Nakano Broadway was developed in the context of the
Japanese economic miracle, wherein as Japan rebuilt in the aftermath of the
Second World War, multiple
megastructures were constructed. Among these were Nakano Broadway and nearby
Nakano Sun Plaza, which were designed to be self-contained living and entertainment complexes. The mall opened in 1966 as a shopping and apartment complex housing shops, restaurants, apartments, and a rooftop terrace with a swimming pool and garden. While not a
metabolist building, Nakano Broadway is noted as being influenced by metabolist architecture. By the 1980s, Nakano had been eclipsed by
Shibuya and
Roppongi as districts that catered to luxury commerce, and Nakano Broadway had declined in popularity. As shops in Nakano Broadway are owned by individual retailers and not leased by a central mall administration, young entrepreneurs were able to acquire space in the mall with relatively small amounts of capital.
Mandarake, a secondhand
manga store, opened in the mall in 1980; Nakano Broadway subsequently shifted to being a destination for
otaku-related goods, as stores catering to this demographic opened in the mall following Mandarake's success. Today, Nakano Broadway remains a major destination for both domestic
otaku and
otaku tourists in Japan, catering to a niche clientele relative to mainstream
otaku destinations in
Akihabara and
Ikebukuro. The physical design of the mall remains largely unchanged from its original 1966 construction and is often cited as an example of
Shōwa era architecture. The mall was designated an at-risk building for
earthquakes of a
magnitude of 6.0 or greater by the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government in March 2018, as the building was constructed prior to the implementation of contemporary seismic standards in 1981 and has not subsequently been retrofitted to be
earthquake-resistant. ==Features==