Uchikura & Co., LLC

The Man Who Built Hotel New Otani

Hotel New Otani, one of Tokyo’s landmark hotels, was founded by an extraordinary businessman named Yonetaro Otani (大谷米太郎).

 

Born in Toyama Prefecture in 1881, Otani came from a farming family. As a young man, he moved to Tokyo and even became a sumo wrestler under the name Washiodake (鷲尾嶽). After leaving sumo, he entered business and eventually made his fortune in the steel industry.

 

In 1962, Japan was preparing for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and faced a serious shortage of accommodations for the thousands of international visitors expected to arrive. The Japanese government asked Otani to build a large international hotel on property he owned in Kioicho, near the Imperial Palace.

 

Otani accepted the challenge.

 

Hotel New Otani opened on September 1, 1964, just weeks before the Olympics. The 17-story hotel could accommodate more than 1,000 guests and incorporated some of Japan’s most advanced construction technology of the time.

 

Perhaps the most remarkable part of the story is Otani himself.

 

A farmer’s son became a sumo wrestler, then a steel industrialist, and finally built one of Japan’s great hotels.

 

Hotel New Otani was not simply a hotel. It became a symbol of Japan’s emergence onto the international stage.