Marunouchi sits between Tokyo Station and Imperial Palace—a 10-minute walk or a 2-3 hour exploration. This guide helps you decide which makes sense for your trip.
January 3, 2026
7 mins read
10 Minutes or Half a Day?
You're going to walk through Marunouchi whether you plan to or not.
Tokyo Station sits on one side. The Imperial Palace sits on the other. The 1.2-kilometer stretch between them is Marunouchi—and most visitors cross it in about ten minutes without a second thought.
That's a reasonable choice. But it's worth knowing what you're walking past.
The Walk You're Already Going to Take
The default Marunouchi experience is a brief transit corridor. Exit Tokyo Station's Marunouchi side, cross the plaza, walk the tree-lined boulevard toward the palace. Ten minutes later, you're at the Imperial Palace East Gardens. Done.
This works. The walk is pleasant. The buildings are handsome. You lose nothing by treating it as a shortcut.
What 2-3 Hours Unlocks
The longer version reveals something different. This isn't just an office district with upscale shops attached. It's the physical headquarters of Japanese capitalism—home to 20 Fortune Global 500 companies and 4,000+ corporations total.
The architecture, the pedestrian boulevard, the museum built inside a reconstructed 1894 building—these exist because one family bought this land 135 years ago and never stopped developing it.
Two to three hours lets you see what that history created. Ten minutes lets you cross it.
The rest of this guide helps you decide which makes sense for your trip.
Japan's First Power District
Most Tokyo neighborhoods evolved organically over centuries. Marunouchi was designed.
1890: One Family, One Vision
In 1890, Iwasaki Yanosuke—brother of Mitsubishi's founder—purchased 350,000 square meters of land from the Meiji government for 1.5 million yen. His stated goal was to build a business district that would rival London and New York.
Four years later, the first Western-style office building in Marunouchi opened. Designed by British architect Josiah Conder, it established the template: red brick, European proportions, deliberate modernity.
That building is gone now, demolished in 1968. But Mitsubishi Estate—the real estate arm of the Mitsubishi group—still owns approximately 30 of the roughly 100 buildings here. They've been redeveloping this same piece of Tokyo for 135 years.
The Corporate Living Room
Today, Marunouchi houses more Fortune Global 500 headquarters than any other district in the world. The broader area including Otemachi and Yurakucho generates nearly a quarter of Japan's GDP.
Walk through on a weekday and you'll see what that means: suits moving in synchronized flows, lunch queues forming at 11:45, the particular energy of a place where serious business happens.
The wide boulevards, the manicured trees, the conspicuous absence of neon and chaos—none of it is accidental. This is corporate Japan's living room, designed to project exactly what it projects.
When to Walk the 1.2 Kilometers
Timing matters in Marunouchi. The same walk feels different depending on when you take it.
Weekday Lunch: The District at Full Power
From 11:30 to 13:30 on weekdays, Marunouchi operates at peak intensity. The 230,000 office workers need to eat. Restaurants fill. Queues form. The pedestrian areas buzz with people in business attire moving with purpose.
If you want to experience Marunouchi's actual character—the energy that makes it Japan's corporate power center—weekday lunch is when to come.
The trade-off: you'll compete for restaurant seats. Yanmo, a fish specialist in the Shin-Tokyo Building basement popular with local salarymen, has lunch sets under ¥1,400 but doesn't take reservations. Arrive before noon or expect to wait. If fish isn't your thing, Kiji in the TOKIA building serves Osaka-style okonomiyaki—a different price point (~¥3,000) but equally local.
Weekend Afternoon: The Pedestrian Boulevard
Weekends invert the equation. The office workers are gone. The district empties.
From 11:00 to 17:00 on weekends and holidays, Nakadori Avenue closes to vehicle traffic. The 1.2-kilometer boulevard becomes a pedestrian zone with tables, chairs, and food trucks deployed as part of the "Urban Terrace" program.
This is peaceful. The wide cobblestone street lined with zelkova trees makes for an easy walk. But "peaceful" can tip toward "dead." Some visitors find weekend Marunouchi surprisingly lifeless.
Neither timing is objectively better. Weekday lunch offers the district's working energy. Weekend afternoon offers unhurried space. The right choice depends on which experience you want.
Winter Evenings: The Exception
For three months each winter, Marunouchi's evening deadness disappears.
The annual illumination runs from mid-November to mid-February. This season: November 13 through February 15. From 4:00 PM until 11:00 PM (midnight in December), approximately 820,000 champagne-gold LEDs light 286 trees along the 1.2-kilometer Nakadori stretch.
Hotel guests in Marunouchi consistently describe the evening walks during illumination season as a highlight. The lit boulevard against the station's red brick, the winter air, the relative quiet—it works.
Outside illumination season, Marunouchi after 7:00 PM is quiet. After 11:00 PM, it's dead. Plan accordingly.
Three Experiences Worth the Detour
If you decide to invest time in Marunouchi, these three experiences justify the detour. Everything else is optional.
Nakadori Avenue: The Walk Itself
The main boulevard running through Marunouchi is the experience, not just the path to other experiences.
Nakadori stretches 1.2 kilometers from near Tokyo Station toward Otemachi. The cobblestones are Argentine porphyry. The trees—zelkova—create a green tunnel in summer, gold illumination in winter. The buildings on either side mix preserved historical facades with modern towers.
During pedestrian hours, the road becomes an outdoor terrace. Walk it slowly. This is the architectural vision Mitsubishi has been refining since 1894.
Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum
The red-brick building at the southern end of the district is a faithful reconstruction of Marunouchi's first office building, completed in 1894 and demolished in 1968.
The museum inside focuses on 19th and early 20th century Western art. It holds three exhibitions per year—no permanent collection is displayed. The current exhibition (through January 25, 2026) features Art Deco fashion from the Kyoto Costume Institute collection.
Hours are 10:00-18:00 Tuesday through Sunday, with extended hours until 20:00 on Fridays and the second Wednesday of each month. Closed Mondays except during final exhibition weeks. Admission varies by exhibition—typically ¥2,300 for adults.
The museum's courtyard garden, featuring roses dating to the 1890s, is accessible without entering the exhibition. Café 1894, inside the building, serves afternoon tea and operates as a bar in the evenings.
KITTE Rooftop Garden
The sixth floor of the KITTE building offers one of the best free views in central Tokyo.
The rooftop garden overlooks Tokyo Station's red-brick Marunouchi building. You can watch trains arriving and departing, photograph the historic station from above, and see the contrast between the preserved facade and the surrounding towers.
Free admission. No time limit. Tripods not permitted. The garden is lit until 9:00 PM, making it viable for evening visits during illumination season.
KITTE itself—a shopping and dining complex operated by Japan Post—connects directly to Tokyo Station's Marunouchi South Exit. The basement has a free museum (INTERMEDIATHEQUE) operated jointly by Japan Post and the University of Tokyo, featuring natural history specimens and scientific instruments.
Marunouchi vs Ginza vs Nihonbashi
These three districts sit adjacent to each other. Maps make them look interchangeable. They're not.
The Quick Version
Marunouchi is corporate Japan's power center. Fortune 500 headquarters. Business-formal atmosphere. Wide boulevards designed to impress. Serious, wealthy, deliberately un-chaotic.
Ginza is consumer glamour. Flagship stores. Department stores. Shopping as performance. Luxurious, commercial, unapologetically about buying things.
Nihonbashi is merchant tradition. Legacy shops that have operated for generations—like Saruya, Japan's only toothpick specialty store, hand-crafting the same product for 300 years. The historic bridge that once marked the center of Edo. Historical, understated, rooted in commerce rather than corporate power.
Why It Matters for Your Itinerary
If you want to shop, go to Ginza. The flagship stores and department stores there exist specifically for that purpose.
If you want to understand Tokyo's business identity—and you're interested in architecture, corporate culture, or modern Japanese history—Marunouchi offers something Ginza doesn't.
If you want Edo-period Tokyo, go to Nihonbashi. The district preserves what Marunouchi deliberately replaced.
You can walk between all three in under 30 minutes. But choosing which to prioritize saves time and avoids the "these all look the same" confusion that comes from trying to cover too much.
Who Should Skip Marunouchi
Marunouchi works best for visitors who care about architecture, history, or corporate culture. It rewards those who want to understand what they're looking at, not just pass through it.
Skip it if:
You have limited time and want maximum Tokyo intensity. Shinjuku, Shibuya, or Asakusa deliver more density per hour.
You're primarily looking for nightlife. Marunouchi is functionally closed after dark outside of winter illumination season.
Shopping is your priority. Ginza, a 15-minute walk away, does this better.
Consider it if:
You're interested in modern Japanese history or architecture.
You're a repeat visitor looking for depth rather than highlights.
You're already at Tokyo Station and wondering whether to rush through or linger.
For accommodation: Marunouchi hotels are among Tokyo's most expensive, starting around $200/night and climbing quickly to $400-600+ for luxury properties like the Tokyo Station Hotel, Palace Hotel Tokyo, and Shangri-La Tokyo. You're paying for extraordinary train convenience—Tokyo Station is steps away. The trade-off is evening options: this isn't where you want to be if you value nightlife.
This guide is published by Hinomaru One, a Tokyo-based private tour operator.
