A plan to expand a hotel across the street from the Imperial Palace's moat in Tokyo has spiraled into a controversy involving three levels of government and the Imperial Household Agency. Operators of the Palace Hotel presented a construction plan to a Chiyoda Ward council in April to create a 23-story, 100-meter-tall complex offering guests larger rooms. The complex will have a hotel wing and an office wing. The hotel in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district is currently about 30 meters tall with 10 floors above ground. The hotel operator said expansion is needed to compete with new hotels belonging to foreign chains. Under an agreement between landowners in the district, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Chiyoda Ward office, the maximum height of buildings in the Marunouchi district ranges from 100 to 200 meters. A hotel official told the ward council that the construction plan abides by the height rule of 100 meters for the area where the Palace Hotel is located. However, council members opposed, saying the landscape cannot be maintained unless a lower structure is built.

In July, the Chiyoda Ward assembly adopted a statement on "the preservation of the landscape around the Imperial Palace" and sent it to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and other authorities. The statement demanded "special measures from the central government," arguing that it is difficult to conserve the environment under existing laws, such as the city planning law and the Building Standards Law. Fueling the opposition was a request from the Imperial Household Agency to the Palace Hotel to alter plans for the hotel wing. Under the current plan, the wing would directly face the two-story Hospital of the Imperial Household at the palace, and hotel guests could peek into the hospital from the guest rooms.

The land ministry has kept a low profile on the issue, saying that prefectural governments should decide on urban planning. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said Dec. 2 that the area around the Imperial Palace will be designated as a special zone under Tokyo's landscape ordinance starting next fiscal year. Companies constructing large buildings in the area would have to first gain the approval of the metropolitan government concerning height, color and other details of the new buildings. Although the metropolitan government's landscape council will likely include the Palace Hotel area in the special zone, officials say the move is not directly connected with the Palace Hotel's project, but Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Yet Ishihara's plan has spawned another controversy. The Chiyoda Ward office opposes the move because the entire ward could fall under the special zone, which would make it difficult for the ward office to carry out its own regulations. The landscape dispute over the Palace Hotel is the first in Marunouchi since the completion of 198-meter-tall Shin-Marunouchi Building in 2007.