In February 2017, Japan formally closed the Nara Prison, a red brick correctional facility that had operated continuously for well over a century in the ancient city of Nara. Rather than demolishing the structure, the Japanese government designated it a National Important Cultural Property the same year it closed, recognising the building as one of the finest surviving examples of Meiji-era prison architecture in the country. Nearly a decade later, following roughly seven years of restoration work, the site reopened in June 2026 as Hoshinoya Nara Prison, a 48-suite luxury hotel built directly inside the original cellblocks, alongside a companion museum exploring the building's history as a working prison. Guests can now sleep inside walls that once confined young offenders, a transformation that turns Japan's history of quiet punishment into an unexpectedly reflective, even luxurious encounter with its own architectural past.
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