The New World

Tsutenkaku

I first went to Osaka in November 1997. One of the first things that struck me about the place was how it all looked the same no matter where you went. All cities in the world have their good and bad areas but in Osaka it’s hard to tell which is which. It’s all just a mess of power lines, small houses jammed in together and tall concrete apartment blocks. There is one place that stands out however. It’s called Shin Sekai which means “new World” and I reckon it’s the most colourful and interesting place in Osaka. It also just happens to be the most dangerous place in Japan, full of prostitutes, Yakuza gang members, criminals and an unbelievable amount of homeless people. Or so the guide books would have you believe. Most Japanese shudder at the thought of stepping foot in Shin Sekai or the neighbouring areas of Shin Imamiya and Nishi Nari so it kind of figures that they’re places that I like. Danger is a relative thing. Compared with sleepy Kameoka city it’s pretty wild and lawless but I’m sure that residents of Baghdad would laugh at you if you lined it up with the bad part of their town. Shin Sekai sure isn’t pretty. The whole place is festooned with gaudy sign boards and huge spider webs of electricity cable. There are zillions of tiny bars, cheap restaurants, cheap clothing stores, adult shops, pachinko parlours and some small cinemas. At the centre of Shin Sekai stands Tsutenkaku Tower. This tower looks a bit like an ugly version of the Eifel tower. In Fact this whole area was modelled on Paris. Back in 1903 There was an International exposition here which was a rip roaring success. About 5 million visitors showed up to see such wondrous devices as refrigerators and air conditioners. Japanese people were introduced to the game of ping pong right here and many were able to try unheard of food from overseas. Sensing an opportunity, the Osaka government decided to develop the area into a show piece of new technology. Tsutenkaku was built in 1912 and was at the time, the tallest building in the Orient. The north of the neighbourhood was built to resemble the boulevards of Paris with an entrance gate that resembled the Arch de Triomphe and three diagonal avenues converging below the tower. The neighbourhood was illuminated with thousands of electric light bulbs at night which would have been an amazing sight back then. The new world was the coolest place in town with an amusement park, cinemas, a museum of fine arts, botanical gardens and a zoo all added over the next few years. World War II brought hard times to the new world. Tsutenkaku was burned in a fire and then the Government disassembled it for the steel which was in short supply by then. Finally in March 1945 an air raid nearly flattened the place. Shin Sekai never really recovered after that. People flooded into the cities after the war and the area became home for low wage workers and labourers. There was a brief boom in movie theatres to entertain these people but the advent of TV in the 60’s killed that off.  The tower was rebuilt in 1956 and while it was taller than the original it was to the same design and so looked rather dated. Attempts to revive the area have been rather half hearted and have consisted mainly of laying coloured concrete in the streets and the construction of the festival gate amusement park. The people here are mostly the same people that came here after the war and are now well into old age. The area is firmly blue collar and the housing and businesses reflect this. It looks seedy and run down in daylight and you won’t find any high tech stores or elegant cafes here. Here you can live and eat cheap but it’s a symbol of the dark side of Japan. I once saw an old guy sitting on the sidewalk on top of a big pile of electrical cable. He was stripping the plastic insulation off it to get to the copper wire. He was weather-beaten and wrinkled and dressed in scruffy old overalls. His home was constructed of cardboard boxes covered by those blue plastic sheets. It’s something you would expect to see in Cambodia or Indonesia not first world Japan. Shin Sekai and its neighbouring areas are home to hundreds of such people living in boxes or old vehicles on the side of the road, scrounging cans and cardboard for recycling as a way of making a living. It’s ironic how the place designed to showcase the city’s modern image now looks like it has been left behind the times.

Shin Sekai....unique

Tsutenkaku is old and grubby with slow and creaky elevators but there’s something endearing and innocent about the old fashioned tower. It’s a monument to the hopes and aspirations of 100 years ago and in a country where heritage buildings are few and far between, it’s a survivor  Certainly the view from the top is great. Looking out at Osaka I can’t help but think again about the difference in attitude between East and West. If this where London, New York or Sydney, Shin Sekai would be hot property. An old run down area within spitting distance of the city centre, it would be a magnet for developers and a prime candidate for urban renewal. The fact that it’s a unique area with a colourful history would be a huge selling point. Instead it is left to its long slow decline. This old fashioned tower is now the symbol of the old new world.