City acquires 1600-yr old tomb from construction company

Ichihara City in Chiba Prefecture has acquired a large parcel of land that includes an ancient ‘kofun’ burial mound thought to have been built sometime in the 4th century.

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Heritage-listed ryokan in Chiba to close and be demolished

The latest coronavirus-related closure in Japan’s hotel industry is the heritage-listed Kappo Ryokan Tamagawa in Funabashi, Chiba. On May 19, the operator announced that the ryokan had closed permanently at the end of April. No time will be wasted, with demolition of the 92-year old ryokan to start as early as June.

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Chiba’s Namegawa Island to be redeveloped into hotel

The property in 1975.

There are plans to redevelop the former Namegawa Island zoo and garden in Chiba Prefecture into a 228-room resort hotel. Construction on the tentatively-named Katsuura Seaside Park Resort is scheduled to start in 2020 with completion by 2024.Read more


Greater Tokyo's largest apartment development announced

Makuhari New Town Wakaba Residential District

Chiba Prefecture announced the three developers that have been chosen to work on a large-scale apartment project in Makuhari New City in Chiba. Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Jisho and Nomura Real Estate will begin work on a 180 billion Yen (1.5 billion USD) residential complex with approximately 4,300 apartments. When complete, it will be the largest apartment complex in the greater Tokyo area.

To appeal to young family buyers, prices will kept at affordable levels, with some suggesting they could be around the 40 million Yen (335,000 USD) range. The complex will house as many as 10,000 residents when complete.Read more


Does your apartment building have earthquake insurance?

*If you own an apartment in Japan, you can take out optional earthquake insurance. This insurance only covers your apartment and does not cover the common areas of the building or the structure itself. The management association for the building can take out earthquake insurance on the common areas, but as it turns out, less than a third of all buildings are covered.

Owners of apartments in uninsured buildings are facing great repair bills as a result of the March 11 Tohoku Earthquake.Read more


Damage to Urayasu City and Tokyo Disneyland

The effects of March 11's earthquake were felt in Tokyo's bayside area which is mostly reclaimed land. There were cases of liquefaction, broken water pipes, gas outages and leaning buildings.

"The north side of our house has sunk about 20cm due to liquefaction and is leaning. Watery sand covered the garden." - reported one resident.Read more