The new 1.4-kilometer Toranomon-Shinbashi stretch of Loop Road No. 2, a key Tokyo trunk route was opened to traffic on Saturday.
Tokyo Gov officiated at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new 40-meter-wide street with wide sidewalks, which developers say is modeled on Paris' Champs-Elysees. Developers plan to have trees line the sides of the street and include bicycle lanes.
The Toranomon-Shimbashi road was once dubbed "MacArthur Road" after U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied powers during the occupation of Japan after World War II. He used the road to go to from his headquarters to the U.S. Embassy.
There have been plans since 1946 to build a new arterial road between Toranomon and Shimbashi as part of a loop road around central Tokyo but the plan remained unrealized for decades due to the government's inability to expropriate the necessary prime real estate.
The opening of Loop Road No. 2 will pave the way for the road’s extension in the near future from Shimbashi to Toyosu and Tokyo’s fast-developing bay shore area, where 2020 Olympic facilities are being built, which will vastly improve access between Toranomon and Tokyo International Airport, along with other key metropolitan gateways.
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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Frenchy92
I wonder whether Toranomon Hills is supposed to be the obelisk or the Arc de Triomphe... I definitely can't see any link with Champs Élysées. But this does not mean that it would not be a nice place for shopping.
Patricia Yarrow
Guess we will have to check it out. Any cherry trees along the way, eh?
Ayler
Trees lining the street and bicycle lanes? Wow.
Cos
Dunno what they smoke. Can we get some ? Omotesando has already the cloned line up of luxury shops of the Champs.
FightingViking
@Frenchy92
I was wondering the same thing... Takes quite a stretch of imagination to compare this to the most "beautiful Avenue" in the world n'est-ce pas ?
GW
French Embassy should lodge a complaint!
URO
Well, I think Tokyo has nothing to envy to other capitals, Tokyo should keep its own identity, it is unfortunate that people always want to make their own city look like others, when visiting Japan people want authenticity and not a reproduction, when visiting Tokyo they want to feel the imprint and the Japanese signature and not those of the Europeans or Americans. It's a pitty.
nath
What the area badly needs is it's own giant Yamada Denki. If there are any small time mom and pop style noodle or sushi establishments left, they should be immediately knocked down to make way for it.
PROGRESS.
senseiman
Are they going to actually plant trees on this street? I just saw a video of it on TV and it looks like any other generic wide street in a Japanese city - a sweltering sea of asphalt without any shade or anything else to recommend it.
Also Nagoya already has a Japanese-fake- Champs-Elysees in Hisaya Odori. Nowhere near as impressive as the real one, but at least it has a lot of attractive, mature trees and some nice cafes on the sidewalk in hte warmer months.
Jris Hsieh
Well, I guess it's all about politics. Politicians are making it to please their people.