Kokkai-gijido (National Diet Building)

The National Diet Building is where the government proceedings are held. The current building, (located in Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), was built in 1936 and survived World War II.

With steel-framed, reinforced concrete and a granite exterior, the building has three floors above ground, a four-story central portion and a nine-story central tower. It is symmetrical, and when standing at the front of the building, the House of Representatives is on the left and the House of Councilors is on the right.

Construction plans for the building date back to the Meiji era. With the opening of Parliament in 1890, construction was planned with other central government ministries and agencies in 1886, but it did not go ahead. For this reason, the first Imperial Diet was held at a temporary wooden building constructed in Uchisaiwai-cho, Kojimachi (currently Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) and designed by German architect, Adolph Stegmueller and engineer, Shigenori Yoshii of the Home Ministry.

However, two months later, the building was destroyed by fire, and a second parliamentary building was built at the same location, designed by Yoshii and German architect, Oscar Tietze. Parliamentary proceedings were held in this building from the second assembly in 1891, through to the 50th in 1925, when the building was burned down again. A public competition was held to find a design for the new parliament building. Fukuzo Watanabe, an engineer with the Ministry of the Imperial Household, won first place with his proposal. The prize was 10,000 yen (equivalent in modern times to 5 million yen). The Construction and Management Section of the Ministry of Finance, as it was known then, was in charge of the planning and design phase. Construction of the new Diet Building took about 17 years and was completed in 1936.