Meiji Park in Hakata-ku reopens on August 7, bringing a new kind of urban park experience to the area in front of Hakata Station. Developed through Fukuoka City’s Park-PFI system and connected to the wider Hakata Connected initiative, the renovated park combines greenery, open plazas, terraces, elevated walkways, food and drink, and a large urban spa facility in one compact city-center site.
The first impression is not of an ordinary flat green space. The park feels futuristic and three-dimensional, almost like a small urban amusement park, with bright overhead walkways, stairs, terraces, and routes that invite visitors to wander rather than follow a single prescribed path. There is no obvious “correct” entrance or exit. Instead, the park opens in several directions, encouraging people to explore, climb, pause, look across Central Hakata from unfamiliar angles, and find their own place to sit.
Although the grass is still settling in and the newly planted trees are still young, the structure already makes it easy to imagine how the park will become greener and more layered over time. What stands out most on site is how cleverly the limited space has been used. Meiji Park is not huge, but the multi-level design, plazas, steps, terraces, and small corners make it feel wider and more varied than its actual footprint.
There are also more places to sit and linger than the official descriptions suggest. Benches, steps, terraces, and small tucked-away spots appear throughout the park, creating places for office workers, travelers, neighbors, and visitors to eat, talk, rest, or simply enjoy being outdoors while still in the middle of the city.
The park’s tenant mix has been chosen to support that everyday use. On the first floor, Land Bageri will operate as a bakery during the day and a bread bistro in the evening, while GABBI HAKATA offers Italian dining. POSS COFFEE, also on the first floor, serves coffee and sweets and switches to bar service after 18:00, adding an evening option to the park.
On the second floor, 400℃ PIZZA Piu Hakata brings a more casual version of the Okayama-born pizzeria to Kyushu, with eat-in and takeout options. Beside it, CONTINUE?, operated by Saga craft beer brewery GAME BREW, offers around 15 craft beers on tap, including self-pour servings by the ounce. A further second-floor tenant is still to be announced.
The upper floors are home to TOTOPA Hakata Ekimae, the second location of Tokyo Tatemono’s urban spa brand and its first in Kyushu. Located on the third and fourth floors, the facility brings a large-scale sauna and relaxation element into the park, making the project feel less like a conventional shopping complex and more like a place where public space, food, drink, wellness, and daily routines overlap.
That relationship between the shops and the park is important. The tenants do not feel hidden away inside a commercial building. They face directly onto the park, making them easy to understand from outside and simple to use casually. Coffee and bread, pizza and craft beer, sauna and outdoor terraces: the combinations are easy to imagine as lunch breaks, after-work meetups, weekend stops, or relaxed takeout moments.
The overall design supervision was led by Sou Fujimoto Architects. During Fukuoka Now’s visit, Fujimoto’s approachable, humanistic presence seemed closely aligned with the park’s design: open, layered, friendly, and made for people to use in their own way. In a dense urban area where horizontal space is limited, Meiji Park suggests one possible future for city recreation: going multi-level, adding greenery wherever possible, and creating many small places where people can comfortably pause.
For office workers around Hakata Station, local residents, visitors, food lovers, craft beer fans, sauna users, and architecture watchers, Meiji Park offers something Fukuoka’s city center has not had in quite this form before. It is compact, but it is also imaginative, useful, and easy to enjoy. As the greenery grows in and people begin to make it part of their daily routines, the park should become one of Hakata’s most interesting new gathering places.
This report is the first in a two-part Fukuoka Now series on the new Meiji Park. A second article will look more closely at the ideas behind the project, drawing on comments from Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima, architect Sou Fujimoto, and the developers involved in bringing the park to life.
Shops and Facilities
Land Bageri, 1F
Bakery by day and bread bistro by evening, created with craftspeople connected to Tetsuo Hirayama of pain stock. Hours and closing days were undecided in the source material.
GABBI HAKATA, 1F
Italian dining described as a casual “town lobby.” Lunches are supervised by Yakuin’s long-established PastaPasta, while the evening menu focuses on Southern European cuisine and wine by chef Masaki Ogami. Hours: 8:00 to 22:00.
POSS COFFEE, 1F
Cafe and bar from the popular Bayside Place Hakata coffee shop. It serves drinks and in-store sweets during the day, then switches to bar service after 18:00. Hours: 8:00 to 23:00. No regular closing days.
400℃ PIZZA Piu Hakata, 2F
The first Kyushu location for Okayama-born 400℃ PIZZA, offered here in a more casual format with eat-in, takeout, and the option to enjoy pizza on the park lawn. Hours: 11:00 to 21:00. No regular closing days.
CONTINUE?, 2F
Craft beer taproom operated by GAME BREW from Yoshinogari, Saga. Around 15 craft beers are available on tap, with self-pour servings charged by the ounce. Hours: 11:00 to 23:00.
TOTOPA Hakata Ekimae, 3F and 4F
Kyushu’s first location of the urban spa brand TOTOPA, and the brand’s second location after Tokyo’s metropolitan Meiji Park. The facility’s concept is a sauna experience built around a large Western red cedar tree. Hours: 8:00 to 23:00. No regular closing days, except maintenance closures.
Meiji Park
-
- Location: 3-24-3 Hakataekimae, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City
- Hours: Open 24 hours
- Note: The elevated walkway, shops, and related facilities are closed from 0:00 to 5:30
- https://meiji-park.jp
Text and photos: Nick Szasz and Emiko Szasz