Japanese prison where Korean independence fighters died reopens as luxury hotel

Hoshino Resorts opens Hoshinoya Nara Prison on Thursday

Historic 1908 facility converted into 48-suite hotel

Site held anti-Japanese activists Park Se-yong and Jeong Hwi-se

Hoshinoya Nara Prison hotel. [Hoshino Resorts website]

A Japanese prison in Nara where multiple Korean independence activists were held and died during the colonial period has been converted into a luxury hotel.

Hoshinoya Nara Prison, a high-end hotel built inside the historic former jail in western Nara, opened Thursday, according to Kyodo News.

Operator Hoshino Resorts gave media a preview of the hotel's interior and exterior on Tuesday, ahead of the official opening.

Completed in 1908, the prison features five cell blocks arranged radially around a central guard station. Four of the five blocks have been converted into guest rooms, yielding 48 spacious suites created by combining individual and shared cells. The original brick walls and tall windows have been preserved.

A museum documenting the prison's history has also been established inside the hotel.

Hoshinoya Nara Prison hotel. [Kyodo News]

Nightly rates for a suite start at 147,000 yen ($909).

Hoshino Resorts aims to achieve an 80 percent room occupancy rate within three years and plans to direct a portion of hotel revenue toward preserving nationally designated cultural properties.

General Manager Kakegawa Masaya said the company wants "to pass on the history and value of this building to future generations," adding that he hopes the hotel will become "one of the most popular places to stay in Nara."

Nara Prison was one of five prisons the Japanese government built in 1908 as part of a drive to modernize detention facilities during the Meiji era (1868–1912). It later served as a juvenile detention center before closing in 2017 due to aging infrastructure. That same year it was designated a nationally important cultural property. Hoshino Resorts was named the development operator in 2018 and has since carried out the renovation. The opening had originally been planned for 2024 but was pushed back to this year due to seismic safety inspections and other delays.

Nara Prison also held Korean independence activists and anti-Japanese resistance figures during the colonial period.

According to the Korea Independence Movement Archives, Park Se-yong, an independence activist from Busan, traveled to Japan in 1930 and joined the Japanese Communist Party, where he campaigned for the rights of Koreans. He was imprisoned at Nara Prison in 1933 on charges of violating the Public Security Law and subjected to torture and assault. He died two months after being released on parole from injuries sustained during the torture.

Jeong Hwi-se, an anti-Japanese activist from Yecheon in North Gyeongsang Province, was serving as executive chairman of the Korean Labor Union in Kyoto in 1927 when he was imprisoned at Nara Prison in 1929 for violating the Peace Preservation Law. He died in prison that November from injuries sustained through torture.

jshan@heraldcorp.com