is a commercial and entertainment area in Kitazawa,

Setagaya, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. The ward calls itself Setagaya City in English. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orch ...

. It is located in the southwestern corner of the Kitazawa district, hence the name "Shimo-kitazawa" (literally ''lower Kitazawa''). Also known as "Shimokita", the neighbourhood is well known for the density of small independent fashion retailers, cafes, theaters, bars and live music venues.

Independent retail

The neighbourhood is often compared with the backstreets of

Ura-Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Ura-Harajuku, or Ura-Hara, is the common name given to the network of smaller Harajuku backstreets spreading perpendicular to Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 3 chōm ...

and Koenji; smaller shop units and restricted vehicular access has limited its appeal to larger domestic and international fashion merchandisers, enabling independent retailers to survive. The district consists of the streets immediately surrounding Shimo-Kitazawa Station, where the

Odakyu Electric Railway , commonly known as Odakyū, is a major railway company based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for its '' Romancecar'' series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone. The Odakyu Electric Railway Compa ...

and

Keio Inokashira Line The is a railway line operated by the Japanese private railway operator Keio Corporation in the western suburbs of Tokyo, connecting in Tokyo with in Musashino City. It is not physically connected to the Keio Main Line Network, but a transfe ...

s intersect. The neighbourhood has long been a center for stage theater and live music venues; serves as a home to the historic Honda Gekijō theater and holds theatre festivals throughout the year. With numerous cafes, secondhand and vintage fashion and recorded music outlets, Shimokitazawa remains popular with students and followers of Japanese youth subcultures.

Redevelopment

In 2004, the Setagaya City Council released a plan to redevelop a large section of the city, including the construction of several high rise buildings, and extending Route 54 across the city. The streets are very narrow and highly intersected, with many small alleyways. Because many residents and visitors consider this to be part of the charm of Shimokitazawa, some controversy surrounds the development plan, which some saw as degrading and crassly commercialized. "Splitting a Hip Neighborhood, in More Ways Than One"
by Martin Fackler, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 1, 2006. With the relocation of the Odakyu Line rail tracks underground in March 2013, new station entrances, along with fully doubled tracks in both directions, larger scale redevelopment of the immediate Shimo-Kitazawa Station area is ongoing and the infamous Odakyu rush hour crunch has been reduced to 150% of train load as of 2018 from nearly 200% previously.

References

External links

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Shimokitazawa
(

JNTO The , JNTO, provides information about Japan to promote travel to and in the country. It was established in 1964 and its headquarters are in Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. The JNTO operates Tourist Information Centers (TICs) as well as a website ...

)
Go Tokyo Travel Guide

Shimokitazawa Music Festival (Japanese)
{{Authority control Neighborhoods of Tokyo Setagaya