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6 Japan Railway & Transport Review / December 1995

SPECIAL FEATURE – Changing Roles of Stations

Copyright © 1995 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

A Vision of Future Railway Stations

Takashi Suzuki

Perspectives of railwaystations

Many people in different fields atdifferent times have discussed what arailway station should be like. Istrongly feel that there are great gapsin people’s opinions depending ontheir perspectives, and that how rail-way stations look has undergone vari-ous changes according to the countryand period of history.

The parties holding conflicting per-spectives in such debates have typi-cally been users and railway opera-tors. More recently, city planners andcritics as well as citizens, architectsand designers are participating in thediscussion. I used to have the limitedperspective of a railway architect, butnow that I work for design offices, Ihave more opportunity to talk to newparticipants in the debate with differ-ent perspectives. This allowed me todiscover unexpected opinions and mu-tual misunderstandings, which I findsometimes bewildering and some-times pleasing.

Early station buildingsIt is a rough generalization to view

the histories of advanced railwaycountries in terms of a pattern ofchange: birth, development, matu-rity, stagnation, decline and recovery.But such generalization helps providean overview. When this pattern is ap-plied to the history of urban railwaysin Japan, it would be appropriate toreplace the second half of the patternwith maturity, maintenance and re-covery.

Citizens of big cities in Europe takegreat pride in their railway stations,which still rise with dignity, and en-joy vast popularity both as a culturalheritage and as a tourist attraction.However, it is noteworthy thatEuston Station in London, was com-

pletely different from such stationsmentioned above in terms of shapeand image.

The station had a huge gate stand-ing by itself in a vast open space lo-cated far from the urban area. Pas-sengers, when they came from thecity, looked first for this gate to findthe right direction. Contemporary pic-tures show that they would then headfor the station building of relativelymoderate size, where they prepared todepart via departure halls fromsimple platforms built next to thebuilding. Arriving passengers alsowent through similar platforms andarrival halls.

There are a number ideas abouthow this strange-looking station cameabout, but the point I would like tomake is that it must have been theresult of compromise during a turningpoint in the history of civilization. Inother words, no matter how conve-nient railway services were, trains,spewing fire and smoke and runningat incredible speeds with deafeningnoise, were regarded as somethingcompletely alien and difficult to com-prehend by society at that time. Justas people built walls and gates arounda castle to defend themselves, in aneffort to get along with this new ‘mon-ster’ that was completely alien tothem, people first located the stationaway from the city and then built agate that reminds one of a palace.This must have been the social and

psychological backdrop to the stationconstruction. Compared to the gate,however, the departure and arrivalhalls look slightly subdued and theplatforms are simply treated as func-tional attachments.

I suspect this station was a typicalproduct symbolizing the concept of pe-riphery as opposed to center, mani-fested in the contemporary thought.

Large stations in EuropeRailway services, although alien,

provided so much greater conveniencethan horse-drawn carriages that theindustry grew rapidly. Tempted in-vestors put their money in the railwayto reap big profits. New lines openedone after another, while increasingservices on existing lines led to in-creasing numbers of platforms. Natu-rally, the slow-paced, distributed ar-rangement seen at Euston Stationcould not cope with such develop-ments, and gave way to a centralizedone where the gate, which once stoodas a symbol, was integrated with plat-forms and halls.

However, at this point, there was atotally unexpected change in terms ofform. And in a sense this was exactlywhen the ‘railway station’ was born,since, from the historical standpoint,the form created at that time has pro-vided the basic image for constructionof large stations in the years that fol-lowed.

Euston Station (1838)

Japan Railway & Transport Review / December 1995 7Copyright © 1995 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

To summarize the stations in thosedays, they were architectural struc-tures whose form could best be calleda combination of palace and factory.Dubbed “...a new cathedral for man-kind.. . .” , “ . . .the most beautifulchurches in the world.”, “...palaces ofmodern industry where the religion ofthe century is displayed...”, and “...thenucleus of a huge stars...”, new sta-tions attempted to maintain harmonywith the city by facing it with a sym-bolic but familiar image of church orpalace. On the other hand, at theback, by covering the platforms, thestations hid the alien part while pre-senting the image of factory architec-ture as a symbol of technologiesemerging during the industrial revo-lution. In other words, stations were acarefully-designed product based onwisdom.

The factory part of the architectureis more interesting to me personallythan the palace, which had alreadyreached technological perfection. Af-ter the Industrial Revolution im-proved the quality of steel and glass,London’s Crystal Palace, created asan extension of greenhouse construc-tion, exerted its influence on land-scape gardening, and the progressmade in the structural technologywas reflected in bridges. These wereall contributing greatly to station con-struction at that time. In short, rail-way architecture was responsively re-

flecting the huge changes in techno-logical civilization taking place in so-ciety as a whole.

Furthermore, the clock tower, deco-rating the front of the building accom-modating the halls, had a practicalpurpose of showing passengers rail-way time, necessary to operate theunified train services, as opposed tothe inconsistent times used inpeople’s daily lives in each region. Theclock was significant in cultural his-tory because it facilitated the even-tual adoption of standard time in eachcountry.

However, we should not forget thesevere competition between capital-ists then, which explains why laterstations were larger, taller and moreluxurious.

In any event, the ingenious creationof space gradually succeeded in neu-tralizing the alienness, which, withimproved rolling stock, tracks, andcustomer services, led to a greatprogress in the railway industry.

Large early stations inJapan

The first train service in Japan wasopened between Shiodome (Tokyo)and Sakuragicho (Yokohama) in1872, when the European railway in-dustry had already reached maturity.This was when Japanese railway sta-tion buildings were born. The four en-

route stations between both terminiwere all extremely simple, one-storywooden structures. However, the ter-mini at Shinbashi and Yokohamawere more elaborate structures de-signed by an American architect.

Although the two termini—two-sto-ried, wooden structures faced withstone—were located in places match-ing large cities in Europe and theUnited States, and were designed by aWestern architect, they lacked thekind of artistic features or the sense ofhuge scale evident in large stations inWestern countries. The platform fa-cilities were of minimum size, creat-ing a completely different image fromthe half palace and half factory in theWest. The reason for the design couldnot have been because there wasnothing in Japan to model; the coun-try has a long history of shrines andtemples as well as large castles. Sowhat was the reason behind the emer-gence of large stations of such simplestructure?

First, there was a gap between Ja-pan and Western countries in the de-gree of progress in industrial revolu-tion, as well as in capital buildup. An-other major reason must have beenthe difference in willingness to investbetween the national government andprivate investors. But I suspect theremay have been other reasons relatedto difference in cultural tradition. Tobe more specific, one way to interpretthis is that Westerners have amindset of aggressively accommodat-ing new discoveries and inventionswhile Japanese are passive and cau-tious in accepting things new.

But since opening its doors to therest of the world, Japan endeavouredto create and promote industry byquickly adopting Westernization poli-cies. Consequently, by the end of theMeiji era (1868 - 1912), some 30-40years later, the country had devel-oped a robust national strength which

� Shinbashi Station (Transportation Museum)

� Gare du Nord, Paris (M. Uemura)




would have been unthinkable duringthe period of its isolation. And in1914, the construction of the splendidTokyo Station, a long-cherisheddream, was completed as a symbol ofsuch national strength.

Although some foreign engineersproposed that Tokyo Station shouldbe built in Japanese style, using theunique Japanese architectural form,the finished work by Professor KingoTatsuno was a three-storied, steel-frame, brick building in Renaissancestyle—a complete reproduction of aEuropean structure. The magnificentnew station 300-m long must havebeen a landmark to the Japanese inthose days and splendid enough forthem to flaunt their national powerand dignity both at home and abroad.

However, if one goes inside thebuilding and looks more closely, onesees that the departure and arrivalhalls covered by two round domesclose to both ends are simple in designand not large, which is very different

from big stations in Western coun-tries. Walking from the halls througha corridor and climbing up the plat-forms, one finds the same old style ofseparate platform roofs.

These coexistent similarities anddifferences are an example of the so-cial trend prevailing at that time,which can be called a combination of“Japanese spirit and Western learn-ing”. The station does look like aWestern etude superficially, but wasvery different in its internal struc-ture. Other full-scale, large stations

constructed at about the same time asTokyo Station also shared this fea-ture. In fact, Japan never saw con-struction of stations combining halfpalace and half factory, and all its sta-tions ended up only one-third to one-fifth the scale of their Western coun-terparts.

I believe that the Japanese was pur-suing the restriction on excessivespace or excessive decoration. Both inEurope and Japan, articles criticizingthis effect underscore this point. Indifferent terms, I would say this is aquestion of what is emphasized more,symbolism or realism.

Anyway, the archetype space inJapanese urban stations was to keepa low profile and emphasize realisticaspects compared to the overwhelm-ing and luxurious large stations inWestern countries.

At the end of the 19th century, se-cessionist movements arose in Euro-pean architecture. This was an epoch-making effort for change, expressingreflection over and departure fromthe architectural style that went toofar in pursuing splendour and mag-nificence, while endeavouring to re-consider the way to view architecturefrom the standpoint of ‘usage’. Themovements generated an ‘interna-tional style ’ and gave rise to LeCorbusier’s famous comment that ahouse is a machine to live in, thus pos-� Pre-war Tokyo Central Station (Transportation Museum)

� Yokohama Station (Transportation Museum)

� Ochanomizu Station in the late 1960's (S. Ohta)


ing a serious challenge to the existingcultural system. Since this was ex-actly the time when progress in sci-ence and technology began to providespecific dreams and hopes in people’slives, the movement rapidly spreadinto industrialized countries.

The second Ochanomizu Station,completed in 1932, was a typical ex-ample. Dr Shigeru Ito, the father ofJapanese railway architecture wholater became the president of the Ar-chitectural Institute of Japan, de-signed it on the concept that stationbuildings are not something to stayin, but part of a highway.

Urbanization and railwaystations

Most nations have seen the move-ment of the labour force from farmingvillages to cities with industrialprogress. As far as the railway indus-try is concerned, Western countriesand Japan followed different paths.One reason is related to competitionbetween trains and automobiles be-ginning in the early 20th century. An-other factor is topographical, with Ja-pan being a mountainous, islandcountry and the other countriesmostly continental nations. In Europeand the USA, road and car transportwere far more advantageous thanrailway services as a network to coverthe vast continents, the latter requir-ing substantial equipment to accom-plish that goal. Therefore, in Westernnations, road transportation experi-enced remarkable technological de-velopment while railway services de-clined dramatically.

Meanwhile, in Japan, railways run-ning along the coast proved an effec-tive means of transportation linkingvillages along the way. In addition,the uneven development and destruc-tion of industry from region-to-regioncaused by WWII, greatly delayed de-velopment of car transportation andconstruction of highways. For thesereasons, the railways have not seen amarked decline in Japan. In an effortto make the railway a more reliableand useful means of passenger andcargo transportation, measures tostep up the transportation capacitywere implemented, including con-

struction of double-track lines, elec-trification and increases in speed.

Many station buildings in Japanesecities have undergone reconstructionmore than once in response to urban-ization. It is not uncommon to seethird- or fourth-generation stations.The mostly wooden structures facili-tated such repeated reconstruction,which might have been more difficultfor the stone or brick structures seenin Western stations.

The typical pattern of transforma-tion in accordance with urbanizationis use of vertical structures, such asstations on bridges, stations below el-evated railroad tracks and under-ground stations. The railway station,which was marginalized to the edge ofthe cities in its initial stages, finallygot recognized and became a new cen-tre where people would meet andpart, and where products were col-lected and distributed. New urban ar-eas began to emerge near stations,and then spread across the track,making the station face the contradic-tion that it was an obstacle dividingthe town it helped develop.

Consequently, the building workwas concentrated at the rear of thestation. But that was not enough.Eventually, railway operators had tochoose between elevating the station,elevating the track, or putting thetrack underground. From a differentperspective, this means that the rail-

way station, which until then hadbeen treated in a totally different di-mension, became a central theme incity planning and was recognized as acomponent of urban facilities. In Ja-pan, vertically-structured stationshave totaled 500 over the past 35years and many others are still underconstruction.

Changes in services atstations

The way that stations operate dif-fers between cases where conductorsworking on trains play a central rolein customer interactions and caseswhere stations take a core role. In Ja-pan, where service management isconducted in principle by installingticket barriers, most customer servicefacilities are located in the stations.

The basic framework of a stationwas based on the main flow of passen-gers; the ticketing area, waitingrooms, barriers, passageways andplatforms. Other elements of a stationincluded toilets, shops, restaurantsand other supplementary facilities,signs, public announcement equip-ment and lighting to guide passengers,and administrative facilities such asthe station master’s office, stationclerks’ offices, and signal boxes.

Japanese facilities to process cargo,which used to be accommodated in thestation in early periods, were sepa-

� Tokyo Central Station Automatic Barriers (JR East Design Corporation)




rated and moved to the suburbs asmodernization proceeded. The lug-gage service to luggage was entirelyabolished, partly because demand de-creased as luggage became increas-ingly smaller and lighter, and sec-ondly, because the service lost thecompetition to the truck delivery ser-vices created 20 years ago. Mean-while, in the area of signalling, whichconstitute the management core oftrain operations, gradual progresshas been made in automation, electri-fication, and use of remote controlsystems, thus reducing the workloadat each station and integrating all op-erations into control centres for eachblock of the railway.

I have already mentioned thatrapid urbanization promoted remod-elling of many station buildings in cit-ies. But still more have been undergo-ing continuous minor improvements.In these cases, the expansion of spacedevoted to passenger services hasbeen achieved by either reducing oreliminating facilities related to cargotransport and signalling that I re-ferred to earlier, resulting in cost sav-ing.

What has changed most markedlyabout passenger services is that wait-ing rooms, which constituted one ofthe basic elements of services fromearly days, have been reduced or abol-ished and that toilets have been relo-cated inside the ticket gate. As the

number of trains increased in re-sponse to the rise in the number ofpassengers, ticket barriers were leftopen and the platforms bacame partof the waiting space along with thewaiting rooms and station concourse.Consequently, so-called waiting cor-ners were installed in an attempt touse the limited space in differentways at different hours of the day.During the rush hours, the partitionsfor waiting corners were removed tomake more room for passengers get-ting on and off the train in order to al-leviate crowding. The partitions werereinstated when there were fewerpassengers. More recently, as thenumber of passengers has further in-creased, there are no complaints evenif the space for waiting is entirelyeliminated. Thus, in this aspect alone,we can see how station operators haveadapted space for service activitiesaccording to changing needs of thetimes.

Moreover, lately, in responselargely to calls for rationalizationtriggered by a decline in profitability,progress in automation and increaseduse of electronics has been achievedin the fare management system in-cluding ticketing, ticket inspection,and ticket collection as well as in pas-senger signs and public announce-ments. As unmanned services expandrapidly in this manner, the arrange-ment and appearance of the related

facilities have also been exposed togreat changes. Furthermore, a grow-ing number of computers and otherelectronic devices are being installedin station clerks’ offices and other ad-ministrative facilities. In other words,station systems are experiencingchanges that a station master couldhave never imagined only 10 yearsago.

Automation is not the only changethat has occurred recently. Ashtrayshave disappeared as smoking andnon-smoking sections have becomemore clearly distinguished andsmoke-free space expands. For littercollection, new litter boxes speciallydesigned for each category have beenintroduced to make it easier to sepa-rate litter according to type. Escala-tors and other devices to aid handi-capped and elderly people have in-creased. Furthermore, water foun-tains have been removed altogetherand wall clocks reduced. Overall, sta-tions have been transformed intomuch leaner and neater places thanthey were 30 years ago.

In this manner, station buildings inJapanese cities are undergoing re-peated ‘surgery’ throughout their lifecycles to meet the changing needs. Noother buildings have changed so fre-quently and at such a fast rate. Inthat sense, station buildings are thearchitectural structure that must bemost flexible in space formation.

Supplementary facilitiesCurrently, there are two distinct

trends in supplementary facilities tostations. First, urban station build-ings are increasingly taking the formof what is called a station complex.The second trend is that regional sta-tions are being constructed togetherwith local public facilities.

Those supplementary facilities—restaurants, bars, hotels, newspaperand magazine stands, post and tele-phone services, money exchangecounters, souvenir shops, pharma-cies, etc., found in the vast concoursesof large stations in Europe since theirearly days, were a necessity ratherthan a supplement, considering thekind of ideas people had about travel-ling in those days. Station buildings� Oimachi Station (M. Uemura)


were designed to provide a placewhere travellers could prepare fortheir trip, with the same kind of ex-pectation and tension as when travel-ling by horse-drawn carriage. In factthe main sections of the station sitewere arranged solely for departure.By contrast, passengers leaving thetrain on the platform were supposedto simply walk to the end, step outinto a passageway linking all the endsof the platforms, and go directly out tothe roads on both sides. Therefore,stations provided a space where pas-sengers would get excited or nervousabout their departure but not neces-sarily for their arrival. In Japan, de-parture and arrival areas remainedseparate for a long period, but in the1960s, the sudden increase in passen-gers and trains necessitated securingof large areas handling passengerflow. Within 10 years, all stations na-tionwide changed to joint-use arrivaland departure areas. Even today,new stations in developing countriestend to be designed with separate ar-rival and departures, but to plan forfuture growth, it is necessary to con-sider future conversion to joint areas.

On the other hand, few Japanesestations had hotels built in them inthe early stages. Rather than directlyinheriting the trend prevalent amongWestern stations, Japanese stationstook the path of having departmentstores, other shops and dining facili-ties. Owners of private railway com-panies, who anticipated the concen-tration of population in urban areas,purchased land around the stations atlow prices before the line was opened.As the number of residents along theline increased, the companies built re-tail facilities adjacent to the urbanterminal stations to meet the pur-chasing demand from commuters onthe way home and housewives livingin the neighborhood. This strategyhas been a great success and is imple-mented by most private railway linesrunning through the suburbs of bigcities.

The former JNR was strictly re-stricted in its business activities bylaw. But in 1950, JNR started a simi-lar project. At that time, in war-dam-aged cities, citizens’ movements to re-construct the stations were gaining

momentum, so in this project, outsid-ers would bear part of the cost to re-construct the station on conditionthat they could use some parts of it.This was a joint endeavour betweenJNR, who could not afford to spendmoney on anything else but increas-ing the transportation capacity atthat time, and citizens, who wanted tohave the station reconstructed assoon as possible. During the following30 years, as many as 50 stations wererebuilt on these lines, and the ideaspread as an approach perfectlysuited to the situation at the time.Another funding mechanism of issu-ing national railway bonds was imple-mented later.

Furthermore, after JNR receivedpermission to invest its own capital in1971, so-called station complexeswere built in cities across the country.These complexes centered on shops,restaurants and hotels and now itcounts 112 stations. The privatizationof JNR in 1987 has further opened theopportunities for the company to dobusiness in supplementary facilitieswith more flexibility and choice. Vari-ous services are already being pro-vided including those related to com-pany offices and leisure.

Regional stations built withlocal public facilities

In Japan, just as in Europe and theUSA, regional railway lines are facedwith the challenge of a shrinkingpopulation and a greater advantageenjoyed by cars. There are a numberof lines that attract very few passen-gers. However, despite this basictrend, citizens in some regions doseem to maintain their affection forstation buildings. While on one handrailway operators reduce workers as-signed to each station to zero or en-trust the operation to outside parties,on the other, they try to invite localgovernments to team up with themand combine construction of the sta-tion and local public facilities. Onemunicipal government after anotherhas signed up and a total of about 50such buildings were completed in 10years, including town halls, specialtyproduct halls, and exhibition halls, aswell as even libraries and hot springs.

Naturally, most of the funds to fi-nance the construction comes fromthe local government, which meansthat railway companies have less andless to do with the whole project. Thenwhy do local governments keep fuss-ing about tie-ups with stations? Theonly possible interpretation is that lo-cal citizens take a continued interestin the meaning and geographical loca-tion of a railway station.

The completed facilities suggestthat it is the station that rents part ofthe facilities from the local govern-ment and not the other way around.In this situation, assimilation of thestation into the town is evidently seenin the sense that the station is en-closed in the town. This clearly indi-cates the departure from the conceptof center and periphery. Obviously,the commemorative and symbolic as-pects of station buildings continue tobe important in Japan (as elsewhere)although in rural areas, the railwayhas lost the competition to othertransport.

History of station squaresSince stations were initially built at

the periphery of cities, early stationsquares were merely an open space infront of the station, which is whatphotographs of those days show. How-ever, as later urbanization triggeredthe formation of new areas aroundstations and as various means oftransportation including automobilesdeveloped, the station square came toform a vital part of urban facilities.

Nowadays, station squares are be-coming increasingly important, un-like in their initial stages, when theyhad little significance. In Japan, anumber of pioneering experiments

� Takahata Station with Hot Spring Baths(M. Uemura)




have been conducted. To summarizethe direction in which those experi-ments are headed, the station squareis basically considered to play the roleof a node in the transportation net-work. Also attracting attention is thesquare’s significance and role as oneof the footholds of a city or as a pre-cious open space. And in the future,the station square is expected to pro-vide a creative space that will gener-ate new culture and community.

The underlying idea here is that thestation square should not be regardedjust as playing a passive role of simplyprocessing flows of traffic concen-trated in front of the station. It is aplace where information, intellect,and emotions come together. This isan important viewpoint that can alsobe applied to station buildings them-selves.

This is not directly related to sta-tion squares, but railway stations atairports have recently changed dra-matically as transportation networknodes. The clear and explicit flow ofpeople and goods and substantial im-provements in comfort provided atthese stations should give us manyhints when discussing future stationbuildings and squares.

Symbolism and realismMany Japanese tourists returning

from a trip to Europe where they areimpressed to see old large stationscomplain that there is nothing roman-tic about Japanese railway stations.This is a natural and spontaneous re-action. Even those involved in therailway business often find them-selves with similar feelings. It is evenmore natural that people in architec-ture dream of having an opportunityto undertake the task of creating sucha space just once in their lifetime. Infact, such an endeavour is currentlyunder way at Kyoto Station by MrHiroshi Hara, who won an interna-tional competition, to make his dreamcome true through contemporary in-terpretation. Another project of simi-lar nature is also under way atNagoya Station.

However, for all operators of rail-way services, the first and foremostissue is always to maintain and im-

prove the transportation system. Andnaturally, investment should be fo-cussed in that area. Therefore, anyconsideration of station buildings isdestined to be secondary. No matterhow many times people argue that thetimes are shifting from material tospiritual civilization, that alone willnever change the reality of stations.

Where can we possibly search forclues to solve this contradiction? Orwould it be fundamentally wrong toschematize the whole matter into thetwo mutually-conflicting concepts? Inany event, what are the essential fac-tors in envisioning future railway sta-tions?

Design mindThe first theme pursued by each of

the JR companies spun off from thestate-run JNR 8 years ago was theprinciple of putting customers first,which coincidentally was incorporatedin such efforts as enhancing the clean-liness and comfort of station buildingsand rolling stock, and improving theservice spirit of employees. Specifi-cally, in station buildings, the firstthing they worked on was to make toi-lets cleaner, since dirty toilets hadbeen one of the major causes for therailway’s negative image. While theyinitially tried to enhance the bright-ness and cleanliness of the buildingsas a whole, they gradually shiftedtheir focus to creating and utilizingspace in a way that allows passengersto relax and enjoy themselves. Duringthe process, the railway operators fi-nally realized the importance of in-cluding design sensitivity as part of

their business strategies.The World Railway Design Confer-

ence in Tokyo in 1989 organized by JREast was the world’s first such confer-ence. Representatives from aroundthe world gave presentations on man-agement and design, each of whichwas full of important suggestions.Particularly impressive was a lectureon design management theory by MsJane Priestman from Britain, inwhich she discussed design theory notmerely of individual objects but of thewhole entity that those individual ob-jects comprise.

Against such backdrop, stationbuildings based on designs that takeinto consideration the sensitivity ofthe users and local citizens or physi-ological and psychological aspects ofhuman beings, have been con-structed. This is quite different fromconventional Japanese station build-ings, which tended to be uniform,over-restricted and placing too muchemphasis on function. With the syner-gistic effect of the post-modern trend,a wide variety of station buildingsthat could never have been found inthe past have been built across thenation.

One typical example is a group ofsix new station buildings constructedalong the recently-opened Yamagatashinkansen. The emphasis was placedon staging a series of station build-ings, each with unique features thatare pleasant and eye-catching, ratherthan having each station buildingseparately aim to achieve its ownstandard of design. Consequently,passengers and local citizens evalu-ated the stations from a new stand-

� Kaminoyama Station (M. Uemura)


Takashi Suzuki

Mr Suzuki graduated from Tokyo University in architectural engineering and joined JNR in 1956,

where he held the posts of Chief Architect (1977) and General Manager of Fukuchiyama Region

(1982). After retiring from JNR in 1985, he joined Traffic Architectural Design Inc. becoming

President in 1987. He has been President of JR East Architectural Design Inc. since 1989.

point. In other words, the construc-tion of a station has come to take on anew meaning; it is not just designinga station but producing the image of anew JR company as well as the iden-tity of the local town. Similar ex-amples are also found in other JRcompanies.

Clues to future stationsComing back to the issue of contra-

diction between symbolism and real-ism I mentioned earlier, the most re-alistic investment approach for rail-way operators owning a number ofstations would be to pursue symbol-ism only when building an extremelylimited number of terminal stationswhile generally putting priority oneconomy for the rest of the stations. Infact, this very approach was appliedto non-terminal stations in Westerncountries in their early days, whichwere built in a fairly simple manner.

In the meantime, when we envision‘future stations’, we should not forgetthat railway services should remainuseful in coming years. In some in-dustrialized nations and many of thedeveloping countries, it is importantto devise more flexible stations byfully understanding the different con-ditions and different rhythms of de-velopment in each country.

In a special case like Japan, wherethe usefulness of railway services isstill maintained, ‘future stations ’could fall under a totally unprec-edented and unknown category. How-ever, key words would include multi-functional, people-friendly, enjoyable,community centre, and information

base. It will be necessary to look to in-creasingly broader sources for fundsand, in the case of projects of a highlypublic nature, to aggressively advo-cate the rationality of using publicfunds.

Various attempts have alreadybeen made, although with little suc-cess, to turn stations into bases in in-formation networks. However, in thecoming multimedia age, current sta-tion buildings distributed across thecountry, are good potential candi-dates for future bases in informationnetworks. Various developments inthis direction are anticipated sincethe idea has already been included inthe government’s recommendationpackages.

Furthermore, some people arguethat stations should be helpful in localresidents’ daily lives. As part of theefforts to make this a reality, the gov-ernment took the initiative in provid-ing child-care services in stations. Itis possible that expectations will befurther increased for stations to takea direct role in the daily needs of citi-zens.

As stations become increasingly as-similated and integrated into localcommunities in both urban and rural

� Amphitheatre at Narugo Station (M. Uemura) � Library inside Iwaki-Hanawa Station (M. Mashima)

areas, critics complain that stationsdo not look like stations any longer.Therefore, a new task facing us now isto find ways to accomplish the kind of‘station-like’ features that are mostappropriate to each society. Somepeople point out we should reconsiderthe policy of thinking that the morenew things are introduced, the better.

In looking back at the history of sta-tions that have undergone transfor-mations over a long period of time,and considering future prognoses, Ifeel the course of change in abstractterms has been symbol, function andenvironment, and, in terms of space,appearance, container and place. Inthis respect, Japanese stations seemto be characteristic in that they havebecome part of the ‘city ecology’.

While expressions like ‘city gate’,‘water gate’ and ‘nucleus’ were used todescribe stations in their early days inEurope, in Japan, frequently-used ex-pressions are ‘front door of the town’,‘face of the town’, and ‘life centre ofthe town’, indicating that stationshave been incorporated into the townin the real sense of the word. Thusmodern Japanese stations have de-parted from the philosophical conceptof center and periphery. �

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