Former Tokyo First Army Arsenal Headquarters (Chuo Park Cultural Center)

The white building in Chuo Park was constructed in 1930 and served as the headquarters office of the arsenal complex later known as the Tokyo First Army Arsenal. Its importance lies in its relationship to a much larger arms-manufacturing landscape: the former industrial grounds included areas now occupied by Chuo Park, the central library and Jujo Garrison. The surviving office offers an accessible place to understand how military production shaped this part of northern Tokyo during the Second World War.

This is an administrative building from the factory complex, rather than a surviving production line. Its reinforced-concrete structure remains in civic use and was selected as a Tokyo Metropolitan historic building in fiscal 2022. Beside the cultural center, outdoor displays of a boiler and part of a chimney from the arsenal's predecessor connect the offices to the energy infrastructure that supported manufacturing. They should be read as preserved industrial objects, not as an intact wartime factory installation.

After the war, U.S. forces took over part of the arsenal grounds and used this building. A campaign for the return of the property culminated in its return to Japan in 1971. It reopened as a cultural center in 1981, replacing military administration with spaces for local study, cultural activities and community groups.

The map marks the present cultural center at the former headquarters, using the municipality's published position. The building is a working public facility: rooms have their own booking and use arrangements, so access does not imply unrestricted tours of every interior space. Visitors can approach through Chuo Park, about a fifteen-minute walk from Oji or Jujo station, and see the building and nearby industrial displays together. Other former arsenal properties, including the active garrison, have different access rules.