Historic post offices face the ball

Japan Post Holdings Co. is running into opposition from various quarters, including architects and politicians, to its plan to tear down the central post office buildings in Tokyo and Osaka and replace them with high-rises.

The five-story central post office in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, was built in 1931. KYODO PHOTO

Japan Post, which controls privatized postal services, including those dealing with mail, savings, insurance and over-the-counter services, announced a redevelopment plan in May to construct a 37-story building to take the place of the Tokyo central post office and solicited designs from the public.

It selected the designer in August. A similar process is under way for the Osaka central post office.

However, architects have been campaigning for the preservation of the post office buildings near JR Tokyo and Osaka stations. Also, a group of ruling and opposition party lawmakers has asked Japan Post to designate the Tokyo central post office an important national cultural asset.

The Tokyo structure, with five stories above ground and one below, was designed by Tetsuro Yoshida, architect of the defunct Communications Ministry, and completed in 1931. He also designed the six-story Osaka building, which was completed in 1939.

Both structures are regarded as outstanding works of modern architecture in Japan, displaying a functional design that rejects decoration. They are both in a dilapidated state, however. The exterior of the Tokyo post office is covered by netting to prevent tiles from falling.

When the privatization of the country's postal services went into force Oct. 1, the mail service company in the Japan Post Holdings group became able to engage in real estate.

"There is no reason for us to keep our hands off an area where we can expect to earn profits," said an executive of the mail service company.

Some groups, including the Architectural Institute of Japan, presented a written request to Japan Post to preserve the central post offices when the idea of constructing high-rise buildings first surfaced two years ago.

The AIJ said the long-existing structures are the "quintessence of communications architecture, with a high degree of perfection."

"They should both be made important cultural properties," it said.

About 120 university professors and students attended a symposium in Osaka on Oct. 12 under the auspices of AIJ's branch for the Kinki region (Kyoto, Osaka and five other prefectures).

Hiroyuki Suzuki, a professor of architectural history at the University of Tokyo, told the gathering: "The buildings have symbolic meaning for the postal organization. They should be left (intact) for the organization to rely on."

Japan Post has established panels made up of specialists in architecture and civil engineering and well-informed people, including its executives, in Tokyo and Osaka to study ways to carry out redevelopment of the two post offices.