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New retro museum in Tokyo is like a time portal back to the Showa era【Photos】

Casey Baseel May 17, 2025
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A look back at Japan’s past in one of Tokyo’s more modern neighborhoods.

In a lot of ways, Tokyo’s Odaiba neighborhood feels like a futuristic place. It’s built on a man-made island in the middle of Tokyo Bay, with modern shopping centers, high-rise hotels, and, oh yeah, a life-size Gundam statue.

But if you’re looking for a glimpse of old-school Japan, you can find that at Odaiba too.

Late last month the Odaiba Retro Museum opened its doors to visitors, and in doing so also opened a portal to the past. The specific style of retro on display here is the Showa era, the period of Japanese history that ran from 1926 to 1989.

Generally speaking, though, when people in Japan are reminiscing about the good old Showa retro days, they’re primarily talking about the mid-1950s onward, especially the period of progressing prosperity of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s, after Japan had finished the most painful parts of its post-war recovery but before the high-intensity atmosphere of the bubble economy. To many, that stretch of the Showa era represents a time of simple happiness, of peace and relative prosperity without the pressures of more modern times. “It was a time without smartphones, personal computers, or social media,” says the museum. “It was a time when things were handmade, handwritten, and handcrafted. That’s why the things and places of the Showa period were imbued with a sense of warmth and humanity.”

The Odaiba Retro Museum seeks to recreate those Showa spaces, and does so using numerous actual preserved artifacts from the period. Built within the facility are townscapes and storefronts in the Showa style, such as a wood-floor school classroom, public bath entryway, and appliance store selling all sorts of then-novel conveniences to boost your quality of life.

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A post shared by お台場レトロミュージアム (@odaiba_retro)

A number of the spaces even allow you to step on into the past and imagine what your Showa life would have been like.

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A post shared by お台場レトロミュージアム (@odaiba_retro)

To some, a visit to the Tokyo Retro Museum, which is located within the Decks Tokyo Beach building, will be doubly nostalgic. For many years, the complex contained a similar retro recreation floor, which has now been reopened and is being expanded as the Tokyo Retro Museum. The museum is looking to make the experience even more authentic and is seeking donations of Showa-era items such as housewares, toys, posters, and signage.

And if you want to keep the Showa vibes going even after you leave, there’s also this immersive recreation in Chiba Prefecture.

Museum information
Odaiba Retro Museum / お台場レトロミュージアム
Address: Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Daiba 1-6-1, Decks Tokyo Beach 4th floor
所在地：東京都港区台場1丁目6-1　デックス東京ビーチ4階
Open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (weekdays), 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (weekends, holidays)
Adult admission 1,300 yen
Website

Source, images: PR Times
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[ Read in Japanese ]