Kawasaki Digital Kowloon Walled City

Kowloon Walled City was an ungoverned settlement in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. The city was famous for its criminal activities that even the police couldn't do anything about it. The city was controlled by Triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug use. The city was demolished in April 1994. Despite of that, its famous still persists in literature, video games, and movies.

While the city no longer exists, you can experience a little bit of the city, in Japan, in a place called Digital Kowloon Walled City.







Digital Kowloon Walled City or Computerized Kowloon Walled City is an amusement complex inside Kawasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture. Inside the building, you will find various games, such as arcade games, UFO catchers, medal games, darts, billiards, and table tennis.

The mastermind behind this is a company called HOSHINOGUMI Co.,Ltd. They managed to design the legendary Kowloon Walled City inside this building. The concept of the building is to build a place where the visitors can fully enjoy the latest game devices while experiencing the near futuristic smell in the whole chaotic world outlook. With all the finest details, the visitors could experience even the smell and the humidity there.

In order to build it, they visited different kind of secondhand stores to get lot of things they could use such as the electrical appliances, teacups, and posters. Taishiro Hoshino, the representatives of the company, insisted on using the genuine article. He even asked his friend in Hong Kong to send a box of their house garbage all the way to Japan.

The posters written in Cantonese seen in every scene were made by Photoshop using the Japanese-Cantonese dictionary but all other characters on the signs are handwritten because the handwritten represents much more tasteful and powerful individuals. Each character on the signs are handwritten with brushes by Mr. Kamata, the representative director of AZUL, Inc.


The most impressive thing is how they use the aging technique to get the rusted, old interior that makes you feel you are in the old Kowloon city. Truly wonderful job.


Entrance to the place. Note that it's only for 18 and over. No admittance to anyone under the age of 18.






The red chamber.


Inside is the dark grim alley of Kowloon Walled City. They even have a background music that makes you feel as if you are inside a horror movie or scary video games.


The city was the den of prostitution.




Definitely do not want to put my leg in the green water.


The exit to the parking lot.


The creepy escalator to the second floor.


You can also use this elevator to go up. No guarantees if you can arrive safely on the next floor.


The second floor is more impressive. You will find the replicate of the facade.


Remember that all of the items have been recreated based on old photos of the city, secondhand items, and garbages from Hong Kong.












The toilet looks very dirty and scary looking. However, you don't need to worry about the cleanliness because the staffs clean it every single day ! Or so I've heard...


After the facade is the real game center where people can go back to the real world and enjoy modern games.




Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take photo past this point. It is just a normal game center though.


So there you go. The Kawasaki's Kowloon Walled City. It's definitely a cool place to visit, have fun, and experience the Kowloon Walled City.

The location is called Warehouse Kawasaki (ウエアハウス 川崎 or あなたのウエアハウス ).
Address : 〒210-0024 神奈川県 川崎市 川崎区 日進町 3-7

Taishiro Hoshino has posted behind the scene of the place. It is worth checking it out.