Japan parliament building

Temporary buildings

Planning for the construction of the Japanese Parliament building began after the proclamation of the 1881 Emperor Meiji Rescript on the creation of Parliament.

In 1890, for the first session of the Imperial Parliament, the first temporary parliament building was built from wood in the Kasumigaseki quarter of the Chiyoda district. The building was completely burned down during a big fire in January 1891, therefore, during the restoration work, the House of Peers of the Japanese Parliament was located for several months in the House of the Titled Estate Society in the Yamashita quarter, and the House of Representatives was located in the building of the Imperial Engineering University in the Toranomon quarter.

In 1894, during the Sino-Japanese War , when the actual capital of Japan was briefly moved to Hiroshima , parliament sat in a temporary building on the territory of Hiroshima Castle .

In 1891, a second one was built on the site of the first temporary parliament building in Kasumigaseki quarter. It burned down in 1925, but was restored three months later. Until 1936, this building served as the main conference room for Japanese parliamentarians.

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  1st temporary building (1890-1891)

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  2nd temporary building (1891-1936)

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  The Watanabe Project (1919)

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  Opening Ceremony (1936)

Permanent Building

In 1886, for the construction of a permanent parliament building, a temporary construction department ( 臨時 Японии 局 局 ) was created under the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan . In 1887, the Council of the Cabinet allocated land for the parliament building in the Nagata quarter, but postponed the future of design and financing of construction. In 1899, the Inspectorate Committee for the Construction of Parliament ( 議院 建築 調査 建築 ) inspected the site, conducted an analysis of the soil and building materials. However, the work was delayed due to the lively debate of the Japanese public regarding the architectural style of the future structure and the methods of its construction.

In 1917, the government created a new Inspection Committee for the Construction of the Parliament Building under the Ministry of Finance of Japan and the following year allocated funds for the design. After lengthy discussions, it was decided to hold a nationwide competition for the best building design. Only the Japanese was to become the architect, and all building materials were to be only Japanese. In 1919, as a result of a two-stage competition, the work of Watanabe Fukuzo won. However, it was used only as a guideline, and construction began according to the project of the architect Yahashi Kenichi, an official of the Ministry of Finance.

Work on the parliament building began in 1920 and lasted 17 years. About 2,540,000 workers were employed in them ^[1] . Construction costs amounted to 257 million yen ^[1] . November 7, 1936 the building was completed and inaugurated in the presence of the first persons of the state.

The building of the Parliament of Japan is a rectangular in plan, three-story reinforced concrete building, faced with granite on the outside. It is made in the so-called "new style" ( Jap. П 式 ). The extreme towers of the building have four floors, and the central tower - nine. The total area of ​​the building is 53,466 m². The House of Representatives sits on the left side of the building, and the House of Councilors on the right side. Each part of the building has a separate entrance. The main entrance is located under the central tower. It is used only in special cases - at the opening of new parliamentary sessions, the adoption of new deputies of both houses after a national election or the reception of foreign guests of high rank. The building has 390 large and about 60 small rooms. The total length of the corridors is 4.64 km. All details of the interior and exterior of the building are made by Japanese craftsmen from Japanese building materials.

The meeting rooms of both houses are located on the second floor of the building - on the right and left sides. The area of ​​each hall is 743 m². The seats of deputies are located in a semicircle around the podium for speeches. All places are registered, assigned to specific parliamentarians. Behind the podium is the seat of the speaker of parliament, and to his left is the seat of the secretary general. In front of the speaker’s place, on either side of him, are the seats of the Cabinet of Ministers, behind which are places for their assistants and employees. In the central facade of the chamber of the House of Councilors there is a place for His Majesty the Emperor , which is used to open the sessions of the chamber. Guest and press seats are located on the third floor.

Both chambers also have premises for their committees: the House of Representatives - 16, and the House of Councilors - 18. However, half of the committees sit in a separate building, built next to the parliament building.

In the western part of the third floor of the central tower, into which the main staircase leads from the main entrance, the Emperor's relaxation room is located. Below it, on the second floor, is the ministerial room, in which meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers take place at the opening of parliamentary sessions.

To the west of the parliament building are three deputy buildings, where each deputy has his own separate office. In the east, in front of the building’s facade, the Parliamentary Garden is laid out. In the northern part are the National Parliamentary Library of Japan and the Constitutional Policy Hall, which stores materials on the history of the development of Japanese parliamentarism.

• The building of the Japanese parliament // Encyclopedia of Nipponika: 26 vol. - 2nd edition. - Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1994-1997.
• Jonathan M. Reynolds. Japan's Imperial Diet Building: debate over construction of a national identity. // Art Journal. - September 22, 1996.

• Brief information about the building of the Parliament of Japan / / Official website of the Parliament of Japan (English) . Date of treatment August 14, 2011. Archived May 11, 2012.
• Map of the building of the Parliament of Japan (1/25000) / / Institute of Geography of Japan (Japanese) . Date of treatment August 14, 2011. Archived on May 15, 2012.