News Renovated Akishino Imperial residence revealed to media

thomas · 24 Nov 2022

So that we know where the tax money flows: the Imperial Household Agency unveiled the renovated residence of the Akishino family on the Akasaka Estate in Tokyo's Minato Ward last Tuesday. Starting in March 2020, the renovation took about two and a half years at a total cost of 3.02 billion JPY (approx. USD 21.4 million), including outdoor structures and gardens.

According to the agency, the building completed in 1972 originally served as the home of the Chichibu family. Post-renovation, the two-story reinforced concrete home has a total floor space of 2,972 square meters, including the basement -- roughly 1.9 times larger than before. The residence consists of the family's private rooms, spaces for official duties and staff offices. The media tour covered a large hall and a parlor in the official duty area, plus a large dining room, among other rooms. The marble shelves and a chandelier in the large dining room were part of the original building, and some of the furniture, lighting and carpeting has apparently been reused.

Renovated Imperial residence of Akishino family in Tokyo unveiled to media - The Mainichi

TOKYO -- The Imperial Household Agency unveiled the renovated residence of the Akishino family on the Akasaka Estate here to the media on Nov. 22.

mainichi.jp

More photos (photo credit: all pool) in the article.

nice gaijin · 25 Nov 2022

Ummmm

Some nice touches here and there, but boy does this look like a plain (albeit spacious) Japanese home. I'm wondering where the billions of yen went... probably into the basement and stuff they won't show?

Not that I'm into gaudy displays of wealth, but it looks like they spent the money all the same.

Majestic · 25 Nov 2022

I thought the same thing. I'm kind of wondering if they didn't purposely pick some rather boring (austere?) pictures to front-run any complaints of lavish living by the royals. Nobody's going to look at that 8-tatami room washitsu, and the almost 1970's-looking wood parquet flooring of the other room, and say, "how dare they live in such luxury". Even the entrance looks a bit boring. Like its the entrance to some golf club in Saitama that's had a new coat of paint. I really think they are downplaying it to avoid criticism, but...yeah, the money's gone all the same. I kind of feel like everyone's going to look at that and wonder if that's really worth $21 million.

Retro chic, maybe, but very heavy on the retro and not so much chic.

nice gaijin · 25 Nov 2022

Majestic said:
I thought the same thing. I'm kind of wondering if they didn't purposely pick some rather boring (austere?) pictures to front-run any complaints of lavish living by the royals. Nobody's going to look at that 8-tatami room washitsu, and the almost 1970's looking wood parquet flooring of the other room, and say, "how dare they live in such luxury". Even the entrance looks a bit boring. Like its the lentrance to some golf club in Saitama that's had a new coat of paint. I really think they are downplaying it to avoid criticism, but...yeah, the money's gone all the same. I kind of feel like everyone's going to look at that and wonder if that's really worth $21 million.

Retro chic, maybe, but very heavy on the retro and not so much chic.

I agree, they showed it unfurnished and as plainly as possible. Without a sense of scale of the house or grounds, or even a general breakdown of the associated costs, I'm just scratching my head at this. It literally looks like my host family's neighbor's house.

Maybe it's all in high quality/rare materials? high level artisans flown in? My money is still on a lot of unseen security and tech, especially if they excavated and expanded underground structures. It's like dental work; you can spend a whole lot of money and the end result is indistinguishable from your starting point.

mdchachi · 26 Nov 2022

nice gaijin said:
I agree, they showed it unfurnished and as plainly as possible. Without a sense of scale of the house or grounds, or even a general breakdown of the associated costs, I'm just scratching my head at this. It literally looks like my host family's neighbor's house.

Maybe it's all in high quality/rare materials? high level artisans flown in? My money is still on a lot of unseen security and tech, especially if they excavated and expanded underground structures. It's like dental work; you can spend a whole lot of money and the end result is indistinguishable from your starting point.

I sure hope they didn't waste too much on artisans. Those that are making tatami mats in the old fashioned way with tweezers or some such.

News Renovated Akishino Imperial residence revealed to media

thomas

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Renovated Imperial residence of Akishino family in Tokyo unveiled to media - The Mainichi

nice gaijin

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Majestic

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nice gaijin

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mdchachi

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