Japan's tallest skyscraper inaugurated in Tokyo

This “city within a city” should accommodate 20.000 office workers and 3.500 residents once fully occupied, according to a press release from the 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 (western Japan) but is not expected to remain the tallest building in the country for long: the Torch Tower and its 390 meters in height should 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.