De federale staat als vastgoedmagnaat? De herontwikkeling van het Belgische ambassadeterrein in Tokio (1960-2010)

Since the turn of the century, successive Belgian governments have increasingly sold assets of its real estate portfolio in order to balance the national budget. Against the backdrop of this domestic policy, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an extensive redevelopment of its embassy premises in Tokyo in 2006. This article questions to what extent financial triggers incentivised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to launch this building project in Tokyo and identifies the ramifications of these financial concerns on the design of the new embassy that emerged from this redevelopment. Therefore, this research calls upon a wide variety of sources such as archival records, parliamentary debates, memoirs of diplomats and press articles.