The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Imperial Hotel rebuilds on storied past
As I stepped into the opulent atrium lobby of the Imperial Hotel, I was greeted by a phalanx of smiling, bowing staff. It was a red carpet welcome that will be familiar to the legions of guests, from presidents to Beatles, who have made the Imperial Hotel a home away from home for over 130 years in Uchisaiwai-cho, Tokyo.
The hotel recently announced plans to replace its Main Building and Tower Building, signaling a new chapter in a long and storied history that reflects the transforming fortunes of the nation itself.
On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, I sat down with Hideya Sadayasu, president of the Imperial Hotel, to discuss the challenges faced by the hospitality industry amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and his vision for stewarding a venerable Tokyo icon into the postCOVID future ahead.
AN EYE FOR REFINEMENT
“We have been in the hotel business for a long time, and our focus will remain on the hotel,” Sadayasu said in a reception room of the Main Building, which was completed in 1970. “Look at the many skyscrapers that have appeared on the skyline recently, and you’ll see hotels on their upper floors. But we do things a little differently. Our focus is on providing meticulous service and being ‘The Hotel.’”
The current Main Building is actually the third in a long architectural pedigree dating back to 1890, or the 23rd year of the Meiji era. The original Main Building was constructed in the German Neo-Renaissance style by the Meiji government, as a guest house for foreign dignitaries. The national prestige project was overseen by Eiichi Shibusawa, a pioneering industrialist known as the “father of Japanese capitalism,” who was enlisted to serve as the hotel’s first chairman.
The second Main Building was famously designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and opened its doors in 1923. Still often referred to simply as the “Wright Building,” the design has become a part of architecture history that continues to inspire both in Japan and abroad. After surviving the 1923 Great Tokyo Earthquake, the building was unable to weather the rapid changing tastes of the postwar years, despite calls to preserve Wright’s design.
“The current Main Building was built at a halcyon time just after the Tokyo Olympics (1964), coinciding with the Osaka World’s Fair (1970) and the debut of the Boeing 747. This was the dawn of the era of mass transportation, which ushered in a push to increase the number of hotel rooms to accommodate the influx of travelers. Unfortunately, to keep up with momentum, the Wright Building was closed and the current
Main Building was built. The current building turned 50 years old last year,” he said, a painting of the Wright Building hanging over his shoulder.
Sadayasu said that with proper maintenance, the current hotel could still be used for several decades more. However, there is no denying that the half-century-old facilities show their age. In particular, the guest rooms of the Imperial Hotel are only 30 to 40 square meters in size, compared to the average of 50 to 60 square meters seen at the foreign hotel chains that have opened outposts in Tokyo.
“In order to provide the best service and products, we need to update our facilities to not only catch up with but even surpass the global standards,” Sadayasu said. “With spacious rooms, the latest technology, and a stage where the next generation of hoteliers can work, we want to create services that allow our guests to enjoy their hotel life.”
The reconstruction project is slated to commence in 2024, the same year that Japan will issue a new ¥10,000 bill featuring a portrait of Shibusawa. (“Hopefully, Shibusawa will see that fortune is on our side,” Sadayasu quipped.)
The first phase will focus on the Imperial Tower, a 31-story building that is almost 40 years old, and will take about five years to complete. The new tower will consist of commercial facilities, office tenants, and serviced apartments on top.
In the second phase, construction of the Main Building will be carried out section by section, allowing the hotel to continue accepting guests, albeit on a reduced scale. The grand reopening of the new Main Building is scheduled for 2036, just in time for the hotel’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2040.
All told, the hugely ambitious project will take 15 years to complete, to the tune of ¥200 billion to ¥250 billion.
While the Imperial Hotel was also hit hard by the pandemic, it was able to take the plunge of the major facelift thanks to solid financial reserves accumulated through steady management and the prospect of securing stable real estate rental income from the new tower in the future. The hotel sees renovation as an investment that will allow it to keep providing high-quality services to customers and also protect the jobs of employees for decades to come.
So, what form will the main building take?
“The details are still being finalized, but we would like to carry on the atmosphere of the first Main Building and its successor, the Wright Building, and make it a dignified building that’s the hotel of all hotels.” The hotel also plans to reduce the number of guest rooms, in the interest of making them more spacious.
DISCOVERY AMID THE PANDEMIC CRISIS
“When the first state of emergency was declared last year, I sent a company-wide e-mail to all of our nearly 2,600 employees, telling them to do their best
to overcome the difficult situation. At the same time, I asked for ideas for infection control, and I received a whopping 5,473 suggestions.”
The infection control measures that the Imperial Hotel is currently implementing were all devised based on input from employees. For example, in response to concern that the tongs used for buffet food were not appropriate for infection control, a new system was introduced in which guests can order food from a tablet device while seated at their tables, and the staff will bring them their order on a plate.
“I was impressed that everyone was giving it even more thought than me,” Sadayasu said. “Employees are one of a hotel’s greatest assets. I was convinced that even if it took a long time, we could somehow overcome the difficulties.”
There are nine keywords known well to employees of the Imperial Hotel: “greetings, cleanliness, appearance, gratitude, care, humbleness, knowledge, creativity, and challenge.” This mantra, which the hotel staff keep in mind on a daily basis, was especially evident in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake
in 2011.
On the night of the earthquake, the hotel took in 2,000 people who sought refuge in Hibiya Park in front of the hotel, unable to return home because all transportation had stopped. It was a cold night and the hotel invited the crowd to shelter in the lobby. The employees brought blankets down from the guest rooms and distributed them, along with emergency rations of water and dry bread. The cooks whipped up rejuvenating hot vegetable soup. The employees did not wait for orders from the top to spring into action, but rather took proactive initiative on their own, informed by the hotel’s helping ethos.
TIMELESS ADVICE
As the clock counts down to the start of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the Imperial Hotel has been steadily vaccinating its staff and instituting infection prevention measures to ensure the continued safety of all who visit the premises. Even amid the challenges posed by the pandemic, the hotel has not sacrificed the top-caliber hospitality for which it has become known. For guidance in times of crisis, the hotel has gone back to the time-tested basics, as embodied in a lesson imparted to staff a century ago by Shibusawa. Sadayasu is able to recite the precept by heart:
“The business of catering to guests from all corners of the world, with their myriad customs and habits, is a daunting undertaking. However, by serving with devotion and decorum, you create fond memories of Japan that our guests will take back with them throughout the world and cherish for a lifetime. Remember that your work, though difficult, is of the utmost importance for our nation. Apply yourself to the task ahead with diligence and care.” (July 4)