TOKYO: Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Group Corp. completed its new building in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district in August, expecting the structure, standing at a corner facing the famous Sukiyabashi crossing, to be a new symbol of the area.

The new Ginza Sony Park, which replaced the previous Sony-owned commercial complex located at the same site, is designed to allow people to feel free to enter and exit, like a park, having a limited number of doors and walls. Each floor of the building is planned to be rented for art and music events. It is scheduled to open in January 2025.

The building, with five stories above ground and four below, is roughly 34 meters tall, about half the heights of other buildings nearby.

Its bare concrete appearance is aimed at creating a harmony with the environment surrounding it. The building has no tenants, and the SONY logo on its external wall is modestly shown.

The original Sony Building, a brainchild of Sony co-founder Akio Morita, opened in 1966 and was used as a showroom for the company’s products. A space of some 33 square meters at the corner of the Sukiyabashi crossing, called “the Garden of Ginza” by Morita, had been left vacant as a public space so that it could be used for various events.

During the demolition of the original building, the site was opened to the public as a park for three years until September 2021, and a total of 8.54 million people visited the site.

A person in charge at the firm said: “We want to make the new building open to the community by developing the philosophy of the garden into that of a park. We hope it will attract many visitors.”

JIJI Press