Tokyo bets on a downtown skyscraper

By Julian Richardson in Tokyo, Japan richardsonj@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Tall and elegant, she looks down on Tokyo from 3,080 feet with a cylindrical body that is state-of-the-art.

The Tokyo Sky Tree, in the final days of construction, is already the tallest building in Japan and the highest broadcasting tower in the world. It represents the best of Japanese architecture, symbolizes post-tsunami defiance and aims to revitalise downtown Tokyo, an area that has been in decline for years - reminding one of the anticipated impact of Digicel's state-of-the art building under construction on the Kingston waterfront.

"The Tokyo Skytree has two important functions and roles," says Saeko Masuda, head of public relations and promotion of Tobu Tower Sky Tree, a subsidiary of the Tobu Group which is leading the 60 billion yen ($67 billion) project.

"It is for tourism and, also, communication broadcasting," she tells Latin American and Caribbean journalists on a tour of Japan, invited by the Japanese government to observe the country's recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami that devastated the country on March 11, last year.

Some 5.4 million people are expected to visit the Sky Tree in the first year after it is completed later this month. When Japanese television networks switch to digital transmissions this year, the Tokyo Sky Tree will take over television broadcast from the 52-year-old Tokyo Tower to beam signals across the country.

The journalists are not permitted to go inside the Sky Tree today, as construction workers put the final touches on the building. But, from the balcony of the project's information plaza next door, we easily view the aesthetically pleasing structure.

The building has a whitish exterior, officially called 'Sky Tree white'. Its triangular base gradually transforms into a spire as it gets higher. It has LED lights, which will illuminate the tower alternatively in two different patterns at night.

"On a clear day, visitors will be able to enjoy the views of Mount Fuji, Tokyo Bay, as well as the Pacific Ocean," says Masuda, pointing to the tower's 'sky walkways', which are equipped with transparent glass.

The developers of the Sky Tree take pride in the building's cutting-edge and anti-seismic design, aimed at keeping the structure safe during Japan's frequent earthquakes. Construction on the Sky Tree continued despite the 9.0 magnitude earthquake in March, which also shook Tokyo. The quake, followed by aftershocks and tsunamis, which left more than 20,000 people dead, did not cause any damage to the Sky Tree's structure.

The building, scheduled to officially open on May 22, uses the world's top ecological and energy-saving technologies, according to the developers. The most notable part, they say, are the air conditioning and heating, which use geothermal heat.

"In order to cut down on C02 emissions and realise energy savings, we have decided to carry out what we call a distributed heating/cooling system," says Shinichiro Konno, Managing Director of Tobu Energy Management.

Once vibrant, downtown Tokyo has lost some of its glare in recent years, partly due to an aging population, and is in need of a boost. "We have high expectations of the Sky Tree," says Konno. "It will present a big opportunity for the revitalization of the downtown area of Tokyo."

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Tokyo bets on a downtown skyscraper