Kyoto International Conference Center

photo by Roman SUZUKI · CC BY 3.0

photo by Roman SUZUKI · CC BY 3.0

The Kyoto Protocol was signed here in 1997: you can visit only on special days.

The building, Japan's first national conference centre, was chosen in 1963 through a competition won by the architect Ōtani Sachio, who combined the lines of modernist concrete with the sloping shape of the roofs of traditional interlocking architecture (gasshō-zukuri). In December 1997 it hosted the Third Conference of the Parties on climate (COP3), where the Kyoto Protocol was signed: the building that hosted it still has, in the foyer, the panels commemorating the event. As it is not a museum, public access is not guaranteed: you can go in freely only on the special opening days (「オープンデー」) organised a few times a year.

Opened on 21 May 1966 in the Takaragaike neighbourhood, north of the city, overlooking an artificial pond with Mount Hiei in the background. Selected as one of the hundred best public buildings in Japan in 1998 and as one of the twenty most significant modern Japanese buildings in 1999.

ℹ️ It is not normally open to the public unless an event is taking place. On the special opening days (‘Open Day’), typically a few Sundays a year, you can visit freely from 10:00 to 17:00, with free guided tours at 10:30 and 14:00.

🚉 Kokusaikaikan · 9 min walk

Sources: ja.wikipedia.org · ja.kyoto.travel

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