109 (department store)


109 is a department store in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. The store is operated by Tokyu Malls Development, a subsidiary of the Tokyu Group.

History and description

The building, located just across the street from Shibuya Station, opened in April 1979. The architect was Minoru Takeyama. Tokyu, the building's operator, designed the building as a "Fashion Community" containing small retail stores targeting the early-30s female consumer. Tokyu intended the store to compete with Seibu Department Stores, which was making inroads into the Shibuya area.
The name of the building, 109, is a form of word play and is taken from the Japanese characters tō and kyū as in Tōkyū. The interior of the building is designed to move shoppers in a loop on each floor from the elevators past various shops. A movie theater was originally planned for the top floor, but the fire department would not grant approval due to emergency-evacuation routes not meeting appropriate standards. Although originally targeted at women in their 30s, the building later became more known as a sanctuary for young women from the gyaru subculture.
The original emoji set from SoftBank Mobile included one for Shibuya 109,. As a corporate icon, it was not assigned a standard Unicode code point, but it continues to be supported by Twitter at its location in SoftBank's Private Use Area.

Stores