Former Ministry of Education Building

A 1932 Ministry Left Standing Inside a 2008 Redevelopment

The Former Ministry of Education Building (旧文部省庁舎, Kyū Monbushō Chōsha) is a six-storey steel-framed reinforced concrete government office at Kasumigaseki 3-chome in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, built in 1932 and entered on the national Register of Tangible Cultural Properties on 2 October 2007. It still belongs to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and now forms the preserved wing of Central Government Building No. 7.

Kasumigaseki is Japan's administrative quarter, and most of what stands there today went up after 1990. This building did not. It belongs to the wave of construction that followed the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, when the government rebuilt its offices under a second-phase plan for the district. The Metropolitan Police headquarters and the old Home Ministry went up in the same programme, all of them drawn by the same office: the Construction and Property Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, which handled state building work before the war. Obayashi Corporation carried out the construction.

The date is unusually well anchored. The Agency for Cultural Affairs notes that the construction year rests on the ridge tablet installed in the roof structure, inscribed 16 March 1932. The ministry's own visitor material describes the building as dating from 1933, which most likely reflects completion rather than the raising of the frame. Both figures circulate, and the national database follows the tablet.

In January 2008 the main departments of the ministry moved into a new east tower next door, part of the Kasumigaseki Common Gate redevelopment. Rather than clear the old block, the project kept it and built around it. The Agency for Cultural Affairs and related organisations occupy much of it now, and a public exhibition floor was opened inside.

What the Register Actually Recognises

The criterion applied is the one for work that sets a standard in design, and the official assessment calls the building a good example of an earthquake-reconstruction government office in the Kasumigaseki district.

Look at the elevation and the reason becomes legible. The facade is faced in scratch tile, the vertically combed ceramic cladding that dominated Japanese public architecture between the wars, giving a matt, slightly rough surface that catches low light. Across it runs a regular grid of windows that are close to square, unusually large for a 1930s office block, and set so that the structural frame of columns and beams reads clearly through the skin. Above the main entrance the composition changes: the openings are drawn together into a vertical accent that pulls the eye up the full height of the block. Art Deco detailing appears here and there in the ornament.

The registered structure is a single building, steel-framed reinforced concrete, six storeys, with a penthouse, and a footprint of 3,043 square metres. The interior finishes were deliberately plain, sprayed mortar and linoleum flooring, in keeping with a working ministry rather than a ceremonial hall. Registration number 13-0216 was issued in the fifty-sixth round of registrations, with the official gazette notice following later in October 2007.

Visiting: Check Before You Travel

Part of the building is open to the public as Joho Hiroba, an exhibition and information space set up by the ministry after the 2008 move. Its centrepiece is the former Minister's Office on the third floor, restored to its original appearance with the actual chairs and desks used by successive ministers. Other rooms cover the history of Japanese education, science and technology, sport, and culture, and admission is free.

One important caveat applies at the time of writing. The third-floor exhibition rooms and the first-floor lounge are closed for an extended period, with no reopening date announced. Temporary displays in the entrance area have continued during the closure. Anyone travelling specifically to see the former Minister's Office should check the ministry's Joho Hiroba page immediately before setting out.

When the space is operating, opening hours are 10:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, with last admission thirty minutes before closing. It closes on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and over the New Year period. No advance procedure is needed to enter, and photography inside the exhibition rooms is permitted for personal use, though the images may not be reproduced or distributed commercially. There is no visitor parking, including for coaches.

Access is straightforward. Exit 11 of Toranomon Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line connects directly to the complex, and exit A13 of Kasumigaseki Station on the Chiyoda Line leaves a five-minute walk. Even with the exhibition floor shut, the exterior can be viewed at any time from the street, and the contrast between the scratch-tile block and the glass tower behind it is the clearest thing to photograph. Several other government exhibition rooms sit within walking distance, including the Ministry of Justice's historical materials display.