Coffee Fuji hums with customers, despite its off-street, unsignposted position in the basement of a vast mixed-use building. The clientele ranges from sophisticated older women in conversation over coffee to young enthusiasts photographing their melon sodas. The core demographic, though, is businessmen taking a break or fitting remote work between meetings. Laptop use is accepted practice here, making it a favoured writing location of mine when I’m in the Shimbashi area; this week’s newsletter comes to you live from a corner seat overlooking the room.

The classic kissaten occupies a broad unit in the New Shimbashi Building, which has housed a mix of offices, shops, bars, and restaurants since 1971. Many, including Coffee Fuji itself, have been here since opening. The building sits at the western edge of Chūō-ku, bordering Minato-ku, a location attractive for asset value appreciation and therefore a target for redevelopment. Proposals surface each year, but with more than 350 landowners involved, plans never advance, earning the building the moniker ‘Japan’s most difficult building to redevelop’.