Shinjuku, Tokyo
About the Shinjuku Camera
This camera covers Shinjuku, the district built around the world's busiest railway station. Well over three million people pass through daily, and that flow shapes everything about the area.
Shinjuku divides sharply either side of the tracks. The west is the high-rise office quarter that grew after 1971, anchored by the twin towers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. The east is retail and entertainment — department stores, Kabukicho, the narrow alleys of Golden Gai. Few districts anywhere change character so completely across a single station.
Its rise was largely a consequence of disaster. The Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 devastated the low-lying eastern districts, pushing population and commerce westward onto firmer ground, and what had been a post town on the Koshu Kaido grew rapidly into a principal centre. Redevelopment around the station continues today.
Highlights & Nearby
- •Watch for: pedestrian flow, the west-side high-rises, commuter peaks, evening crowds
- •Nearby: Shinjuku Station, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Kabukicho, Shinjuku Gyoen
- •Note: peaks are sharpest on weekday mornings and evenings
