Japan: "our old traditional architecture is amazing, it must be preserve at all costs!"
Also Japan: "Nah, we can destroy more recent buildings, we don't care about those, there's more money to be made with razing and building something else
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@jannem I personally know some of the people involved in trying to preserve building. They're all professional architects. Can the building remain a gym? No. Can it be restored and retrofitted into something else that meets current standards. Definitely.
It's just that there is more money to be made (by the construction companies that "subsidize" local governments) into destroying and building something new. Especially something for profit. Every single time.
@David
Prince Hotel Akasaka in Tokyo was a prime example. Iconic and popular, ut there was no way to restore it other than tearing down and rebuilding from the ground up. And if you're going to tear it down, you might as well build something new, more adapted to current use.
@jannem "there was no way to restore it other than tearing down"
Are we sure about this? That's usually the excuse the local government gives to destroy buildings.
When people think of organized crime in Japan, they think of the Yakuza... Silly them, the Yakuza are a dying thing. The real organized crime in Japan in the 21st Century is the duo local authorities + construction companies.
@David
A lot of buildings of that era - and not just in Japan - are really problematic. New materials and construction methods that in many cases turned out to have limited life spans and are very difficult to restore. Leaks, cracks, bits falling apart. Here it's worse, with stronger earthquake standards for public buildings.
And it's the spectacular buildings that tend to be worst off. A boring school probably never used anything flashy or innovative, and so it's fine.