Report from the site: Despite a huge investment, only vacant tenants remain… The Sad Present of Shibuya Sakura Stage
The commercial floor was so deserted that it was called "the newest ruin in Japan.
Japan’s newest abandoned building is born in Shibuya!
One June lunchtime, the first thing that caught the FRIDAY reporter’s eye as he stepped into the shiny new building was a “tenant wanted” sign. There were one or two …… total of about 10 vacant tenants on the restaurant floor alone on the first and second basement floors. In the hour-long walk, I passed only a few people. I saw few customers carrying shopping bags.
The redevelopment of Shibuya began in earnest in 2012 with the Tokyu Group’s massive investment of 600 billion yen. The “Shibuya Sakura Stage,” which opened with much fanfare as the final phase of the project, is being derided on SNS as “Japan’s newest abandoned building. The reporter went to the site to see what was really going on, and what he saw was the scene described at the beginning of this article.
A man in his 40s, who works on a high-rise office floor, quipped, “The prices of restaurants are too high.
The prices of restaurants are too high. Even lunch costs 1,500 to 2,000 yen, so I can only go there once in a while. Maybe inbound customers can afford it, but there are no foreign customers here (laughs). There is no full lineup of cosmetics and apparel, so young people don’t gather here either. Maybe the tenant fees are too high, but the number of restaurants has not increased at all since the opening. There is so little variation that it is difficult to have a drink after work.
The shape and location are too bad.
Tomohiro Makino, a real estate business producer, analyzes Sakura Stage’s predicament.
Sakura Stage has a long, narrow shape that makes it difficult to move around. You can’t go around the entire facility in a circle. When you go to the back, you have to turn around every time. Its location in an office area off the Center Street, which is crowded with young people and inbound visitors, is also a factor that keeps people away.
Shibuya has been transformed by a series of redevelopments. Young people who used to come to Center Street in search of unique culture and fashion have moved to Kabukicho and Shin-Okubo.’ The construction of the central and west wings of Scramble Square is scheduled to be completed between fiscal years ’27 and ’31, where new commercial facilities will open. It will be interesting to see whether “Shibuya commerce” can be restored.
The current status of Sakura Stage may reflect the “future of Shibuya.
From the July 18-25, 2025 issue of FRIDAY
PHOTO： Kazuhiko Nakamura
