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Ōkubo, Tokyo — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Ōkubo is a neighbourhood of Shinjuku in Tokyo, built around Shin-Ōkubo Station and widely known as the city's Koreatown.
About Ōkubo
Where to stay in Ōkubo
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Ōkubo's beds cluster around Shin-Ōkubo Station. Rooms nearest the ticket gates put the Korean food lanes and the Yamanote Line loop within a couple of minutes of the door, which suits a short Tokyo stay built around eating rather than sightseeing. The Waseda side runs quieter.
Beds there sit among the university museums, while Shinjuku proper, one stop down the line, carries the larger hotels for anyone wanting choice over character.
About Ōkubo
What are the main landmarks in Ōkubo?
Museums carry the district. The Samurai Museum, the Philatelic Museum, and the Museum of Haiku Literature each take a single subject and stay with it, which makes them quick, self-contained stops rather than half-day commitments. Waseda accounts for three more: the Waseda University Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, the Waseda Aizu Museum, and the Waseda International House of Literature.
The Women's Active Museum on War and Peace closes the list.
What is the history of Ōkubo?
Ōkubo's shape follows its railway. The neighbourhood was built around Shin-Ōkubo Station, a stop on the Yamanote Line loop, and that station has lent its name to the blocks spreading out on every side of it. Shin-Ōkubo does duty for the whole area.
A Korean community settled here in depth, and the shorthand Tokyo Koreatown attached to the district while Ōkubo stayed its formal name within Shinjuku.
Where is Ōkubo?
Ōkubo sits inside Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's dense inner wards, with Shin-Ōkubo Station on the Yamanote Line at its middle.
More areas in Tokyo
Updated September 2026