Inside Japan’s CAPSULE Tower | 140 TINY Tokyo Apartments

so this incredible astonishing looking building behind me is the nakagin capsule tower building it is perhaps not only my favorite building in all of tokyo but in all of japan and while i'd like to tell you a happy story about how next year it's his 50th year anniversary unfortunately it's future it's not looking so good [Music] foreign it may look like jenga with washing machines but don't be fooled these are 140 tiny capsule apartments but why was it built what's it like inside and who's called it home these past 50 years we're going inside the necking capsule tower to take a look at the past present and future of this incredible building there's nothing else quite like it there may never be again and this time next year it may be lost forever [Music] tokyo the center of japan both industrially and politically [Music] in the 1960s and 70s japan's post-war economy was experiencing explosive growth in a period referred to as the economic miracle the country was becoming a dominant player in the export of high-tech electronics and rapid urbanization was sweeping the country in 1945 50 percent of the nation's population lived in rural areas but by 1970 that figure was less than 30 percent and tokyo was very much at the epicentre of the migration unsurprisingly affordable living space became increasingly elusive it was against this backdrop of economic prosperity and rapid urbanization that a group of japanese architects birthed the metabolism movement a design philosophy that incorporated aspects of organic biological growth in the same way an organic life form grows changes and adapts with its surroundings why shouldn't a building one of the first buildings to follow this philosophy was the yamanashi press and broadcast center built in 1966 with its exposed pillars allowing future floors to be added above then in 1967 came the shizuoka press and broadcasting tower which looks more akin to a plant than a building with its cantilevered floors protruding outwards but it was the nakagin capsule tower opened in 1972 and designed by visionary architect kishore kurukawa that went on to become the iconic symbol of the metabolism philosophy with the capsules prefabricated outside of tokyo the assembly of the tower itself was completed in just 30 days with 140 capsules measuring 2.5 meters wide and 4 meters long and just like a regular apartment the capsules could be bought and sold one man lucky enough to own his own capsule since 2010 [Music] is the sad irony of the nakagen capsule tower is that the building that was meant to adapt and last forever will likely be gone in the next two to three years when the tower was built the original plan was to replace all the capsules every 25 years effectively dismantling the entire structure and reassembling it however to do that required not only money but the permission of all the owners of all the capsules given the removal of just one capsule would require many other capsules to be removed a pretty big flaw in the grand scheme of things perhaps unsurprisingly then none of the capsules were ever replaced and the building has fallen into disrepair underneath the impressive exterior the building of tomorrow is a crumbling asbestos-filled mess and today only a handful of residents actually live in the tower [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the sad truth is in recent times tokyo has faced a great deal of gentrification and many of the historic buildings with unique architectural characteristics are disappearing during the economic miracle architects could get away with pretty much anything not so much today you only have to look at the bland forgettable buildings that crowd around the nakagen capsule tower to get a sense of where things are heading joining us inside today is my good friend and tokyo real estate expert alex shapiro who can attest to the rapidly changing skyline over the last decade they have a very kind of utilitarian mindset towards architecture in japan for the most part particularly in cities right they just want it up they want to get the job done around here it's just these generic buildings you know you could be anywhere in the world it all looked the same until you've seen quite a few buildings disappear in recent years right yeah so you've had the sega building over in akihabara you also had harajuku which was one of my favorite buildings in tokyo actually was this old it looked like a house almost remember what that looked like yeah it was chaotic going through it but it looked nice i think that's the thing right they sort of think well let's just make something that's more easy and usable for people but utilitarian at the cost of design so i'm looking forward to going in though i've wanted to go in this building for nine years now and i've stood at this spot many times and taken photos and wanted to go in so i'm very excited let's go let's go check it out [Music] midasan is taking us on a tour of three separate capsules and the first one is the original untouched room [Music] foreign foreign [Music] interior foreign m foreign [Music] oh wow oh my god what an incredible view what incredible room pretty crazy huh it is as small as i imagined so it's nine meters square right yep and that's including all of everything here like all of the uh cabinets and everything but i love the way it's all sort of built into it right we've got the tv we've got the phone this what's this oh well this is a realtorial tape deck this is original from 1972. right so before they had cassettes and cds and all that you use these guys and you've probably seen this impulse fiction actually yeah yeah and then when she starts dancing exactly in the house yeah before she overdoses exactly so the tv might not work it might not work this might not work but the radio works in there yeah not very well [Music] that's maximum volume it's only coming from this speaker this guy's broken sadly but yeah it's very cool signing built to last the bed was here right the bed was right here you would sort of just sit on the floor maybe you know bash out a script listen to your music yep and then yeah click off yeah pick up your reel to reel and just pop into bed i wonder what it would have been like if the bib is here you've got to sort of look up at the tv a little bit oh yeah i don't even think about it man especially since this is supposed to be the head yeah how does that work i can't tell it's like slight 4 in a grand flat but let's look at the bathroom oh yeah it's it's so small but it kind of works yeah it's a nice deep bath you could actually you could sit in that and have a nice sort of deep bath we may stretch your legs god forbid no no this looks very seventies i like this yeah nice and the color very seventies looks like somebody was smoking in here for a long time they definitely work it's very minimalistic isn't it yeah i i don't know if i could live in a room this big maybe for like a few weeks it'll be kind of fun you can sort of sit by the window like at night i think this would be an incredible view sort of sitting on the bed looking out over the tokyo skyline and also if you like cooking i would not recommend this place for you because there's no kitchen there's no kitchen i didn't think about that yeah this is not a communal kitchen i don't think so okay yeah so mcdonald's every day basically well if you're in the middle of ginza that's one mcdonald's yoshinoya family mart job done who needs a kitchen anyway the second room that midasan shares with us is his own private space which he's modernized and turned into a room for social gatherings and events you ready to see the next one [Music] foreign yeah i can't think of putting ten people into this place that is crazy and again with this one there's no kitchen but there is actually a little fridge and microwave over there so you could you know do some bentos or something like that if you had them pre-made the final room is the most modern and stylish of the three it was a collaboration between the naked capsule tower and muji a popular japanese brand associated with selling household goods with a minimalistic aesthetic [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] this room is nice it is very nice it's very nice yeah this goes to show what you can do with this kind of space yeah i mean what nine meters squared right yeah a frighteningly small space to live in by taking out the whole modular 1970s space it does kind of work my only criticism is it almost just feels like a generic room right yeah without the sony kind of tech yeah retro tech it's kind of it misses some of the magic it does and you don't have the carpet either you have these nice wood floors i will say it was very nice it feels a lot bigger actually in my opinion could you live here that one i could totally live here no you could i could no you could i could have all my you know four items of clothing on the wall and yeah i can totally live here in this so you want to save the night i would love to i must the only thing i will say is a little damp it's kind of old a little musty yeah yeah give me the air con could be the fact this building's like 50 years old it's it's very stale in here i can get over it though get some incense sticks job done yeah one night only get out smoke yeah class man it'd be a very very short-lived uh stay in the room i think yeah the specialist [Music] you have to wonder had the capsules been built to last and not be replaced every 25 years perhaps the building's future would have been secured and it's fun to imagine at tokyo where the economic boom never ended and eccentric architects were given unlimited budgets and allowed to throw practicalities out the window who knows what the tokyo skyline might have looked like but unfortunately japan's economic bubble did burst in the early 90s in 2007 kishor kurukawa the designer of the capsule tower passed away and in recent years any hopes of receiving unesco world heritage status or any government protection have faded but there is a ray of hope recent crowdfunding efforts have been launched to try and preserve several capsules when the building is inevitably demolished [Music] [Music] i have to say that original capsule was so damn cool i imagine going back to 1972 everything brand new shiny white the panels the sony equipment that's like the tv the radio and everything yeah no it is awesome and still today i think it's really cool but at the same time i know you like it all shiny and new looking but at the same time i love it old and like dilapidated and decrepit and rusty and all that kind of stuff well i mean it is one step away from being a high kill right japanese abandoned building but there's been a very successful crowdfunding campaign which you can find in the description box below where they're going to try and preserve a few of the capsules right yeah they're going to be in probably museums all around the world hopefully hopefully so that's pretty promising but thank you alex for coming today check out alex's channel tokyo portfolio also linked in the description box below but for now guys always many thanks for watching abroad in japan we'll see you right back here do all over again in the next episode bye for now take it away [Music] you

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 2,261,878

Keywords: capsule hotel, capsule hotel japan, capsule hotel tokyo, nakagin, nakagin capsule tower, japan apartment, tokyo apartment, tokyo capsule hotel, abroad in japan, trash taste

Id: 6SwvtBxxp2w

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Lurker-kun]

Immortalized in Transport Tycoon Deluxe buildings sprites.

[u/instantnet]

No fresh air and potential fire hazard?

[u/Null_Fawkes]

Man his production keeps getting better. Really nice cinematography there.

[u/derpado514]

It's like a compact version of the Habitat 67 in Montreal

[u/Shayneros]

Imagine having to rent a 2nd apartment just to work overtime hours in.

[u/[deleted]]

It uses asbestos, that's pretty significant.

[u/Okuser]

You will live in the pod. You will eat the bugs.

[u/jaymx226]

I've been watching videos on YouTube for 15 years. Chris' channel is one of four that I'm subscribed to. He produces some great content

[u/amphetaminesfailure]

I'm still in the beginning of the video, and I'm not sure if this is brought up in more depth later on, but he said the capsules were supposed to be replaced every 25 years. The problem, is that it required a lot of money and permission of all the owners.

Is that not something that should have been contractually obligated in order to purchase one?

I'm sure it could have in the US, I'm wondering if there were laws in Japan that wouldn't allow something similar?