Mitsubishi built Tokyo’s first office block, in the Marunouchi district, 114 years ago, and the firm is behind the area’s current redevelopment into a major financial centre. Overleaf, we dissect a Marunouchi building site…
Once a nondescript office area with little in the way of shops or restaurants, Marunouchi in Tokyo is undergoing the latest stages of a 20-year transformation into a vibrant retail and financial centre. The next phase will…
Vertical retail fails in most countries (who wants to eat in a basement and traipse up 10 floors?) but in Japan it’s done with success. As other cities densify, what can team Tokyo teach us?
There are several striking elements to the new Marunouchi Park Building in Tokyo, from its soaring office tower to the perfect replica of a 19th-century red brick building. But the most intriguing of all is its garden,…
Shopping trips to Marunouchi usually leave us laden with bags and gasping for refreshment. We now have a new venue to rest our weary heads – or at least imbibe a reviving cocktail. Glowing like a lantern, the new Peninsula…
From regularly refreshed department stores to dedicated dog buggies, Japan revels in the retail details. Tyler Brûlé explains why nobody does it better and looks ahead to our next Quality of Life Conference.
Sankara Hotel & Spa is a new eco-friendly island hideaway surrounded by ancient forests and mountains off the coast of Kyushu. It offers detached villas and a cultural blend of Balinese design and impeccable Japanese hos…
Like so many accidental entrepreneurs, Masataka Baba only started his business because no one was offering what he needed. Now, having turned dozens of Tokyo’s disused commercial buildings into rentable properties, his firm…
We report on an urban farming project at Osaka train station, the first verticle farm in Singapore and the sad fate of Cambodia's colonial and "new Khmer" buildings.