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The story
On September 17, 2026, a large mixed-use complex called “JIYUGAOKA MUSE SQUARE” opened in front of Jiyugaoka Station on the Tokyu Toyoko and Oimachi Lines. The operators say they’re looking toward “the next 100 years,” and have positioned Futako-Tamagawa as a rival. On 5ch, opinions were divided: some worried the new complex would siphon customers away from independent shops and erode what makes Jiyugaoka distinctive, or questioned the timing given that large commercial facilities in Tokyo have struggled in recent years, while others argued that Futako-Tamagawa and Jiyugaoka differ so much in location and clientele that treating them as rivals doesn’t really make sense.
9/20 (Sun) 5:55 AM
BUSINESS INSIDER JAPAN
A large mixed-use complex, “JIYUGAOKA MUSE SQUARE,” opened on September 17, 2026, in front of Jiyugaoka Station on the Tokyu Toyoko and Oimachi Lines.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
the new mega commercial complex is going to suck up all the demand, and the independent shops that make Jiyugaoka what it is are going to decline.
Isn't that on the independent shops themselves, for being less appealing than the mass-produced chain stores?
so maybe they should nail down the basics of urban planning first.
Doing disaster-prevention work after the buildings are already up just means doing everything twice.
Give it about 40 and won't it end up like Sugamo (Tokyo's famous district for elderly shoppers)?
Big commercial facilities in Tokyo keep failing one after another, and now Jiyugaoka is doing this?…
The era when a large commercial facility could draw crowds on novelty alone is over.
Wonder when things will calm down.
Most areas along the Toyoko Line have narrow streets like that, and sidewalks? What are those?
That was a trend decades ago, back when I was young.
There was a woman who kept saying she was going to become a manga artist,
and for some reason she was a total Jiyugaoka girl.
These days I guess they call it "Minato-ku girls."
like the Amsterdam that the Parisian poet Charles Baudelaire
admired as more beautiful than Paris itself.
are places you can only live if you're an upper-class woman from a good family out in the regions, they say.
Even picking an outfit for tea with the other moms is apparently a whole ordeal.
The truth about Jiyugaoka: it's just Meguro Ward residents who get hit by disasters every time there's heavy rain.
These days it's Starbucks that women love —
the area around Jiyugaoka Station always did cater to women's tastes.
Back in the Showa era, it was the only place in Japan
with a directly-run L.L.Bean store.
— it used to be a low-lying wetland, which sounds pretty risky.
Like, the whole town has no cohesive look, so it comes off a bit grubby.
"Stylish town" lol, that's a good one lolol.
That "next 100 years" line is just marketing fluff to help them recoup the cost.
Personally I like Jiyugaoka, Shimokitazawa, and Kichijoji a lot more than Futako-Tamagawa.
That was fine as it was.
Background and key points of this discussion
Jiyugaoka is known as a shopping district along the Tokyu Toyoko and Oimachi Lines, valued more for its cluster of independent boutiques than for large facilities. Futako-Tamagawa, by contrast, sits near the intersection of the Kanpachi Ring Road and Route 246, a location it has leveraged to succeed as a suburban-style shopping hub with “Futako-Tamagawa Rise.” That contrast is likely why the operators are singling it out as a rival. As several posters on the thread noted, the area around Jiyugaoka Station lies in a low-lying basin spanning Meguro and Setagaya wards, a topographical feature sometimes flagged for flood risk during heavy rain. In Tokyo in recent years, opening a large commercial facility hasn’t guaranteed a crowd the way it used to, and the “feels overdue” sentiment voiced in the thread appears to reflect that trend.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Business News+) thread “Jiyugaoka’s long-awaited large commercial facility opens. “Our rival is Futako-Tamagawa” — one of Tokyo’s premier stylish districts makes its move for the next 100 years.”
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