Tokyo Skytree East Tower

Completed in 2012, this 31-story, 158-meter office building forms the business core of Tokyo Skytree Town. Designed by Nikken Sekkei, it shares its footprint with the world's tallest self-standing broadcast tower.

Use

Office tower

Area

Sumida City

Completed

2012

Floors

31 above ground, 3 below

Height

158 m

Developer

Tobu Railway

Architect

Nikken Sekkei

The Office Tower at the Foot of the World’s Tallest

In Oshiage, Sumida City — part of the vast Tokyo Skytree Town complex — the East Tower stands at 31 stories and 158 meters, completed in 2012 alongside the opening of the 634-meter Tokyo Skytree. Where the Skytree captures all the headlines, the East Tower performs a different but complementary role: it provides the commercial office floors that give the precinct a year-round, everyday function, hosting corporate tenants within the same urban block as the tower, retail complex Solamachi, and the Skytree itself.

The building was designed by Nikken Sekkei — the same firm responsible for a long list of Japan’s landmark structures — and constructed by a joint venture led by Obayashi Corporation. Its exterior is deliberately understated: clean, rectilinear, and restrained in color, a deliberate counterpoint to the Skytree’s more expressive form.

Skytree Town and the Transformation of Oshiage

Before the Skytree project arrived, the Oshiage area along the former Kita-Jukkengawa canal was defined by warehouses and modest low-rise buildings. The integrated development — tower, commercial complex, and East Tower — fundamentally reordered the district’s economy and footfall. Today, millions of visitors a year move through Solamachi at the tower’s base, and the East Tower’s tenants benefit from the continuous activity generated around them.

The juxtaposition of scales is striking. At 158 meters, the East Tower would be a significant landmark in almost any other Japanese city; here, standing beside the world’s tallest self-standing structure, it reads as a mid-rise counterpart. That perceptual contrast — one tower dominating sight lines while another works quietly in its shadow — says something about the deliberate planning behind Skytree Town: multiple programs, different heights, one coherent precinct.

Summary

Tokyo Skytree East Tower was completed in 2012 as a 31-story, 158-meter office building, designed by Nikken Sekkei for Tobu Railway. As part of Tokyo Skytree Town, it anchors the complex’s commercial office function while the Skytree towers above. On a visit to Oshiage, take a moment to look at the full ensemble — tower, commercial base, and East Tower together — to appreciate how much urban programming has been packed into this single Sumida district.

Related: Tokyo Skytree ｜ NTT DoCoMo Sumida Building

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