Shinchosha Main Building

A Publisher's Head Office in Glazed Tile

The Shinchosha Main Building (新潮社本館, Shinchosha Honkan) is a reinforced concrete publisher's head office completed in 1957 in Yaraicho, Shinjuku City, Tokyo, which in 2025 was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records four storeys above ground and one below, with a building area of 791 square metres, extended in 1966 and renovated in 1992, and registered as a model of design.

The Agency values it as an office building representative of one of Japan's leading clusters of publishing, printing and binding.

Design

According to the Agency, it stands on high ground near Kagurazaka, with a simple yet dignified exterior of glazed tile.

Inside are fittings designed with staff involvement, including a wall relief carved with scripts from around the world and across history.

Shinchosha's history notes that the southern part was finished in 1957 and the northern extension completed the building in its matching special tile in 1966, when the sculpture The Letters of Humankind was installed on the lobby wall.

What to Look For

Outside, the glazed tile lends dignity to a simple box-like building. Although the south and north parts were built at different times, the shared tile facing makes them read as one.

The lobby sculpture, The Letters of Humankind, was designed with staff involvement as a fitting emblem for a publisher.

Visiting the Main Building

It is a working head office, and no official information on interior access could be found. The exterior can be seen from the surrounding streets.

Directions and general information are on the Shinchosha group page.