URBAN DEVELOPMENT Shibuya
A Bold Future for Shibuya by Julian Ryall
Long recognised as the fashionable and youthful heartbeat of Tokyo, Shibuya is undergoing a transformation that has seen gleaming skyscrapers rise high above the station area and an influx of high-tech companies looking for an energetic and stimulating place for the headquarters of their Japanese operations. The rejuvenation of a district that a decade ago was looking slightly downat-heel has inevitably had a knock-on effect on prices for land in all sectors, including the residential market. Opened as a quiet suburban railway stop in 1885, when it was surrounded by vegetable fields, Shibuya Station today handles nearly 3m passengers on average every weekday. It has gained worldwide fame for the statue of loyal dog, Hachiko; the scramble crossing directly outside the west exit and the plethora of neon, advertising and big screens that look down on all those passers-by. In part because of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games but also in an effort to attract more firms to the district, Shibuya Ward teamed up with Tokyu Corporation, a railway firm and property developer with extensive interests in the neighbourhood, as well as East Japan Railway Company and To-
kyo Metro Co., Ltd. to rebuild the station area. The first visible manifestation of this vision was Tokyu’s Shibuya Hikarie, a 183-metre tower at the east of the station with offices, retail space, restaurants, conference facilities and a theatre. One of the very first firms to snap up office space in the building was mobile applications giant Line Corporation. The area south of Shibuya Station has seen similar large-scale development, with global tech behemoth Google LLC taking over the entire top half of the 33-storey Shibuya Stream property. The lower levels, meanwhile, are occupied by a hotel, shops and space for incubators and startups. Just a stone’s throw away and directly above the station, which is undergoing a complete makeover, Shibuya Scramble Square rises 230 metres above street level and has indoor and outdoor observation decks that offer breathtaking views of the city and well beyond. The Dogenzaka area, directly to the west of the station, is also getting a state-of-the-art block that is a mixture of commercial and office space. A short distance away, in the Sakuragaoka neighbourhood, work is under way on a series of high-rise projects that will
include a 180-metre, 36-storey office tower and a 32-storey development of apartments. With multilingual medical and childcare facilities, as well as serviced apartments, the developers are clearly looking to appeal to foreign companies as part of the effort to reinvent Shibuya as a hub for international business. “Shibuya has a reputation as a creative industries cluster and many IT venture companies have been born in this district,” said Maria Kanazawa, a spokeswoman for Tokyu Corporation. “After the arrival of the very first venture IT firms—something which began around 2000—Shibuya became known as ‘Bit Valley’ and, as that trend grew, some of the biggest tech firms in the world came here, including Google, CyberAgent, DeNA Mixi, GMO and others.” Companies were attracted by the presence of other like-minded organisations, she added, making marketing, meetings and even socialising with contacts far easier. Equally, the working environment has improved immeasurably with the addition of advanced new office facilities,
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