Fate of Tokyo's famed Nakagin Capsule Tower to be decided soon

The fate of Tokyo’s famed Nakagin Capsule Tower is set to be decided as early as autumn, attracting attention from home and abroad on whether the building and its unique exterior will be kept or scrapped. Currently, a foreign company is holding negotiations on acquiring the building, located in the upmarket Ginza district, and the talks are expected to conclude shortly. The building, which was completed in 1972, is a 13-story complex made of 140 independent housing module capsules. It is one of masterpieces of the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, known as one of the leaders of the postwar architectural movement called metabolism. Last year, Nakagin Integration Inc. sold the title to the land used for the building to a real estate company, according to Tatsuyuki Maeda, 52, who owns some of the capsules and heads a preservation project for the tower.