The Meidi-ya Building is located in Sakaisuji-Hommachi, where expressways hang overhead and high-rise buildings proliferate. Completed in 1924, the building is a neo-renaissance-style architecture elaborately designed by the Sone Chujo Architectural Office. On the 1st floor when it opened was the Meidi-ya Store, Japan's first import food and liquor store launched in Yokohama in 1885. The 4th and 5th floors had offices for rent, and the 6th and 7th floors had the smart and fashionable Western food restaurant Chuo-Tei, attracting many people buying Western foodstuffs. Rare in those days, lighting, ventilation and disaster prevention were taken into consideration in the building's design, and its utility and user-friendliness were highly appreciated. After the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 (about one month after construction started), the contractor quickly decided to replace prearranged iron materials with stronger ones produced by Bethlehem Steel in the U.S. Since 2006, Lawson, a convenience store, has been operating on the 1st floor where Meidi-ya used to be.