Companies

New Condo Building Blocking Mount Fuji View to Be Demolished

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, seen here, is home to the head office of Sekisui House, Ltd., which has decided to demolish a condo building in Tokyo.

Jiji Press

16:35 JST, June 11, 2024

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—A newly constructed condominium building in a Tokyo suburb that affects the view of Mount Fuji is set to be demolished, it has been learned.

Sekisui House Ltd., which constructed the building, decided the move just before delivery to buyers slated for as early as July, acting on concerns raised by local residents that the structure, located in Kunitachi, affects the view of 3,776-meter Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan and registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The 10-story condo building, called Grand Maison Kunitachi Fujimi Dori, is about a 10-minute walk from Kunitachi Station on the Chuo Line of East Japan Railway Co., or JR East.

It has a total of 18 housing units, priced mainly in a range from above ¥70 million to below ¥90 million .

Responding to the local residents’ concerns, Sekisui House held a briefing session for them and lowered the height of the building from the original plan. The Japanese homebuilder eventually decided to demolish the condo building, taking locals’ opinions seeking landscape conservation into consideration.

Sekisui House plans to offer financial compensation or other forms of redress to buyers of the condominium units. The company informed the Kunitachi municipal government on June 3 that it will scrap the condo project and dismantle the building.