Former Imperial Theatre Site (Marunouchi)

The Imperial Theatre (帝国劇場, Teikoku Gekijō), commonly known as "Teigeki" (帝劇), was Japan's first Western-style theater. Located in Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, it was conceived by former Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi and industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi in 1906 as part of Japan's drive to modernize and match Western cultural institutions. The four-story Renaissance-style building, designed by architect Yokogawa Tamisuke, opened on March 1, 1911, with formal inaugural performances beginning March 4.

The theater quickly became the premier venue for both traditional Japanese performing arts and Western opera and drama. During its early decades, it hosted kabuki, shinpa, and shingeki productions alongside Western operas and concerts, playing a central role in Japan's cultural life through the Taishō and early Shōwa periods. The 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake severely damaged the building when fire spread from the adjacent Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, but architect Yokogawa oversaw repairs and the theater reopened in 1924. In 1930, the Shōchiku company assumed management and converted the theater into a first-run Western film house. In 1939, Tōhō acquired the operating company, and when Shōchiku's lease expired in 1940, Tōhō restored live theatrical performances.

However, the return to live theater was short-lived. On September 16, 1940, the Cabinet Information Bureau (内閣情報部, later elevated to 内閣情報局) requisitioned the Imperial Theatre as its office building. The last theatrical performance — by the Shinkokugeki (新国劇) company — took place on September 15, 1940. The Cabinet Information Bureau was a key organ of Japan's wartime propaganda apparatus, responsible for censorship of media, coordination of national policy films (国策映画), and management of information dissemination. The choice of the Imperial Theatre as its headquarters was symbolically significant: the nation's most prestigious cultural venue was literally taken over by the wartime state's propaganda machinery.

As the war intensified and food shortages became critical, the theater's underground cafeteria was converted in January 1944 into a "zōsui shokudō" (雑炊食堂) — a congee kitchen open to the general public, serving thin rice porridge to civilians struggling with wartime rationing. This transformation of a once-elite cultural space into a wartime soup kitchen epitomized the hardships of the home front.

After Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, the theater was released from government use. The first postwar performance, "Ginza Fukkō" staged by the company of Onoe Kikugorō VI, took place in October 1945. During the Allied occupation (1945–1952), the theater served as an important entertainment venue. The original Meiji-era building, used mainly as a Cinerama cinema from 1955, was closed in 1964, demolished, and replaced by a modern theater designed by architect Taniguchi Yoshirō. The new 1,897-seat theater opened on September 29, 1966, and continued as Tōhō's flagship venue until its closure in February 2025 for a further redevelopment, with a third-generation building planned for completion around 2030.