Elza Tower 55

A 55-storey residential tower completed in July 1998 in Kawaguchi, Saitama, rising 185.8 metres — Japan's tallest condominium building at the time of completion. Developed by Daikyo and designed by Takenaka Corporation's Tokyo office.

Use

Residential tower

Area

Kawaguchi, Saitama

Completed

1998

Floors

55 above ground, 1 below

Height

185.8 m

Developer

Daikyo

Architect

Takenaka Corporation Tokyo Architectural Office

Japan’s Tallest Home, Once

At Motogo 2-chome, Kawaguchi, Saitama — south of Kawaguchi Station on the JR Keihin-Tohoku Line — stands Elza Tower 55. Completed in July 1998, the building rises 55 storeys above ground and one below, to a height of 185.8 metres. Daikyo was the developer and Takenaka Corporation’s Tokyo architectural office handled the design. The building contains 650 homes.

The number in the name is the floor count. When Elza Tower 55 was completed, 55 storeys made it the tallest residential building in Japan. That record arrived not in central Tokyo or along the Tokyo waterfront — it arrived in Kawaguchi, an industrial city in Saitama Prefecture that borders the northern edge of the 23 wards. The tower broke the skyline of a place more associated with casting foundries than skyscrapers, and it did so years before Musashikosugi or Harumi became the shorthand for high-rise residential living.

Structure, Timing, and the Suburban Skyline

The structural system used for Elza Tower 55 — CFT (Concrete Filled Steel Tube) construction — was an advanced choice at the time. Filling steel tubes with concrete achieves high strength and fire resistance in a relatively compact structural element, enabling slender high-rise towers that would otherwise require more floor area. For a 55-storey building completed in 1998, this was forward-looking engineering.

The timing also rewards attention. Elza Tower 55 reached completion at the tail end of Japan’s long economic contraction following the burst bubble, when ambitious construction in peripheral cities had become unusual. Kawaguchi’s choice to build Japan’s tallest home on a Saitama street corner rather than along a prime urban waterfront captures something specific about the era: the ambition to claim an identity through height, independent of location.

Summary

Elza Tower 55 was completed in July 1998, rising 55 storeys to 185.8 metres in Kawaguchi, Saitama. Developed by Daikyo and designed by Takenaka Corporation’s Tokyo office, it held Japan’s record for the tallest residential building at its completion and still reads as a landmark on the flat suburban skyline south of the Arakawa River.

Take the Keihin-Tohoku Line to Kawaguchi, walk south, and look for the tower rising above the industrial townscape. It is a reminder that the record for Japan’s highest home was, for a time, held by a city most visitors pass through without stopping.

Related: Park City Musashikosugi MidSky Tower

Visiting Kawaguchi or northern Saitama? Find accommodation on Rakuten Travel.