The town where a thousand yen gets you drunk; through the west exit, homes on the hills
The closest neighborhoods in the same city.
Around the east exit of Akabane Station, the Akabane Ichibangai shopping street runs about 400 meters, with restaurants interspersed with produce shops, fish shops, and pharmacies. There are dozens of bars and izakaya, many open since daytime, and in the afternoon you can often see regulars having a drink.
There are many cheap bars in front of the station, and in the 2010s even young people started coming, so Akabane came to be called "the town where you can get drunk for a thousand yen". Another arcade shopping street at the east exit, Suzuran-dori, stretches all the way to Shimo, outside the neighborhood. The east exit is an old commercial district, with many shopping streets, pachinko parlors, and izakaya, and there's also an entertainment district to the south.
The west exit has a different feel: the area in front of the station was redeveloped in the 1980s and 90s, with large supermarkets and apartment buildings built. Beyond that is a residential area, surrounded by hills, with no major roads and no commercial facilities.
For everyday shopping, this neighborhood ranks 130th out of 395 neighborhoods in Tokyo, and 128th for healthcare, both in the middle range.
Akabane Station is where lines branch off: to the west, lines go to Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, and Shibuya, while to the east, the Keihin-Tohoku Line goes to Ueno, Tokyo, and Shinagawa. The Namboku Line at Akabane-Iwabuchi Station is about a 10-minute walk away.
In 2020, about 191 people lived per hectare in this neighborhood. Based on our street photos, greenery ranks 265th, in the lower range.
The name Akabane is said to come from the fine red clay (akatsuchi) suited for pottery firing. Ota Dokan built Inatsuke Castle at the edge of the plateau to the west, which is now Seishoji Temple.
In 1885, Nippon Railway opened a station here. After the war, a black market appeared in front of the station, and together with the eateries that factory workers used to frequent, it became one of the liveliest districts in the northern part of the 23 wards.
When the railway was still at ground level, several railroad crossings in front of and behind the station stayed closed for long stretches, effectively cutting the east and west sides apart. In 1998, the elevation work was completed and the crossings disappeared, so shops under the elevated tracks could be entered from both sides.
In the No. 1 district of Akabane 1-chome at the east exit, a 26-story, 108-meter-tall building is planned, with shops on the lower floors and housing above. Tokyo Metropolitan Government data lists completion for June 2029. A news report from August 2026 said this has been pushed back to September 2032, as costs are still being reworked due to rising construction expenses.
The No. 2 and No. 3 districts around Ichibangai were merged in 2024 into a Central District of about 1.2 hectares, with the goal of finalizing the urban planning decision by fiscal 2028.
Compared with the 395 Tokyo neighborhoods in this guide (scores 0–10)
Hospitals with inpatient beds (2020 data), public elementary and junior high schools whose catchment covers this area, high schools and universities within 1 km, stations, parks of 1 ha or more, and large shopping malls and department stores. Many Tokyo junior high students attend private schools, so junior high catchments are only a guide.
Maps show the shops and the sights. What a street is like, you only know by walking it. TidyMap uses AI street imagery analysis and public facility data to turn each area's street environment and everyday convenience into something you can compare. Search an address and look at the street outside first.
How to read it: yellow = poor, blue = good; grey = not enough data
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