Tokyo Tower

The Tokyo Tower (東京タワー, Tōkyō tawā^{?< /sup>}, officially called 日本電波塔 Nippon denpatō, literally "Japan Radio Tower ») is a telecommunications and observation tower located in the Shiba Park area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 332.9 m tall, it is the second tallest structure in Japan. It is a lattice tower inspired by the Eiffel Tower that is painted international orange and white to comply with aviation safety regulations.

Built in 1958, its main sources of income are tourism and antenna rental. More than 150 million people have visited the tower since it opened. FootTown, a four-story building located just below the tower, houses museums, restaurants, and shops. From there, visitors can also access the two viewpoints: the Main Deck, which has two floors and is 150 m high; and the smaller Top Deck, which stands at a height of 249.6 m.

The tower acts as a support structure for a telecommunications antenna. Initially intended for television broadcasting, radio antennas were also installed in 1961, but today the tower broadcasts signals from Japanese television channels such as NHK, TBS and Fuji TV. After the transition to digital television in Japan, planned for July 2011, the height of the Tokyo Tower was not enough to support a complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting to the area, so on February 29, 2012 it was built a taller digital broadcasting tower, named Tokyo Skytree.

Since its completion in 1958, Tokyo Tower has become one of the symbols of the city, appearing frequently in audiovisual productions set in Tokyo.

Construction

The Tokyo Tower in 1961.

After NHK, Japan's public broadcasting company, began its television broadcasts in 1953, it was necessary to build a large broadcasting tower in the Kantō region. Private companies began their broadcasts in the months following the construction of NHK's own transmission tower. This telecommunications boom made the Japanese government think that transmission towers would soon be built all over Tokyo, encroaching on the city. The proposed solution was the construction of a large tower capable of broadcasting to the entire region. Also, following the post-war economic boom of the 1950s, Japan was looking for a monument to symbolize its rise as a world power.

Hisakichi Maeda, founder and president of Nippon Denpatō, the company that owns and operates the tower, originally intended for the tower to be taller than the Empire State Building in New York, which at 1,200 feet was the tallest structure in the world. However, this idea was scrapped due to a lack of funding. Finally, the height of the tower was determined based on the range that the television networks needed to transmit to the entire Kantō region, about 150 km. Tachū Naitō, a renowned designer of tall buildings in Japan, was chosen to design the tower. Seeking inspiration in the Western world, Naitō based his design on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. With the collaboration of the engineering company Nikken Sekkei, Naitō claimed his design could withstand earthquakes twice the intensity of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and typhoons with wind speeds of up to 220 km/h.

The new project attracted hundreds of tobi (鳶), traditional Japanese construction workers who specialized in building high-rise structures. The Takenaka Corporation broke ground on the tower in June 1957, and more than 400 employees worked on it each day. It was constructed of steel, a third of which was scrap from American tanks damaged in the Korean War. When the 90-meter-tall antenna was screwed on on October 14, 1958, the Tokyo Tower became the tallest free-standing tower in the world, surpassing the Eiffel Tower by nine meters. Despite being taller than The Eiffel Tower, Tokyo Tower weighs only about 4,000 tons, 3,300 tons less than its Parisian counterpart. Although other towers have since surpassed Tokyo Tower's height, it was the tallest structure in Japan until April 2010, when it was surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree. It opened to the public on December 23, 1958 at a total cost of 2.8 billion yen. Tokyo Tower was mortgaged for 10 billion yen in 2000.

Conceived as a telecommunications antenna and painted with bright colors in accordance with the aviation laws of the time, today the two panoramic viewpoints of the tower are frequented mainly by tourists; the tower forms a clear landmark in the chaotic skyline of central Tokyo, both day and night.

Every five years, the tower is repainted in a process that takes about a year to complete. The next time it is scheduled to be repainted is in 2024.

Use

The Top Deck, located just below the digital television broadcasting team of the tower.

Tokyo Tower's two main sources of income are antenna rental and tourism. It functions as a support structure for a television and radio broadcasting antenna and is a tourist destination that is home to several different attractions. More than 150 million people have visited the tower since its opening in late 1958. Since then, the number of visitors to the tower has steadily declined until in 2000 it bottomed out at about 2.3 million. Thereafter, the number of visitors has increased, and recently it has received about three million visitors a year.

The first area of the tower that tourists visit is FootTown, a four-story building located just below the tower. There, visitors can eat, shop, and visit various museums and galleries. They can also use the elevators on the first floor of FootTown to reach the first of two observation decks, the Main Deck, which has two floors. For the price of another ticket, visitors can go up to another set of elevators on the second floor of this viewpoint to reach the highest viewpoint, the Top Deck.

Broadcasting

Looking down from the glass floor of the Tokyo Tower.

On the second floor Main Deck There's a jinja (sintoistic sanctuary).

Tokyo Tower is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers and is used by many broadcasters for broadcasting. The structure was built to broadcast television signals, but in 1961 radio antennas were also installed. Today, the tower broadcasts analog television, digital television, radio, and digital radio. Broadcasters that use the tower's antenna include:

• NHK General TV Tokyo (JOAK-TV): VHF channel 1 (analogue).
• NHK Educational TV Tokyo (JOAB-TV): VHF channel 3 (analogue).
• NHK Radio FM Tokyo (JOAK-FM): 82.5MHz.
  • NHK Radio 1 AM Tokyo (JOAK-AM): 594kHz.
  • NHK Radio 2 AM Tokyo (JOAB-AM): 693kHz.
• TV Asahi Tokyo (JOEX-TV): TV Asahi Analog Television/VHF channel 10 (analogue).
• Fuji Television Tokyo (JOCX-TV): Fuji Television Analog/VHF channel 8 (analogue).
• Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (JORX-TV): TBS Television/VHF channel 6 (analogue).
• Nippon Television Tokyo (JOAX-TV): VHF channel 4 (analogue).
• TV Tokyo (JOTX-TV): VHF channel 12 (analogue).
• J-WAVE (JOAV-FM): 81.3MHz.
• Tokyo FM (JOAU-FM): 80.0MHz.
• FM Interwave (JODW-FM): 76.1MHz.
• The University of the Air TV (JOUD-TV): UHF channel 16 (analogue).
• The University of the Air-FM (JOUD-FM): 77.1MHz.
• Tokyo Metropolitan Television (JOMX-TV): UHF channel 14 (analogue).
• Nikkei Radio Broadcasting Relay Antenna (JOZ-SW): 3.925MHz.

Japan uses both analogue and digital broadcasting, but in July 2011 all TV broadcasts became digital only. Tokyo Tower is not a reliable antenna for digital broadcasting because it is not tall enough to transmit the higher frequency waves to areas surrounded by forests or skyscrapers. As an alternative, a new 634-meter-tall tower called Tokyo Skytree was opened in 2012. To make Tokyo Tower more attractive to NHK and the five other commercial broadcasters planning to move their broadcasts to the new tower, the Nihon Denpatō officials drew up a plan to increase the height of its digital broadcasting antenna by 80 to 100 meters at a cost of approximately 4 billion yen. As these plans have not been realized, Tokyo Tower is expected to stop transmitting digital television signals, with the exception of Japan Open University, which will continue to broadcast from the tower. FM radio stations will also continue to use the tower to broadcast to the Tokyo area. Masahiro Kawada, the tower's planning director, also hinted at the possibility of it becoming a backup tower for the Tokyo Skytree, depending on the needs of television networks.

The highest part of the antenna was damaged in the March 11, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. On July 19, 2012, the height of Tokyo Tower was reduced to 315 meters while the damage was repaired. by the earthquake on top of the antenna.

Attractions

Foot Town

The base of the Tokyo Tower, with the FootTown building below.

At the base of the tower is a four-story building called FootTown. Its first floor contains an aquarium gallery, a reception hall, a restaurant with a capacity for four hundred people, a FamilyMart convenience store, and a souvenir shop. The main attractions of this floor, however, are the three elevators that they lead directly to the Main Deck. The second floor mainly houses a commercial and restaurant area. In addition to five independent restaurants, the second-floor food court contains four other outlets, including a McDonald's and a Pizza-La.

The third and fourth floors of FootTown are home to several tourist attractions. The third floor contains the Guinness Records Museum of Tokyo, which houses life-size figures, panels and objects that represent records that have been certified by the Guinness Book. The Tokyo Tower Wax Museum, opened in 1970, It displays waxworks imported from London. Figures on display range from popular culture icons like The Beatles to religious figures like Jesus of Nazareth. On this floor there is also a hologram gallery called Gallery DeLux, a salon and several specialty shops. On the fourth floor is Tokyo Tower's Trick Art Gallery, which displays optical illusions, including paintings and objects with which visitors can interact.

On the rooftop of the FootTown building is a small amusement park that contains several small rides and hosts live performances for children. On weekends and holidays, visitors can use the rooftop to access the exterior stairway of the tower. With some 660 steps, this staircase is an alternative to the elevators and leads directly to the Main Deck.

Tokyo One Piece Tower

Tokyo Tower used to have a small theme amusement park based on the hit manga One Piece, which opened in 2015. This amusement park featured various rides, shops, and restaurants, all They are based on the characters from Eiichirō Oda's manga. Customers could enjoy various rides and attractions inspired by characters from the series or enjoy meals from the world of One Piece. It also featured a gift shop offering exclusive One Piece merchandise. The park closed permanently on July 31, 2020.

Pets

Tokyo Tower has two mascots named ノッポン Noppon. The older brother wears blue outfielders, and the younger brother wears red outfielders. They were unveiled on December 23, 1998 to celebrate the tower's 40th anniversary.

Appearance

Aerial view of Shiba-koen at sunset.

The Tokyo Tower at night.

The Tokyo Tower in 2018, during a snowfall.

Tokyo Tower requires a total of 28,000 liters of paint to completely paint the structure international orange and white, in compliance with aviation safety regulations. Before the tower's 30th anniversary in 1987, the The tower's only lighting consisted of bulbs located on the contours of the corners, which extended from the base to the antenna. In the spring of 1987, Nihon Denpatō invited lighting designer Motoko Ishii to visit the tower. Since its opening thirty years ago, the tower's annual ticket sales had declined significantly, and in an attempt to revitalize the tower and reposition it as a major tourist attraction and symbol of Tokyo, Ishii was hired to redesign its lighting.

Unveiled in 1989, the new lighting required the removal of bulbs that outlined the corner contours and the installation of 176 spotlights throughout the tower structure. From dusk to midnight, these spotlights illuminate the entire tower. From October 2 to July 6, sodium vapor lamps are used to cover the tower in orange. From July 7 through October 1, the lights are switched to metal halide lamps to illuminate the tower in white. The reason behind this change is seasonal: Ishii thought that orange, a warm color, helps to counteract the cold winter months, while white is a cool color that helps during the hot summer months.

Occasionally, the lighting of Tokyo Tower adopts specific configurations to commemorate some special events. Since 2000, the entire tower has been lit up pink on October 1 to mark the start of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The tower has also displayed various special illuminations for Christmas since 1994. On New Year's Eve, the tower lights up at midnight by displaying the year number on one side of the viewing platform to signal the arrival of the new year.

Some Japanese events have also caused the tower to light up in a special way. In 2002, alternate sections of the tower were lit blue to celebrate the start of the Soccer World Cup held in Japan. Alternating sections of the tower were lit green in 2007 on St. Patrick's Day to commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Ireland. On several occasions, Tokyo Tower has also been illuminated in a special way for corporate events. For example, the top half of the tower was lit up in green to correspond with the Japanese premiere of The Matrix Reloaded and different sections of the tower were lit up in red, white and black to mark the first day. sales of Coca-Cola C2.

The tower was also given special lighting in 2000 for the new millennium, with Motoko Ishii reprising her role as designer. In December 2008, Nihon Denpatō spent US$6.5 million to create a new night illumination —entitled Diamond Veil, «diamond veil»— on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the tower. This illumination was made up of 276 lights of seven different colors distributed evenly on the four faces of the tower.

In special tower lighting, the Main Deck often plays an important role. During the second international White Band Day, on September 10, 2005, the tower was completely unlit except for the Main Deck, which was lit in bright white. The white ring thus formed symbolized the white band referred to in the name of the day. On other occasions, the two floors of windows that make up the exterior of the Main Deck are used to display words or numbers. When the tower was illuminated to commemorate that digital terrestrial television was first available in the Kantō region on December 1, 2005, each side of the Main Deck displayed the characters 地デジ (chi deji, an abbreviation for 地上デジタル放送 chijō dejitaru hōsō, "digital terrestrial television"). More recently, the The observation deck displayed "TOKYO" and "2016" to signal Tokyo's 2016 Olympic bid. Primitive images, such as hearts, have also been displayed using the observation deck windows.

Operations of the Top Deck of the tower (at a height of 250 m) were suspended in 2016, and it reopened on March 3, 2018. At that time, the tower also announced the change of names of both viewpoints: the Main Deck was previously called Main Observatory and the Top Deck, Special Observatory. The renovations of the Main Deck, which began in September 2016, caused its partial closure.

Media representations

Just as the Eiffel Tower is often used in popular culture to immediately locate a scene in Paris, the Tokyo Tower is used in the same way for Tokyo.

The tower appears in anime and manga as Doraemon, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Magic Knight Rayearth, Please Save My Earth, Cardcaptor Sakura, Digimon, Medabots, Detective Conan, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyō!, X, and Death Note. The tower is also frequently used in the Japanese kaijū film genre. i>, and has been the scene of numerous battles and visits by Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, and King Kong (King Kong Escapes) in which it is frequently destroyed and rebuilt.

Based on the popular manga series by Ryōhei Saigan, the 2005 film Always Sanchōme no Yūhi is a nostalgic view of life in the neighborhoods surrounding Tokyo Tower during its construction. Tokyo Tower is featured in the Japanese TV show Begin Japanology broadcast on NHK World in 2008.

Tokyo Tower was also featured in the Cars Toons episode Tokyo Mater, in which the Japanese street racer Kabuto and the ninjas they challenge Lightning McQueen and Mater to a race whose goal is to reach the top of the tower by midnight. He also appears in the last scene of Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage 3, in which Cures Lovely, Princess, and the first completed PreCure teams perform their version of the song Pretty Cure Memory.

The tower also features a prominent narrative role in the 2017 anime Revue Starlight, in which the two leads make a promise together as children in the light of the tower, which appears as a motif recurring throughout the series. Tokyo Tower is also featured in the 2017 television series DuckTales episode Astro B.O.Y.D.!, in which Huey Duck and B.O.Y.D. They observe the city from their viewpoint. She is also badly damaged in a brief video sequence of a Tokyo bombing (the series' equivalent of Tokyo) that occurred twenty years before the episode.

The set of emojis has an ideogram of the Tokyo Tower (), which is included in the version 6.0 of Unicode with the code U+1F5FC Tokyo Tower.