History of construction of the Kansai-kan

After three and a half years, construction of the Storage Annex on the south side of the Main Building was completed. At a height of 26 meters, the Storage Annex is shorter than the Main Building, but the buildings are both 124 meters wide and connected. The east and west walls were designed with a decorative motif to gives them the appearance of the heads and tails of books on a shelf.

The Kansai-kan's Storage Annex has seven floors above ground and one floor below, for a total floor area of approximately 25,000 m². The stacks located from the first to the sixth stories above the ground hold approximately 5 million volumes. While there are a few stacks with fixed shelves, the majority feature manual handle compact shelving.