News On Japan

Tokyo's famed Imperial Hotel to undergo $2bn teardown and makeover

Mar 17 (Nikkei) - The Imperial Hotel Tokyo, a historic luxury hotel renowned for hosting international dignitaries as well as the world's rich and famous, will experience a nearly $2 billion reconstruction with a reopening slated for fiscal 2036, Nikkei has learned.

The rebuild will take place toward the end of an urban renewal project for the surrounding Uchisaiwaicho district in the capital led by real estate developer Mitsui Fudosan, in what has been called the biggest post-Olympic redevelopment project in the capital.

Imperial Hotel, the operator of the landmark institution, will make an official announcement later this month. A high-rise annex will be completed as early as fiscal 2030 before the main building is rebuilt. The company has yet to decide whether to continue business at a different site during the reconstruction. The new hotel is expected to maintain the same majestic ambience.

Construction of the main building and the annex tower are expected to cost in excess of 200 billion yen ($1.83 billion).

Founded in 1890, the Imperial Hotel Tokyo is known internationally for its second-generation main building designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, which opened in 1923. It later hosted such notable guests as Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio on their honeymoon as well as Helen Keller.

The current main building is aging, having opened its doors in 1970. The 17-story building with about 570 rooms has a 31-story tower annex, which was finished in 1983 as Japan's first hotel doubling as a commercial building.

The operator wants to enhance the hotel's competitiveness against global luxury giants and seeks to raise room rates after the makeover.

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

A string of so-called “honey trap” cases is drawing attention across Japan as schemes once limited to extortion have become increasingly violent, involving physical assaults and life-threatening intimidation.

Police have revealed that a woman killed by her former partner in Higashi-Osaka had sustained dozens of stab wounds across her body, including injuries that pierced internal organs.

Vast hillsides have been cleared for the construction of a large-scale solar power facility in Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture, leaving piles of felled trees scattered across the slopes. The development covers approximately 146 hectares, or the size of 32 Tokyo Domes, and involves cutting down about 365,000 trees to make way for 470,000 solar panels.

OpenAI has unveiled its latest video generation AI, Sora2, which can produce realistic footage in about three minutes, including Japanese anime-style clips and composite videos featuring real individuals.

Former US President Donald Trump is arranging a three-day visit to Japan starting on October 27th, marking his first trip to the country in six years.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

A man in his twenties who was abducted in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, in June and later killed has been confirmed dead after his remains were found as bones in the mountains of Kochi Prefecture.

Right now in big cities in Japan, there are more and more protests by Japanese people against the government's immigration policies. (Japanese Comedian Meshida)

Princess Aiko, the daughter of the Emperor and Empress, has tested positive for Covid-19, the Imperial Household Agency announced on October 2nd, cancelling her scheduled trip to Shiga Prefecture on October 5th and 6th to observe the National Sports Festival.

A man in his 60s was found bleeding and collapsed inside a cattle barn in Tsugaru, Aomori Prefecture on the morning of October 2nd, later dying after his condition suddenly worsened.

A two-story wooden house collapsed in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward on the night of September 30th, with experts suggesting that the ground beneath the property, rather than the building itself, gave way, likely due to a cracked retaining wall.

Today, we'll be looking at some CRAZY Japanese tattoos that foreigners got! Even Ariana Grande got a really bad tattoo! They're so weird and don't make sense at all! (Mrs Eats)

Osaka Prefecture has revised its ordinance to set a cap of 100,000 yen per day on ATM transfers made with cash cards by certain elderly account holders, marking the first such restriction in Japan.

Japan's National Police Agency and Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department launched a new structure on October 1st to pursue the leaders of the so-called Tokuryu, an 'anonymous and fluid' crime group responsible for large-scale fraud and violent robberies linked to black-market recruitment.