Yokohama Station, c. 1935.

“When the third Yokohama Station was built in 1928, the nearby stations then known as Kanagawa and Hohogaya were eliminated.

“… The relocation of Yokohama Station from the hinterland of the port to the Tokaido [Main Line] axis resulted partly from a relative decline in the status of the Yokohama foreign settlement. With the abandonment of extraterritoriality in 1899 and Japan’s acquisition of customs autonomy in 1911, the power of the foreign business firms, which had prospered from these special privileges ceded to them under the unequal treaties, began to decline.

“The second reason was the growth of Tokyo by the late 1890s; the central government had established its offices there, and the Mitsubishi financial combine was building offices in the Marunouchi area. As Tokyo strengthened its primary position in business, the facilities it offered lured businesses away from Yokohama. Finally, after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 this movement to Tokyo became decisive.”

– Yokohama Past and Present, Kato Yuzo, Editor-in-chief, Yokohama City University, 1990

Yokohama Station, c. 1935.