You’ll Soon Be Able to Stay in One of Japan’s Most Beautifully Designed Prisons

japanese art, design and culture

photos by Masashi Mizowaki and Takaharu Yagi

Spending the night in jail is usually not a good thing. Unless of course you’re staying in Japan’s Nara Prison, a historic red-brick structure built in 1908 with western archways and onion domes that lend an air of castle more than incarceration. The prison shut down in 2017 but is being preserved for its architectural and historic significance. The renovated structure will reopen in 2026 as a hotel.

Nara Prison was built in 1908 and was designed by architect Keijiro Yamashita, the grandfather of prison architecture and the architect behind what are known as The Five Great Prisons of Meiji (located in Chiba, Kanazawa, Nagasaki, Kagoshima and Nara). In 1946 it changed names to Nara Juvenile Prison and housed juvenile criminals but with a strong emphasis on rehabilitation.

Japan incarcerates its citizens at a far lower rate than most developed countries: 37 per 100,000 people compared with 132 in Britain and 629 in America. And the inmate population in Japan has seen a steady decline over the past decade, which helps explain why Nara Prison was shut down in 2017.

But with beautiful gardens and eye-catching