Old Prime Minister's Official Residence (Surrender Rescript Drafting Site)

The old Prime Minister's Official Residence (旧内閣総理大臣官邸, Kyū Naikaku Sōri Daijin Kantei) is a reinforced concrete Art Deco building completed in March 1929 at Nagatacho 2-chome, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. Designed by architect Shimoda Kikutarō, this three-story structure served as both the executive office and official residence of the Prime Minister of Japan from 1929 until 2002, when the new Kantei was built adjacent to it. The old building was then relocated approximately 50 meters south in 2005, carefully restored, and repurposed as the Prime Minister's Residential Quarters (内閣総理大臣公邸, Sōri Kōtei).

During the final days of the Pacific War, this building became the epicenter of Japan's most consequential political deliberations. When the first Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi) on August 9–10, 1945 resulted in Emperor Hirohito's unprecedented personal decision (聖断, Seidan) to accept the Potsdam Declaration, Chief Cabinet Secretary Sakomizu Hisatsune (迫水久常, 1902–1977) immediately began preparations to draft the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War (大東亜戦争終結ノ詔書).

Working within the Cabinet Secretariat (内閣官房) offices of the Kantei, Sakomizu assembled a small, trusted team: Kawata Mizuho (川田瑞穂), a scholar of Chinese classics serving as Cabinet consultant (内閣嘱託), was the primary drafter of the literary Chinese text; Kihara Michio (木原通雄) and Sakomizu Hisayoshi (迫水久良), both Cabinet consultants, assisted; Ogawa Ippei (小川一平), a Cabinet administrative committee member, and Tajiri Aiyoshi (田尻愛義), Vice-Minister of Greater East Asian Affairs, provided input. The Confucian scholar Yasuoka Masahiro (安岡正篤), serving as consultant to the Greater East Asia Ministry, made critical revisions to the third draft, contributing the iconic phrase "堪ヘ難キヲ堪ヘ忍ヒ難キヲ忍ヒ" ("enduring the unendurable, bearing the unbearable").

The drafting process went through at least nine iterations between August 10 and 14. On August 14, the Cabinet met in this building for a lengthy session to finalize the rescript's wording, with members and advisors raising numerous objections and amendments. Simultaneously, Cabinet Secretary Sano Komonta (佐野小門太) began preparing the official promulgation copy (公布原本) in parallel. The final text was approved at approximately 11:00 PM on August 14.

Following Cabinet approval, the rescript was taken to the Imperial Palace where Emperor Hirohito affixed the Imperial Seal (御璽). That same night, between 11:25 PM and midnight, the Emperor recorded two readings of the rescript in the Imperial Household Ministry building within the Palace grounds. On August 15 at noon, the recording was broadcast to the nation via NHK radio — the historic Gyokuon-hōsō (玉音放送, "Jewel Voice Broadcast"), the first time the Japanese public had ever heard the Emperor's voice.

During the night of August 14–15, a group of military officers led by Major Hatanaka Kenji launched a coup attempt (the Kyūjō Incident, 宮城事件) to prevent the broadcast. Rebels occupied the Imperial Palace and searched for the recording, even storming the NHK broadcasting studios. Prime Minister Suzuki Kantarō's Kantei was also targeted — soldiers of the self-styled "National Kamikaze Corps" (国民神風隊) led by Army Captain Sasaki Takeo attempted to set fire to the Prime Minister's residence. The coup ultimately failed, and the broadcast proceeded as planned.

The old Kantei building, though relocated and restored, retains its original 1929 architectural character. It is not open to the public, but its exterior can be observed from adjacent streets near the National Diet Building. As the site where Japan's instrument of surrender was composed, it represents one of the most historically significant locations of the Pacific War's endgame.