Tokiwabashi Tower

A 38-story office tower completed in June 2021 in Otemachi, Tokyo, rising approximately 212 meters. The first completed building of Mitsubishi Estate's TOKYO TORCH district near Tokyo Station, it sets the stage for the future Torch Tower, planned to become Japan's tallest.

Use

Office tower

Area

Chiyoda City

Completed

2021

Floors

38 above ground, 5 below

Height

212 m

Total floor area

approx. 146,000 m²

Developer

Mitsubishi Estate

Architect

Mitsubishi Estate Design

The Opening Act of TOKYO TORCH

Stepping out of Tokyo Station’s Nihonbashi exit and walking northeast for a few minutes, a grid-patterned glass curtain wall fills the skyline. Tokiwabashi Tower was completed in June 2021 — 38 floors above ground, five below, rising approximately 212 meters. Developed by Mitsubishi Estate and designed by Mitsubishi Estate Design, the tower stands at 2-6-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda City, close to where the Nihonbashi River makes a gentle bend near the old Tokiwabashi bridge.

The building is the first completed structure — Building A — within the TOKYO TORCH district, the branded identity given to the “Otemachi 2-chome Tokiwabashi District Type 1 Urban Redevelopment Project.” Its total floor area of approximately 146,000 square meters is devoted primarily to offices. A generous piloti faces toward Tokyo Station, softening the threshold between street and building. The upper stories are wrapped in a grid-pattern facade that reads, from a distance, as a precise stacking of cubes. At the lower levels, design elements draw on the stone masonry of the old Tokiwabashi bridge and the riverside greenery along the Nihonbashi River, anchoring the tower in the memory of its site.

Sequencing the District — A First Building for a Long Haul

When a redevelopment spans multiple towers, the order of completion shapes how a district takes form. TOKYO TORCH was designed around the idea of completing Tokiwabashi Tower first — drawing in a community of office workers, opening public plazas and riverfront spaces, and building momentum before the adjacent large-scale tower began its longer construction cycle. That adjacent tower, Torch Tower, broke ground in September 2023. Once complete, it is planned to become the tallest building in Japan.

Standing at the riverbank today and looking toward Tokiwabashi Tower, the construction cranes of Torch Tower rising in the background, the scene captures something singular about Tokyo: a city continuously in the act of renewing itself, one carefully sequenced tower at a time. The logic echoes the chain-redevelopment approach that transformed Otemachi district over the previous decade — finish one building, let the city breathe, then move to the next.

Summary

Tokiwabashi Tower was completed in June 2021 — 38 floors above ground, five below, approximately 212 meters tall. Designed by Mitsubishi Estate Design and developed by Mitsubishi Estate, it stands as the first realized building of the TOKYO TORCH district north of Tokyo Station. With Torch Tower rising alongside it, the stretch of Otemachi along the Nihonbashi River is a compelling place to visit right now — Tokyo’s urban regeneration on full display. The area around Tokyo Station and Otemachi is well supplied with accommodation from business hotels to luxury options, making it a practical base for a thorough day of urban walking.

Related: Tokyo Torch (Torch Tower) / The Otemachi Tower / Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower