Tokyo Skytree

Tokyo Skytree is a tower in Tokyo, a giant city in Japan.

It is 634 meters tall. That is almost twice as tall as Tokyo's older tower. It sends out TV signals from high above the city.

Tokyo Skytree stands in the Oshiage district of Sumida Ward, in Tokyo, Japan. It is 634 meters tall. When the site was chosen in 2006, Japan's tallest structure was Tokyo Tower, about 333 meters high, so the new tower would be almost twice as tall.

Skytree was built as a broadcasting tower: it sends out digital television signals from high above the city. In 2011, Guinness World Records recognized it as the world's tallest tower. Visitors ride up to observation decks 350 meters and 450 meters above the ground.

The tower stands at 1-1-2 Oshiage in Sumida Ward. Its operator says it is approximately 634 m tall and that, when the Oshiage site was decided in 2006, Japan's tallest structure was Tokyo Tower, completed in 1958 at about 333 m: the new tower would almost double that height after some 50 years.

Skytree transmits terrestrial digital television, a system designed to deliver stable radio waves, and regular FM radio broadcasting from it began in 2012. Guinness World Records recognized it as the 'world's tallest tower' on November 17, 2011. Its operator says the aim was to make it the world's tallest free-standing broadcasting tower, and calls it one of the world's tallest towers.

At the bottom, the tower's shape is a triangle. At the top, it is a circle.

High up are two places to look out. The highest one is a glass tube 450 meters up!

The tower's base is a triangle, chosen because three gives stability with the fewest parts, like a tripod. As your eyes move up the tower, the shape changes from a triangle to a circle, and the sides curve gently, inspired by curves in traditional Japanese buildings.

Visitors first arrive at Floor 350 of the Tembo Deck, 350 meters up. A shuttle then rises to the Tembo Galleria, a sloping glass tube that climbs from 445 to 450 meters. The tower is painted Skytree White, a white with a hint of blue based on aijiro, the lightest shade of indigo dye.

The design starts from a triangular base, chosen for stability with the fewest units, like a tripod, and to limit the tower's looming effect and shadows on its neighbors; the operator says it also stands for the area between the Sumida and Arakawa rivers and an east-west transport axis. Upward the plan turns from a triangle into a circle, and the silhouette follows the 'sori' and convex curves of traditional Japanese architecture.

The Tembo Deck occupies Floors 340, 345 and 350, the last 350 m above the ground. The Tembo Shuttle continues to Floor 445, where the tube-shaped, glass-enclosed Tembo Galleria slopes up to Floor 450; its highest point is 451.2 m. The color, Skytree White, is an original bluish white based on aijiro, the palest shade of traditional indigo dye.

In the photo, the white tower rises high into a blue sky.

At the bottom are trees, a road on legs and a river with boats.

In this photo from November 2023, you can see almost the whole tower: the thin mast at the top, the two round decks, and the lattice of white steel pipes that widens toward the base. In front are a road raised up on pillars, trees, and a river with a small motorboat and a long boat by the bank.

The operator says the tower transmits digital television today, and that on clear days the café on Floor 350 looks out over the Kanto Plain.

The photo, taken in November 2023, shows the tower from its antenna down to the elevated road that hides its foot: the antenna mast, the upper ring of the Tembo Galleria and the larger drum of the Tembo Deck, and the steel-pipe truss widening toward the bottom. In the foreground are an elevated road, trees, and a river with a motorboat and a moored boat; the photo's record does not name the river.

The operator's timeline records that television broadcasting by Tokyo MX moved fully to Skytree, and that regular broadcasting by the six broadcasters began in 2013. On clear days, the operator says, the café on Floor 350 looks out over the Kanto Plain.