Nakano Broadway at the end of the arcade, secondhand manga shops below, homes above
The closest neighborhoods in the same city.
Take the Chuo Line Rapid from Shinjuku, and the very next stop is Nakano—step out of the north exit and you're right at a covered shopping street. This shopping street is called Sun Mall, an arcade about 240 meters long, with several alleys of eateries running parallel to it or crossing it. At the end of the arcade is Nakano Broadway, a shopping mall from 1F to 4F, with homes from 5F up.
For people living upstairs, downstairs in the mall there's the used manga shop Mandarake, as well as high-end watch shops. Around 1970, Sawada Kenji also bought and lived in a place in this building.
In front of the south exit there's a bus roundabout; heading east is the older shopping street in front of the station, and beyond that is Momijiyama Park and the Nakano City Central Library.
For everyday shopping, this neighborhood ranks 45th out of 395 neighborhoods in Tokyo.
The Tozai Line starts from this station, and also runs through to the JR Chuo-Sobu Line local trains, so you can transfer without leaving the ticket gates.
In Nakano 4-chome, Nakano Shikinomachi has been opening its park and university campus bit by bit since 2012.
In spring, heading north from the north exit, Nakano-dori is lined with about two kilometers of cherry trees, though the latter half of that stretch falls outside this neighborhood.
In Nakano City, six out of every ten households are single-person households, and the City has over 22,000 people per square kilometer. Based on our street photos, sidewalks here rank 365th out of 395 neighborhoods.
Nakano Sun Plaza at the north exit closed in 2023, and in 2026 the City mayor announced a change in plan to demolish and rebuild it, aiming for completion in fiscal 2034. The call for new operators isn't expected to go public until fiscal 2027.
The area around Nakano 4-chome has changed identities several times over the past three hundred years. In 1695, Shogun Tsunayoshi, following the Laws of Compassion for Living Things, built a dog shelter here to house stray dogs.
In 1939, the Nakano Army School moved into 4-chome, and after the war it became the National Police Academy, used until 2001. Starting in 2012, this land was finally opened up as Nakano Shikinomachi, with a park and campus.
Also at the north exit, a postwar black market gradually grew into a shopping street; an arcade was built in 1958, and it was renamed Sun Mall in 1975.
A north-south passage on the west side of the station will open on December 6, 2026, connecting 3-chome and 4-chome.
The newly built south exit will be called the Shin-Minamiguchi, also known as the Momozono-guchi. Momozono was the old name for 3-chome, taken from a famous peach-blossom spot here during the Yoshimune era.
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
TidyMap rates the street environment and everyday convenience. It does not assess the home itself, safety, noise or actual living experience. Street environment scores use AI assessments of imagery; convenience scores use public facility data.
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