Today the Palaceside Building marks the 55th anniversary of its opening. That we have been able to reach this day is thanks entirely to the support of our tenants, our visitors and the partner companies that sustain the building, and for that we are deeply grateful. We look forward to your continued patronage.
What kind of era, then, was 1966, the year the building opened? Japan's total population had just topped 100 million, the number of Japanese traveling overseas was surging, and the country was in the very midst of its uphill sprint of high economic growth. It was also in June of that year that the Beatles arrived in Japan and set off a whirlwind.
Looking at the Mainichi Shimbun morning edition of October 1, 1966, the top story on the front page ran under the banner headline “Such Misery: Fundamental Measures, Now.” At the time, deaths from traffic accidents in Japan exceeded 10,000 a year -- a toll so heavy the situation was dubbed the “traffic war” -- and had become a grave social problem. The article was part of “Tracking Traffic Accidents, Continued,” the paper's second campaign following a series that spring, and it pressed the government of the day -- the administration of Prime Minister Eisaku Sato -- hard for fundamental countermeasures.
Does that “traffic war” not somehow call to mind today's COVID-19 crisis? Back then it was cars; now it is the coronavirus. Such are the reflections that come to mind.