Architecture
Prime Minister's Official Residence (Former Prime Minister's Office)
- Hours
- Visiting hours are not published.
- How to visit
- The grounds are not open to the public; the complex can only be viewed from surrounding streets. The interior is not open for visits.
- Hours
- About 30 min
Why it is worth the detour
Rebels stormed this 1929 building seeking Prime Minister Okada Keisuke but killed his brother-in-law, Matsuo Denzō, after mistaking him for Okada. The prime minister hid inside for more than a day and escaped among visitors arriving to mourn his supposed death; the historic building was later shifted within the compound and converted into the official residence.
The Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo is a historic 1929 building known for a dramatic incident involving Prime Minister Okada Keisuke. It was later converted into the official residence.
The people behind this address
Documented connections, not celebrity trivia.
Okada Keisuke
As prime minister he occupied the building, survived the rebel assault and escaped after being officially reported dead.
What else is close by
The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.
300 m
Sanno Hotel Site
The Sanno Hotel, replaced by Sanno Park Tower, became a principal rebel stronghold after the assassinations and occupation of central Tokyo. Soldiers barricaded themselves in the fashionable hotel while loyal forces gathered outside and imperial orders transformed the self-styled reformers into officially condemned rebels.
400 m
National Diet Building
The Lockheed scandal became national theater here when Marubeni executives testified before the House of Representatives Budget Committee in February and March 1976. Their denials about coded “peanuts” receipts were later judged to be false testimony, fixing the word “peanuts” in Japan’s political vocabulary as shorthand for covert money.
750 m
Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters Site
Rebel troops occupied the police headquarters beside Sakuradamon early on February 26, temporarily neutralizing the civilian force expected to defend the capital. The police leadership rejected proposals for a direct armed counterattack, leaving the army to suppress its own mutiny.
1.1 km
Sakuradamon Gate
The 1620s gate of Edo Castle where in 1860 the shogun's chief minister Ii Naosuke was assassinated in the snow.
1.2 km
Hibiya Park
Opened in 1903 as Japan's first Western-style modern urban park, Hibiya became a stage for concerts, demonstrations and mass politics.
1.2 km
Takahashi Korekiyo Memorial Park
This quiet garden occupies the grounds of Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo’s residence, where rebel soldiers assassinated him in his upstairs bedroom on February 26, 1936. The house was later moved elsewhere, but the surviving garden and bronze statue make this one of the clearest physical traces of the coup attempt.
Walk it with the stories
This address is one stop among many. Our routes and quests link them into a walk that makes sense on the ground.