AlwaysAisle

Mitsubishi Estate will head the project to construct a tallest building in Japan, which will be located next to Tokyo station.

East entrance of Tokyo station, Yaesu area, immediate north where Nihon Building and Asahi Seimei Ootemachi Buildings are located will be torn down and four major towers will be constructed there.

Currently the tallest building in Japan is Abeno Harukas at Osaka at 300 m (984 ft.) tall with 60 stories. The new building which will be built next to Tokyo station will be Tower B (building not officially named) with 390 m (1280 ft.) tall with 61 stories.

Three shorter towers will start construction this year and next year, but the tallest Tower B will not start construction till 2023. Asahi Seimei Ootemachi Buildings will remain standing with use when three shorter towers are being built. Once three shorter towers have being completed, then Asahi Seimei Ootemachi Buildings will be torn down and new Tower B construction will start.

Tower B construction is scheduled to be completed on 2027. Till 2027 Kansai will have a fame of having the tallest building in Japan, then on 2027 Kanto will take that fame away from Kansai.

mjm

Well some of that is right, some not. Osaka does have a 300m building yes, Estate will indeed build a big one in Kanda, but the tallest building until 2027 will open in 2023 in the Toranomon Azabudai area at 320m and 65 stores.

BuildingMyBento

...and Tokyo still doesn't have a well-known skyline, though the SkyTree may be helping in that vein.

(come to think of it, the most famous extant Japanese building I can think of is the
Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall/"A-Bomb Dome." 2nd and third might be the Tokyo Tower, and the Park Hyatt of Lost in Translation fame.)

Does it matter? Probably not.

mjm

Got a chuckle out of that one. Not well-known? By whom? A bit subjective and not representative at all of the opinion held by the multi-national firms with whom we do business.

BuildingMyBento

I could've replaced it with "famous," but what's the difference? Take a photo of Hong Kong, Shanghai or Chicago, those are more well-known skylines. Tokyo, though?

Has nothing to do with MNCs, or their reason to conduct business in Japan.

jib71

I guess the OP means well-known by western tourists, rather than by the informed professionals that you're dealing with.

I think if you randomly selected a group of consumers in Europe, most of them would identify Tokyo in this photo series, but if Mt. Fuji weren't in the picture, and you asked them to identify the city purely from its man-made features, few would get it:
http://www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/skyline-quiz-1.php

That said, if you showed the same group of people a photo of Sydney without the iconic opera house, or San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge, the success rate would drop... so ...

I think Tokyo Tower is more "iconic" than Skytree. I disliked it until quite recently. I saw it as a soulless copy of the Eiffel Tower by an architect with no appreciation for curves ... whereas I really appreciate curves ... ahem ... but it has grown on me, I guess.

evergrn

Tokyo definitely has a lot of impressive skyscrapers, but I do think their skyline is underrated or underpublicized (or whatever you want to call it). Certainly so, compared to HKG or New York, although I don't even know what Chicago's skyline looks like. May have to do with Tokyo's skyline being diluted due to its tallest buildings being spread apart with clusters in Shinjuku, Roppongi, Marunouchi, Shiodome, etc. But when you look down from Sky Tree or drive through on the expressway loop around town, you really get an appreciation for Tokyo's collection of tall buildings.

mjm

Famous could have been used, this is true. That would have been equally subjective and even less representative of users. What’s the difference? None at all with those two descriptions. MNC’s are very keen to know that a building has the right image. Quite apropos actually.

I think jib71 nails it here. Take out a key element and it confuses average tourists or even simply non-residents. The key is the aspect of the cityscape (NB: NOT skyline at all really).

San Francisco has had for decades what is arguably the most iconic skyline in the US. Unless you are from the East Coast or Chicago. Quite subjective and experiential. Take more well-rounded group (here come those MNCs again ) and it is a different story.

I think an even more accurate observation vis a vis HK, Shanghai, Chicago, New York, and even San Francisco is that the skyline is not necessarily that which is well known, but rather the cityscape from the point of view of the harbor, bay, ocean, or lake. I would venture that HK is known for that view above many of the others of the city. Chicago as well. Manhattan from the perspective of one of the bridges, the promenade, maybe Hoboken and definitely the Statue of Liberty. Shanghai’s cityscape from Pudong towards Puxi with the Bund in the foreground absolutely, standing on Nanjing Lu looking towards Hongqiao, not so much.

So I the cityscape from the water perspective is in fact that which makes a city have a famous view, then Tokyo is definitely out of the running. If we are talking about skylines though, well Tokyo is right up there at the top and I bet many of the famous cityscapes would drop a notch or two based on buildings or lack of natural features (e.g.) Mt. Fuji.

mjm

Good points. For a truly unique view of the city, give a shout next time in town with the family, they would all enjoy it.