FEBRUARY 2025

Japan began to modernize in the second half of the 19th century, when public architecture all over the country came to be constructed mainly in the Western style. Together with these efforts, the government began training architectural specialists, including modern architects such as TATSUNO Kingo, who went on to design Tokyo Station. This led to the construction of many full-scale Western-style public architecture designed by Japanese architects. After World War II, a succession of architects emerged in Japan to lead the worldwide architectural trends of modernism and postmodernism, and they have continued to do so to this day. Today, Japan receives a distinguished global reputation in the field of architecture. As of the end of 2024, Japan had the most winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (considered the “Nobel Prize of architecture”) of any country — TANGE Kenzo being just one notable example. In this month’s HIGHLIGHTING Japan, an expert in architectural history explains the history of public architecture development in modern-era Japan and its appeal. This issue also introduces various public architecture that represent Japan’s architecture of the modern era, including Tokyo Station, which celebrated its 110th anniversary in 2024; the Kagawa Prefectural Office East Building, a representative work by TANGE Kenzo; and the Grand Roof (Ring), the symbol of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, which will be held from April 2025.