Odaiba (お台場) is a largeartificial island inTokyo Bay, Japan, across theRainbow Bridge from centralTokyo. Odaiba was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s. The land was dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and was redeveloped in the 1990s into a major commercial, residential and leisure area. Odaiba, along withMinato Mirai 21 in Yokohama, is one of the few manmade seashores in Tokyo Bay where the waterfront is accessible and not blocked by industry and harbor areas.
The majority of the island is located in Tokyo'sKōtō ward, with the north and northwest of the island inMinato andShinagawa wards.Daiba (台場) formally refers to one district of the island located in Minato.[1] GovernorShintaro Ishihara usedOdaiba to refer to the entireTokyo Waterfront Secondary City Center (東京臨海副都心,Tōkyō Rinkai Fukutoshin), which includes theAriake andAomi districts ofKōtō Ward and the Higashi-Yashio district ofShinagawa Ward.[2]
The nameOdaiba alludes todaiba (台場; "batteries" / "forts"),[3] which formed small islands nearby. They were constructed in 1853 byEgawa Hidetatsu for theTokugawa shogunate in order to protectEdo from attack by sea, the primary threat being CommodoreMatthew Perry'sBlack Ships, which had arrived in the same year.[4] In 1928, theDai-San Daiba (第三台場; No. 3 Battery) was refurbished and opened to the public as the MetropolitanDaiba Park.
Of the originally planned 11 batteries, seven construction projects started, but only six were ever finished.[5] No. 1 to No. 3 Batteries were completed in eight months in 1853. Construction on Nos. 4 to 7 started in 1854, but only Nos. 5 and 6 were finished by the year's end. Nos. 4 and 7 were abandoned, with 30% and 70% unfinished (respectively), and an alternative land-based battery nearGotenyama was built instead. However, they resumed construction on No. 4 in 1862 and completed it the following year.[5]
Until the mid-1960s, all except two batteries (Nos. 3 and 6) were either removed to facilitate ship navigation or incorporated into Shinagawa port andTennōzu. In 1979, the "landfill no. 13" (nowMinato-ku Daiba,Shinagawa-ku Higashi-Yashio andKōtō-kuAomi districts) was finished and connected to the park that was No. 3 Battery. On the other hand, No. 6 was left to nature (access prohibited).
The modern island of Odaiba began to take shape when thePort of Tokyo opened in 1941.
Tokyo governorShunichi Suzuki began a major development plan in the early 1990s to redevelop Odaiba asTokyo Teleport Town, a showcase for futuristic living, with new residential and commercial development housing a population of over 100,000. The redevelopment was scheduled to be complete in time for a planned "International Urban Exposition" in spring 1996.
Suzuki's successorYukio Aoshima halted the plan in 1995, by which point overJPY 1 trillion had been spent on the project, and Odaiba was still underpopulated and full of vacant lots. Many of the special companies set up to develop the island became practically bankrupt. The collapse of theJapanese asset price bubble was a major factor, as it frustrated commercial development in Tokyo generally. The area was also viewed as inconvenient for business, as its physical connections to Tokyo—theRainbow Bridge and theYurikamome rapid transit line—made travel to and from central Tokyo relatively time-consuming and costly.
The area started coming back to life in the late 1990s as a tourist and leisure zone, with several large hotels and shopping malls. Several large companies includingFuji Television moved their headquarters to the island, and transportation links improved with the connection of theRinkai Line into theJR East railway network in 2002 and the eastward extension of the Yurikamome to Toyosu in 2006.Tokyo Big Sight, the convention center originally built to house Governor Suzuki's planned intercity convention, also became a major venue for international expositions.
TheD1 Grand Prix motorsport series hosted drifting events at Odaiba from 2004 to 2018, 2023, and 2024.
Odaiba was one of the venues for the2020 Summer Olympics. A temporary arena was built atShiokaze Park forbeach volleyball, and temporary stands were built for the Odaiba Marine Park to holdtriathlon andmarathon swimming.[6]
Today's Odaiba is a popular shopping and sightseeing destination for Tokyoites and tourists alike. Major attractions include:
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TwoShuto Expressway lines access Odaiba: Route 11 enters from central Tokyo crossing theRainbow Bridge, while theBayshore Route enters from Shinagawa Ward through the Tokyo Port Tunnel and from the bayfront areas of Tokyo andChiba Prefecture to the east.
By public transport, Odaiba is accessible via the automatedYurikamome transit system fromShimbashi andToyosu. The privately operatedRinkai Line runs betweenShin-kiba andOsaki, but many trains connect directly toShibuya,Shinjuku, andIkebukuro. City buses provide cheaper if slower access.Ferries connect Odaiba withAsakusa running along theSumida River and theKasai Rinkai Park in eastern Tokyo.
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TheTokyo Cruise Ship is awater bus operator inTokyo that offers services including public lines as well as event cruises and chartered ships. Such as from Asakusa → Odaiba Seaside Park → Toyosu → Asakusa.
Odaiba, the Rainbow Bridge, and other parts of the surrounding area are a major setting of theDigimon Adventure franchise. The area is noted in many major areas of the plot.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
Odaiba serves as the main setting for the multimedia projectLove Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, in which theTokyo Big Sight building serves as the Nijigasaki High School ((虹ヶ咲学園,Nijigasaki Gakuen). Diver City, Sega Joypolis and the Rainbow Bridge can be seen as settings in the animation.[citation needed]
Odaiba may be referenced in the gameSlow Damage by NITRO CHiRAL. The plot takes place in a city called Shinkoumi, referenced to previously being part of the Tokyo Waterfront.[citation needed]
Battery No. 6 is used as a key location in the short story "Solitary Isle" by Japanese writerKoji Suzuki included in theDark Water (short story collection)
Minato City Board of Education operates public elementary and junior high schools. Daiba 1-2chōme 1-5-ban are zoned to Odaiba Gakuen (お台場学園) for elementary and junior high school.[17]
Daiba䑓場 [obsolete variant orthography of台場]n. A fort, battery
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