914s architecture with 2014 accents, well worth the five year wait to photograph it.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Seems to be no drop off for cars on the Marunouchi/Narita Express side. Either badly designed or badly sign-posted.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I always thought it was one of the more architecturally interesting stations in Japan, especially compared to that architectural abomination masquerading as Kyoto Station, so I'm glad they've restored it instead of tearing it down.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"1945 firebombings"

Today is the anniversary of the most destructive bombing campaign in history, the firebombing of Tokyo. Hope nothing like this ever happens again. Amazing how the Japanese still didn't surrender even after this loss.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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