Two silhouettes were walking through the deserted Shin-Tokyo Building

Interior of Shin-Tokyo Building — Inside the Shin-Tokyo Building

Walking around Marunouchi, one notices that while some buildings, such as Mitsubishi Ichigokan, are old and retro, most were built in the 1960s and look a bit dated. Against this backdrop, redevelopment is underway in Marunouchi, starting with the Marunouchi Building, which was completed in 2002. New buildings such as the Shin-Marunouchi Building, the Peninsula Tokyo Building, the Marunouchi Park Building, and the Marunouchi Nijubashi Building have been constructed, but buildings built during the high-growth period such as the Kokusai Building and the Shin-Yurakucho Building are still in use. Redevelopment is expected to continue in the coming years. The Shin-Tokyo Building, which I visited today, will be rebuilt in the near future.

The Shin-Tokyo Building was completed over 70 years ago. Just like its historic exterior, the infrastructure inside is expected to be outdated. The Marunouchi Building was also rebuilt 70 years after its completion, so the useful life of a high-rise building in Japan may be about that long. In the United States, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the American International Building are still in use nearly 100 years after their completion. Unlike Japan, the United States has fewer earthquakes, so the lifespan of U.S. skyscrapers tends to be longer.

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