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| Tokyo Midtown Tower, Roppongi |
It is 7:30 on a drizzly Thursday morning and Masatoshi Shimbo is standing on a corner of Roppongi intersection with a dozen or so similarly attired men. Dressed in what looks like a security guard’s uniform, Shimbo, who is vice-chairman of the Roppongi Shopping Street Association, is here with his team of volunteers for their twice-a-week morning patrol of the neighbourhood.
The RSSA patrol, which also takes place on Thursday and Friday nights, is part of efforts by local residents to clean up the area after its nightly revelry and make it safe and more presentable to daytime residents.
Roppongi, which has some of the best restaurants and most expensive hotels in town, including the Ritz Carlton and Grand Hyatt, is one of Tokyo’s best-loved night spots, a magnet for foodies and fun-seekers. A melting pot of nationalities, where the Russian, Saudi and Greek embassies, among others, stand in close proximity to one another, Roppongi also acts as home and playground to businessmen and glitterati alike.
But even on a wet, grey day, the light of the early morning exposes the uglier side of a neighbourhood that never sleeps, where drunks, drug users and other dubious characters roam the streets even as schoolchildren march down the pavement to their morning classes. The contrast between the glitz that Roppongi conjures – the names of some of Japan’s most famous entrepreneurs, who lived there, and the high-rolling days of western investment banks, which had or still have their offices there – and the nightly sleaze is striking.
As the men on patrol take to the streets lined with bars, massage parlours and 24-hour eateries, they greet the children who seem trained to keep their eyes from roaming too far from their immediate path. Shimbo identifies three young women dressed in miniskirts who are leaning against a railing, looking bored and world-weary as Chinese “masseurs” looking for customers. A few blocks away, a young, sickly looking man is squatting uncomfortably on the pavement, surrounded by a group of people who seem oblivious to his plight.
The efforts of the local community, which also pays for professional refuse collectors to keep waste off the streets, and residents such as Shimbo are aimed at preventing such sights from taking over Roppongi altogether. Their efforts have definitely made the area a significantly more pleasant place to be during the daytime.
Large-scale developments, such as Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown, have also been critical in transforming the neighbourhood, which is still a favourite haunt of the Japanese yakuza, or gangsters, and US seamen on leave.
Mori Building, a privately owned developer, spent more than 13 years building what is now Roppongi Hills, a vast business, entertainment and residential complex that opened to the public in 2003. It was soon followed by Midtown, a scheme led by developer Mitsui Fudosan that replaced the headquarters of Japan’s Self Defence Forces on a massive plot of land diagonally across the main Roppongi intersection. Both developments are based on the idea of a mixed environment that brings together offices, shops, residences, entertainment facilities and other conveniences.
Apartments of 61 to 97 square metres in size, located three minutes’ walk from from the Roppongi Metro station, are for sale by estate agency Asahi Kasei Homes for Y94.6m-Y193m ($1.4m-$2.1m). A 121 sq metre flat slightly further from the station costs Y290m through Mitsui Grandioso Club while a more spacious 230 sq metre property three minutes from the station is offered by Mita Housing for Y488m.
Minoru Mori, head of Mori Building, has led a mission to transform Tokyo into a top-notch cosmopolitan city, a vertical place where people can live, work and enjoy life in close proximity, without the gruelling commutes that have come to characterise the robotic life of a salaried city worker.
Together Roppongi Hills and Midtown, which brought high-end hotels, retail shops, museums and greenery to Roppongi, have transformed the area from a neighbourhood dominated by bars and restaurants and familiar to most people only at night into a more family friendly place that draws young and old alike during the day as well.
Before Roppongi Hills opened, “the only people who came to Roppongi on a weekend were television people” – working for TV Asahi, whose headquarters is adjacent to Roppongi Hills – says Shinichi Fujimaki, senior general manager of urban planning and development at Mori Building.
Azabu Juban, a nearby neighbourhood that still retains the quaintness of an earlier Japan, has also seen a jump in visitors since Roppongi Hills opened its doors, according to Miyako Aoki, who has lived there for the past eight years.
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| The neighbourhood by night |
Staff at both Mori Building and Mitsui Fudosan as well as volunteers from Executive Protection, a security company, participate in the street patrols organised by RSSA and in community events, such as the annual summer festivals.
Takashi Onishi, professor of urban engineering at Tokyo University, who grew up in the neighbourhood, also believes Roppongi Hills and Midtown have had a positive impact. “If it is a good thing for central areas in cities to be revitalised, then [these developments are] one good way to do that. It is a model that can be used in other large cities,” he says.
However, the developments have their critics as well. Many of the residents who lived where the towers of Roppongi Hills now stand resisted the approaches from Mori to buy their land for many years.
There were concerns that these residents would not be able to afford the maintenance fees for the new apartments in which Mori proposed to house them, as well as fears that the company would send thugs to chase them out of their homes, recalls Kogure. However, he now says: “There may have been people who were worried about that but there were no real problems.”
Other long-time Tokyo residents believe the new developments actually contributed to the increase in drugs and sleazy nightspots in the area. “There are more bars and gentlemen’s clubs as a result of Roppongi Hills,” says Stuart Witchell, Japan representative of FTI-International Risk, the Asian-based risk consultancy. He believes that the problem of drugs in Roppongi has also increased with the influx of foreign residents and workers into the area. “It’s like any other business – you target where your customers are,” Witchell says.
Still, many others welcome the spanking new buildings of steel and concrete, designed by Caesar Pelli and other world-renowned architects, that have replaced the old houses and narrow streets. “I lived in the area as a child and there were many small houses ... but it wasn’t such a nice neighbourhood so I don’t think that there are many people who believe it should have been preserved,” says Onishi.
Mori, which has recently embarked on the first phase of another large-scale redevelopment project in Roppongi, on the other side of the intersection, is facing ongoing resistance from residents there, despite the apparent success of Roppongi Hills.
The Roppongi 5-chome and Toranomon areas that are being redeveloped along similar lines to Roppongi Hills are more residential than the area surrounding Roppongi Hills and Midtown and there is concern that the quiet neighbourhood is being paved to make way for another massive complex of buildings.
“Just imagine a quiet neighbourhood and there is a 50-storey building going up in the middle,” says a former resident who moved out when construction began. Local opposition has delayed the redevelopment of the area, which is taking place over just one-third of the initially planned space.
What seems certain is that once the new buildings go up, more people will congregate in Roppongi, increasing tax revenues and adding further to its reputation as a place to be seen.
Michiyo Nakamoto is the FT’s deputy bureau chief in Tokyo
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Estate agencies
Asahi Kasei Homes, tel: +81 (0)3-3344 7052
www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/asahi/en/homes
Mita Housing, tel: +81 0800-601 4776
www.mita-housing.co.jp
Developers Mitsui Fudosan, tel: +81 3-3246 3168
www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english
Mori Building, tel: +81 3-6406 6661
www.mori.co.jp/en
