Eighteen metres, the widest arcade in Japan; the Denkikan cinema came here in 1914.
It begins where the 下通 arcade ends, on the south side, and runs west: it is eighteen metres wide from one shop window to the other, the Japanese record, so much so that in the evening people keep to the middle rather than the sides. Under the roof there are still a cinema, game centres, gyms and the venues that open when the others close.
The neighbourhood began in 1903. In 1911 the 電気館 (Denkikan), the city's first permanent cinema, opened in Kumamoto, and in 1914 it moved here: others came after it, and for decades this was the street of cinemas. Multiplexes have closed almost all of them (the latest competition is a TOHO multiplex opened in 2019 in the SAKURA MACHI complex next door), but the Denkikan has stayed, inside the arcade, and is the only survivor. The first roof dates from 1979, the current one from 1992; the street measures 236 metres by 18.
ℹ️ A public street, open at any hour, but it is worth going in the evening: by day it is a thoroughfare, after sunset it is the neighbourhood that stays open. Kumamoto tram: 辛島町, about 2 minutes' walk, and the arcade begins practically at the tram stop platform. Individual venues have their own hours. Earthquake of 28/07/2026: shops reopened by 30/07/2026 (toshoken.com, updated 27/08/2026); the cinema in nearby SAKURA MACHI stayed closed longer than other businesses, and the one in the arcade does not appear to be mentioned.
🚉 Sakura Machi Bus Station · 4 min walk
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