60 years of the Tokyo Bay shore: the changing purposes of reclamation

Published: August 11, 2026 / About 16 min read

If you step through aerial photographs by era of the shore of Tokyo Bay from the oldest, you can see the order in which the land spread out to sea. However, the way the newly made land was used differs completely from era to era. The uses run from Daiba, built for the defense of Edo, to timber storage ponds, final disposal sites for garbage, logistics hubs, exhibition halls, and research and development blocks. Here we rearrange the bay shore locations on Kakomap along one axis: the purpose of reclamation.

The steps of making the land are much the same at every location. The sea surface is enclosed with seawalls, filled with earth and sand, evened out in height, and cut into lots. If you step through the eras of the photographs, you see those steps advance one photograph at a time. Even so, the faces of the finished land split into islands of warehouses and islands of offices, islands of parks and islands of research institutes. The dividing line is the era in which the land moved out to sea. Sea surfaces enclosed by the 1950s were filled with port and factory facilities, lots that appeared as flat land in the 1970s were assigned to logistics and exhibitions, and industrial land that became vacant from the 1990s on was replaced by housing and offices.

On a location's page, you can view the east-west and north-south elevation cross-sections while switching photographs with the era ladder. Each cross-section has 101 points, and the line breaks on water surfaces and where measurement is not possible.

Daiba, where the defenses of Edo remain on the sea

The area of Daiba starts from the Shinagawa Daiba, built in Edo Bay after Perry's arrival in 1853. No. 3 Daiba and No. 6 Daiba were not demolished and remain, and No. 6 Daiba is still isolated on the sea as of 2026. In the photograph from around 1936-42, almost the whole frame is sea, and only square islands and a long jetty float on it. In the 1945-50 photograph the outlines of the islands become clear, and even the ridgelines of the earthworks can be made out.

In the 1961-69 photograph, the lower half of the frame is still water. At the left edge a band of warehouses and comb-tooth jetties line up, and the next seawall is drawn as a thin straight line across the water. In the 1974-78 photograph, the area inside it has changed into sand-colored flat land, and unpaved roads have been put through. In the 1979-83 and 1984-86 photographs, too, this flat land remains brown, empty ground. This is a period when the land exists but its use has not been decided. In the 1987-90 photograph, evenly spaced square structures line up north of the islands, and you can read that construction of the bridge is under way.

The area took shape as a town in the 1990s. The Rainbow Bridge opened in August 1993, and in November 1995 the Yurikamome Line, linking Shimbashi Station and Ariake Station, began service. In the same year, 1995, the cancellation of the World City Expo, which had planned this area as its main venue, was decided. Tokyo Teleport Station opened in 1996, and in 1997 Fuji Television moved its headquarters here from Kawadacho. The texture value, which shows the fineness of detail in the photograph, rose from 10.6 to 32.7, and the change in appearance compared with the 1961-69 photograph is on the somewhat large side among the listed locations (in the top 20-40%). The east-west cross-section has values at only 69 of its 101 points. The sections where no line can be drawn are water, and the shape of the cross-section shows that Daiba is a small piece of land surrounded by sea.

Shinkiba, once an island of timber storage and garbage

Yumenoshima / Shinkiba is land from the time when reclamation on the bay shore took on the behind-the-scenes work of the city. Reclamation Site No. 14, called Yumenoshima, was used as a final disposal site for garbage, and the timber storage pond that had been at Kiba in Fukagawa was moved to the neighboring Shinkiba (the name means new Kiba). In the photograph from around 1936-42 the area is almost all sea, and land appears only from the postwar photographs. In the 1945-50 photograph a square island with sharp corners floats on the water, and in the 1961-69 photograph that island has grown to the north.

The 1974-78 photograph is the first in color, and the use of the enclosed water becomes clear. Rafts cover the water, and you can read it as a timber storage pond where timber is kept floating. In the 1979-83 photograph buildings with gable roofs line the edge of the pond, and in the 1984-86 photograph the pond in the lower center opens up black. In the 1987-90 photograph rafts cover the water again, and the density as a timber storage pond is at its highest in this era. The peak as a timber collection site comes near the end of the series of photographs.

The railway reached Shinkiba in 1988, so access was put in place early among the bay shore areas. The east-west elevation cross-section stays within a narrow range from 2.2 m to 6.8 m, and the lots made by filling the sea and evening out the height show as an almost flat line (the north-south cross-section is broken by canals and ranges from 1.9 m to 10.8 m). The official land price (Chika Koji) of residential land in Tatsumi 1-chome, about 1.9 km away, was 354,000 yen per square meter in 2013 and 694,000 yen in 2026.

Oi Pier, laid out for logistics

Heiwajima / Oi Pier (Ryutsu Center) is an area where the purpose of reclamation was turned to logistics. The photograph from around 1936-42 covers only a narrow range, and there is no photograph right at the location's point. In the 1945-50 photograph a gray surface extends to the right, and in the 1961-69 photograph the left half of the frame has changed into different land, with seawalls and bare ground spreading out. In the 1974-78 color photograph, a large building sits right at the location's point. Warehouses and logistics facilities filled the frame within only a few years of the grading.

The official land price of residential land in nearby Omori-kita 3-chome was 1,240,000 yen per square meter in 1991, 381,000 yen in 2012, and 594,000 yen in 2026. Land prices on the bay shore do not move in one direction. This is not the value of the reclaimed land itself but of residential land on the inland side, yet even on the same bay shore the shape of the series differs from location to location.

The north-south cross-section also includes a point at -0.5 m. If you cut through the pier and the inland side with one line, the line jumps up by the height of the seawalls and tall structures.

Ariake, which became exhibition halls and venues for the Games

The change at Ariake is large in numbers too, and the change in appearance between the 1961-69 photograph and the image as of 2026 is the largest among the locations covered in this article. In the photograph from around 1936-42 almost the whole surface is water, and land bent into a hook shape appears in the 1945-50 photograph. In the 1961-69 photograph wide water surfaces still remain. In the 1974-78 photograph everything from the center down changes completely, and in the 1979-83 photograph the bare ground is covered in dull green.

In the 1984-86 photograph a band of road running diagonally grows, and if you zoom in, you can see bridge supports lined up. The 1987-90 photograph shows a corner where dozens of long, narrow lots are lined up in parallel. The opening of the town came after that. In 1995 the Yurikamome Line opened from Shimbashi Station to Ariake Station, and in 1996 Tokyo Big Sight opened. For the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021, too, several venues were placed in this area.

The official land price of land for shops / offices / warehouses was 1,050,000 yen per square meter in 2007 and 1,200,000 yen the next year, 2008, then fell to 928,000 yen in 2013, and is 1,430,000 yen in 2026. The elevation is 9.1 m at the center, on the high side among the reclaimed land of the bay shore.

From a shipyard site to a town of the market and housing

There are also areas where, instead of filling new sea, industrial land that was already land was replaced. At Toyosu the outline of the island was already fixed at the time of the photograph from around 1936-42, and the order of the lots surrounded by canals appears as it is. In the 1945-50 photograph rows of long buildings with gable roofs line up, and the 1961-69 photograph is the most industrial period. This was land that was a shipyard site for a long time, and the outline of the canals does not move until the 1984-86 photograph.

The change is in what fills the water. Timber rafts float in the photographs from 1974-78 to 1979-83, their area shrinks in the 1984-86 photograph, and they almost disappear in the 1987-90 photograph. This is the order in which the practice of storing timber floating on the water withdrew from these lots. In 2018 the market moved from Tsukiji and Toyosu Market opened.

The elevation is low, 2.4 m at the center, and the north-south cross-section also includes points at 0 m. Because the canals remain with some width, the way the cross-section breaks takes a shape close to Daiba's. The official land price of residential land in Toyosu 4-chome was 429,000 yen per square meter in 2012 and 1,160,000 yen in 2026.

Tennozu, where an island of warehouses became a waterside town

Tennozu is an island where the purpose of reclamation moved from warehouses and logistics to waterside offices. At the time of the photograph from around 1936-42 the outline of the island is already straight, and you can tell it is a shape cut by human hands. The 1961-69 photograph is from the period when it was filled with industrial facilities, and from the 1974-78 color photograph on, water and buildings become easier to tell apart. In the 1979-83 photograph the water appears ocher, and the density of buildings rises. In the 1984-86 photograph the water changes to deep blue, and lighters line up in the canal on the west side.

A railway station was placed on the island in 1992, when Tennozu Isle Station on the Tokyo Monorail opened. In the early 2000s a station on a railway running through the waterfront was added too. The texture value, which shows the fineness of detail in the photograph, rose from 19.6 to 38.3, and the share of built-up area rose from 41% in 1976 to 53% in 2021. Because the shape of the island was fixed early, the increase in the numbers stays more modest than at locations reclaimed from water.

The elevation is 2.8 m at the center, and the east-west cross-section stays between 1.5 m and 6.1 m. The official land price of residential land in Higashi-Shinagawa 1-chome was 700,000 yen per square meter in 2013 and 1,490,000 yen in 2026.

Takanawa, where the tracks of the rolling stock depot gave way to blocks

Takanawa Gateway City is the innermost point of the bay shore among the locations covered in this article. In the photograph from around 1936-42, dozens of thin white lines run north-south through the center of the frame. They are a bundle of tracks. In the 1945-50 photograph the reclaimed land on the east side has changed, and in the 1961-69 photograph the bundle of tracks is at its widest. From the 1974-78 color photograph to the dark, deep-toned 1984-86 photograph, the area of the tracks does not change for a while. In the 1987-90 photograph the frame becomes brighter, and the surface that had looked like a grid appears in light blue and greenish colors.

It was in March 2020 that a station on the Yamanote Line was placed on the land freed by the shrinking of the rolling stock depot.

Here the shape of the cross-section differs greatly from the other bay shore locations. The elevation is 3.4 m at the center, but the highest point of the cross-section reaches 28.1 m east-west and 28.3 m north-south. This is because the slope of the terrace on the inland side enters the cross-section. It is a position where the reclaimed land on the sea side and the foot of the terrace fit into one frame, an exceptional height difference for the bay shore. The official land price of residential land in Takanawa 2-chome was 1,060,000 yen per square meter in 2016 and 1,950,000 yen in 2026.

Tonomachi, turned to research and development

Ukishima / Tonomachi King Skyfront is an area of the City of Kawasaki at the mouth of the Tama River. In the photograph from around 1936-42, about 30% of the lower side is gray with no data, and the image of the photograph does not reach beyond the river mouth. In the 1945-50 photograph there are no missing parts, and the inside of the levee has changed completely. In the 1961-69 photograph factories under bright large roofs stand densely, and from the 1974-78 photograph to the 1987-90 photograph the outlines of the large roofs hardly move and only the color tone changes. It is an area whose appearance as a waterfront factory district stayed stable through the eras of the photographs.

That land was switched to a base for research and development, and in 2022 the Tamagawa Sky Bridge, linking it with the Haneda Airport side, opened. The change in appearance is the smallest among the locations covered in this article. A change in which a frame with buildings is replaced by a frame with other buildings does not show in the numbers as much as a change from sea to land.

The elevation is 0.8 m at the center, and the north-south cross-section ranges from -1.8 m to 3.9 m. It is the lowest and flattest cross-section among the locations covered. The official land price of residential land in Daimachi, Kawasaki Ward, about 1.2 km away, was 257,000 yen per square meter in 2016 and 324,000 yen in 2026.

Line them up side by side by cross-section and land price

If you line up the stories of each location side by side, the differences in how the bay shore was made gather into two tables. In the cross-sections, the number of points with values and the range of heights reflect how much was water.

At locations where the points with values fall short of 101, the line of the cross-section breaks somewhere. Daiba's 69 points and Toyosu's 77 points show that wide water surfaces remain in the direction the cross-section was drawn. On the other hand, at Tonomachi and Shinkiba the line continues from end to end, and at Takanawa Gateway City the highest point reaches 28.1 m.

The range of years that can be referred to differs from location to location, so they cannot be compared over the same length of time. Even so, you can read that the 2026 value is below the early-year value only around Oi Pier, which can be followed from 1991, and that at Toyosu and Tennozu, which can be followed from the 2010s, the 2026 value is higher than the early-year value. The values in the table are those of the one point referred to on each location's page and do not represent the whole area.

How to read 60 years of the bay shore

These are the defenses of Daiba, the timber storage and garbage disposal of Shinkiba, the logistics of Oi Pier, the exhibitions of Ariake, the former site of the rolling stock depot at Takanawa, and the research and development of Tonomachi. If you follow the aerial photographs by era from the oldest, you can see that the Tokyo Bay shore repeated the same steps of reclamation while assigning the land to a different purpose each time. The character of a town is decided by the era in which the land moved out to sea and the uses that were in demand at that time.

One more thing can be said: the speed at which the purpose changes. The work of filling the sea to make land advances in units of 10 years and finally takes shape over the span of two or three eras of the photographs. But the use of land, once it has become land, can be swapped in the interval of a single photograph. The rafts of the timber storage pond disappear, the tracks of the rolling stock depot decrease, and the large factory roofs give way to research buildings. Use moves faster than land. The way to read the photographs of the bay shore is to go back and forth on the era ladder and find what was swapped in which era.

The elevations shown are measured values of the ground surface and do not show assumptions about floods or earthquakes. For the disaster assumptions for each piece of land, refer to the materials published by each local government through the Hazard Map Portal Site of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

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