For a country that places such importance on history and tradition, Japan can be surprisingly cavalier about preserving its historical buildings, as it tends to fatalistically accept — or positively welcome — the old making way for the new.
According to a report presented at a recent meeting of the Architectural Institute of Japan (Nihon Kenchiku Gakkai), over the past 30 years almost 75 percent of the notable examples of modern architecture built in Tokyo from the start of the Meiji Era in 1868 up to the start of World War II have been lost. Of the 2,196 such buildings listed in 1980, only 830 were still standing in 2000. Now that number has dwindled to 585.
Although there seems to be a growing consensus on the value of preserving Meiji Era brick buildings, later-era concrete or wooden buildings present a more difficult case. For example, should the remaining elementary schools built after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 be preserved? Since wooden schools did not survive the quake, 117 were constructed with the then new technology of ferro-concrete and equipped with heating and running-water toilets.