A Meiji Quarantine Lodge for First-Class Passengers
The Former Nagahama Quarantine Station Isolation Ward No. 1 (Quarantine Museum of the Yokohama Quarantine Station, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) (旧長濱検疫所一号停留所（厚生労働省横浜検疫所検疫資料館）) is Isolation Ward No. 1 of the former Nagahama Quarantine Station, a Meiji-period building now at Umi-no-Koen, Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, which in 2018 was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.
Yokohama City reports that it was relocated and restored in March 2025 from Nagahama to Umi-no-Koen in Kanazawa Ward and donated by the state to the city.
According to the Yokohama Quarantine Station, it was one of the facilities of the Nagahama Quarantine Station completed in 1895, a lodge for first-class passengers.
The Building
The Yokohama Quarantine Station describes a symmetrical single-storey building, long from east to west and U-shaped with projecting wings on the south, which originally stood on high ground overlooking Tokyo Bay behind a wide lawn. Inside were eight two-person rooms, a dining room and a lounge for people suspected of infectious disease to stay for a period. Its floor area was 127.25 tsubo, about 420 square metres.
The station notes that it was damaged in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and restored the following year; valued as the building that best preserves the Meiji character of the station, it served as the Quarantine Museum.
What to Look For
According to an assessment by Professor Emeritus Yoshida Koichi of Yokohama National University, cited by the station, Nagahama succeeded Japan's first quarantine facility at Nagaura and is among the oldest surviving quarantine sites, and this lodge is the finest of its buildings. It is seen, alongside the lodging buildings of Fujiya in Hakone and Kanaya in Nikko, as one of the earliest Western-style lodging buildings in Japan, and as purely Western in style, of great architectural value.
Yokohama City reports that Starbucks Coffee Japan has been selected to use the relocated building, with talks under way toward an opening around summer 2026.
Visiting the Former Nagahama Quarantine Station Isolation Ward No. 1 (Quarantine Museum of the Yokohama Quarantine Station, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)
Yokohama City is preparing for an opening around summer 2026; check the city's announcements for access.
Enquiries: Yokohama City Green Environment Bureau, 045-671-4768.
Q&A
- When was it registered?
- On 10 May 2018.
- What was it for?
- Housing first-class passengers suspected of infectious disease.
- What is distinctive about it?
- A symmetrical Western-style building, among Japan's earliest Western-style lodging buildings.
- Where is it now?
- Relocated to Umi-no-Koen in Kanazawa Ward in March 2025.
- How will it be used?
- Starbucks is to open there around summer 2026, according to Yokohama City.
Basic Information
| Name | Former Nagahama Quarantine Station Isolation Ward No. 1 (Quarantine Museum of the Yokohama Quarantine Station, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) (旧長濱検疫所一号停留所（厚生労働省横浜検疫所検疫資料館）) |
|---|---|
| Location | 10 Umi-no-Koen, Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (building) |
| Year Designated | Registered 2018/5/10 (Heisei 30) |
| Quantity | 1 building |
| Dimensions | Floor area about 420 square metres (Yokohama Quarantine Station) |
| Owner | Yokohama City |
| Public Access | Preparing to open around summer 2026 |
References
- Yokohama Quarantine Station: Quarantine Museum (Japanese)
- https://www.forth.go.jp/keneki/yokohama/museum/page1-1.html
- Yokohama City: Selection of User for the Former Nagahama Quarantine Station (Japanese)
- https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/city-info/koho-kocho/press/kankyo/2025/20260107nagahama.html
Last verified: 2026.09.30