Odakyu Southern Tower

A 36-story, approximately 150-meter tower completed in 1998 at the south exit of Shinjuku Station. The centerpiece of the Shinjuku Southern Project, it combined offices and a hotel while establishing the pedestrian promenade that reworked how the south exit connects to the city.

Use

Office tower

Area

Shibuya City

Completed

1998

Floors

36 above ground

Height

150 m

Developer

Odakyu Electric Railway

Shinjuku’s South Exit, Rebuilt

Step out of Shinjuku Station’s south exit and the first tall structure to catch your eye is a 36-story white tower rising to approximately 150 meters. Odakyu Southern Tower was completed in 1998, developed by Odakyu Electric Railway as the linchpin of the Shinjuku Southern Project — a redevelopment effort that transformed the station’s south side from a cluttered transit zone into a coherent pedestrian district. Administratively, the address falls in Yoyogi, Shibuya Ward; functionally, everything about the building faces Shinjuku.

The tower stacks offices in the lower and middle floors and a hotel — the Odakyu Century Southern Tower Hotel, later renamed Odakyu Hotel Century Southern Tower — in the upper floors, a vertical arrangement that maximized the value of the station-adjacent site. The Southern Project also produced Shinjuku Southern Terrace (サザンテラス), a landscaped promenade connecting the tower to the station’s ticket gates and establishing a pedestrian loop that gave the south exit a new sense of continuity. Before this project, the south side of Shinjuku Station was considerably harder to navigate on foot.

Between Shibuya and Shinjuku

A height of approximately 150 meters is modest beside the towers of Nishi-Shinjuku’s designated high-rise district, visible to the northwest. But seen from the Southern Terrace below, the tower reads as the southern bookend of the Shinjuku skyline — a clear landmark at the point where the station ends and the wider city begins.

The building connects directly to Odakyu Line, JR lines, and the Toei Shinjuku Line, and that multi-line accessibility has kept the building’s occupancy solid for nearly three decades. When Odakyu Southern Tower was completed in 1998, it was one of the clearest signals that the south exit could become more than a transfer point. JR Shinjuku Miraina Tower reinforced that message nearly two decades later, but Southern Tower established it first.

Summary

Odakyu Southern Tower was completed in 1998, with 36 floors and a height of approximately 150 meters. Part of the Shinjuku Southern Project, it combined offices and a hotel at Shinjuku Station’s south exit while helping establish the Southern Terrace promenade that made the south side of the station feel like a destination. Walk the terrace and look up to see the tower at its most legible — a building that changed what the south exit meant for the people passing through it.

Related: Shinjuku Maynds Tower / JR Shinjuku Miraina Tower

Visiting the Shinjuku south exit area? Rakuten Travel lists hotels within walking distance of the station.