20th Anniversary- Four Seasons Hotel at Chinzan-so

Today was the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the Four Seasons Hotel, Tokyo at Chinzan-so. The hotel is owned and operated by Fujita Kanko under a licensing agreement with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. Over the past twenty years many amazing and talented people from Four Seasons spent time working with the Fujita Kanko team to create, manage and enhance the hotel. Some came and went on to new careers, some continued their careers within the company... and some of us made our lives in Japan.

While there was no observable celebration at the hotel, Lloyd Nakano (Director of Travel Industry Sales, 1987-1994) and I visited the hotel today to walk around the property, share memories and see how well the hotel has matured over the years. We were pleasantly surprised at the apparent business levels at the hotel. The lobby was busy, the restaurants full and lots of activity. Being a weekday in January, the banquet and wedding facilities sat quiet. The addition of a world-class spa (where the Chinese restaurant was), a new garden entrance on 1F, and wedding facilities changes on the 4F were all noticeable enhancements. We even joked that some of the staff were likely not even born when the hotel opened!

To understand the significance of this hotel, one needs to reflect on the timing of the opening in 1992. It was Four Seasons' first hotel in Asia and even the Four Seasons in Maui, likely one of the first encounters for the Japanese traveler, had only opened two years earlier. In Tokyo, there was no formable competition. No Park Hyatt, no Westin, no Grand Hyatt. As Lloyd recounts, "Maybe the Seiyo Ginza was the main competition." In reality, we competed with the mainstay hotels in Tokyo, not any foreign brands as there simply so few of them. To add to the complexities, the Four Seasons was well away from the main business districts and located in a residential neighborhood, surrounded by a Japanese garden.