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IDG News Service - Tokyo's world-famous Akihabara district lost one of its signature stores on Saturday, and with it a piece of the area's rich electronics history faded away.
The Radio Store, one of the landmarks that gave Akihabara it's 'Electric Town' nickname, closed its doors for the last time on Saturday evening after 64 years in business.
The store got its start in the years after World War II as the country's post war electronics market boomed and companies like Sony were launching their first products. Electronics wholesalers and black-market vendors opened stores in the area bringing it a reputation as the go-to place for electrical goods and components.
The mass of street vendors was discouraged by the Allied GHQ that administrated Japan after the war and an area under Akihabara's railway tracks was made available for them to set up shop. As the electronics industry grew, newer buildings were needed to house the increasing number of stalls selling components.
On March 8, 1950, The Radio Store building opened. It was the first such electronics superstore, built by ten of the prominent vendors at the time, and housed their stores and eventually hundreds of others.
Read more here.
The Radio Store, one of the landmarks that gave Akihabara it's 'Electric Town' nickname, closed its doors for the last time on Saturday evening after 64 years in business.
The store got its start in the years after World War II as the country's post war electronics market boomed and companies like Sony were launching their first products. Electronics wholesalers and black-market vendors opened stores in the area bringing it a reputation as the go-to place for electrical goods and components.
The mass of street vendors was discouraged by the Allied GHQ that administrated Japan after the war and an area under Akihabara's railway tracks was made available for them to set up shop. As the electronics industry grew, newer buildings were needed to house the increasing number of stalls selling components.
On March 8, 1950, The Radio Store building opened. It was the first such electronics superstore, built by ten of the prominent vendors at the time, and housed their stores and eventually hundreds of others.
Read more here.
