Japan's New Capital:
Proposal for a New Diet Building

When the national Diet (parliament) building in central Tokyo is pictured in magazines or shown on television, it is rarely presented in a favorable light. All too often the neoclassic Diet building capped with its pyramid-like roof is treated as if it is the symbol of scandal and back-room deals.

To most TV viewers, politics appears to be something conducted by people far away and inaccessible, who cleverly maneuver to protect and augment their vested interests everywhere but in the Diet chambers. The Diet itself they think of as no more than a sort of ritual forum where decisions made earlier and elsewhere are ceremoniously confirmed and made public. Because it is a ritual there seems to be nothing wrong with such vote-delaying tactics as sit-ins, "ox walking" (moving to the ballot box at an exaggerated snail's pace), and even brawling on the Diet floor. These are performances such as might be found in a ritual or festival. Regardless of the debate and deliberations of the lawmakers, the outcome is predetermined, for the decisions have already been made elsewhere. The Diet has become an "event space," and a tiresome one at that.

This is a most unfortunate state of affairs. If the Diet is not serving its purpose, it should be done away with. If it is of much value its merits should be clarified and made known. Simply to maintain an institution out of custom is a sheer waste of taxpayers' money. The revitalization of Japanese politics depends on the reform of the current political system, but that is a topic for some other time. This proposal for a new Diet building is premised on the present political system as it remains today. A Diet building in a new shape may be able to contribute to the improvement of politics, and the question is how much?

The following is my proposal for a new Diet building that will change the character of politics.

Transparency: Visibility from Outside

It is imperative that what is going on inside the Diet building be visible from the outside. Having Diet sessions broadcast live on TV does not necessarily give the viewer an accurate picture of what is going on inside the building. If broadcasting could be equated with transparency, then no broadcaster would be blamed for any suspicious deed. Rather than publicizing its deeds via television or the Internet, the Diet should be directly visible, that is, its building should be transparent.

But, even if this idea should be adopted, it would not be possible to see the inside of the present Diet building only by replacing its exterior walls with glass. The building itself should be of limited depth, say only about ten meters across. The walls, ceilings, and floors would be of glass. Instead of ferro-concrete, a steel and glass structure will be developed, to be used for pillars and beams. A combination of engineering plastic and diamond fiber would also be adopted.

Not everything can be transparent, of course. Restroom facilities have to guard personal privacy. There also will sometimes arise a necessity to hold confidential meetings. A way can be devised whereby, if Diet members happen to meet and want to talk in confidence, they can activate a system so that the floor and walls of a certain space will cease to be transparent for a fixed period, where they can carry on their discussion. People will know that a "secret" meeting is going on inside the darkened space. As long as lawmakers openly push the button and everyone knows they are having a "secret" talk in that specific space, they will not be considered suspicious. Holding a secret meeting at a place and time no one else knows increases our suspicions and encourages corruption.

Few people want to watch the Diet proceedings every day, and Diet members need not be constantly watched. What is important is that they need to be conscious that they may be watched. And we would hope that its appeal would thereby grow, like a woman (or a man for that matter) whose attractiveness grows out of the consciousness that she (or he) is being watched..

The extremely thin highscraper that I propose is the result of my desire to make every part of the building transparent in section. The new Diet building as seen from outside will look like a transparent board filled with numerous small semi-transparent or cloudy cubicles, halls, and chambers. Their walls can be transformed from semi-transparent to cloudy or vice versa at any time, and the constant changing of the transparency of walls somewhere within the building from moment to moment may remind one of a luminous deep-sea marine creature. The changeful light of the building will be proof that the political activity inside is open and alive.

The new Diet building will be possible to approach with ease, and can be seen through from outside anywhere, anytime. Decentralized media networks, as represented by the Internet, and the virtual reality technology it provides, have demonstrated that work can be separated from workplace. It may become possible for Diet members to engage in deliberations without having to gather in one place. In fact, Diet members themselves may no longer be needed, for it may eventually become possible for people to participate directly in politics via media networks, thereby creating an "invisible Diet" existing only in the web of a vast network system.

The raison d'etre of a Diet building in an age when such things are possible lies in its very material presence, a permanent structure that can be seen and touched. To make this function even clearer, the Diet building should be "visible."

Of course, making the Diet building physically transparent does not guarantee that politics itself will be transparent. But the building as a matter of form does have impact upon the people who gather there. There is a good possibility that this form of building designed to lead legislators to transparency in their behavior and some contrivance for encouraging voters to visit it and actively participate in politics will bring gradual but steady changes in politics.

Penetration: Visibility on the Inside

The new Diet building should be visible not only from outside but from inside as well. Some contrivance will be devised to allow visitors to enter the building and walk around without disturbing their legislators' activities. A set of glass tubes piercing the upper portion of the Diet building will pass through the chamber, lobby, and committee rooms. Through these tubes visitors will be able to observe for themselves what politicians are doing. These tubes will be accessible only through a limited number of entrances and exits. Loud voices within the tubes will not be heard outside. An appropriate security system will be perfected. The tubes would be strong enough to endure an explosion of a bomb, so that no damage will be caused to the chamber and other rooms.

Through the tubes anyone could be present in the Diet chamber in the middle of deliberations, or stand very close to politicians as they engage in discussion at committee meetings.

In other words, the Diet building will embrace two different types of spaces that are together but never mingle, just like arteries and veins that run through the human body. One space will be for lawmakers and their staffs, and the other space for visitors and constituents. The two spaces will be in the same place but completely separate. They will be "connected" only in terms of mutual visibility. The observation tubes, which, though strictly separated from the lawmakers' space, will bring visitors very close to them.

Seen from far, the dimmer-coated tubes will look like golden clouds. The glow of the "clouds" within the blinking semi-transparent thin board will be an evidence of the will and action of the people.

Linear Chamber and Non-arena Space

Now let us turn to the chamber. Legislative hambers are not meant to be places where lawmakers engage in noisy rows or hand-to-hand battles, but where they engage in individual deliberation and decision making. So, a new chamber will have space where each legislator can grapple with each item of legislative business. There will be a deep, large space containing steep tiers of seats separated by stairways arranged around a central stage.

This arrangement will allow each legislator to concentrate on the agenda items brought up on the stage directly below them without being overly conscious of the other politicians around them. The chamber will be a functional space with the sets of this lawmaker-agenda relationship determined by the prescribed number of members of the lower or upper house of the Diet.

The existing chamber of the Japanese Diet is built in the typical amphitheater style. It is not so much a place for deliberation as a premodern space in which individual agitators hold forth to a large crowd. A chamber should not be a theater, much less a fighting arena.

That style no longer fits the desired pattern of political decision making. With the adoption of the linear chamber design, the Diet building could be as narrow as ten meters, and everything going on inside would be visible from outside. The support systems, moreover, should be improved. The new Diet building will contain blocks, each for one lawmaker, to house their secretaries and access points to electronic library resources, for instance.

The upper house of the Diet has been criticized for its minor role in the Diet. If it is truly meaningless the two-chamber system should be done away with. If the upper house raison d'etre has not been lost, its merits should be put to more use. On the assumption that the bicameral system is retained, the new Diet will be given a symbolic structure consisting of two separate buildings of the same size.

Translated Form

Architecture is, after all, an apparatus for rendering something invisible into a visible form. It is a kind of translating device. It creates a structure that takes a visible form. Giving a structure form is what counts. Designing is the work of translating what is invisible into visible form.

The Diet building should be given the optimal structure and form for restoring political transparency and helping lawmakers perform their tasks better--a building in which the Diet can perform its functions to the best. This will send out a clear message of twenty-first-century Japan to the turbulent world around it.

The method and form I present here may serve as a point of reference for, or be adopted by, other countries because they express universal values for the world's political system.


Note: Plans are underway in Japan for the construction of a new capital to replace Tokyo. A bill concerning the transfer of the capital was approved by the Diet in June 1996.

(This essay first appeared in Shinshuto tanjo [Birth of a New Capital], Jitsugyo no Nihonsha, 1996.)