In this walk, we explore how the circuits of power and money in Tokyo flow around the imperial palace. In this episode, we visit the politicians in Nagata-chō and the bureaucrats in Kasumigaseki, together with one of their playgrounds.

We start on one of the old bridges, which used to lead from the old castle across a reservoir and into a valley, but which now connects a high-end neighbourhood of condos and hotels to an entertainment district, where politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen party after hours. Across the street, though, we climb under bright red torii gates to a cluster of old, venerable shrines: we find secular and sacred cheek by jowl in Tokyo time and time again. It’s on the far side of that shrine’s hill that the Japanese state begins to make itself seen.

We climb up another hill, between the Prime Minister’s residence and the politicians’ offices, into Nagata-chō, which is crowned by the modernist Renaissance Diet building, completed the year before the war, for the Japanese parliament. We walk down its other side, through a Japanese garden, to confront the non-descript sprawl of the office buildings in Kasumigaseki, which house the massed ranks of the Japanese bureaucracy. It’s a pacific scene, but the echoes of political violence are never far away, audible on yet another bridge back into the palace.

You can follow the walk on this map: bit.ly/41ZSLLW

And you can find the full transcript here: bit.ly/3Ve4KmR 

See a sneak peek on TikTok: tiktok.com/@walkhistoricity and Instagram: instagram.com/WALKHISTORICITY

WRITER AND PRESENTER: Angus Lockyer

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic

This series was supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. Find out more at: gbsf.org.uk

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