Former Ministry of Communications (Teishin-shō)

The Ministry of Communications (逓信省, Teishin-shō) was established on December 22, 1885 (Meiji 18) as part of the Meiji government's modernization of Japan's communications infrastructure. It was a Cabinet-level ministry responsible for administering the nation's postal services (郵便), telegraph (電信), telephone (電話), and later broadcasting (放送) systems.

The ministry's original headquarters was located in Kobiki-chō, Kyōbashi (present-day Ginza area), where it operated from a Western-style building completed in June 1909 (replacing one lost to fire in 1907). Following the Great Kantō Earthquake of September 1, 1923, which destroyed the Kyōbashi building, the ministry relocated to a temporary wooden structure in Ōtemachi, Kōjimachi Ward (present-day Chiyoda Ward), completed in April 1924. The Ōtemachi location, at the former site of the Cabinet Printing Bureau (内閣印刷局), became the ministry's main base of operations through much of the wartime period.

During the 1930s and into WWII, the Ministry of Communications played a critical role in Japan's wartime mobilization. Its key wartime functions included:

1. Communications Control (通信統制): The ministry exercised comprehensive control over all civilian telecommunications, including telegraph and telephone networks. This ensured that communication channels served military priorities and that sensitive information could be monitored and restricted.

2. Postal Censorship (郵便検閲): Ministry personnel served as military-attached civilians (軍属) at field post offices (野戦郵便局) and naval military mail offices (海軍軍用郵便所), conducting censorship of soldiers' correspondence. The ministry's regional communications bureaus (逓信局) in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Kumamoto, Sapporo, and Sendai had staff who reviewed broadcasts and communications.

3. Broadcasting Regulation: The ministry supervised NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and controlled all radio broadcasting content through its monitoring division, ensuring alignment with wartime propaganda objectives.

4. Military Postal System (軍事郵便): The ministry managed the military postal system that connected soldiers at the front with their families at home. It coordinated postal services across the expanding empire, including occupied territories.

In 1940, a lightning strike caused a major fire at the ministry's Aviation Bureau annex in Ōtemachi, destroying multiple government buildings in the area. On November 1, 1943, as part of wartime administrative consolidation, the Ministry of Communications was merged with the Ministry of Railways (鉄道省) to form the Ministry of Transport and Communications (運輸通信省). The communications functions were placed under the Communications Agency (通信院, Tsūshin-in), an external bureau of the new combined ministry.

On May 19, 1945, as the war situation deteriorated, the Communications Agency was separated from the Ministry of Transport and Communications and reorganized as the Communications Board (逓信院, Teishin-in), directly under the Cabinet. The transport ministry was simultaneously renamed the Ministry of Transport (運輸省).

After Japan's surrender in August 1945, the Communications Board was dissolved on July 1, 1946, and the Ministry of Communications was re-established, though with a narrower mandate covering only postal services, telecommunications, postal savings, simple life insurance, and aviation safety. In 1949, it was further split into the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (郵政省) and the Ministry of Telecommunications (電気通信省).

The original Ōtemachi site later housed the Teishin Building (逓信ビル), which contained the Communications Museum (逓信総合博物館, known as "Teipark") from 1964 until its closure in 2013 due to area redevelopment. The museum collection was relocated to the Postal Museum (郵政博物館) in Tokyo Skytree Town. Today, the former ministry site in Ōtemachi has been completely redeveloped into modern office towers, with no visible remnants of the wartime government buildings.