Bank of Japan Head Office

The Bank of Japan Head Office (日本銀行本店, Nippon Ginkō Honten) stands at 2-1-1 Nihonbashi-Hongokucho, Chuo Ward, Tokyo, on the site of a former gold mint (Kinza) in the historic Nihonbashi financial district. Designed by architect Tatsuno Kingo (辰野金吾, 1854-1919), who studied under Josiah Conder at the Imperial College of Engineering and later trained in Europe, the building was the first major Western-style institutional structure in Japan designed entirely by a Japanese architect.

Construction began in September 1890 and was completed in February 1896, spanning roughly six years. Tatsuno personally studied European central bank architecture, visiting the National Bank of Belgium (designed by Henri Beyaert) and the Bank of England before finalizing his Neo-Baroque design. The three-story stone-and-brick structure features Renaissance exterior elements with elaborate Neo-Baroque interiors. When viewed from above, the building's footprint famously resembles the kanji character "円" (en/yen), though the Bank itself says this was not intentional, and banknotes of the time used the older character form 圓.

The building incorporated remarkably advanced facilities for Meiji-era Japan: an Otis water-pressure freight elevator (only Japan's second elevator and its first foreign-made one), flush toilets, and fire shutters. Subsequent additions expanded the complex — Building 2 (begun in 1932), Building 3 (completed in 1938), the New Building (1973), and the South Annex (1984).

WARTIME ROLE (1937-1945):

As Japan's central bank, the Bank of Japan played a pivotal role in financing the nation's military expansion and total war effort from its Nihonbashi headquarters:

1. WAR FINANCING: Following the outbreak of full-scale war with China in 1937, the BOJ adopted an unconditional purchase policy for government bonds after the failed public placement of the "Ri" 3.5% Treasury bond. This effectively meant the central bank directly financed military spending with no fiscal restraint, printing money to absorb war bonds that the public market could not digest. The Special Account Act for Extraordinary Military Budget (臨時軍事費特別会計法) channeled astronomical sums through the BOJ — total wartime military expenditure reached approximately 176 billion yen, dwarfing the peacetime national budget.

2. MILITARY SCRIP (GUNPYO): The BOJ oversaw the issuance of military yen (軍用手票, gun'yō shuhyō) — unbacked currency forced upon occupied populations across Southeast Asia, China, and the Pacific Islands. The Southern Development Bank (南方開発金庫), operating under BOJ coordination, issued over 20 billion yen in unbacked scrip, causing hyperinflation in occupied territories. In the Philippines, the cost of living rose 143 times between December 1941 and August 1945; in Burma, 1,856 times.

3. WARTIME INFLATION AND PRICE CONTROLS: To suppress the inflationary pressure of unlimited money creation, the government and BOJ relied on financial repression and direct price controls. These measures were partially effective while the war continued, but uncontrollable inflation broke out near the war's end and accelerated after surrender. Black market prices vastly exceeded official rates.

4. THE BANK OF JAPAN ACT OF 1942: In February 1942, the Diet passed a new Bank of Japan Act modeled on Nazi Germany's Reichsbank law, stripping the BOJ of its independence and placing it firmly under government control. The Act made the BOJ an instrument of national policy, legally obligating it to "ensure the appropriate operation of the currency and finance of the nation in accordance with national policy."

OCCUPATION AND POSTWAR REFORM (1945-1952):

After Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, the BOJ headquarters became the focal point of Allied occupation financial reforms:

• The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) worked through the BOJ to implement emergency currency stabilization measures, including the deposit freeze (預金封鎖, yokin fūsa) of February 1946, which attempted to confiscate wartime profits and combat hyperinflation by converting old yen to new yen.
• In 1949, Detroit banker Joseph Dodge arrived as financial advisor to SCAP and implemented the "Dodge Line" (ドッジ・ライン) — a set of draconian contractionary fiscal and monetary policies. The Dodge Line balanced the national budget, fixed the exchange rate at 360 yen to the dollar, and brought rampant inflation under control, though at the cost of severe economic hardship and rising unemployment.
• The Diet passed the Public Finance Act, which in Article 5 prohibited the Bank of Japan from underwriting government debt in principle, a direct repudiation of wartime monetary policy.
• The 1942 Bank of Japan Act was amended in June 1949 to create the Policy Board, though the wartime law itself remained in force until the comprehensive reform of 1997.

The BOJ headquarters survived the war relatively intact despite the devastating firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. On February 5, 1974, the older portions of the building complex (the original 1896 Honkan and related Meiji-era structures) were designated as a National Important Cultural Property (国指定重要文化財). The building continues to serve as the operational headquarters of Japan's central bank and offers public guided tours of the historic main building, including the underground vault and former banking floor.