Kabukiza Tower

A 29-story, 145-meter office tower completed in 2013 atop the rebuilt Kabukiza theater in Ginza. Kengo Kuma clad the facade in a lattice of white louvers evoking traditional Japanese stripe patterns.

Use

Office tower

Area

Chuo City

Completed

2013

Floors

29 above ground

Height

145 m

Developer

Shochiku Co., Ltd.

Architect

Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei / Kengo Kuma and Associates

A Vertical Stripe Above Ginza’s Landmark Theater

Rising 145 meters above the East Ginza intersection, Kabukiza Tower is a 29-story office building completed in 2013 and directly connected to Tokyo Metro Higashi-Ginza Station. Its most striking feature is the facade of white angled louvers arranged in a grid, a motif that Kengo Kuma described as a contemporary translation of the vertical stripe patterns worn in kabuki performance. The design was a joint effort between Kuma’s office and Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei.

The site has housed kabuki’s Tokyo home for over a century. The previous fourth-generation Kabukiza, built in 1950 and refurbished in 1975, was demolished in 2010 after decades of aging. Redeveloping it as a tower-and-theater hybrid made it possible to preserve the kabuki stage in its historical location while adding income-generating office floors above.

A Stacked City in Three Layers

The building is organized in three distinct zones. Underground, a shopping concourse links directly to the subway station and wraps around ticketing and retail. The second through fourth floors house the rebuilt theater, which seats more than 1,800 people and recreates the distinctive curved gable roof and vermilion colonnade of the earlier Kabukiza. From the fifth floor upward, independent structural systems carry the office tower, acoustically isolated from the stage below.

The fifth floor hosts Kabukiza Gallery, where stage props and costumes are displayed year-round, giving visitors without theater tickets a way to engage with kabuki culture. Upper floors offer views toward Tokyo Bay and Tokyo Skytree, while the louver system reduces direct solar gain through the glazed curtain wall.

Summary

Completed in 2013, Kabukiza Tower stands 145 meters tall across 29 stories and brings together one of Japan’s most culturally significant performing arts venues with a modern commercial tower. Its latticework silhouette is a fixture of the Ginza skyline. On your next visit to East Ginza, look up from the ground-level colonnade to trace the transition from vermilion columns to white steel louvers — tradition and contemporary structure in one continuous facade.

Nearby, Ginza Six and the surrounding Chuo City blocks offer a full afternoon of architectural contrasts just a short walk away.