Akasaka Palace (State Guest House)

Akasaka Palace (赤坂離宮, Akasaka Rikyū), now known as the State Guest House, Akasaka Palace (迎賓館赤坂離宮, Geihinkan Akasaka Rikyū), is a grand Neo-Baroque palace located in Moto-Akasaka, Minato Ward, Tokyo. Designed by court architect Katayama Tōkuma — a student of British architect Josiah Conder at the Imperial College of Engineering — the palace was constructed between 1899 and 1909. It was built as the Tōgū Gosho (Crown Prince's Palace) for Crown Prince Yoshihito, who would later become Emperor Taishō. The palace's design drew inspiration from European palaces, particularly the Hofburg in Vienna and elements of the Palace of Versailles, making it one of the largest and most ornate Western-style buildings constructed during the Meiji era.

Following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, the palace served as the temporary residence of Prince Regent Hirohito (later Emperor Shōwa) from 1923 to 1928. In the interwar years the palace also hosted distinguished foreign dignitaries, including the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) in 1922 and Manchukuo Emperor Puyi in 1935. The palace thus played a significant role in Japan's diplomatic relations during the interwar period.

During World War II, the Akasaka Palace survived the devastating firebombing raids on Tokyo in 1945, one of the few major structures in the capital to emerge from the war relatively intact. In the immediate postwar period, the building's ownership was transferred from the Imperial Household to the Japanese government in 1948. Rather than being requisitioned by GHQ/SCAP as a military facility — unlike many other prominent Tokyo buildings — it was repurposed for various governmental functions. From 1948, it housed the newly established National Diet Library (until 1961), the Attorney General's Legislation Opinion Bureau (until 1960), the Judge Impeachment Court (until 1970), the Ministry of Justice's Litigation Bureau (until 1961), and later the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee (1961-1965).

As postwar Japan returned to the international stage and required proper facilities to host foreign dignitaries, a cabinet decision in 1967 designated the former Akasaka Palace as the site for a new State Guest House. Architect Tōgo Murano led a comprehensive renovation from 1968 to 1974, costing 10.8 billion yen. The renovated palace reopened as the Geihinkan (State Guest House) in 1974, with U.S. President Gerald Ford as its first official state guest. Since then, it has hosted numerous heads of state and international events, including three G7 summits (1979, 1986, 1993).

In 2009, on the centennial of its completion, the main building, the main gate, and the garden fountain were designated as a National Treasure of Japan. Today, the Akasaka Palace is open for public tours and stands as one of the finest surviving examples of Meiji-era Western architecture, bearing witness to Japan's modernization, its wartime survival, postwar transformation, and its role as a venue for international diplomacy.