Nihombashi Takashimaya Shopping Center 日本橋髙島屋S.C.

Awe-inspiring architecture and history of innovative retailing

Symbolic of an affluent urban Japan during the 20th century, Takashimaya Nihombashi may be the world's only department store ever to house an elephant. Home to baby elephant Takako from 1950 to 1954, visitors can still see her elephant-shaped penthouse on the store's roof.

Today it's Takashimaya Nihombashi's manually-operated elevators, graceful architecture and quality of produce in its food hall that set it apart. Fusing elements of traditional architecture with historical western styles, a stroll around the building, also the first department store to introduce air-conditioning in Japan, is a chance to contemplate life in the glory days the Showa period.