Looking Up at Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower celebrated its 60th anniversary at the end of last year. As for why Tokyo Tower was built, it was because a radio tower became necessary. In 1953, NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) started television broadcasting, and two years later, TBS also opened. With more TV stations scheduled to open one after another, there was an urgent need to quickly build a radio tower in the center of the plains of the metropolitan area.

It seems there were several candidate sites.

Ueno Park, Shiba Park, and from what I heard from my parents (Mr. and Mrs. Hisakichi Maeda), the current location of the Hotel New Otani was also a candidate site.

The place where Tokyo Tower stands now was called Momijiyama (Maple Hill), and before the war, there was a social gathering place called Koyo-kan. It was there in 1896 that Yukichi Fukuzawa gave his famous speech, "The Mission of Keio University," known for the phrases "source of honorable character" and "a paragon of intellect and morals for the entire nation." That place was destroyed in an air raid, and the land remained vacant after the war.

The adjacent Zojoji Temple was also mostly destroyed by war damage, with only the temple bell and the gate along Hibiya-dori—which is now a National Treasure—remaining. Since a considerable amount of reconstruction funds was needed, Hisakichi purchased the land where Koyo-kan had been and a portion of the Zojoji grounds.

Recently, both the head priest of Zojoji and the current head of the Tokugawa family, who is the representative of the temple's supporters, told me that there used to be a five-story pagoda at Zojoji as well, and that it used to glow red.

That is interesting.

In the old days, when traveling up the Tokaido road, the midpoint between the final Shinagawa-juku station and Edo Castle was Zojoji, the family temple of the Tokugawa clan, and its five-story pagoda served as a landmark. That too was lost to war damage.

Thinking about it that way, I feel like Tokyo Tower is something like a five-story pagoda. The head priest and Mr. Tokugawa told me, "Please take good care of it" (laughs).

Whether it was by chance or necessity, the tower ended up being built at its current location.

I attended Seisoku Junior High School, which is located deep inside Shiba Park, and I used to commute there from Mita. So, I walked home along the paths of that small hill almost every day. At the time, I had no idea that something like that would be built there in the future, and it was a place where people rarely passed through; it was mostly just students.

I think it was when I was in my second year of junior high; I found a large wallet dropped around there. While I was talking with two friends about how amazing it was, an old man came by and said, "Oh, that's mine, that's mine," and took it away (laughs). That area was like a forest or a small hill.

Near the land adjacent to Tokyo Tower toward Roppongi, where the Navy's Suikosha used to be, the Tokyo Masonic Building stands now; that area is the highest part of the hill.

It is said that when construction on Tokyo Tower began around 1957, it was still a lush, wooded hill.

Mr. Mochizuki, how did you feel as Tokyo Tower was gradually being built?

Tokyo Tower was completed the year I graduated from university, but at first, I wondered what on earth was being built. Everyone was saying, "A tower is coming, a tower is coming," but once it was about one-third finished, the top part didn't go up for a while.

With such a tall tower being built, my first feelings were anxiety, thinking, "It might be dangerous if an earthquake hits," or "Typhoons are scary too" (laughs). But once it was actually finished, I completely forgot about those things and was just left with the impression of "Wow, this is amazing." When I went there thinking I'd check it out right away, I was shocked by the crowds of people.

There were huge lines right after it was completed.

So many people. People were lining up in circles and circles to buy tickets. At the bus pool, many Hato Buses were parked, and buses kept coming one after another, with groups of 40 or 50 people getting off all at once. We all said, "Let's come back another time," and went home. It was actually two or three years later when I finally went up.

So you didn't go up until then.

That's right. My younger brother said he hadn't gone up until very recently. I guess we just got used to seeing it (laughs).

What was impressive was a woman who came from Kagoshima to Mita to get married; she hadn't returned home for a while because her mother was unwell. When she finally came back after her mother passed away and saw Tokyo Tower, she said she burst into tears. It was because she felt she had finally made it back to Tokyo.

There are many people who are deeply moved by seeing Tokyo Tower.

I was born about a year before Tokyo Tower, so we are roughly the same age.

Around the time I entered Chutobu Junior High School, construction was just beginning on Tsunamachi Park Mansion, which was a pioneer of luxury condominiums in Japan. At that time, you could see Tokyo Tower clearly from the roof of Chutobu Junior High School, and I always felt, "It's so close."

As it turned out, I ended up getting a job at the company closest to Tokyo Tower (laughs). I was among the last group of new employees during the "Tokyo Channel 12" era (renamed TV Tokyo in 1981). The office building at the time of my joining was located at 4-chome Shiba Park, but we were essentially renting the space from Mr. Maeda's company.

Yes. We were leasing out an entire building. Even looking at old blueprints, it was built on the grounds under the name of the headquarters for Japan Educational Television, which was the name at the time of its founding.

This might be a total rumor, but I heard that at the time, with the Tokyo Olympics approaching, there were thoughts of making it a hotel. Then, midway through, it became a TV station.

I haven't heard that officially, but there are some building blueprints where the name "hotel" remains.

I joined the company in 1980, and at the time, there was a live morning program for children called "Ohayo Studio," and the opening always started outside. The shot was always a downward angle from the tower showing the host, so some people seemed to think Tokyo Channel 12 was actually inside Tokyo Tower.

In 1980, a temporary tent movie theater called Cinema Placet was set up on the grounds of Tokyo Tower in the spring, and Director Seijun Suzuki's "Zigeunerweisen" was screened there. It was a huge hit, and I remember long lines forming in the tower's parking lot.

That was the era when Tomoaki Ogura was at Tokyo Channel 12, wasn't it? He was doing a morning show or something.

Tomoaki Ogura left just as I was joining, so we didn't overlap as employees.

I haven't been to the upper observatory (Top Deck, 250 meters) yet. I'm somewhat afraid of it. Since I have poor hearing, I've heard it's not good to go to such high places quickly by elevator.

Ours goes slowly, so it's fine (laughs).

That's true. Back when it was first built, when we went to various places on trips with the Mita Merchants Association, the waitresses would ask, "Where in Tokyo are you from?" and even if I said "Mita in Minato City," they wouldn't know it. Even if I said Keio University was there, they didn't know it (laughs). But when I said, "It's at the foot of Tokyo Tower," everyone would get excited and say, "Wow, you live in such a great place!"

I think it's an amazing thing to have something built that becomes a topic of conversation wherever you go. Everyone in the rural areas knows Tokyo Tower.

Did Mita-dori change in any way after Tokyo Tower was built?

It became a frequent topic of conversation. Since we handle uniforms, when children from the Yochisha Elementary School visit, they almost always stop by Tokyo Tower on their way back. However, the access to get there is a bit poor. You either have to walk or take a taxi. Most customers just go by taxi.

However, Mita-dori has always had terrible congestion with people and cars. Back when the streetcars were running, even if the Merchants Association held a meeting, the street was dark at night and the noise was incredible. I myself wouldn't walk along Mita-dori for a stroll; I would take the street one block behind it.

Also, because it's a national highway, there were many regulations, like not being allowed to put up Merchants Association flags. There were various regulations on lighting as well, so things didn't go as we hoped.

Towers are strange things; with ordinary structures, most visitors are from nearby and fewer come from far away, but in the case of a tower, there are many from far away and surprisingly few from nearby.

Even with the Eiffel Tower in Paris, 90% of the visitors are from outside the country. It's a mysterious existence that locals don't visit much. This is even more true in this day and age when people from the other side of the globe travel back and forth with ease.

I run a cousins' club, and every year about 10 of us gather from all over the country. Last year I was the organizer in Tokyo, and when I asked everyone where they wanted to go, every single one of them said, "I want to go to Tokyo Tower."

That makes me happy.

It really is that popular in the rural areas. People in Tokyo see it every day and think, "I can go anytime," but there are many voices saying that if they go to Tokyo once in a while, they want to go to the tower. It's not the Imperial Palace or places like that.

As part of our training for new employees, to learn where the TV signals were coming from, we were sent to the area above the tower's observatory where the radio transmitters are located—a place ordinary people can't go. The floor there was like a grate, and it was a terrifying place where I truly couldn't move a single step.

From the upper observatory, there's something like a ladder attached to the exposed exterior for maintenance, and you climb up that.

Did you go up the ladder? You can go up to about 260 meters above the upper observatory by stairs. From there up, it's a ladder.

Then maybe it was stairs. It was just so terrifying. I have a bit of a fear of heights (laughs).

Everyone from the TV stations says that.

An engineer proudly explained to me, "This is where our signals come from," but I was just so, so scared. Being able to see the scenery of Tokyo while feeling the wind is not an experience you get very often.

It leaves a bad impression on TV station people. I hear that Fuji TV's Executive Advisor Hieda still says, "I was in the first group of hires, and I remember how scared I was climbing Tokyo Tower as a new employee."

Once you finish climbing the stairs to 260 meters, you can go even higher using a ladder called a trap. I went too, and you can reach the 280–290 meter point. Above that, it gets even narrower, and only people from the antenna manufacturers can go. You have to use a lifeline starting from the trap section.

Inside the tower, there is the transmitter room, which is the final point where the radio waves are emitted, and it was intentionally made difficult to find for security reasons. This was the case for all stations, including NHK.

The transmitter room inside the building. That was on the 5th floor of the building.

I was allowed to tour that as well. At the time, it was truly the Nippon Radio Tower.

That was the primary purpose, after all.

Around when did they start displaying the next year in lights on the Main Deck on New Year's Eve?

I believe it was from the year 2000.

I see. In the past, every station always did live broadcasts on New Year's Eve, and our station also did music programs like "Toshiwasure Nippon no Uta" (Songs of Japan to Forget the Year). When I finally got back to the station and took a breath, I'd look up at the tower and see the new year displayed. It really felt like being at the foot of the tower.

Also, for a while after I joined, the work on the TV production floor was intense, and when I felt a bit down, I would go look at the fish in the aquarium inside the tower for a while and think, "Alright, I'll give it another shot" (laughs).

One more thing regarding television: this was often the case with Fuji TV and others, but love scenes or other important scenes were often filmed with Tokyo Tower in the background. Especially around the time of "Tokyo Love Story," it appeared a lot. At the time, we were also making programs, and we'd all discuss which angle made the tower look the most beautiful.

Where is the best spot?

In terms of street scenes, the area in front of the Kokusai Building on Mita-dori has wide sidewalks and it's easy to get permission. I think that's a famous spot that has appeared in dramas more times than I can count.

Another one is Shiba Park; there are several spots where the tower suddenly appears as you're walking straight. It started being used around the time of the "trendy dramas" in the 80s.

The illumination also changed to Motoko Ishii's lighting around that time and became very beautiful, making the tower indispensable for night scenes.

That's right. It switched over right at the beginning of the year that the Heisei era began.

It became quite beautiful right around the heyday of trendy dramas.

It switched to what is called internal lighting. Until then, light bulbs were dotted along the silhouette.

Internal lighting is essentially indirect lighting. Instead of direct light, searchlights illuminate the truss—the steel frame of the tower body—from the inside at various points.

Starting in 2008, the 50th anniversary of Tokyo Tower, we installed another system called 'Diamond Veil.' We attached about 300 light bulbs to the four sides of Tokyo Tower, making them light up one by one.

We still do this for special occasions. Just the other day, we turned it blue before the Samurai Japan match, and when Naomi Osaka won the Australian Open, we expressed the 'Hinomaru' (Japanese flag).

At the 60th anniversary late last year, everyone was asking, "Why is it red today?" and someone said, "It's for the Kanreki (60th birthday)," is that correct?

That is correct (laughs).

I thought so. You also do various other expressions, like the Pink Ribbon for breast cancer awareness.

In the past, it used to turn off abruptly at 9:00 or 10:00 PM.

During the Showa era, it turned off around 9:00 PM. Now, it basically turns off at midnight, but it just so happens that we are currently repainting the steel tower, and since the work is done from late at night until dawn, it actually stays lit until morning.

A truly wide variety of expressions has become possible through the light-ups.

Lighting is becoming a world of culture and art. We can even produce subtle colors through combinations.

Tokyo Tower is celebrating its Kanreki, but our company will celebrate its 55th anniversary in April. We moved our headquarters to Kamiyacho in '85 (the current headquarters is in Roppongi), and even after that, we asked Mr. Maeda's company to let us continue using the studio as it was.

Since our subsidiaries were also there, I was once seconded to the Shiba Park area again. It's gone now, but there was a bowling alley called Tokyo Tower Bowl at the bottom of the hill where we used to do something called 'Lunch Bowl.'

Lunch with a bowling game (laughs).

This is also a memory from the early 80s. Now it has become a high-end restaurant called 'Toufuya Ukai.'

In the late 1960s, Tokyo Tower Bowl and the neighboring Prince Hotel's Shiba Bowl were built quite early on. At that time, Ritsuko Nakayama, who was an employee of our company, created a sensation in bowling. It is said that she trained by climbing up and down the stairs to the Tokyo Tower observatory.

It was a time of a massive bowling boom where every station's golden hour was nothing but bowling. It was right around the time I was attending Chutobu Junior High School. Places like Mita Bowl were also located behind the girls' high school.

Was it in a place like that?

We could see the bowling pin sign from the school. We'd go there with a feeling like, "Shall we go?" or "I wonder if the teacher will catch us here."

Now Tamachi High Lane is gone too. In the vicinity of Mita, only Tokyo Port Bowl remains.

Perhaps there was little entertainment back then, but it seems to have become an incredible boom.

Tower Bowl also helped us out with various program recordings. Our company did quite a few bowling programs, and I think a very retro one called 'Star Bowling' was the one that remained until the very end.

Speaking of the history of amusement facilities inside Tokyo Tower, when it first opened, the then Matsushita Electric used it to display the latest home appliances.

After that, in terms of amusement, there was the Tokyo Tower Wax Museum. It had been there since the 1960s.

That one is famous.

Actually, that was created by Den Fujita, the founder of McDonald's Japan. Mr. Fujita opened the first McDonald's Japan store in Ginza in 1970, but he created the wax museum a little before that.

It is said he built it after seeing a wax museum in America, and it remained until 2013, during his son's era after he passed away. That location has now changed to an anime theme park called 'Tokyo One Piece Tower.'

When was the aquarium built?

I think it was in the 1970s (opened in 1978). It was there until last year. That was also a tenant, but it was pushed out by larger aquariums.

Modern aquariums have high ceilings and 3D displays, but Tokyo Tower couldn't do that because the building is old. There were some quite niche fish that people enjoyed, though.

I only caught a glimpse of the wax museum. When they are too close to the real thing, it's a bit startling. But the scariest thing was the floor of the Main Deck.

You mean the glass window, the glass floor where you can see below.

When I first went, I was terrified looking at it, but children were jumping around on top of it. I was shocked (laughs). What is that made of?

It's tempered glass, and we replace it from time to time.

So, if you wanted to break it with a hammer, you could?

No, it will absolutely not break. No one has ever fallen through (laughs). That was also added later, and the area is quite large now. In fact, we are currently expanding it.

The glass windows are popular with foreigners too; even among them, children are fine, but elderly people seem to be scared, so this is universal and not just you, Mr. Mochizuki (laughs). The more you become an adult, the scarier it gets.

I've been remembering various things from back then, and there were many retro items in the souvenir shops, which was surprisingly fun. They sold things like shields with pictures of Tokyo landmarks and words like 'Memories' or 'Grit' written on them. I imagine the souvenir shops have changed quite a bit.

While shops operating in 7 to 10 square meters used to be the mainstream, now our company also runs them directly, and Sanrio has opened a large-scale store, but a few small ones still remain.

There are even grandmothers in their 90s who have been here since the opening and are still going strong. I believe they are 97 and 93 years old.

That's amazing.

Since they have been here for 60 years, we have decided to present them with a letter of appreciation soon.

People are energetic even in their 90s nowadays.

They are indeed. People who were in their 30s when it was built are now in their 90s. The elevator girls from back then are now in their 80s. When we hold alumni meetings, people who say, "I joined the company when I was 20," are healthy and well at 80.

Has there been any impact from the construction of the Skytree?

In major cities around the world, including New York and Paris, there are always multiple observation facilities. Paris has the Montparnasse Tower in addition to the Eiffel Tower, and several others. Tokyo also has several observation facilities including the Skytree, but I think Tokyo Tower may have gained cultural value since passing its 50th anniversary. It is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, but there is a sense that there is meaning in its "being there."

Of course, it is featured very often in the media, and it is all over the world through personal posts including SNS. I feel that the power of Tokyo Tower is not just the power of those of us operating it, but something supported by society as a whole and everyone, giving it a certain presence.

When I became president in 2005, a newspaper reporter once asked me, "Will Tokyo Tower be demolished when the new tower is built?" but I replied, "We will keep doing our job properly."

When I ask our colleagues, without trying to compare, quite a few people say they want to climb Tokyo Tower but don't particularly want to go to the Skytree. I wonder why that is; I myself have never been there even once. It just feels like it's only tall.

As for the observatories, Tokyo Tower is at 150 meters and 250 meters. The Skytree is at 350 meters and 450 meters. For buildings, Yokohama Landmark Tower and Osaka's Abeno Harukas are around the 300-meter point.

Therefore, our observatories are lower than those. However, partly due to the good location and the fact that you can view the cityscape of the city center, I think people find meaning in coming to Tokyo Tower and feel the excitement of going to the observatory of a building with some history.

The topic of why the height is 333 meters came up the other day. I always thought it was because it was built in Showa 33 (1958), but is that not the case?

There seem to be several theories. Even back then, there was apparently a 500-meter concept, but it seems this height was the limit technically.

So it wasn't that it became that height because it was necessary.

It was roughly this height, so perhaps they matched the numbers for luck. 333 meters is approximately 1,000 feet, after all.

Was there no intention to aim for the world's tallest tower at the time?

If they were going to build it anyway, I imagine there was a desire to surpass the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was 317 meters when it was first built in 1889, and of course, there was no TV broadcasting then, but it seems it was extended to 324 meters in the 1950s to attach antennas for TV broadcasting. Tokyo Tower ended up being slightly taller than that.

I have heard from my father that he wanted to build something even taller, but was told it couldn't be done with the technology of that time. I think it is meaningful that Dr. Tachu Naito, known as the "Father of Japanese Structural Design," who introduced the concept of earthquake-resistant design, set it at this height.

Its function as a radio tower moved to the Skytree in 2011, but the splendor of the tower lit up since the Heisei era has become indispensable to Tokyo's nights. In that sense, we don't really compare it with the Skytree, and I think Tokyo Tower is unique.

The tower seen from Mita-dori is wonderful, and its appearance when you suddenly emerge in Roppongi while drunk and head toward Iikura is also great (laughs).

Tokyo Tower is already indispensable for Mita-dori as well. The shape is one thing, but it really changed a lot with the lighting designed by Ms. Motoko Ishii.

Regarding the lighting of Mita-dori, I received an introduction from Mr. Maeda and asked Ms. Ishii to give a lecture, and she spoke about how human psychology changes significantly depending on how lighting is perceived.

On the other hand, the red during the day also stands out beautifully against the blue sky. The Skytree is completely white, isn't it? Where did that color come from?

That was a complete coincidence; from the Main Deck up, it is divided into seven equal parts of red and white, but this is because there is a law stating that structures above a certain height must be in aviation obstruction colors, and at the time, red and white was the rule.

If you look at photos of old industrial areas, the chimneys are all red and white. However, later on, it was decided that if a high-intensity aviation obstruction light is placed at the very top, the color of even tall structures can be free. So the Skytree was able to be something other than red and white by attaching that.

I see.

After that, the performance of paint improved, making it possible to achieve extremely beautiful colors. Also, while the colors below the Main Deck are flexible, we have maintained the same red as the upper part—more accurately, a color called International Orange—for 60 years. I believe that has become part of our identity and has blended into the city.

So, although it started by chance, I think the fact that we stubbornly stuck to that color instead of switching to strobe lights has become our current identity.

In the past, you could see Tokyo Tower and our company building at the time from the restroom window of the Keio library, but I think you probably can't see them now.

That is because many buildings have been constructed in between.

Even looking at the Mita Campus from the Tokyo Tower observatory, it has gradually become harder to see.

One day, my classmate from Chutobu Junior High School, the columnist Asato Izumi, discovered an old Nikkatsu film ("Seishun Zenki: Aoi Kajitsu," 1965) that was filmed using the Chutobu Junior High School. It's a movie from when Meiko Kaji was still using the name Masako Ota. They filmed various scenes on the rooftop, and Tokyo Tower appears there as if it were right next door.

Tsunamachi Park Mansion wasn't there yet, so I think it's a movie made relatively soon after the tower was completed.

Even at the hospital, there are cases where people who have been hospitalized for a long time are happy because they can see the tower, but then a building is built next door and they can't see it at all, which comes as a shock.

There are many hospitals in the surrounding area. Saiseikai, Jikei University Hospital, and recently the Sanno Hospital group, and you can also see it from Toranomon Hospital. In Lily Franky's novel "Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad," there is an impressive scene where Tokyo Tower can be seen from the window of the hospital room where the mother was last hospitalized.

It seems Yu Aku was also hospitalized at Jikei University Hospital at the end, and he wrote in a weekly magazine something like, "People go to Tokyo Tower in droves, but is it really that good?" However, when I looked into it later, it seems he had also written the lyrics for a song called "Daisuki Tokyo Tower" (I Love Tokyo Tower).

So it's interesting. You think he's criticizing it, but then it turns out he loves it. I feel it's a mysterious tower.

As someone who joined the company closest to Tokyo Tower, I used to see the view looking up at the tower from below every day, and even now that I'm a little further away, I still find myself looking for the tower at any time.

As a structure, it has passed 60 years, but our mission is to perform maintenance and management so that it can exceed 100 years. Currently, we are replacing all the window frames and sashes of the Main Deck, and it is scheduled to be completed this summer.

As it is becoming an international tourist destination, we want to provide solid support for ways to use it so that it is not just a place to look down at the scenery, but a place where there is value in coming to Tokyo Tower, where you can truly feel the city of Tokyo, and where it can remain in your memory as a scene from your life. We want to operate it so that it can survive as a social and cultural function, and as an economic infrastructure.

Its cultural value will continue to increase, just like the Eiffel Tower.

I hear the Eiffel Tower is celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, and it has already become a global cultural hub rather than just a French one. Even though the Eiffel Tower was built in the late 1800s, they went out of their way to add stylish decorations to the arches of the tower body; I think it's amazing.

In order for the Mita Shopping District to develop in the future, we absolutely need the help of Tokyo Tower.

During the Mita-dori Carnival, it becomes a pedestrian zone, and you can see the tower clearly and straight from the middle of the roadway. Some people look forward to that every year. I think Mita-dori is in a very good position for viewing Tokyo Tower, so we would definitely like to ask for your cooperation.

No, it is we who should ask you to keep us at the very end of Mita-dori (laughs).