Japan's tallest skyscraper opened in the heart of Tokyo on Friday, with visitors on its first business day expressing their excitement about the capital's new nature-rich 330-meter landmark.
Some 30 million people are expected to visit the Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower and its surrounding facilities each year, said Mori Building Co., the developer of the 640 billion yen ($4.3 billion) complex.
The 64-story tower, which contains offices from its fifth to 52nd floors, beats the previous title holder Abeno Harukas in Osaka by 30 meters and is almost as tall as Tokyo Tower, which stands at 333 meters.
The building is the main feature of the Azabudai Hills complex, which features expansive green space and houses 122 rooms of Aman Resorts' upscale hotel, as well as 1,400 residential units. High-end restaurants, luxury shops, teamLab's digital art museum and the British School are also contained in the complex.
"I'm impressed that it is taller than Abeno Harukas. It's a good thing that there are an increasing number of attractive tourist sites like this," said a woman in her 50s visiting the complex from Osaka Prefecture.
"We were really looking forward to the opening as it was the talk of the town," said a man in his 70s who lives near the complex.
The aim of the project was to transform and rebuild an area formerly clustered with small wooden homes that were vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Under its "modern urban village" slogan, the 8.1-hectare complex was built to contain as much greenery as possible, with about 30 percent of its total area reserved for green space.
The complex, located in the Azabudai area of Minato Ward in Tokyo, is about a five-minute walk from Kamiyacho Station and Roppongi Ichome Station.
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