Ikebukuro Station is one in all Tokyo’s busiest rail hubs, with greater than 2.5 million passengers passing by it on a median day. That makes it a significant landmark within the metropolis, so lots of people had been startled to listen to that it’s (form of) getting a brand new identify.
Starting this Friday, the signage throughout the JR part of Ikebukuro Station, consisting of the platforms and walkways for the Yamanote, Shonen Shinjuku, Saikyo, and Narita Express Lines, shall be modified from “Ikebukuro Station” to “Ikebukuro Station (Bic Camera-mae),” which means “Ikebukuro Station (in front of Bic Camera).”
Bic Camera is one in all Japan’s largest electronics retailers, each when it comes to the chain’s income and the floorspace of its multi-level branches. One of the corporate’s headquarters buildings is positioned within the Ikebukuro neighborhood, and it’s additionally reopening three renovated retail branches within the space this coming Friday too. However, the signage identify change nonetheless has many individuals in Japan scratching their heads, for a few causes.
First off is the truth that, massive as they could be, the Ikebukuro Bic Camera branches aren’t actually native landmarks. Some shops in Tokyo actually do obtain iconic, meet-up-spot standing, comparable to Shibuya’s 109 or the Alta constructing in Shinjuku, however the Ikebukuro Bics have by no means actually been that widespread for rendezvousing or orienteering. Within Ikebukuro, the huge 60-floor skyscraper Sunshine 60 is already seen as a logo of the neighborhood itself, and the common individual is more likely to have the ability to give instructions to it or the Sunshine City leisure middle at its base than they’re to any of the Bic Camera shops within the space.
The Seibu and Tobu department shops, hooked up to the east and west sides of the station itself, are additionally way more outstanding in most individuals’s psychological map of Ikebukuro, and arguably so are the Parco division retailer and Animate anime specialty store.
▼ Parco, proper on the north aspect of Ikebukuro Station, is tough to overlook.
Sure, the Bic Camera Ikebukuro Main Branch is positioned on the following block over from Ikebukuro Station, and just some minutes’ stroll away from the gates…
…nevertheless it’s most likely not going to be the very first thing you see while you get out onto the road.
▼ That’s the Ikebukuro Station entrance/exit circled in purple, and Bic Camera circled in blue.
n different phrases, not solely is Bic Camera not a psychological landmark for most individuals, even those that do bear in mind the place it’s most likely wouldn’t describe its location as “in front of” Ikebukuro Station. So if the revised signage identify isn’t actually going to assist individuals navigate their manner across the practice community and surrounding streets, why make the change? Online commenters appear to have an concept, with reactions together with:
“Wonder how much cash you gotta drop to have JR let you change the name on the station signs.”
“How much advertising revenue is JR getting from this?”
“If there’s a system in place now by which companies can just start changing the names if they pay JR enough, will all sorts of other companies start doing this too?”
“This is really dumb of JR East. If they were going to change the name to reflect some facility close to Ikebukuro Station, it should have been the Tobu Department Store.”
“’In front of Parco’ or ‘In front of [PC store] SofMap’ would have been better than Bic Camera.”
“I hope [Bic Camera rival] Yodobashi Camera fights back with ‘Akihabara (in front of Yodobashi Camera).’”
“Seriously? Private companies can have their names on public railroad network signs?”
Advance photographs of the brand new signage do certainly present that not solely will the brand new indicators for Ikebukuro Station carry the Bic Camera identify, they’ll retain the corporate’s font and emblem too.
As for the remark about “public railroads,” whereas JR East (the division of JR that Ikebukuro Station is operated by) has been a completely publicly traded company since 2016, it started as a nationwide, government-managed railway community, and nonetheless was so when Ikebukuro Station was constructed. So whereas JR is definitely now not a public rail community, quite a lot of tax income went into the corporate’s infrastructure, and between that and a current string of ticket value will increase, it’s not shocking that some individuals aren’t happy with the signage identify change, seeing it as one other manner JR is attempting to squeeze out each final yen of income they’ll. JR Ikebukuro additionally modified its practice departure melody to the Bic Camera jingle performed within the chain’s shops and TV commercials within the spring of 2024.
Station names having naming rights paid for by non-public firms isn’t a completely unknown idea in Japan, nevertheless it’s typically one thing that occurs with much less outstanding strains and areas. It’s a rarity for the Yamanote Line, which, because the loop that encircles central Tokyo, is probably the most well-known practice line in Japan. However, the signage identify change isn’t unprecedented, as in October of 2023 JR’s Kanda Station, additionally on the Yamanote Line, modified its signage to “Kanda Station (in front of Earth Corporation headquarters)” and included the font and emblem of bug repellant and pharmaceutical firm Earth Corporation, regardless of Earth’s places of work being even much less of a landmark in Kanda than Bic Camera in Ikebukuro.
▼ Kanda Station signage with “in front of Earth Corporation headquarters” (アース製薬本社前)
Incidentally, Tokyo additionally has a Mitsukoshimae Station, which means “in front of Mitsukoshi,” on the Tokyo Metro’s Ginza and Hanzomon Lines, however that one will get a go due to its proximity to the Nihonbashi department of the Mitsukoshi division retailer, which was initially constructed in 1914 and was/is an honest-to-good native landmark.
For these perturbed by the brand new “in front of Bic Camera” a part of the Ikebukuro Station identify, there are just a few silver linings. First, it’s kind of murky as as to whether the “(in front of Bic Camera)” is supposed to be thought of a part of the official identify of Ikebukuro Station, or if it’s meant as simply a further little bit of (virtually definitely paid-for) steerage. As such, you most likely received’t hear too many individuals utilizing the tag-on in informal dialog when speaking in regards to the station. Also, the rename solely applies to the JR portion of the station, which signifies that throughout the Tokyo Metro and Seibu and Tobu practice line sections of the constructing, it’s nonetheless simply “Ikebukuro Station.”
Finally, judging from the instance picture of the brand new Ikebukuro signage proven above and images of the JR Kanda Station following its cope with Earth, the company sponsorship shout-out appears to be like prefer it’ll solely be written within the Japanese-language part of the signal.
Whether that’s to chop down litter and make it simpler for worldwide vacationers to navigate the practice community, or just because it could have price additional to buy house for overseas languages too, is unknown.
Sources: Nihon Keizai Shimbun through Hachima Kiko, Digicame Watch, Twitter/@nikkei, PR Times
Insert photographs: SoraNews24, PR Times, Wikipedia/Kakidai
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