Umeda Toei Kaikan

The Umeda Toei Kaikan opened its doors on March 20, 1959 and was known as the chain leader of Toei in the northern part of Osaka. The theater was located south of Osaka Station Building 3 through an underground passage under the Umeda Shindo intersection alongside flight of stairs. The building, which consisted of the triplex theater, with auditorium names Umeda Toei, Toei Pallas, and Toei Hall (later Pallas 2), and also housed various stores surrounding it, including restaurants and Toei-operated anime shops. There’s not a lot of information that I can find about the theater’s early days.

Screen 1 (or Umeda Toei) housed 850 seats and screened Toei Japanese films. Screen 2 (Umeda Toei Pallas) housed 791 seats and was an affiliate of both Marunouchi Louvre and Shibuya Pantheon screening Toei’s foreign films. Lastly, Screen 3 (Umeda Toei Pallas 2, or Toei Hall beforehand) housed 240 seats and was an affiliation of Marunouchi Champs-Élysées, screening independent foreign films.

On April 28, 2002, the theater closed for the final time after 43 years of operation, in line with Toei’s strategy of “transitioning from directly managed theaters to multiplex cinemas”. Unfortunately during demolition on December 3, 2003, tragedy struck after the fourth floor collapsed, causing a power shovel operator to fall to the basement floor. The man that fell was pronounced dead afterward.

In 2010, a 20-story one-basement commercial building, known as the Midosuji Front Tower was built on the site. However, problems soon arose between the various parties involved, and the building became unoccupied. Subsequently, on October 3, 2018, it was purchased by LaSalle Investment Management, an American real estate investment and advisory firm, and on June 3, 2019, New York City based WeWork leased the entire building and opened a shared office space.

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