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The story
The thread kicked off with a confession: “I always thought Shinjuku and Shibuya wards were the top-tier areas of Tokyo.” As replies piled up, commenters argued that Chiyoda ward — home to the Imperial Palace and the National Diet Building — and Minato ward — packed with embassies and upscale residential districts — are the “true elite” of the capital. Others pushed back, noting that Shinjuku and Shibuya still beat them in name recognition as entertainment districts, and the debate split over what standard should even be used to measure a ward’s "status." The conversation gradually drifted into tangents about Saitama’s Isetan department store, NHK’s relocation, and historical trivia involving Ota Dokan and Emperor Meiji.
What people said
Plus a stretch of just a few dozen meters in the north that pokes outside the Yamanote Line.
Chiyoda and Minato don't have entertainment districts that beat Shinjuku or Shibuya.
And Ginza's actually in Chuo ward anyway.
Shibuya's got Shoto too.
Both are older, more prestigious upscale residential areas than anything Minato's got.
Honda's place doesn't even come close.
Broadly defined, it's the old 15 wards of former Tokyo City.
Just a little trivia for you.
Inside the Yamanote loop → rent's too high.
East side of the Yamanote Line → floods in heavy rain, weak against earthquakes, basically unlivable.
Probably embassy-related people, since it's close to the embassies.
Since Fuji TV and Bunka Broadcasting both moved out, the area's basically turned into an ordinary residential neighborhood.
parts of Koto, Setagaya, and Toshima.
Meanwhile places like Shibuya and Hatagaya kind of suck.
Leave out even one and things get thrown off.
Personally, I'm rooting for Rikkyo University in Ikebukuro.
As for Shinjuku, Kabukicho has surprisingly declined — I feel like plastic surgery culture is what's trending there now.
It's stylish, sure, but whether it's got much culture beyond that is questionable.
They don't feel like they're thriving.
Though there are plenty of normies (outgoing, high-energy types) around.
It doesn't have a single millimeter of style either.
The most stylish, upscale department store brand in Japan is Isetan.
And Isetan only exists in Tokyo's Shinjuku and in Urawa, Saitama City.
Which means the pinnacle of Japanese style is… Saitama lol
Tokyo Girls Collection
https://tgc.girlswalker.com/25aw/
https://tgc.girlswalker.com/24aw/
All the gal shop clerks and "house mannequins" (in-house fashion models) working at Shibuya 109 take paid leave and rush over to Saitama — it's that important an event.
but before Shibusawa developed it, it was nothing but farmland.
Eiichi Shibusawa only contributed the idea for Denenchofu.
The actual founder of Tokyu was Keita Goto, a former Railway Ministry bureaucrat.
The most venerable, old-guard department store in the Kansai region is Sogo, which originated in Osaka.
But Sogo cried out, "Kansai's full of poor people, sales just won't go up!!",
closed every single one of its Kansai stores, and pulled out of the region entirely.
Then, fighting for survival, it expanded into the Kanto region —
one store in Yokohama, one in Chiba —
and, relying on Saitama the most, opened two stores there: one in Kawaguchi and one in Omiya, Saitama City.
NHK is relocating from Shibuya to Kawaguchi, Saitama.
https://gendai.media/articles/-/149886
https://www.nhk.or.jp/info/pressrelease/assets/pdf/2026/20260401.pdf
Top-tier actors and actresses gathered from all over Japan will be filming their dramas here from now on lolololol
Going forward, even the historical dramas will be filmed in Saitama lol
NHK is relocating from Shibuya to Kawaguchi, Saitama.
https://gendai.media/articles/-/149886
https://www.nhk.or.jp/info/pressrelease/assets/pdf/2026/20260401.pdf
Top-tier actors and actresses gathered from all over Japan will be filming their dramas here from now on lolololol
Forget what exactly he did, though.
He's the guy who originally built Edo Castle.
Ieyasu basically borrowed the castle Ota Dokan built, renovated it, and moved in.
When Emperor Meiji left Kyoto and relocated to Edo, the very first place in the Kanto region he made an imperial visit to was
Omiya Station.
It was even proclaimed that "Omiya, in Musashi Province, shall become the capital of our nation."
https://saitama-rekimin.spec.ed.jp/tokubetsukikakuten/kakotokubetsuten/meijitennou
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Debates over the “status” of Tokyo’s 23 wards tend to talk past each other because there are multiple, competing yardsticks to begin with — real estate prices, the presence of the Imperial Palace or the National Diet Building, the concentration of embassies, the presence of historic mansions, and so on. Chiyoda and Minato wards concentrate facilities that project “authority” — government institutions, embassies, and the former mansions of the old nobility — while Shinjuku and Shibuya built their reputations through dense entertainment and commercial districts, so which one counts as “the face of Tokyo” really depends on where you stand. The thread repeatedly brought up Saitama’s Isetan store and NHK’s move to Kawaguchi, but this is a classic 5ch running gag that pokes fun at the Saitama-versus-Tokyo rivalry — best enjoyed as a tangent rather than taken as administrative fact. The anecdotes about Ota Dokan and Emperor Meiji are grounded in historical fact, though the finer details as presented in individual posts haven’t been independently verified.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “I’m just a dumb country bumpkin, so I mistakenly thought Tokyo’s top-tier areas were “Shinjuku” and “Shibuya”.”
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