Ryo Sayegusa×Chisako Takashima

2011.08.31

A talk series with the violinist Chisako Takashima and the Ginza people. Ginza holds many personal and professional memories for Chisako Takashima, from eating sweets at Ginza shops with her grandmother as a child to performing in serial concerts at the Oji Hall throughout her career. In this talk series, she thoroughly explores various aspects of the Ginza culture with her guests. Today’s guest is Ryo Sayegusa, Executive Director and Brand Director of GINZA Sayegusa, who participated in the team to launch this Ginza Official site.

One of Ginza’s charms is the absence of guardrails.

Takashima: You are a member of the Ginza Association. What activities does the organization do?
Sayegusa: We’re a group that thinks about the Ginza as a whole. There are many local and street-level associations in the area, but the Ginza Association oversees them all.
Takashima: Really? I am surprised to know that there are so many associations in Ginza.
Sayegusa: For example, we voluntarily control the heights and designs of buildings.
Takashima: Aren’t they controlled by the government?
Sayegusa: The locals feel very strongly about Ginza, and they’ve always thought about how they want the area to be. Of course, we rely on the cooperation of the Chuo City and the national government, too. We were the first in Japan to implement a pedestrian paradise. And the absence of guardrails along Chuo-dori for the sake of aesthetics and the convenience of visitors has created a charm of Ginza, which many people don’t realize. The Ginza you see today is the result of the wisdom and efforts of previous generations who continued to make the area a first-class place in the world.

We’d like to use the website to tell people about Ginza where many attractions are mixed.

Takashima: Why did the Ginza Association decide to launch the Ginza Official website?
Sayegusa: The Ginza Concierge portal site played the role to inform many attractions of Ginza for the last 15 years, but both the Internet and Ginza have changed a lot during the period. You could say, since the Meiji Restoration when the Japanese government started Ginza to create a world-class town, Ginza has repeatedly transformed and evolved in line with the times. The Ginza Concierge played a vital role for 15 years, but the time has come to change and move forward. We need to take on a new challenge with the Ginza spirit (laughs).
Takashima: I had imagined Ginza to be more preservative in nature, so this is surprising to me.
Sayegusa: Actually, when businesses get protective, they end up disappearing. It’s a scary town, Ginza (laughs). There’s also this image of Ginza being high-class and hard to approach. But if you’re willing to do a bit of footwork, there are many inexpensive and delicious places to dine, for example. My favorite cold noodle shop is on a side street near my office, where I can enjoy a meal for about 800 yen.
Takashima: The idea of eating in Ginza for less than 1,000 yen sounds great.
Sayegusa: There are lots of places like that. It’s not just expensive places. One of the great things about Ginza is the natural mix of many different elements. There’s the daytime face and the nighttime face, the main streets and the back streets, the Japanese and the Western—I think it’s fabulous that Ginza has all kinds of polar opposites in one place. So we are thinking about how we should communicate with people of all ages to dispel this image of stiffness and to have them pick up on this interesting mix.

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