TOKYO — Over the last 30 years, 75 percent of the modern buildings constructed in Tokyo’s 23 wards from the Meiji period (1868-1912) through the prewar period have vanished, a survey by a Tokyo study group has found.
A list of the nation’s modern buildings compiled in 1980 by the Architectural Institute of Japan noted 2,196 such structures in Tokyo’s 23 wards.
Similar research undertaken 20 years later by the study group Rekishi, Bunka no Machizukuri Kenkyukai (study group on city design focusing on history and culture) found the figure had dropped to 830 buildings.
The study group conducted further research between October and December last year and found 585 buildings remained. This figure represents 26.6 percent of the 1980 number.
Of the 585 buildings still listed, some are scheduled to be demolished or are currently being taken down, including Akashi Primary School in Chuo Ward.
Although the most recent survey shows a slower rate of decline from the 2000 results, many buildings put up during the early Showa period (1926-1989) were demolished or rebuilt over the last decade. They include the Sanshin Building in Hibiya, the Kojun Building in Ginza and Omotesando’s Dojunkai Aoyama Apartment building.
Thanks to growing interest in preserving structures built during the Meiji period, 55.2 percent of such buildings listed in 1980 were found to still exist in the latest survey. However, the number of existing buildings constructed during the Taisho period (1912-1926) fell to 28.6 percent and those built during the Showa period plunged to 26.6 percent of the 1980 figures.
One reason for the decrease is the high costs individuals may be asked to bear to repair such buildings’ wooden structures.
Architect Yasumichi Mifune, 60, who represents the study group, said, “The government must implement such measures as expanding the eligibility for subsidies for preservation and repair.”
