Tokyo Tower — observation tower
Image by LittleMouse from Pixabay

Tokyo Tower

  • 1 min read
  • 35.659° N 139.746° E

Interesting facts

  • The tower's owner first wanted it taller than the Empire State Building, but money and materials ran short, and broadcast range set the final height.
  • Hundreds of tobi, traditional Japanese steeplejacks skilled at working at height, helped build it, with at least 400 workers on site each day.
  • It was designed to withstand an earthquake twice as strong as the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 and typhoon winds of up to 220 km/h.
  • Since 1989 lighting designer Motoko Ishii's floodlights have bathed it warm orange in the cooler months and white in summer.
  • The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake bent the tip of the antenna, and during repairs in 2012 the tower briefly stood only 315 metres tall.
  • A small Shinto shrine on the observation deck, Tower Daijingu, is said to be the highest shrine in central Tokyo.
  • The tower's official name is Japan Radio Tower, and before Tokyo Skytree it carried the television signals of NHK and Tokyo's main commercial stations.
  • A more durable paint applied in 2019 stretched the interval between full repaintings from five years to about seven.
  • Godzilla, Mothra and other giant monsters have attacked or toppled the tower in Japanese films again and again.
  • Tokyo Tower has its own emoji, and the tower welcomed its 190 millionth visitor in 2024.

Why it is worth it

Tokyo Tower was completed in 1958 as a transmitter for the Kantō region and as a symbol of Japan's recovery after the war. The engineer Tachū Naitō, a designer of tall buildings in earthquake country, took the Eiffel Tower as his model, and when its antenna was bolted into place in October 1958 the tower, at 332.9 metres, overtook its Parisian model by nine metres to become the tallest freestanding tower in the world. It is far lighter, around 4,000 tons against the Eiffel Tower's 7,300, and about a third of its steel came from scrap, including US tanks damaged in the Korean War.

Its colours are set by aviation rules: bands of white and international orange, renewed roughly every seven years with some 28,000 litres of paint in a job that takes a year. It remained Japan's tallest structure until Tokyo Skytree was completed in 2012 and took over television broadcasting, though FM radio stations still transmit from the tower. It has become one of the most recognisable sights of the city, appearing again and again in films and television set in Tokyo.

Visitors enter through FootTown, a five-storey building at the base with shops and restaurants, and ride up to the two-level Main Deck at 150 metres, with a further lift to the smaller Top Deck at about 250 metres, redesigned in 2018. An outdoor staircase of around 600 steps also climbs from the roof of FootTown to the Main Deck and can be used on certain days in place of the lift. The tower stands in the Shiba Park district of Minato.

Getting there

The tower is in Shibakōen, Minato ward, in central Tokyo. Akabanebashi station on the Toei Ōedo line is about five minutes' walk away, Onarimon on the Toei Mita line about six, and Kamiyachō on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya line about seven. Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND) is about 13 km to the south.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Tokyo 5The Most Beautiful Places in Japan 122The Most Spectacular Viewpoints in Japan 5The Most Spectacular Modern Observation Towers 7The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments in Japan 8The Most Beautiful Buildings in Japan 9The Most Spectacular Modern Viewpoints 9The Most Spectacular Observation Towers 12The Most Beautiful Modern Squares, Streets and Monuments 15The Most Spectacular Viewpoints 33The Most Beautiful Modern Buildings 50The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments 173The Most Beautiful Buildings 286

From the encyclopaedia

Tokyo Tower , also known by its official name Japan Radio Tower is a communications and observation tower in the district of Shiba-koen in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, completed in 1958. At 332.9 meters, it was the tallest tower in Japan until the construction of Tokyo Skytree in 2012. It is a lattice tower inspired by the Eiffel Tower, and is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

35.65861, 139.74556per Wikidata