The Keihin Hotel has sat across from the Takanawa exit of Shinagawa Station since it opened in 1871. The current building it occupies dates back to 1930 which makes it one of the oldest western-style hotels in Tokyo. It was seized by the Occupation forces after the war, and has survived several fires, but now it has finally closed its doors. The change in fortunes is being blamed on the failure of Lehman Brothers since a unit of the bankrupt investment bank, called Sunrise Finance, is a major creditor of the hotel. The story is a little more complicated, however. It appears that the hotel's president, Makoto Kobayashi, had decided earlier this year that he could see no way out of the 6 billion yen debt his company had run up. He entered into a contract with Sunrise who agreed to assume all liabilities in return for the hotel. Sunrise didn't want to keep the business going, so presumably they had their eyes on the real estate. Kobayashi then informed all his employees back in May that they were on notice. Their response was to form a union to protest the closure and were in negotiations to keep the hotel in business when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. This put the assets in the hands of the administrator and effectively ended the talks. Kobayashi says that it was never going to be possible to keep the hotel open anyway and believes the bankruptcy is immaterial. The employees are continuing their protests, however. They took to the streets outside Shinagawa station on Monday to distribute flyers calling for support and have also applied to the Tokyo district courts for a temporary injunction. A union leader says that the hotel made a profit of 80 million yen last year and so ought to be maintained as a going concern. Kobayashi appears to be right that the closure of Keihin is not a direct consequence of the Lehman failure but it would help serve the union's purposes if it could be portrayed as such. A piece on their website (Japanese) describes the hotel being devoured by a foreign vulture fund.
