Premiere Fumio Kishida debuted this weekend with the two-story 5,183-sq-m . can move to
For the first time in nearly a decade, a Japanese prime minister is set to reside in the premier’s official residence – a century-old structure that is a monument to art deco aesthetics and surrounded by an ominous history.
No date has been formally announced, but national public broadcaster NHK has said that Premier Fumio Kishida may move this weekend to the two-story 5,183-square-metre (55,789 sq ft) stone-and-brick mansion that was built in 1929. was opened and was meant to symbolize Japan’s entry into modernism in the early 20th century. The residence’s renovation was completed in 2005, which was reportedly carried out by a Shinto priest with an exorcism to ward off evil spirits that some political circles had gathered for decades.
Kishida, who took office about two months ago, is now moving closer to the prime minister’s office, a glass-and-steel structure opened a few meters away in 2002, to provide quick access in case of an emergency. He is staying at the lawmakers’ residence, Jiji Press reported, and will be the first premiere at the mansion since Yoshihiko Noda in 2012.
The last two prime ministers stayed away. Kishida’s predecessor Yoshihide Suga converted to work from a housing complex for Members of Parliament. Maybe the location helped him to wheel and deal with lawmakers away from the media.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lived at his private residence in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, about 15 minutes from his office. Even though the official residence was vacant, its maintenance costs taxpayers about 160 million yen ($1.4 million) per year, according to Noda.
Abe lived in the official prime minister’s residence for nearly 10 months as prime minister for the first time in 2006–2007. During that period, the revamped residence became home to six, short-serving prime ministers who took an average of a little more than a year in office and were seen as an unlucky location for a new leader.
Abe did not hold back when he returned as prime minister in 2012, and remains the country’s longest-serving prime minister.
The original residence and office building was built as Tokyo, which was engulfed by a devastating earthquake in 1923 and inspired by the Imperial Hotel, designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The hotel officially opened on the same day as the Tokyo earthquake and survived a devastating event that leveled large parts of the capital and claimed thousands of lives.
Three years after the office of Prime Minister opened, young naval officers barged into Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai and assassinated him in 1932. Four years later, the facility was the site of another military mutiny, but then-prime minister Keisuke Okada hid in a closet and escaped. Five men were fatally shot and a bullet hole was believed to have been left above one of the main entrances, commemorating the rebellion that had fallen under military rule in the country.
As Japan emerged from the devastation of World War II and the decades that followed, the facility underwent no major modifications, which became obsolete and viewed as gloomy by many Cabinet Office workers. According to a report in the Sankei newspaper, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori told Abe that he had seen ghosts there.
Its grand halls were still used to host foreign guests, such as President George HW Bush, who became ill during a banquet in 1992 and vomited on Prime Minister Keichi Miyazawa’s lap.
The government has spent about 8.6 billion yen to convert housing into a home environment. Its intricate word carvings and ornate rooms have been painstakingly restored. Its distinctive decorations have been preserved, including carvings of stone owls that guard the outside.
Now all you need is a new resident.
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