(Tokyo) The sprawling Azabudai Hills real estate complex, which includes Japan’s new tallest skyscraper (330 meters), was officially opened in Tokyo on Friday, and its developer, Mori Building, hopes to attract more than 30 million visitors. per year.
This “city within a city” is expected to accommodate 20,000 office workers and 3,500 residents once fully occupied, according to a press release from Japanese real estate group Mori Building.
The complex, which includes three skyscrapers built in the middle of green spaces, will also include 150 restaurants and stores as well as a new immersive digital art museum from the Japanese collective teamLab, which is due to open next February.
Azabudai Hills exceeds the height of a skyscraper in Osaka, but is not expected to remain the tallest building in the country for long: the Torch Tower with its 390 meters height is expected to be completed in 2027-2028 in Tokyo.
Furthermore, the Japanese capital is also home to one of the tallest structures in the world, the Tokyo SkyTree (an uninhabited 634 meter tower), inaugurated in 2012.
Japan, however, is far from the heights reached elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East for skyscrapers.
One of the reasons is the very high seismic risk in the Japanese archipelago, which requires tall buildings in the country to respect extremely strict standards and, for example, to have a wide base to gain stability. Hence the often massive appearance of Japanese skyscrapers.
