Shiodome Sio-Site about 60 years ago and today

History of Shiodome Sio-Site

This block is land that has piled up many completely different faces. The sea of Edo is at the very bottom, and reclaimed ground, the residences of feudal lords, the starting point of Japan's first railway, a freight station, vacant land, and blocks of skyscrapers sit on top of it in order. The place name Shiodome (the name means tide stop) is said to come from a weir that held back sea water and from a river that flowed bearing that name. The elevation is 3.8 m at the center of the location and only 2.5 m at the western measuring point. Toward the north it rises to 4.8 m. The row of these values shows that this is land made by leveling what was the sea surface into dry land.

The town planning of Edo placed the residences of feudal lords in this area. The fact that wide lots facing the sea were gathered together took effect in the next era. In 1872, when Japan's first railway opened between Shimbashi Station and Yokohama Station, Shimbashi Station, which became its starting point, was built on the former site of these residences. It was close to the port, a large piece of flat land could be obtained, and cargo carried by ship could be loaded directly onto the railway. The reason the railway's first station was placed here can be almost fully explained by the terrain and the distance to the sea.

A station that became freight-only

The role changed in 1914. Tokyo Station opened and the handling of passengers moved there, and this yard became Shiodome Station, for freight only. The name Shimbashi as a passenger station was taken over by another station just to the west, Karasumori Station. Only the name moved, and the bundle of tracks remained in its original place. From then on, for more than 70 years, this place kept working as the entrance for bringing cargo into the city center.

In the photograph from around 1936-42, a surface where dozens of thin lines run in parallel spreads from Shimbashi Station east toward the sea side. Long, narrow transit sheds with roofs are set between the lines, and buildings that handle cargo firm up the edges. Because the townscape around it is a cluster of low roofs, the artificial straight lines of this surface stand out well.

If you switch to 1945-50, the look of the surroundings changes. In the air raids of 1945 a wide area of Tokyo burned, and this vicinity was also damaged. In the burned town area the density of buildings dropped, and only the division of blocks remains as lines. By contrast, the surface of tracks in the yard has hardly lost its form. It is an era in which things that break easily and things that do not are seen separately within the same frame.

The 1961-69 photograph, used as the basis for comparison, coincides with the period when this place was busiest. The surface of tracks is filled to its edges, and in many places the lines look thick with rows of freight cars. Around this era, the river that also gave the place name its origin was filled in and the elevated structure of an expressway was put through, so a waterway was replaced by a road for cars. The lines that had set the edges of the land were being rerouted.

In 1974-78 and 1979-83, the height of the surrounding buildings goes up. The town strengthens its character as a business district, and the colors and shapes of the roofs change. Meanwhile, the yard is in a period when, although the number of tracks is large, the unused tracks increase. The transfer of cargo was moving to trucks, and the method of rearranging freight cars one by one had itself stopped paying.

Transshipment as a weakness

For a long time, cargo going to shops and businesses in the city center was carried here by rail, transferred to small vehicles in the yard, and went out into the town. Once it became possible to skip that transfer and carry goods in one vehicle from origin to destination, the reason to go through a station in the city center faded. As roads extended and shippers also came to demand specified delivery times, the method of rearranging freight cars lost on speed. In 1984, Japanese National Railways ended the transport system built around rearranging freight cars. Little work remained for Shiodome Station, and it was abolished in 1986. In the center of Tokyo, a single open space of about 30 hectares was born.

The 1987-90 photograph coincides exactly with that blank period. The tracks and transit sheds have disappeared, and a surface of bare ground appears in the frame. Even in the city center, a plan to use up this much area at once does not get moving right away. Coinciding with the period when land values were at their highest was also one cause of the indecision. This photograph preserves a state that lasted only a few years in the history of the town.

The first layer under the lid

Among the events of the blank period, the excavation shows the character of this land well. In surveys in the 1990s, the foundations of the station building and platform from the opening were found under the ground. While tracks and transit sheds occupied the surface, the ground below had escaped being dug up on a large scale. The years as a freight station themselves served as a lid protecting the first layer. The remains became a national Historic Site in 1996, and in 2003 the exterior of the station building at the opening was restored and opened as an exhibition facility standing over the remains. The zero-mile marker showing the starting point of the railway can also be seen there.

A block where transport came first

In the order in which it rose as a town, transport came first. In 1995 a new transit system starting at Shimbashi Station and heading for the waterfront opened, and an elevated structure came to pass beside the former site. It was in 2002 that a subway station opened in this block. Skyscraper office towers were completed one after another from 2002 to 2003, the head offices of a broadcaster and an advertising company moved in, and the blocks were named Shiodome Sio-Site. The time as vacant land ended after a little more than 15 years.

In the photograph as of 2026, streets are drawn to match the direction in which the tracks once lined up, and tall buildings are packed in on both sides. The surface of lines that once colored the ground in a single tone has been replaced by a grid of building roofs and shadows. The mean pixel difference calculated by overlaying the 1961-69 image and the image as of 2026 is 24.6, and the texture value has increased from 17.9 to 32.6. The change of a flat surface into a three-dimensional one becomes the difference in the numbers just as it is.

The reference point for land values is the series of residential land in Akasaka 1-chome, about 1.5 km away. From 1,780,000 yen per square meter in 2002 it jumped to 3,300,000 yen in 2008, fell to 2,440,000 yen in 2012-13, and then reached 7,110,000 yen in the official land prices (Chika Koji) of 2026. It is a trend of about four times from 2002 to the 2026 official land prices, and it coincides with the period when business districts in the city center increased.