Section 4. Business Development in Wartime

In response, Osaka Building took measures to increase the number of rental spaces by remodeling the medium-sized dining hall on the south side of the Daibiru-Honkan Building as well as the dining annex. Spaces were also added by remodeling the West Annex, which had been leased to a taxi company as a garage. Additionally, in 1944, the meeting hall for the disbanded Daibiru Club was converted into rental space.

The war spread further with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, putting Japan at war against the United States and the United Kingdom. This had a major impact on the many foreign diplomatic offices and trade companies that had been tenants of the Osaka Daibiru complex and the Hibiya Daibiru Buildings in Tokyo and were forced to vacate their spaces.

As the war situation worsened and supplies grew scarce, the building industry was also impacted. Osaka Building was forced to provide the government with metals in accordance with the Metal Collection Act that was instituted on August 30, 1941. In September 1943, the company provided five elevators that had been for guest use from its Osaka complex, and in December of that year, it provided four elevators from the Hibiya Daibiru Buildings. Other metals it provided included brass door handles, door closers, iron windowsills, heating boilers, radiators, refrigeration equipment, pumps, and pipes.

Furthermore, the first three floors and basement of the Daibiru Buildings were forcibly requisitioned by the military and put to use as factories.

Osaka Building survived these hardships, and the war ended on August 15, 1945.