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Tokyo's retro shotengai arcades are falling victim to gentrification
Across Japan covered shopping arcades are in a losing battle against property developers, depopulation and consumer culture
Last year, businesses in Asakusa Kokusai Street declared their 3km shotengai, located near a Tokyo tourist hotspot, as the longest in Japan, claiming the title from the Tenjinbashisuji arcade in Osaka. Photograph: Justin McCurry/The GuardianMansfield says he has been frequently left “heartbroken” when he revisits “historic, aesthetically pleasing and architecturally accomplished buildings in Tokyo and around Japan to find they have been eviscerated in the misguided name of progress”. From its green-and-white awning, analogue scales and a hanging basket for loose change, Suzuya Shokuhin belongs to a time when housewives would stop and chat as they looked over the store’s produce.
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