Musashi-Kosugi before redevelopment: the factory station area in photographs from seven eras

Published: October 13, 2026 / About 11 min read

The last appearance before redevelopment is the factory town of 1987-90

If you check Musashi-Kosugi before redevelopment in aerial photographs, the surroundings of the station were occupied by factories. The tracks curve around in a large arc, and long, narrow buildings line up facing the same way inside and outside it. The last era among the past photographs you can open at Musashi-Kosugi is 1987-90, which is 36 to 39 years ago counting from 2026. Even in that photograph, the large white roofs, the blue roofs, and the black circular structures remain in the same layout, and even if you zoom in around the station, you find no buildings casting long shadows.

Before the redevelopment, the scene was not always the same. Around 1936-42 there are only scattered corners of factories among the small lots of fields; by 1945-50 the area held by the arc has taken shape as a factory zone; and by 1961-69 the rows of houses push the fields into the corners of the frame. The factories stayed in the same place through all seven eras, and their surroundings were what changed. The factories came first, the town surrounded them later, and last the factories moved out.

Factories and surrounding land in seven eras

The rows of factories never disappeared, and only the surroundings were replaced, from fields to rows of houses.

Around 1936-42: when factories came among the fields

Even in the oldest photograph, from around 1936-42, corners of factories are already placed inside and outside the arc of the tracks, and the land around them is still lots of fields. This photograph shows the order: the town did not draw in the factories; the factories came into the fields first.

The premise of this scene was the railway. According to the materials of the City of Kawasaki's town development concept for the Kosugi Station area, the Nambu Line opened in 1927 and Musashi-Kosugi Station was opened, and in 1939 a station with the name Kogyo-toshi (the name means industrial city) was placed on the Toyoko Line, about 200 m south of Musashi-Kosugi Station. The name given to the station also conveys the outlook of the time, which sought to draw factories into this area. It was land where people came and went as a post town on the Nakahara Kaido in the Edo period, but the combination of fields and factories in the photographs lies on lines drawn by a logic different from the era of the highway.

1945-50: a factory zone held by the arc of the tracks

By 1945-50, the inside of the arc has come together as one factory zone, and factories and fields share the frame with almost equal weight. The rows of houses are dense only in one corner at the upper left. The concept materials mentioned above also record that Tokyu's Musashi-Kosugi Station was opened in 1945. Even with the stations in place, homes have not yet been able to squeeze in between the factories and the fields in the photograph.

1961-69 and 1974-78: rows of houses push out the fields

If you step to 1961-69, the main subject of the scene changes, and rows of houses occupy most of the land that had been fields. Even so, the factory site adds buildings while keeping its outline, and in the 1974-78 photograph, now in color, the large roofs still shine white.

If you put the two eras side by side, you can see the process of the factories becoming the framework of the town. The houses fill the outside of the factory site and do not enter inside the outline of the site. A wide single lot stayed without moving, and this became the condition for changing its use all at once later.

1979-83 to 1987-90: factories that remain while changing their roofs

In 1979-83 you can read roofs folded like the teeth of a saw in one corner of the factories, and in 1984-86 buildings with blue roofs are added. Even if you step through to 1987-90, the buildings only change the color and shape of their roofs, and no trace of the site itself being divided can be seen.

In 1979-83 the Tama River is muddy yellowish brown and has widened, but the photograph keeps only the width the water reached on that day. If you want to check the assumed extent of flooding, the published materials of each municipality are gathered on the Hazard Map Portal Site of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

On the station side, other works were under way in a period overlapping these three eras. According to the concept materials, work on elevating the tracks of the Nambu Line began in 1978 on the section from Musashi-Kosugi Station to the Daisan-Keihin Road, and was completed in 1990. Until around the time the work changing the height of the tracks ended, the factories around the station stayed as they were.

A replacement that happened outside the photographs

The concept materials of the City of Kawasaki record that, in parallel with the development of a new station on the Yokosuka Line, the factories around the station converted their land use one after another, and the area is moving toward a town where research and development functions, urban housing, and commercial facilities gather. Musashi-Kosugi Station on the Yokosuka Line opened on March 13, 2010, adding one line running directly to central Tokyo to the transfer station of the Toyoko Line and the Nambu Line. In November 2014 a large commercial facility opened near the station. Both are events outside the eras of the photographs, and in the aerial photographs you can follow the order only up to 1987-90.

If you switch to the photograph as of 2026 on the comparison screen, the place where long, narrow buildings stood in rows has been replaced by buildings with large flat roofs and square lots. On the other hand, the shapes of the stadium and the ballpark in the middle left have hardly moved since 1987-90. You can read how the clusters of tall buildings appear in Old photographs of tower apartment towns.

Musashi-Kosugi is not the only factory station area

Along the tracks of the National Capital Region there are several places where large factories beside a station were changed to other uses all at once at some point.

In all five, factories still appear in the 1987-90 photograph. At Ebisu, Kawasaki, and Musashi-Kosugi, the opening of the towns on the former sites all came after the last era of the photographs.

However, even in the same 1987-90 photograph, the way the factories appear is not uniform. At Lazona Kawasaki the bare ground between the buildings has spread compared with the previous era, and signs of the replacement show in the photograph first. At Musashi-Kosugi, Osaki, and Ebisu the large roofs stand in rows just as in the previous era, and the outline of the striped roofs at Tonomachi does not move either. Musashi-Kosugi belongs to the side where the appearance of the factories did not break down until the last photograph.

The elevation column is scattered from 0.8 m to 15.8 m, and the five cannot be bundled with a single measure such as factories came because the land was low, or remained because the land was high. Osaki sits at the bottom of a valley, 4.2 m at the center against 15.8 m to the west and 12.5 m to the south; Ebisu is at the foot of a slope rising to the south and west; and Tonomachi lies at the mouth of the Tama River, below 2 m in all four directions. The five share one thing: there was a wide site of a single use right beside the tracks.

Another difference that shows when you line them up is what came onto the sites. While the four station areas changed to homes, commerce, and offices, Tonomachi, which was factory land at the river mouth, turned toward research. Even on the same lower Tama River, what comes after the factories divides between being right in front of a station and being factory land at the river mouth.

A replacement that does not stand out in the share of built-up area

Musashi-Kosugi, where clusters of tall buildings have risen, seems to be land that changed greatly in the photographs. Yet if you look at the share of built-up area within a 500 m radius, Musashi-Kosugi was already 75% as of 1976, and 97% in 2021. Lazona Kawasaki went from 80% to 96%, Tonomachi from 84% to 91%, and Osaki Garden City (99% → 95%) and Yebisu Garden Place (99% → 100%) hardly move.

At station areas that were already built-up in 1976, the increase in the share comes out small even when redevelopment replaces the buildings. On land where fields or the sea became a town, the color of the frame itself changes completely. At the factory station areas, the change was a replacement in which a site covered with buildings changed into a site covered with other buildings. The change in height is read from the length of the buildings' shadows.

Musashi-Kosugi and Tonomachi in the official land prices

Here the records of the station area and the factory land at the river mouth are lined up with the official land prices (Chika Koji) of residential areas. The values are per square meter. The range goes up to the 2026 publication available as of October 2026.

The record for Musashi-Kosugi begins in 2012, and there are only values from after 2010, when the station on the Yokosuka Line opened. The 15 years from 430,000 yen in 2012 to 905,000 yen in 2026 are the span after the replacement had advanced.

The record near Tonomachi also starts in 2016, and neither table reaches back to the time when the factories appeared in the photographs. The opening years and land price records of the remaining three factory station areas are summarized in Redevelopment of former factory sites compared in aerial photographs.

Go back and forth through the eras with the arc of the tracks as a landmark

On the comparison screen of Musashi-Kosugi, if you first find the arc of the tracks and the black circular structures in the 1945-50 photograph, you will not lose your place as you step through the eras. If you step from there to 1961-69 and 1974-78, the fields change into rows of houses, and even if you advance to 1987-90, only the factory site keeps its shape. If you finally switch to the photograph as of 2026, you can see at once how the contents were replaced inside the same arc.

If you change what you compare with, the way of reading changes even for the same kind of factory station area. Check the large light blue roof east of the station at Yebisu Garden Place, the rows of buildings lined up west of the station at Lazona Kawasaki, and the large roofs set in the bottom of the valley at Osaki Garden City, each in the 1987-90 photograph, and then step to the photograph as of 2026.

The prices in this article are actual examples at each point in time and do not reflect market prices after the article was written.