Ginza’s skyline is flat on purpose. In the A district of Chuo City’s Ginza district plan, the height table stops at 56 metres, and only on the widest streets; on the narrowest lanes, the ones that count as roads only under Article 42 paragraph 2 or 3 of the Building Standards Act, it falls to 14 metres. GINZA SIX, which its operator describes as the largest commercial complex in the Ginza area, stands at about 56 metres. Here is how the rule works, what it applies to, and the numbers behind the buildings you walk past.
Ginza is eight chome in Chuo City, and all eight sit under one design review
Ginza is a district of Chuo City, running from 1-chome to 8-chome. Chuo City designated the Ginza Design Council on 8 November 2006 under Article 11 of its Urban Development Project Guidance Standards, and the council’s remit covers all eight chome without exception.
What the council reviews is broader than a building permit. Chuo City lists it in three lines: new construction, extension, reconstruction and large-scale repair of buildings; the design of wall-mounted and rooftop advertising together with change of use, which the page runs into a single line; and alterations to exteriors or anything else affecting external appearance. The ward then adds a sentence that is easy to skip and central to how Ginza looks: the list includes matters that are not subject to any administrative procedure at all, and consultation with the council is still required.
In other words, a shop in Ginza that wants to change its signboard has to talk to a neighbourhood body before it does so, whether or not the change needs a permit from anybody. The consultation must happen before the administrative procedure, not alongside it.
The design council secretariat is open two days a week and takes about two weeks
The secretariat sits at Ginza 4-6-1, on the third floor of the Ginza Sanwa Building, and is run by the Ginza Machizukuri Kaigi. Chuo City prints its opening days plainly: Monday and Thursday, 10:00 to 18:00. Contact and document submission are asked to go by email as a rule.
The ward states that consultation normally takes about two weeks, and warns that it can take longer where the content requires further discussion. After the consultation, the developer must record a summary of it in a report on Form 3 under Article 12 of the guidance standards, and attach that report when submitting the advance notification on Form 1 and the agreement on Form 2.
Rooftop advertising, wall signage and shopfront alterations across all eight chome therefore pass through one office that is open on two days a week.
The height table stops at 56 metres, and only on a road 20 metres wide
Chuo City’s handbook for the Ginza district sets out ten items, of which the fourth is the maximum height of buildings. The limit depends on the width of the road a site faces and on the designated floor area ratio. Where a site faces more than one road, the widest is used. The table below is the one printed for the A district. The original sets the designated floor area ratios of 600, 700 and 800 per cent out in three columns, and only the top row of road widths differs between them.
| Width of the road the site faces, A district | Maximum height of the building |
|---|---|
| 20 metres or more, designated floor area ratio 800 per cent | 56 metres |
| 20 metres or more, designated floor area ratio 600 or 700 per cent | 48 metres |
| 12 metres or more and under 20 metres | 48 metres |
| 10 metres or more and under 12 metres | 40 metres |
| 8 metres or more and under 10 metres | 32 metres |
| 6 metres or more and under 8 metres | 28 metres |
| 4 metres or more and under 6 metres | 18 metres |
| Roads under Article 42 paragraph 2 or 3 of the Building Standards Act | 14 metres |
Two riders matter. Where a rooftop advertising tower, signboard, screen or similar structure is put on the roof, the combined height of building and structure may not exceed the figure in the table plus 10 metres. And the handbook states that the height cap applies in principle even to large-scale development, with two written exceptions: large-scale development east of Showa-dori that contributes to maintaining or carrying on culture, and buildings on sites that face only a cul-de-sac.
The same handbook sets a minimum as well as a maximum. Item 7 fixes the minimum site area at 300 square metres, with existing sites as at 25 November 1998 able to be rebuilt as they are. Item 8 fixes the minimum building area at 150 square metres, or half the site area where the site is under 300 square metres, with buildings whose use or function makes a smaller footprint unavoidable left outside the rule. Item 5 sets a minimum floor area ratio of 300 per cent on sites facing a road wider than 4 metres, and 200 per cent on sites facing a road of 4 metres or less.
What may stand between the building line and the kerb is fixed at 2.5 metres and 0.4 metres
Item 2 of the plan sets how far back the wall of a building must sit, and in the A district the handbook sorts the figures by the kind of road the site touches rather than by a band of road width. On a route the handbook maps as an X road the wall must sit at least 0.2 metres back from the road boundary line, on a route mapped as a Y road at least 0.3 metres, on any other Article 42 paragraph 1 road at least 0.5 metres, and on an Article 42 paragraph 2 or 3 road at least 2.2 metres from the road centre line. Item 3 then governs the strip of ground that setback creates. Gates, fences, advertising and signboards that obstruct passage may not be placed in it.
Two exceptions are drawn with numbers. A projecting sign or a wall-mounted sign may be fitted to the external wall provided the bottom edge of the structure is at least 2.5 metres above ground level. A kerb around a planting bed may be placed provided its height above ground level is 0.4 metres or less. The restriction itself is written against structures that obstruct passage, and those two figures are the clearances that keep a sign or a planting kerb outside that description. Where an advertising structure is installed, a district plan notification may also be required.
The slope restrictions that shape the tops of buildings can be relaxed by certification, and here too the Ginza plan sets a threshold. In the A district, the neighbouring-boundary slope restriction is relaxed only for sites whose frontage road is 11 metres wide or more. Sites that face only a cul-de-sac, and sites using the setback relaxation at note 6 of item 2, get no slope relaxation from the district plan at all.
Item 1 restricts uses rather than shapes. Buildings used for store-type adult businesses, buildings used as ossuaries and buildings used to store the bones of animals other than food animals are restricted, as are apartment buildings containing very small dwelling units. In the A district the part of a ground floor that meets the road must be given mainly to commercial facilities, unless land use conditions make that unavoidable, and the handbook gives the forming of a lively continuous commercial space as the reason for the rule. Restrictions also apply to the guest rooms and lobbies of buildings used for lodging. Item 10 closes the list by requiring that form, design and colour take account of the surrounding environment and the urban landscape, and that rooftop advertising towers, signboards and screens do not damage it.
GINZA SIX was built to about 56 metres on a site of about 9,080 square metres
GINZA SIX stands at Ginza 6-10-1, and its own corporate page gives the building’s height as about 56 metres, the same figure as the top row of the A-district height table above. The building has six basement levels and thirteen storeys above ground, a site area of about 9,080 square metres, a project area of about 1.4 hectares, and a total floor area of about 148,700 square metres. The structure is a mix of steel frame, reinforced concrete and steel-reinforced concrete.
The site was assembled from two blocks, one of which held the former Matsuzakaya Ginza store. A ward road ran between them; the redevelopment moved it to Mihara-dori, which is what allowed the two blocks to become one. The scheme was carried out as a Category 1 urban redevelopment project by a redevelopment association with 15 members, and the design was by a joint venture of Kajima Corporation and Taniguchi and Associates, with Yoshio Taniguchi of Taniguchi and Associates responsible for the exterior design.
The chronology on the same page runs from February 2003, when the local machizukuri council was organised, to 20 April 2017, when the retail floors opened. Demolition of the existing buildings started in July 2013, construction of the building itself in April 2014, and the structure was completed at the end of January 2017. From the organising of that council to opening day is fourteen years and two months by my own count.
Shops in the complex trade from 10:30 to 20:30 and restaurants from 11:00 to 23:00, with the page noting that some tenants differ. The redevelopment also delivered a coach set-down area, an underground passage beneath Azuma-dori, a rooftop garden, and space to receive people unable to get home in a disaster.
Chuo-dori is closed to cars on part of the weekend, not all of it
The street rule with the clearest effect on a walking route is the weekend closure of Chuo-dori, which does not start when the shops do. That timing, and where the closure begins and ends, is set out in our article on when Chuo-dori actually goes car-free, so it is not repeated here.
Pair that closure with the height table above. The handbook prints no width for any individual street, so the row a frontage falls into is read off the road itself: 56 metres needs a frontage road of 20 metres or more together with a designated floor area ratio of 800 per cent, 48 metres needs 12 metres or more, and a site whose frontage is an Article 42 paragraph 2 or 3 road is held to 14 metres. The difference in scale between a wide avenue and the lanes behind it is written into the plan rather than left to chance.
Read on 24 September 2026. The district plan figures are taken from the Chuo City handbook dated to its January 2025 file, and the building figures from the GINZA SIX corporate page as published on that date.
Sources Checked
Chuo City — page on the Ginza Design Council
Confirmed that the council was designated on 8 November 2006 under Article 11 of the Urban Development Project Guidance Standards, that its area covers Ginza 1-chome to 8-chome in full, that the reviewable matters are listed in three lines covering new construction, extension, reconstruction and large-scale repair, wall and rooftop advertising design run together with change of use, and exterior alteration, that matters not subject to administrative procedure are nonetheless included, that consultation must precede the administrative procedure, that the secretariat is at Ginza 4-6-1 on the third floor of the Ginza Sanwa Building and opens Monday and Thursday 10:00 to 18:00, that consultation normally takes about two weeks, and that the outcome is recorded on Form 3 and attached to Forms 1 and 2 under Article 12.
https://www.city.chuo.lg.jp/a0041/machizukuri/toshikeikaku/machi/design/ginzadesign.html
Chuo City — handbook for the Ginza district plan and high-level use district (PDF)
Confirmed the ten items of the district plan, the maximum heights of 56, 48, 40, 32, 28, 18 and 14 metres by road width, that 56 metres applies where the road is 20 metres or wider and the designated floor area ratio is 800 per cent, that rooftop structures may not take the total above the table figure plus 10 metres, that the height cap applies in principle to large-scale development with the two stated exceptions, that the minimum site area is 300 square metres with existing sites as at 25 November 1998 exempt, that the minimum building area is 150 square metres or half the site where the site is under 300 square metres, that the minimum floor area ratio is 300 per cent on roads wider than 4 metres and 200 per cent otherwise, that a road of 20 metres or more carries a limit of 48 metres where the designated floor area ratio is 600 or 700 per cent, that in the A district the wall setback is at least 0.2 metres from the road boundary line on a mapped X road, 0.3 metres on a mapped Y road and 0.5 metres on any other Article 42 paragraph 1 road, and at least 2.2 metres from the road centre line on an Article 42 paragraph 2 or 3 road, that obstructing structures may not be placed in the setback strip, that a projecting or wall-mounted sign needs a clearance of at least 2.5 metres from ground level to its lower edge, that a planting-bed kerb must be 0.4 metres or less above ground level, that the neighbouring-boundary slope relaxation in the A district applies only to sites with a frontage road of 11 metres or more, that no slope relaxation is available to sites facing only a cul-de-sac or using the note 6 setback relaxation, that uses restricted under item 1 include store-type adult businesses, ossuaries, stores of non-food animal bones and apartment buildings with very small dwelling units, that in the A district the part of a ground floor meeting the road is limited to commercial facilities unless land use conditions make otherwise unavoidable, that restrictions apply to lodging guest rooms and lobbies, and that item 10 requires form, design and colour to respect the surroundings.
https://www.city.chuo.lg.jp/documents/5158/ginza_koudoriyoutiku.pdf
Chuo City — overview page for district plans and function-renewal high-level use districts
Confirmed that the Ginza handbook above is the ward’s own publication for the Ginza district plan combined with a high-level use district.
https://www.city.chuo.lg.jp/a0043/machizukuri/toshikeikaku/jouhou/chikukeikaku/tikukeikaku.html
GINZA SIX Retail Management — corporate profile page
Confirmed the address Ginza 6-10-1, the height of about 56 metres, six basement levels and thirteen storeys above ground, the site area of about 9,080 square metres, the project area of about 1.4 hectares, the total floor area of about 148,700 square metres, the structure types, the Category 1 urban redevelopment project with a 15-member association, the re-routing of the ward road to Mihara-dori, the former Matsuzakaya Ginza site, the designers, and the chronology from February 2003 through demolition in July 2013, construction from April 2014, completion at the end of January 2017 and opening on 20 April 2017.
https://ginza6.tokyo/about
GINZA SIX — trading hours as printed in the site footer
Confirmed shop hours of 10:30 to 20:30 and restaurant hours of 11:00 to 23:00, with some tenants differing.
https://ginza6.tokyo/
Last updated: September 2026
