The Gifu Prefecture’s government has operated out of five different offices throughout its history. The third building, used from 1924 to 1966, is set to include classic car museum with an opening planned for April 2029. Octane reported on the plan.

The cars come from Senji Kunie, a Gifu resident and CEO of Fit-Easy. The fitness club chain is one of the sponsors on Toyota Gazoo Racing’s WRC team.

Kunie has an extensive collection of racecraft, both domestically produced and foreign. It includes endurance racers that have done Le Mans and Daytona such as Mazdas 787B, RX-7, and RX-3, as well as those from rallying and the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship. The Dome 85C, a Toyota prototype intended for Group C touring car racing, is also in his catalog.

The rally side unsurprisingly has plenty of Toyotas, such as the Celica 2000GT that won the 1982 Rally New Zealand with Björn Waldegård. He also has George Fury’s 1979 Southern Cross Rally-winning Datsun Stanza and even the Nissan Terrano R50 that Nissan Private Japon fielded in the 1996 Granada–Dakar Rally.

Octane noted that all of the vehicles are still in working condition and can be raced.

Officially called the Former Gifu Prefecture Government Building to distinguish it from successors, it was the replacement for the wood building which had been in use since 1874. Before that, the regional leadership had worked out of the Kasamatsu Jinya for centuries, even predating the prefecture.

Construction was led by Kenkichi Yabashi and Toshiko Sano, and started on June 1, 1923. The project was initially more ambitious with the addition of an 11-story tower, which was dropped after the Great Kantō Earthquake. It was completed on October 15, 1924.

The building served as the hub for Gifu’s government agencies for the next four decades. During World War II, the building’s concrete roof was penetrated by Allied bombing on July 9, 1945, but a night brigade put out the ensuing fire before it could spread.

The government moved out in 1966 in favor of a new, more modernized building. The fifth and current office opened in 2022.

Due to safety concerns since it was no longer optimized for earthquake damage, the third facility was closed to the public in 2005. After some deliberation on its fate, most of the structure was demolished in 2013 whereas the south side remained for historical preservation.

In May 2025, Kunie and Fit-Easy created the World Heritage Foundation to figure out what to do with the building. Ideas included a hotel, restaurant, fitness club, and bringing in the JGA Golf Museum. The museum had been at Hirono Golf Club in Hyogo since 1983 but closed in December due to age and decline in visitors, the latter partly because its location made it difficult for non-avid golfers to go.

By January, it was agreed to rebuild the facility as a multi-use complex with all of the above, including the car museum, with Yasuki Yamashita as the architect. The southern frame will continue to be preserved.

Featured image credit: 『岐阜県庁舎新築落成記念写真帖』 / 岐阜市歴史博物館所蔵 (Gifu Prefectural Office New Building Completion Commemorative Photo Album / Gifu City Museum of History)