State Guest House, Akasaka Palace

The State Guest House, Akasaka Palace (SGH AP) was the only palace in Japan that was built based on the neo-Baroque style as Togu Gosho (Crown Prince's Palace) in 1909. It is a structure built by mobilizing all available resources of the Japanese architectural, art and craft industries in those days and represents the culmination of Japan's full-scale modern Western architecture in the Meiji period. Japan returned to the international community a dozen years after World War II and the number of foreign dignitaries that it welcomes increased; given this, the facilities were extensively restored and remodeled along with the construction of a new Japanese Style Annex and made a fresh start as the current SGH AP in 1974. After the massive repair work in 2009, the SGH AP was designated as a national treasure as one of the structures that represent Japanese architecture. The SGH AP has received a large number of distinguished guests, such as monarchs, presidents or prime ministers, and been used as a venue for international conferences, including summit meetings, as well.