Hanzawa Naoki | 三井本館 Mitsui Main Building — The Stone Face of Tokyo Chuo Bank

Before 半沢直樹 Hanzawa Naoki enters a meeting room or delivers a threat, 東京中央銀行 Tokyo Chuo Bank already seems to tower over him. Its headquarters exterior is 三井本館 Mitsui Main Building in Nihonbashi, a 1929 stone landmark whose long colonnades give the fictional bank the weight of an institution built to outlast any one employee. The drama digitally added the high-rise portion seen above it, but the severe lower façade is real. That contrast is the point of standing here. Hanzawa’s battle is not simply with one dishonest superior; it is with a system that looks permanent, respectable and almost immovable. From the public pavement, the columns still produce exactly that feeling. This is a working office building, so the pilgrimage belongs outside: keep entrances clear, respect security and look up from the street. The stone face remains calm, even when you remember everything that erupted behind its fictional doors. Photo: 663highland, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.