After half a century of sitting idle, city plans for a 174-hectare resort in Himeji will officially be shelved at the end of this month. The sprawling waterfront resort was going to have a marina, aquarium, hotel, shopping mall, 500 homes, and 3,600 apartments. 

Development discussions started in 1971 during Japan’s economic miracle but stalled after the crash of the asset bubble in the early 1990s. Project costs were estimated at 135 billion Yen (approx. 1.25 billion USD). Annual visitors were forecast to be 4,500,000 – about three times the number that visit nearby Himeji Castle.

Almost as soon as detailed plans were made public, the economic downtown hit, leaving the land sitting idle and unsold. The vacant fields are now used for industrial waste disposal and solar farms.  Some locals are optimistic about its future, with undeveloped, waterfront land of this size in an urban setting a rare thing for Japan.

The national government is also considering a new expressway that will connect Kobe City with Taishi City. Part of the expressway may cross over this land.

Source: The Kobe Shimbun, July 15, 2019.

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