Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo

Roppongi (六 本 木Japanese, literally six trees ) is part of the Borough of Minato, Tokyo, the Roppongi intersection as the center. In Roppongi Roppongi Station is the stop as the subways Toei Oedo Line and the Tokyo Metro Hibiya the line.

Nightlife

Roppongi is spatially close to the government district and so many embassies, a U.S. Army barracks and administration, as well as a large number of corporate headquarters of international companies. Therefore, it developed after the Second World War, particularly from the 1960s, a central meeting place for foreigners and internationally oriented, young, mostly rich Japanese.

The climax had Roppongi nightlife in the Bubble Economy - phase in the second half of the 1980s, when a large number of nightclubs and bars put on the entertainment elite. With the collapse of the Bubble Economy in the early 1990s, however, many of the discos and clubs would get into a crisis. Outstanding was the now demolished Velfarre, which was inaugurated at the end of the boom and then the biggest disco in Asia was at that time with outstanding lighting and sound system. With the closure of Vanilla in March 2007, the last big club has disappeared from this area. Nevertheless, and Roppongi is always characterized by many small clubs and discos, which results in that after Kabuki -chō in Shinjuku - the third largest concentration of nightclubs and bars - with a lot of red light district - and Shibuya - with entertainment for the youth Tokyo.

The politicians of the district Minato, located in the Roppongi, strive to Roppongi to make more and more of a business and shopping district, away from the night entertainment image. This line in conjunction with the policy of the hard hand against drugs and prostitution of the reigning since 1999 the Governor of the Prefecture capital Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, has meant that no nightclubs with licenses for dancing after 2 clock at night, there are more since 2006. In practice, however, has changed little; the countless clubs and discos have like the celebrity disco Lexington Queen either self-appointed 'members' clubs declared (which solely and recognizable only by a "Members Only " sign at the entrance ), or they have, as the more gas Panic clubs, a few tables and stools set up in the dance floor, which should restrain dancing, but will ( probably so from the outset planned ) just dancing around in practice.

Shopping and office complexes

A new impetus was given Roppongi in 2003 by the almost 2.5 billion euros expensive Roppongi Hills complex. The central Mori Tower with a height of 238 m, 54 floors houses, inter alia, the Mori Art Museum, the Virgin Toho large cinema, a large number of luxury restaurants and chain stores, as well as the offices of many well-known companies such as Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, J -WAVE, Konami, Rakuten, Livedoor and Yahoo Japan. Attached to this are the Grand Hyatt Hotel Tokyo, the studios of TV Asahi, and two high-rise buildings with luxury apartments.

A further step was the completion of the Tokyo Midtown complex of the Mitsui group in March 2007. During Roppongi Hills is characterized by its luxurious -looking design and high rents and increasingly has trouble finding tenants, the Midtown Project is priced at attractive rents and shops designed.

Both complexes are connected via the Roppongi station directly to the underground network of the Hibiya Line or Toei Oedo Line.