Bayside Shakedown: Odaiba and the Wangan Precinct

Bayside Shakedown was first broadcast by the Fuji Television group in 1997, and that same year, on 10 March, the network moved its headquarters to Odaiba, into a building designed by Kenzo Tange. The timing is neat: the show about a police station on empty reclaimed land premiered just as its own broadcaster settled there. The pin marks the headquarters building on the island, so this is where the series starts on the map.

Visitor guidance: The headquarters is a working broadcaster's building; view it from the street.

The story takes place in the fictional Wangan Precinct of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and in the story Fuji TV's building lies inside its jurisdiction. Shunsaku Aoshima, a former computer salesman, joins the force out of heroic idealism and finds red tape, lethargic civil servants and bosses more interested in golf than in solving crimes. The station's exterior, ground-floor lobby and roof were shot at the Shiomi Koyama Building in Koto ward.

Location precision: The precinct does not exist; the pin marks the Shiomi district where its building was filmed, not the exact building.

In the opening of the series Aoshima walks to work from Tokyo Teleport Station on the Rinkai Line, and he heads away from the Fuji TV building. That is a small joke on the map: the real broadcaster sits one way and the invented precinct is placed the other. The station is the real doorstep of the Wangan story and a practical place to start a walk around the island.

Visitor guidance: A working Rinkai Line station; the sights of Odaiba are close by.

In the mid-1990s Odaiba was still underpopulated and full of vacant lots. The area came back to life from the late 1990s as a tourist and leisure zone. By the second film, in 2003, the once empty jurisdiction has become a popular tourist attraction, and the Wangan officers have their hands full with tourist-related issues. The show and the island grew up together.

Location precision: The story covers the whole island; the pin marks the middle of Odaiba.

Visitor guidance: Odaiba is open to everyone and reached by the Rainbow Bridge or the island's rail links.

The second film, released on 19 July 2003, has the Japanese title "Close the Rainbow Bridge!" and became the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film on domestic screens at the time. The bridge is a double-decker suspension bridge, 798 m long, built between 1987 and 1993, linking Shibaura Pier to Odaiba. It is the film's title landmark, though the closure scene was not shot here (see the next stop).

Visitor guidance: The bridge is open to traffic and is best seen from the Odaiba waterfront.

The real Rainbow Bridge could not be hired for the scene where it is closed, so the crew filmed on 13 to 15 March 2003 at Kumiyama Junction in Kyoto prefecture, a road interchange that was still under construction and opened that same month. The pin is a long way from Tokyo, because the bridge in the film is a stand-in.

Location precision: The film shows Rainbow Bridge but this junction in Kyoto prefecture stood in for it.

In the third film the Wangan station is moving into a new building, and the story unfolds during the move. After the Shiomi building of the TV series, the filming base for the station moves here: apart from the opening scene, the exterior and ground-floor lobby were shot at the SOHO building, which stands next to the real Tokyo Bay Wangan police station.

Location precision: The film's police station is invented; the SOHO building only stands in for its new premises.

Visitor guidance: The building is seen from the street; the real police station next to it is not a sightseeing spot.