Nagoya City Hall and Aichi Prefectural Office Main Building

These two buildings from the 1930s are both topped with sloping roofs, a conscious decision based on the presence of nearby Nagoya Castle. This style, which made direct reference to Japanese and Asian traditions, was commonly known as the “Imperial-crown” style after World War II. Although the style was consciously avoided in a slight deviation from modernization, this drove postwar architects to create their own original ideas as an extension of the international style, which in turn elevated Japanese architecture to a global standard.