Temporary Wall Decoration Project Starts up to Provide Walking Trail in Nihonbashi Area that Generates Buzz
Art × Exploring Neighborhood on Foot Young artists × Local elementary school students Utilizing temporary wall to generate neighborhood buzz in different ways

July 3, 2024
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.

Key Points of this Press Release

• To hold art exhibition inspired by City Pop culture using temporary walls around the new construction site of Nihonbashi 1-Chome Central District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, the first large-scale redevelopment project along the Nihonbashi River. Visitors can enjoy exploring Nihonbashi on foot while appreciating iconic art and music of the late 1970s through 1980s (with funding assistance from Chuo-ku’s subsidy program, the Nihonbashi Riverside Redevelopment Project).
• Nihonbashihoncho 1-chome-3 Project (tentative name) to exhibit works created by TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD prizewinning artists and elementary school students in workshop

Tokyo, Japan, July 3, 2024 - Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., a leading global real estate company headquartered in Tokyo, announced today that it will implement a project to decorate temporary walls around the new construction sites of the Nihonbashi 1-Chome Central District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Association, in which Mitsui Fudosan participates as an association member, and the Nihonbashihoncho 1-chome-3 Project (tentative name), in which Mitsui Fudosan leads as the main contractor, to provide an enjoyable walking trail and generate buzz.

Mitsui Fudosan plans to utilize the temporary wall to propose a new Nihonbashi walking trail as well as generate neighborhood buzz during the large-scale construction period, thereby helping neighborhood creation even further in charming Nihonbashi.

■ Decoration of Nihonbashi 1-Chome Central District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project temporary wall

Click illustration to enlarge

■ Decoration of temporary wall around Nihonbashihoncho 1-chome-3 Project (tentative name)

Click illustration to enlarge

Initiative 1: NIHONBASHI CITYPOP MUSEUM

■Artwork Exhibition by Eizin Suzuki

Three illustrations by Eizin Suzuki used for the covers of popular 1980s cultural magazine FM STATION will be exhibited.

©EIZIN SUZUKI

©EIZIN SUZUKI

©EIZIN SUZUKI

■Artist Profile

■NIHONBASHI SELECTION for enjoyment of the best of City Pop songs and record covers

Five record covers representative of City Pop culture will be exhibited. Part 1 featuring the following five works will run until December 2024, to be replaced by five new works in January 2025, which will be exhibited for six months.

Click illustration to enlarge

Each cover art will be accompanied by a commentary of the song and a QR code. Scan the code with your smartphone or other device, which will take you to the music streaming page where you can listen to all five songs. The music streaming page is linked to location information in your smartphone or other device, which means you can listen to a song in a specific area. Visitors can therefore enjoy both the cover art and the song as they walk around Nihonbashi.

In implementing this initiative, Mitsui Fudosan has obtained JASRAC license no. 9040044001Y31018

Initiative 2: NIHONBASHI ART WALL PROJECT supported by TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD overview

■ Exhibition of works by TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD prizewinning artists

The works of Yukino Ohmura and Tomoya Akamine, prizewinning artists of TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD competition, will be exhibited on the temporary wall. TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD was launched in 2008 by TOKYO MIDTOWN to discover and support the next generation of designers and artists, and plan future collaboration with them. Artworks created in a collaboration workshop for elementary school students led by Yukino Ohmura*1 with “the Universe” as the theme will also be exhibited.

• 1: The workshop is planned to be part of “Waku-Waku Kids Festival 2024.” Please visit the following website for details and reservations.
  https://event-wakuwakukidsfes.peatix.com/ (in Japanese)

Click illustration to enlarge

■Artists and examples of works exhibited

For this exhibition, a work that expresses cityscapes and natural scenery has been selected to evoke wooden buildings.

For this exhibition, a work with the theme “Nature and humans: the Dance of Symbiosis” has been selected to evoke wooden buildings.

■ Greening of temporary wall also planned from August onward

From August 2024 onward, the greening of the temporary wall on the opposite side to the art exhibition will go ahead as part of Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s TOKYO GREEN BIZ Green Urban Development initiative.

Reference 1: Five redevelopment projects underway along the Nihonbashi River

Five redevelopment projects are currently underway along the Nihonbashi River*2, with all projects coordinating neighborhood creation. The Nihonbashi 1-Chome Central District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, whose temporary wall is to be decorated, is one of them. The temporary wall was also decorated in 2023, with funding assistance from Chuo-ku’s subsidy program to revitalize the Nihonbashi Riverbank area*3. Mitsui Fudosan managed the decoration project, which featured historic photographs of the area and artworks of the future Nihonbashi by illustrators.

• 2：The five redevelopment projects are Yaesu 1-chome North District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, Nihonbashi 1-Chome 1, 2 District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, Nihonbashi 1-Chome Central District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, Nihonbashi- Muromachi 1-chome Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, and Nihonbashi 1-chome East District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project.
• 3：Please refer to the URL below (in Japanese) for more details of Chuo-ku’s subsidy program to revitalize the Nihonbashi Riverbank area.
  https://www.city.chuo.lg.jp/a0045/nihonbashi_nigiwaisien.html

■ Example of temporary wall decoration for Nihonbashi 1-Chome Central District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project in fiscal 2023

Historical photographs of Nihonbashi and Edobashi areas exhibited

Artworks featuring “Nihonbashi of the future” by illustrators　

Reference 2: About TOKYO MIDTOWN and TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD

TOKYO MIDTOWN is a mixed-use neighborhood that opened in 2007, whose vision is to create, combine, and share JAPAN VALUE, which seeks to create new Japanese values, sensitivities and talents, drawing them together, with the world. It creates new value through synergies between various functions and talents that gather there and embodies its vision by providing detailed attentiveness and hospitality to visitors, hosting seasonal events that make the most of the open space, and offering activities that cultivate intelligent imagination through art and design. As part of these activities, TOKYO MIDTOWN organizes TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD, a competition with two categories (art and design) whose goal is to discover and support the next generation of artist and designers and plan future collaboration with them.

In 16 years, the award has attracted a total of 23,996 entries. Of these, 139 teams consisting of 241 people (a total of 145 teams consisting of 261 people) have won prizes in the design competition and 87 teams consisting of 92 people in the art competition. TOKYO MIDTOWN’s aspiration is for the award to evolve into a competition that focuses not only on prizewinning entries, but also on the people who can create ideas and works of art and design. It has also expanded activities that provide ongoing support for prizewinners to create new collaboration opportunities.
TOKYO MIDTOWN website: https://en.tokyo-midtown.com/
TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD website: https://www.tokyo-midtown.com/jp/award/ (in Japanese)

■Sustainability in the Mitsui Fudosan Group

Based on the meaning of its “& mark,” “to generate new value with society through cooperation, coexistence and co-creation, we forge ahead, innovating,” the Mitsui Fudosan Group views the “creation of social value” and the “creation of economic value” as two wheels of a cart. Accordingly, we believe that the creation of social value leads to the creation of economic value, and that this economic value then creates even greater social value.
Moreover, we identified six Group Materiality priority issues when formulating our new management philosophy in April 2024. These Group Materiality priority issues are (1) Contribute to industrial competitiveness, (2) Coexist with the environment, (3) Health and Vitality, (4) Safety and security, (5) Diversity and inclusion, and (6) Compliance and governance. The Mitsui Fudosan Group will work to address each of the materialities through its core business activities and contribute to the promotion of sustainability.

(References)
・ Group Management Philosophy and Long-Term Vision
https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/corporate/innovation2030/
・ Group Materiality
https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/esg_csr/approach/materiality/

* The initiatives outlined in this release are designed to help address the following two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).