COVER STORY • Japanese Economy After the Olympic & Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 • 11

Interview with Kousuke Kinoshita & Aya Sakamoto, Nihonbashi Urban Planning andDevelopment Department, Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.

N

ihonbashi, the Oldest
District in Tokyo, Reborn as“Entrepreneurial Town”

By Japan SPOTLIGHT

From the early 17th century to the middle of the 19th century, Tokyo was called Edo. The Nihonbashi
district beside the Sumida River was then the center of the economy and culture of Japan. This is where
Kabuki was born and where the Mitsukoshi Department Store, the oldest department store in Japan,
started its business. During recent decades this area where artisans and merchants once flourished lostits brilliance, but it is now undergoing rebirth as a leading center of a “cool and progressive” Japan. It issaid that the district is being rebuilt as if to restore the former vitality and creativity of the people of Edo.
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. is one of the main players in this Nihonbashi Revitalization Plan. JapanSPOTLIGHT interviewed Kousuke Kinoshita, project manager of the Planning Group at the company’s
Nihonbashi Urban Planning and Development Department, and Aya Sakamoto, project leader.
(Interviewed on Oct. 8, 2019)

Current Status &Future of the Project
JS: The Nihonbashi

Revitalization Plan (for theplan’s 3rd stage) wasannounced on Aug. 29, 2019and your redevelopment
project has been underway
for several years. Could youtell us what the current
status of the project is andhow it will proceed under
this new plan?

Aya Sakamoto

Sakamoto: Our project on the revitalization of the Nihonbashi district
started with the opening of the complex commercial building
COREDO Nihonbashi in 2004. In 2010, another building named
COREDO Muromachi 1 was opened and the project entered its
second stage in 2014, when we opened COREDO Muromachi 2 and
COREDO Muromachi 3 and also reconstructed Fukutoku Shrine,
which was originally founded in the 9th century. In 2019, we opened
another complex building, COREDO Muromachi Terrace.
Kinoshita: At this moment, this region’s roughly 15 years of
redevelopment of commercial facilities as well as office facilities has
been expanded to a wide area. The period of large-scale hardware
development largely came to an end with the completion of COREDO
Muromachi Terrace in 2019. The first stage of our Nihonbashi
Revitalization Plan was promoting diversity of urban functions andhttps://www.jef.or.jp/journal/building up facilities for mixed use,such as commercial and officespace. The key concepts of the plan
have been “Preserving andRevitalizing the Heritage while
Creating the Future”. In the second
stage of the plan, we promoted atown using a mixture of hardware
and software in four key areas:“creating business clusters,neighborhood renaissance, in
harmony with the community andreviving the aquapolis”.
Kousuke Kinoshita
Our coming third stage will
highlight “River and waterside
regeneration”, “A focus on tomorrow’s innovative industries” and “A
vital and welcoming international state”. While generally following
the four basic concepts adopted in the second stage, we hope toanimate our town building with more colleagues and friends working
together on the software aspects. Our third stage will also try to
redevelop both the western area of Nihonbashi (Nihonbashi West)and the eastern area of Nihonbashi (Nihonbashi East) together as“Greater Nihonbashi”, while respecting the individual characters of
the two areas.

Foreign Tourists Visiting Nihonbashi
JS: The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan

continues to increase in the run-up to the Olympic &Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. Do you think theJapan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2020

45

COVER STORY 11

redevelopment of Nihonbashi so far would attract
tourists to the district?

JS: What is the key concept of your company’s urban

Kinoshita: We have not been trying to attract tourists from abroad,but it is true that they have been increasing in the Nihonbashi area as
well.

Sakamoto: We have several key concepts for our urban developmentthat are not necessarily limited to Nihonbashi – for example, “townbuilding taking advantage of the history of the town or its
geographical merits”, “town building for solving social issues”,“town building for raising a local community”, and so on.

Sakamoto: In the western area, high-quality big hotels like the
Mandarin Oriental Tokyo and Mitsui Garden Hotel Nihonbashi
Premier were born, while with the historical background of the
popular venue for the inns in Edo, the eastern area is now filled withlodging facilities for back-packers, such as guesthouses and hostels.
Nihonbashi may not be so well known as a tourism spot as Asakusa
or Ginza, but you can come to visit very easily either from Haneda
Airport or Narita Airport thanks to convenient transport facilities. So
its popularity seems to have been increasing. It would be possible
for the increasing number of tourists to stay in a hotel in Nihonbashi
and enjoy their stay in Tokyo by visiting other tourist spots like
Asakusa, Ginza and Shibuya.
JS: In our last interview with your company’s officials

in 2016, I heard that there were a number ofpermanent non-Japanese concierges in a tourism
office in COREDO Muromachi 1 introducing thefacilities and shops to tourists. Has this beenworking well?

Kinoshita: That system has worked well and during these three years
more professional staff have been employed and they can provide
tourists with necessary information quickly. The tourism office is
now a multi-language one with a number of non-Japanese staff
speaking English and Chinese and other languages. So its users are
increasing. We have a tour for visitors of some of the shops within
the building, so they can try to sharpen a kitchen knife, for example,
at “Nihonbashi Kiya”, a kitchen knife shop since 1792, or shave adried bonito at “Ninben”, another shop with a long tradition.

Characteristics of Mitsui Fudosan’s Urban
Development
JS: Your company has been working on theredevelopment of the Nihonbashi area for a longtime. Do you have different thoughts about this areafrom other areas’ development?

Kinoshita: The origin of the Mitsui Group is “Echigoya”, a money
exchange business born in 1673 in Nihonbashi. So we have longenjoyed having Nihonbashi at the center of the Japanese economy
and culture. Certainly, we have a special care and affection for thisarea. We believe that this area is a very attractive one with adistinctive culture and history. We would like to respect its long
tradition and try to work on its future development for regional
prosperity.
46 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2020

development?

Support for New Industries & Ventures
JS: While paying due respect to tradition, will it beincreasingly important to support raising new
industries as well as young entrepreneurs?

Kinoshita: Yes, “creating business clusters” is a theme which we arefocusing on in Nihonbashi as well. We will respect history andtraditions and be engaged in supporting innovation, including
venture support in areas where innovation can continue to happen.
Sakamoto: With regard to taking advantage of the merits ofgeographical location and history, it is noteworthy that this area had
many wholesale drug stores in the old days and even now there are
medicine producers concentrated here. So we have been working on
raising industries in “life sciences”. We founded a core organization
to facilitate an alliance between industry, government and academia
named LINK-J (Life Science Innovation Network Japan), a generalincorporated association, in March 2016. We have been working on
creating business bases such as rental offices specializing in life
sciences, service offices, shared laboratory and conference facilities,
and so on, as well as creating venues for exchanges. The“Nihonbashi Life Science Hub” which opened in 2015 is one of thesebusiness bases. Hereafter, we will promote further creation of new
industries by focusing on three new categories – “aerospace”,“mobility” and “food”– and enhance the market value of real estate in
the area.
JS: In the western area large-scale development

projects have been carried out, while new businessfacilities and ventures have been concentrated in theeastern area, with the ambiance of the old town being
maintained.

Sakamoto: No large-scale redevelopment has taken place in theeastern area but small and medium-sized buildings are concentrated
there, and there are many small alleys and shops. We are pursuingdevelopment there to bring crowds to the streets by renovating
vacant buildings and turning them into commercial facilities, hostels,
venture offices and so forth. With large-scale redevelopment as in
the western area, the eastern area’s individual character would be
lost. So through constant renovation of buildings, we want toencourage an increase in new shops.

COVER STORY 11

Kinoshita: We are certainly enchanted by the two distinct areas ofeast and west. We are planning to redevelop both areas with a wide
range of measures, both hardware and software.

Kinoshita: Yes, I would be happy if our basic concept of town
redevelopment – “Preserving and Revitalizing the Heritage while
Creating the Future” – is fully appreciated by residents and visitors.

JS: There was a news release on Sept. 25, 2019 saying

River & Waterside Regenerationthat you would start a new project to facilitatecommunication and exchange of information
between individuals planning to start up new
businesses and the large companies in need of new
products and ideas, as well as the public sector in
charge of supporting ventures. This is called the“Swing-By” project. This is a part of the big project“Empowering Ambitious Start-ups in Tokyo”(E.A.S.T.) which aims to achieve alliances between
start-up companies and large companies to boost
innovation and venture activities in Nihonbashi. You
are promoting this by organizing meetings orconferences for start-ups and large companies.

Kinoshita: Yes, exactly. With this, we would like to strengthen ourefforts to promote the accumulation of ventures in the Nihonbashi
area, in addition to providing them with office accommodation
through renovation of old small buildings.

Changed View of District ThroughRedevelopment
JS: We have the impression that the image of the town

JS: The project to transfer the metropolitan highway

built above the Nihonbashi area underground has got
underway. One of the key concepts of your plan isrevitalization of the waterfront area. What are you
planning to do exactly?

Kinoshita: In the Edo Era, cargoes were all transported along thecanals built by the first shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa and unloaded on
the riverside. Markets and wholesale shops sprang up, and retailstores and restaurants opened and were full of people. Nihonbashi
was not only one of the main points for such water transportation
but also the intersection of the five main “Roads” of Japan. Our
revitalization plan aims to revive the crowds and animation that once
existed once, and we think the waterfront area can be a center forthis. We think that the waterfront can be a space for rest and leisurefor the people in central Tokyo, a place where they can get together
and create new human networks. There are lots of cities all over theworld animated by waterfront development. We are planning todevelop an area for shops, plazas and offices in a 1.2-kilometer areaon the riverside which will be created with the transfer of themetropolitan highway underground (Image 1).

has been rapidly changed these 15 years since thefoundation of COREDO Nihonbashi in 2004.

between the contemporary image of “cool Japan”
and traditional images of Japan in creating trendy
facilities such as COREDO, and in building
commercial facilities while keeping old architecture
like Fukutoku Shrine or the Meijiza theater. This issurely acceptable to both Japanese and foreigners.

Nihonbashi

ri
Do

Yaesu
area

wa

Tokyo
Station

Do
ri

Five
riverside
districts

Sho

JS: You have managed to maintain consistency

Muromachi/Honcho
area

Ch
uo

Kinoshita: Nihonbashi was once in decline. The closing in 1999 of
the Nihonbashi branch of Tokyu Department Store, a company inexistence since 1653, symbolized the decline of Nihonbashi as acommercial district. COREDO Nihonbashi was founded at thelocation where the Tokyu Department Store used to be. So this was
the beginning of our “Nihonbashi Revitalization Plan”. It has
progressed with close attention to the area’s geography and history.
In our redeveloped office buildings, there are now many global
companies, such as foreign affiliated consulting companies,
driverless car technology companies, and so on. In this regard,
globalization is underway in this area not only in terms of moretourists coming from abroad but also a wide diversity of people
working. So your impression about this area must certainly havechanged from when our redevelopment project was launched.

Image 1: Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.

Walkway network connecting Nihonbashi and Tokyo Station

Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2020

47

COVER STORY 11
Image 2: Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.

Southwest which everybody knows.
JS: On the economic impact of redevelopment in

Nihonbashi, do you have any figures showing it?

Kinoshita: With the redevelopment so far, including new hotels andoffices, the number of passengers getting on and off the subway
every day at the main Tokyo Metro stations within the Nihonbashi
district increased by 11.3% between 2010 and 2017. The number ofhouseholds in this area has been increasing as well.

*This is a rendering of Nihonbashi in the future and may differ from
actual development plans, etc. (as of August 2019)

View across Nihonbashi toward Hakozaki.

Sakamoto: This transfer will be completed in about 20 years’ time
and the waterfront town is still an imaginary one, but we believe we
can retrieve a beautiful riverside.
JS: We do not have yet an image of this waterfrontarea, but your plan would change the scenery verymuch.

Kinoshita: There are lots of buildings with their backs to the river,
but we hope there will be an increasing number of buildings facing
the waterfront. The bridge at Nihonbashi is a continuous two stonearch bridge 49 meters long and 28 meters wide (Image 2). The
existing one is said to be the 20th, constructed in 1911. With isdecorative flower-shaped lamps in bronze, and statues of giraffes
and lions, it blends Japanese, Chinese and Western influences and isconsidered a good representation of the Meiji Era (1868-1912). It
was designated an important national cultural property in 1999. With
the change in its surroundings, this bridge will be a more remarkable
tourist spot in Nihonbashi.

Promotion of Global Events
JS: Your news release on the third stage of yourNihonbashi Revitalization Plan mentions “A vital andwelcoming international state”. More specifically,
how do you plan to bring a wide range of people
together in this way?

Kinoshita: We have been working on promoting a community withclose ties among the residents by organizing local events, such as a“Cherry Blossom Festival in Nihonbashi” and ECOEDO Nihonbashi,
as well as creating a new community around Fukutoku Shrine.
Hereafter, we would like to attract people who have never visited
Nihonbashi. To achieve this, we hope to attract more business eventsor international events and conferences in fields such as life
sciences, and on topics like aerospace, mobility and food. Eventually,
we would like to create an event like Milano Salone or South by
48 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2020

Sakamoto: The percentage of visitors to COREDO Nihonbashi and
COREDO Muromachi 1, 2, and 3 in their 30s and 40s is increasing
particularly. We can see a trend of people working in their offices
during the daytime and enjoying shopping and dinner in thecommercial facilities in the same district in the evening. So we think
we could get back the happy crowds even on weekdays.
JS: Are you also planning to promote business events

as well as MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencesand Exhibitions) in this area?

Kinoshita: Once we have a new facility, we will promote it as anindividual facility. We have not had so many convention halls in thisarea, but with “Muromachi Mitsui Hall and Conference” as a new
facility in Nihonbashi Muromachi Mitsui Tower, we could organize an
event by connecting it with the other halls very easily. With inclusionof other spaces like a main street between COREDO Muromachi 1
and COREDO Muromachi 2 or the big roof plaza of COREDO
Muromachi Terrace, we can now utilize the whole area to organize a
big event and MICE. We would like to promote this to the public.
JS: In the eastern area, you have the Meijiza theater.

Could you create a plan for a big event combining
MICE and Japanese traditional arts like Kabuki orclassical dances?

Kinoshita: Yes, events involving Japanese traditional arts in
Nihonbashi would draw big audiences. There seems to be a common
perception among the Japanese that Nihonbashi is a place to take awalk in kimono, and we have so far organized a number of traditional
cultural events. We aim to create new kinds of events and attract a
new flow of people to this district.

Written with the cooperation of Naoko Sakai who is a freelance writer.