100 Stories2003 The Reconstruction of the Dojunkai Edogawa Apartments, the Best Apartments in the East!

Some apartments gained public attention and were known to be the best in the east.
These are the Edogawa Apartments located in Shinjuku, Tokyo. They were built by Dojunkai, an association set up after the 1923 Kanto earthquake to support reconstruction.

The Apartments built by Dojunkai were known as Dojunkai Apartments and were made of reinforced concrete with high durability. At the time, they were considered to have advanced designs and equipment, especially the equipment installed in Edogawa Apartments was the center of attraction.

The condominium was built on a 2061-tsubo land with 257 apartments. They have more than 30 different layouts. In terms of equipment, they had flush toilets and central heating. They were even fully equipped with elevators even though they were built in the early Showa period.

Being a state-of-the-art building at the time, there were high standards to move in it. Many of the owners and tenants were well-known public figures, including many politicians, people of culture, and actors. Some examples include the psychiatrist Nada Inada, the creator of the manga comics Golgo 13 Takao Saito, Shoyo Tsubouchi’s granddaughter and actress Mikiko Tsubouchi, and other literary scholars, novelists, and film directors.

However, as time passed, people were considering the reconstruction of the Edogawa Apartments in the 1960s. The foundation of the building had deteriorated, causing it to tilt and the roofs were leaking. However, the opinion of experts who promoted the preservation of the building prevailed, and therefore the building was neither repaired nor renovated. The reconstruction discussion was brought up multiple times but disappeared right away.

Despite it being a popular property, the rights to the building were complicated and the reconstruction conditions were not favorable to the owners. Real estate developers did not get involved because many of the tenants were elderly people, and the Edogawa Apartments remained the way they were built in the early Showa period for almost 70 years.

During this time, the Urban Development Department at Asahi Kasei Homes came forward (currently Asahi Kasei Realty & Residence) in 2000. However, at the time, the department was experienced in condominium projects that use the equivalent exchange system, which is based on building consensus with landowners, but they had no experience in reconstruction.

For them, it was uncharted territory, but the head of the department, Sadatoshi Sekine expresses his thoughts at the time as follows.

“At the time, there were only about 100 places that worked in reconstruction in the entirety of Japan, so I honestly thought that whoever does take on this job will probably be a beginner at it. Additionally, we had experience building consensus with 27 landowners and building high-rise condominiums using the equivalent exchange system the previous year. This time we just have to do the same 10 times more! We’ve got this! We were very excited about it.”

With that, they started the individual meeting with 230 parties in the summer of 2001, which took two months to finish. In the scorching heat, they negotiated with one party after another in one of the apartments of the Edogawa Apartments, which were not equipped with air conditioners, wearing a single shirt and covered in sweat.

They continued making steady efforts believing that building consensus is not about asking for the right holders’ approval but rather solving their problems and eliminating their concerns.

Their hard work gradually started bearing fruit in autumn. They also went to meet with unit owners who lived far away in Hiroshima and Yamaguchi. Led by Sekine, the passion of the employees was communicated to the owners. There were high hopes for finally executing the reconstruction that was not progressing for decades.

On March 23, 2002, the reconstruction was decided. They were able to make a change in the Edogawa Apartments, which were known for their delayed reconstruction.

Asahi Kasei believed that reconstructing a condominium meant reconstructing an assembly of individual homes. This concept was applied in the actual reconstruction, communicating with each and every owner with sincerity to overcome this difficult situation. This made the company well-known as “Asahi Kasei for condominium reconstruction” in the industry. After that, they continuously succeeded in their epoch-making reconstruction projects, including the reconstruction of the first private condominium Yotsuya Corporate House and the first public condominium Miyamasuzaka Building.