tokyo yamanote line—cityscape mutationstokyo yamanote line—cityscape mutations corinne tiry...

4 Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997

Impact of Railways on Japanese Society & Culture

Features

Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

Tokyo Yamanote Line—Cityscape Mutations

Corinne Tiry

‘Both for residents and visitors, theidentity of a city is shaped by themeans by which they move in andaround it.’(1)

A decade has passed since the privatiza-tion of Japanese National Railways (JNR)triggered urban redevelopment as a resultof the sale of JNR’s vacant lands. Although10 years is a rather long cycle in the timescale of Japanese urban mutations, therehave been fewer than expected changesin Japan’s cityscapes due to the collapseof real-estate speculation when the eco-nomic bubble burst in the late 1980s.However, a few archetypal buildings areheralding a new cityscape.Tokyo has been spreading into new areassince the 1960s due to continuous popu-lation expansion and a shortage ofconventional building lands. Typical ex-amples of new building areas are the gi-gantic Teleport Project (440 ha) at theWaterfront Subcentre on Tokyo Bay, andhuge underground commercial spaceslinked with new subways. Furthermore,relaxed city planning regulations are mak-ing the city conspicuously more vertical.Tokyo’s future urban development looksset to be much more three dimensional.At the same time, localized urban landsare being rehabilitated, especially at themetropolitan fringes. The developmentof numerous lots near railway stationsalong the centenarian Yamanote Line isrevitalizing and leading the metropolis toa new stage of its urban history.

The Current Portrait

The Yamanote Line has been a constantlandmark of the central Tokyo cityscape,while providing daily transport for mil-lions of commuters. It witnessed thegrowth of the metropolis, and now servesas part of a complex crowded mass trans-port system. It takes 1 hour to circle the34.5-km length with 29 stations, 22 of

which serve as connections to 35 otherrailway and subway lines (Fig. 1). Thirtymillion people live within a 100-km ra-dius of the Line. Living within 10 km ofthe Line is convenient, but many Tokyoiteslive 20 to 30 km from it, and some bedtowns are 50 km or more, away. Peopleliving closer to the Line pay higher rentand are viewed as having higher socialstatus. This arrangement creates spatialand temporal divisions providing the citywith inner and outer, daytime and night-time spaces.After the JNR privatization, its surplus landassets were transferred to the JNR Settle-ment Corporation (JNRSC) for liquidationto settle the outstanding debt. Sixty-four

of the total of 169 hectares in the Metropo-lis remained unsold at the end of 1996.The collapse of the real-estate market hasundermined the value and developmentpotential of these prime locations, culmi-nating in difficult sales. Despite havingpossession of such valuable and usefulland for 10 years, nobody at JNRSC or inthe government had any vision of usingthese assets as part of a genuine city plan-ning policy. The only priority is to maxi-mize the sales profits to offset the JNRdebt. JR East (the heir to JNR in the east-ern Honshu region) also has stations atprime development sites in Tokyo. Itsstrategy is to modernize the stations intocores of competitive urban poles.

Figure 1 Toyko Metropolitan Railway and Subway Networks

(Adapted from JR Timetable)

HibiyaTokyo

OtemachiOtemachi

GinzaGinza

Nihonbashi

Yoyogi Uehara

Sengakuji

Shin Kiba

Shinagawa

Naka MeguroNaka Meguro

Asakusa

Kita Senju

Ikebukuro

Kotake MukaiharaKotake Mukaihara

ShimbashiShimbashi

SuitengumaeSuitengumae

TRTA

Yurakucho L.

TRTA

Hibiya Line

Shibuya

Oshiage

Ueno

Otemachi

Shinjuku

Nakano

HibiyaTokyo

GinzaShimbashi

Nihonbashi

Sengakuji

Shin Kiba

Suitengumae

Shinagawa

Yoyogi Uehara

Naka Meguro

Asakusa

Kita Senju

Ikebukuro

Kotake Mukaihara

: Yamanote Line: Other JR Lines

: Private Lines: Through Operation

: TRTA Subways: TMG Subways

TMG

Asakusa

Lin

e

TMG Shinjuku Line

TR

TA Hibiy a L.T RTA

Hanzomon L.

TRTA Chiyoda L. TRTA Tozai Line

TR

TA

Chi

yoda

Line

Toky

uTo

yoko

Line

Tokyu Shin Tam

agaw

aLi

neOdakyu Line

Keio Lin e

Keisei L in

e

Kei

kyu

L.

TobuIs

ezak

i Lin

e

Tobu Tojo Line

TRTA

Yurakuch o Line

JR Joban Line

Seibu Ikebukuro Line

JR Chuo Line

Toshi L

ine

u

Den'e

n

TRTA

Yurakucho L.

TRTAToz ai Line

TRTA

Hibiya Line

* Due to copyright issues, the original Figure 1 has been replaced by the above map.

5Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

The Right Railway by Design

When Japan opened up to the West at thebeginning of the Meiji Era (1868–1912),its leaders took on the task of moderniz-ing Edo, the feudal capital, later renamedTokyo. An important step was establish-ing a transportation network worthy of ametropolis to compete with Paris or Lon-don. The government and the nationalrailways of the time started building theYamanote Line, opening the first North-South section in 1885 and closing thecircle in 1925 (Fig. 2). Originally, the sys-tem connected the northern Tohokutrunkline with the Tokaido trunkline andYokohama Port in the south, where mostcommodities and manufactured goodswere imported and exported. This eco-nomic function explains its original routethrough the then city outskirts as well asthe numerous pockets of land (marshal-ling yards, depots, termini, etc.) that re-mained nonurbanized along the line.Although the Ringbahn in Berlin servedas the model for the Tokyo railway sys-tem, the layout of the Line neverthelessreflects the feudal topography and urbanconditions. Two rules governed the evo-lution of the route. First, the line roughlyfollowed the higher, more residential area(Yamanote) and left aside the older bus-

Figure 3 Tokyo Topography and Yamanote Line

(Author)

Figure 2 Evolution of Yamanote Line Source: Yamanote sen hyaku nen




tling merchant areas (shitamachi) in theeast (Fig. 3). Second, it crossed the mainroads (kaido) converging on the old feu-dal Edo Castle. Railway crossings sub-sumed the former post stations, givingbirth to the huge poles of Shinjuku,Shibuya, Shinagawa, Ueno (Fig. 4a).Notwithstanding this, urban Tokyo wasnot yet incorporated into this new infra-structure. As the growing Yamanote Linesystem enclosed the city, it offered pas-sengers scenic routes to the west, urbanroutes to the east, and seascapes to thesouth-east along Tokyo Bay.

Single-orientated growthThe asymmetric route of the Line becamemore marked during the period of strongurban growth in the Taisho Era (1912–

1925), when Tokyo reached real metro-politan structure and scale. The ruralMusashino district on the west side(Yamanote), was soon served by a densenetwork of private railways (Fig. 4b). Thisexternal network developed as a result ofsimultaneous radial and suburbangrowths, while the central area inside theYamanote Line remained almost the pri-vate reserve of the city tram, and later, thesubway. Conversely to the east, the wa-terways and population concentrationcurbed the development of new lines. Theradial railways in the metropolitan areatook over the function of the feudal roads.Urban growth to the west and southwas stimulated by the vacant area ofMusashino, the dynamism of YokohamaPort, and by property-development activi-

ties of the private railways companies(2),(3).The city and suburbs were interfaced atthe branch stations on the Yamanote Line,which developed new attractions wherecommercial activities concentrated.These parallel activities of private railwaycompanies have only finally become ac-cessible to the new JRs after the JNRprivatization.Since the postwar period of high eco-nomic growth, the visual cityscape alter-nates from attractive urban zones aroundthe station buildings(4) (eki biru) to resi-dential neutral zones sandwiched be-tween stations. The nightscape isintermittently saturated with neon lightsand pitch dark, giving the traveller aglimpse of Tokyo’s dualism, intimatelyrelated to the railways and stations.

Figure 4a Main Stations Developed whereYamanote Line Crossed Feudal Roads

Figure 4b Western Spread of Private Railways Linesfrom Yamanote Stations

(Author) (Author)


Official Multipolarization

The connections of the private railwaysto the Yamanote Line at the branch sta-tions form five of the seven Subcentres inTokyo defined at the Promotion Confer-ence for the Development of a BalancedCity in 1992 (Fig. 5).Acknowledgment of a multipolar role forthe railway system aims at a more bal-anced distribution of the capital’s activi-ties and services, which are still heavily

concentrated in the city centre. If the cen-tre reserves the specific character of aninternational capital for itself, theSubcentres constitute peripheral poles thatconsolidate the commercial, administra-tive, cultural and information functions ofthe capital. The future economic weightsand roles of these Subcentres as urbanprime movers are undeniable; 30% of thecity’s consumers congregate in Shinjuku,the most important Subcentre on theYamanote Line(5).As in the past, today’s urban regeneration

springs from railway poles. The new sta-tus of the Subcentres is generating stiffcompetition among them. They are ex-panding the same core commercial ac-tivities while trying to establish their ownunique identity in business, culture, orinformation. The competition has beeninflamed further by the JNRSC sale ofnearby prime real estate. Shinjuku is agood example. In the 1970s, a numberof large companies moved their head of-fices to the west side of the station. TheTokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG)also moved its office to a new buildingthere in 1991. Another developmentcalled Times Square opened 5 years lateron the site of an old JNR freight yard soldby auction in 1991. These two huge de-velopments have rejuvenated the district.Times Square is a large scale commercialoperation with 175,000 m2 on 14 floorscontaining three department stores, leisureareas, and a pedestrian deck near thetracks. It has instilled new life into thispreviously forsaken district. Two newhigh-rise towers, each of about 150 metershigh, on the other side of the tracks housethe future JR East headquarters (28 floors),and the Odakyu Electric Railway Com-pany complex including a hotel, officesand shops. JR East and the Odakyu arejointly building a T-shaped pedestriandeck over the tracks to create a publicspace between the three buildings and themain station. Although expensive, simi-lar schemes to create public area usingpartial roofing of tracks are on the increasein Tokyo, paradoxically increasing the citydensity, but relieving congestion. Thistrend is giving birth to new pedestrianurban space on artificial ground withstreets and passageways lined by shops,trees and plants. In terms of the cityscape,these new public spaces orientate the sta-tion buildings toward the tracks, in con-trast to the earlier period when they turnedtheir back on the tracks to focus on thesquare in front of the station (ekimaehiroba) (Fig. 6a, b).

Figure 5 Yamanote Line stations Form the Cores ofDesignated Urban Subcentres

Source: Planning of Tokyo 1996




Two Types ofSites and Projects

Although the recent transformations of theTokyo cityscape on the Yamanote Lineappear at the branch-station level, vari-ous recently-completed schemes, orprojects still under construction, allow usto anticipate the future profile. There aretwo types of projects organized by twodifferent groups: reconversion of vacantrailway lands sold or managed by JNRSC,and station renovation, led by JR East(Table 1). These two different separatelevels of intervention correspond to theoriginal double role of the YamanoteLine—in other words, freight and passen-ger transport. However, although theseoperations were not jointly planned, theirrespective effects on the present and fu-ture transformations of the cityscape aresimilar.The close association by juxtaposition orsuperposition of these empty lots with therailway infrastructure, creates a high im-pact amidst the cramped Tokyo cityscape.

The huge size of these lots contrasts withthe small land parcels comprising the con-temporary Japanese city. These sites areeasily developed because they are eithervacant as in the case of the lots held byJNRSC, or new space over tracks as in thecase of JR East stations(6). Alteration in theland use permits building at higher floorarea ratios(7),(8), stimulating investment andgenerating better profitability. These fac-tors precipitate high-rise urban frontagesnext to tracks.

JNRSC—Shiodome,Kinshicho-Kameido, Ebisu

Shiodome, the 20-ha site of a former JNRmarshalling yard close to Tokyo Bay, ispresently held by JNRSC, but is still empty.Alteration of the land usage has just beenpartially approved by the TMG. Its re-markable central location near JR EastShimbashi Station and the WaterfrontSubcentre served by a new railway line,and soon, by a new subway line, consti-tutes the largest and most highly-prized

vacant lot in the capital. It will become amultifunctional urban zone and transportnode under the master plan approved in1995 by the TMG. The site has been splitinto four equal parts: one quarter was pur-chased in early 1997 by a consortium ofprivate companies planning to build theirheadquarters on it; another quarter wassold to the TMG which will build a shop-ping-office-housing complex and a park.A further quarter will have cultural, tour-ist, and leisure facilities, while the lastquarter will be used for offices and hous-ing. The Development Guidelines for theShiodome Site, stipulates that ‘…buildingson blocks near Ginza and Hamamatsu-cho Station should form a relatively highskyline while those on central blocks nearHamarikyu Garden should form a some-what lower skyline.’ and gives some im-pression of the future cityscape in thatdistrict.Redevelopment of vacant land locatedwithin the sphere of a Subcentre and con-nected to the railway system reinforces theplanning dynamics of the TMG urbanpolicy. This holds true for Kinshicho-Kameido, a shitamachi district served bythe JR East Sobu Line, an extension of theYamanote. It has been designated as aSubcentre to be characterized by indus-try and culture. Currently, a mixed com-plex, covering 3 ha, of offices, housing, apublic facility and a hotel, is under con-struction north of the station. JNRSC andprivate companies are jointly financingthe redevelopment. The image of the pre-dominantly low-rise area will be radicallychanged by the emergence of this high-rise fringe (Fig. 7).Another new landmark is the 19-storeyNeonato Building, south of JR East EbisuStation. It was built in 1994 on a small(1/2 hectare) plot of vacant railway landand its slender shape bears witness to therailway origin, and the developer’s willto optimize profits (Fig. 8).

Scheme & PlanSites

Shinjuku

Ebisu

Shinagawa

Shinjuku

Ebisu

Meguro

Shinagawa

Kinshicho-Kameido

ArchitecturalType

OpeningDate

MaximumHeight

(m)

Net FloorArea(m2)

LotArea(ha)

Times Square(S, PK) 2 175,000 82 1996

Maynds Tower(O, PK)

Neonato(O, S, PK)

Block

1.1 103,000 161 1996 Tower

0.5 31,000 85 1994 Blade

3.5 337,000 145 1998 Urban Fringe

3 297,000 95 1998 Urban Fringe

1.1 79,000 150 1998 Tower

1.8 65,000 70 1997 Hybrid

1.1 55,000 76 2000 Hybrid

0.6 6,270 15 1997 Living Bridge

Inter City(O, S, C, PK)

Kinshicho(O, S, C, H, PK)

JN

RS

CJ

R E

as

t

JR East Head Office(O, PK)

Station Building(ST ,O, S, PK)

Station Building(ST ,O, S, PK)

Pedestrian area(PB)

S = Shops, PK = Parking, O = Offices, C = Cultural Facilities, H = Housing, ST = Station, PB = Pedestrian Bridge

Table 1 Key Developments on Yamanote Line


Figure 6a District South of Shinjuku Station in 1994(Rail City East Development Co., Ltd.)

Figure 6b Artist’s Impression of Completed Shinjuku Redevelopment (JR East)

JR East—Ebisu, Meguro, Shinagawa

The Yamanote Line stations are sur-rounded by high-density urban develop-ment, confronting them with spaceproblems impeding their economic devel-opment and modernization. Moreover,since the privatization in 1987, the JRsneed more area to diversify their businessinto tourism, real estate, departmentstores, etc. Although there are vacant lotsnear tracks, these are actually held byJNRSC, a problem summarized by an ex-ecutive of the Property DevelopmentHeadquarters as, ‘Theoretically, JR has noland.’, and forcing JR East to focus onmaximizing use of existing eki biru.The method for augmenting some JR Eaststations specifically addresses this lack ofland resources; the space over rails hasbeen utilized by building the eki biru onbridges to form a multi-level structure witha diversity of business functions. Althoughcostly and difficult to construct, the long-term profits are high. This over-the-trackaugmentation is generally used in subur-ban areas where the density is lower, butthere are some examples under construc-tion on the Yamanote Line.Although the new eki biru project at JREast Ebisu station only covers about 1.8ha, the main station building of 15 storeysalso houses businesses, shops and offices,and the second building has shops on 7levels. The two monolithic structures withtrains running through them above streetlevel stamp their character on the district.Their juxtaposition with the slenderNeonato Building and proximity to EbisuGarden City, another development, sym-bolize the evolution of new urban poleson the Yamanote Line.JR East Meguro eki biru is another over-the-rails project. Its joint-venture basis isstrategically more complex than the Ebisuproject, but it is technically simpler be-cause the tracks are already in cuttings.In addition to augmenting the JR East sta-




tion, it will renovate the terminal of theTokyu Mekama Line—a private railwaycompany in the western suburbs. Thenew eki biru consists of two buildings: themain 76-m high building consolidates thestation, shops and offices on 16 levels,while the second building has four park-ing levels. A plaza and a mini-park northand west of the complex form two smallpublic spaces.These two examples illustrate the emer-gence of a new generation of eki biru,combining three architectural forms: theshopping mall (block), the office building(tower) and the communications node(platform).Modernizations at Ueno and Shinagawastations represent the emergence of an-other type of station, mixing transport ac-tivities and public space for pedestrians.Shinagawa appears to be particularly rep-resentative of the type.In addition to the refittings inherent in thestation modernization, an overhead pub-lic space—the Jiyu Tsuro (free passage-way)—sweeps imposingly through the

station building, becoming pivotal in thetransformation of the entire east part ofthe district. This east-west axis will con-nect Shinagawa Station to a newshinkansen station, an urban scheme con-sisting of a public square on 3.5 ha ofJNRSC-held land, a bus terminal on 1.4

Figure 8 Aerial Shot of Ebisu Showing Juxtaposition of New Station Building andNeonato Building (to right of station) (H. Mizuguchi)

ha of land owned by the local municipalgovernment (Minato Ward), and a com-plex of private company headquarters(Figs. 9a, b). Shinagawa Station promisesto play a major role as a new pole on theYamanote Line.

Figure 7 Artist’s Impression of Kinshicho-Kameido Development

(Kinshicho Eki Kitaguchi Saikaihatsu)


Figure 9b Plan of Jiyu Tsuro in JR Shinagawa Station (JR East)Figure 9a Aerial Shot of Infrastructure and Vacant RailwayLand East of Shinagawa Station (JR East)

Corinne Tiry

Corinne Tiry is a French architect-researcher. She attended Kyoto University from 1994 to 1996 as a

research worker on a scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. She

received an AFAA grant from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study in Tokyo as a freelance

architect-researcher from 1996 to 1997. She published ‘Panser ou repenser Kobe’ (Bandaging or

rethinking Kobe) in Urbanisme, 1996, and ‘Villes, logements, exclusions’ (Cities, housings, exclu-

sions) in European Community, 1993, edited by Y. Tsiomis.

Mutations and Permanency

A new generation of buildings is emerg-ing and enriching the urban centres alongthe Yamanote Line.Often open and elevated, the station plat-forms had always offered windows of dis-covery onto the capital’s urban space. Ifincreasing the urban density rationalizesand diversifies the activities of each trans-port node, transforming the station build-ings will nonetheless change our spatialrelationship with the city. Yesterday's To-kyo with alternation of high-rise zonesaround the eki-biru and low-rise neutralresidential zones is giving way to a seriesof high-rise urban fronts, facing the tracks,and creating new inner fringes.The Yamanote Line has been a dynamicaxis of communication supporting andstimulating the modernization of urbanTokyo since the late 19th century. At theend of our century, it continues to play aprofound role in the city’s mutation to-wards radical verticalization linked withthe appearance of new urban poles. Butits very permanency as a landmark pro-vides a baseline for measuring the trans-formation of the Tokyo cityscape. �

Notes(1) Deyan Sudjic, The 100 Mile City, E. André Deutsch

Ltd., London, 1992.(2) This trend was accentuated after the Great Kanto

Earthquake in 1923, when many residents moved

from the badly damaged shitamachi areas to the

safer western suburbs.(3) For the development strategies of the private rail-

way companies, see the following article.

Japan; a disoriented modernity, by Naomichi

Kurata in Casabella, volume 608/609, 1994.(4) In Japan, the railway station is neither monofunc-

tional nor isolated from the urban fabric. It con-

centrates many activities parallel with passenger

transport, and develops a hybrid architectural style,

mixing department-store (block) style and the com-

munications-node (platform) style.(5) The Japan Times, 04.10.96. Shinjuku Station

handles a daily average of 1.362 million passen-

gers on the JR East system and 1.389 million on

the private lines.

(6) The Redevelopment Area Plan in Planning of To-

kyo 1996, Tokyo Metropolitan Government’...aims

at the high-level use of land and renewal of city

functions through inducements for large-scale re-

development of consolidated areas of unused or

underutilized land such as former factory sites’.(7) The Floor Area Ratio system of Tokyo Metropoli-

tan Government’...restricts the ratio of the total floor

area of buildings to the site area in order to pro-

vide comfortable town spaces in the city... it is used

to designate the various types of usage zones’.(8) Development Guidelines for the Shiodome Site,

JNRSC, 1996.

For example, on the first quarter of the site, where

the specifications recommend high-rise buildings,

the 400% initial Floor Area Ratio was boosted to

1200%.

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