The archive · Marketing & Growth · Strategic decision · 2018–2021
Ginza Sony Park: Sony leaves a demolition site a free public park for 3 years
Sony demolished its 1966 Ginza tower and ran the unbuilt years as a free public park — 8.54M visits in three years.
Sony Group Corporation
What it had to solve
The Sony Building — opened in 1966 at Ginza's Sukiyabashi crossing — was one of Tokyo's best-known showrooms, but by 2013 it faced replacement. The orthodox answer was demolish and erect a new tower as fast as possible; Sony's project, begun under then-president Kazuo Hirai and led by chief branding officer Daisuke Nagano, instead asked what a rebuild 'the Sony way' would be.
How it works
The Sony Building, opened in 1966 at Ginza's Sukiyabashi crossing, carried founder Akio Morita's 'open to the street' idea in a famous corner: a 10-tsubo public space, deliberately left unbuilt, that he called the Garden of Ginza. When the building closed in March 2017 for replacement, Sony's project — begun in 2013 under then-president Kazuo Hirai — chose the opposite of the fastest possible tower: for a while, not building at all.
Ginza Sony Park opened on 9 August 2018 on the demolition site: a garden at ground level above four basement floors of free public space tied into the metro, with a roller-skating rink, cafés, a convenience-style shop and event halls. Chief branding officer Daisuke Nagano traced the move to the company motto of doing what others do not: in a district where every office owner was rebuilding toward 2020, not building was the Sony answer. The first year deliberately showed no Sony products so the place could be understood as a park first.
The park drew 8.54 million visitors over its three years, half of them purposeless passers-through — its 'blank space' design left use undefined, and visitors filled it with homework, naps and lunches. It closed in September 2021 so construction could resume, and the project ended where it began: the new Ginza Sony Park, completed in August 2024 and opened in January 2025, is itself a park-building, kept to about half the height Ginza's rules allow.
Why it lands
- Reversing the obvious metric of a rebuild — speed — turned the mandatory demolition gap into a three-year gift, and the 'while others build, we don't' logic was pure Sony.
- Holding back all Sony products in year one forced the place to earn 'Sony-like' verdicts from visitors before any product could speak.
- Morita's unbuilt 10-tsubo Garden of Ginza gave the experiment a 50-year founding precedent, making the park an inheritance rather than a promotion.
- Designing 'blank' space for unprogrammed use let half of all visits be purposeless — the park changed how the street worked, not just how it looked.
What it did
8.54 million people visited across three years despite the pandemic — roughly half purposeless passers-through resting or cutting across, the rest coming for programmed events — making free public use the project's biggest measured result. The park closed in September 2021 so the final building could rise; that building was completed on 15 August 2024 and grand-opened on 26 January 2025 as the permanent 'Ginza park'.
What you can take
When a rebuild forces years of vacancy, treat the waiting as the product: leave the gap a free, unprogrammed public gift, and the brand states what it believes without showing a product.
Since then
Ginza Sony Park ran from 9 August 2018 to September 2021, then demolition and construction resumed. The final form — five storeys above ground and four below, deliberately about half the height Ginza's rules permit, inheriting the 'street-open' junction and vertical-promenade ideas of the old building — was completed on 15 August 2024 and grand-opened on 26 January 2025. A 10-tsubo Sony Park Mini experimental space ran in the neighbouring car park during construction, and the project's lead argued any rebuild could do this — letting demolition gaps add temporary parks to dense cities.
Sources
- 「Ginza Sony Park」開園 〝ソニーらしさ〟を徹底追求 (Ginza Sony Park opens — pursuing 'Sony-ness' to the full)
- ソニーが銀座に誕生させた公園は、新しい都市の作り方を示す (The park Sony created in Ginza shows a new way of making cities)
- 「Ginza Sony Park」竣工 ソニービル建替えプロジェクトが完了 (Ginza Sony Park completed — Sony Building rebuild finishes)
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