28/03/07 07h56 GMT+1
AFP News brief
'Sexier' Tokyo opens tallest skyscraper
by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura
Tokyo this week opens its highest skyscraper featuring top-notch shops, restaurants and even a hospital as the metropolis tries to project a slicker, sexier image than rising Asian rivals.
Tokyo Midtown, built on what used to be the Defence Agency headquarters, is the latest giant urban complex to transform the world's most populous city and is just a short walk from similarly envisioned four-year-old Roppongi Hills.
Rising 248 metres (813 feet), the central tower of the pentagonal complex is the city's tallest structure other than the uninhabited Tokyo Tower.
Besides 132 shops and restaurants, Tokyo Midtown features a Ritz-Carlton Hotel -- billed as the most luxurious address in the city -- and a medical centre affiliated with Baltimore's prestigious Johns Hopkins University.
It also includes the Suntory Museum, the second major new art gallery to open in Tokyo this year, and pricey condominiums.
The designers said Tokyo Midtown -- which opened to invited guests Wednesday and will open its doors to the public Friday -- was meant to show a more sensitive, aesthetically aware side of Japan, the world's second largest economy.
"Through Midtown, we aim to turn Tokyo into the centre of intellectual creativity for business and culture in Japan, Asia and the world," said Hiromitsu Iwasa, head of Mitsui Real Estate in charge of the project.
"We also want this area to be the centre from which Japanese values and aesthetic sense will be sent out to the world," he said.
A consortium of six companies built the 69,000 square-metre (741,000 square-foot) complex at a cost of 370 billion yen (three billion dollars).
In one corner of Tokyo Midtown is the 21_21 Design Site, Japan's first institute dedicated to studying the creative process of design.
"Japan is essentially known as an economic powerhouse, and we want to show the world another face -- one of design and aesthetics," said architect Tadao Ando, who conceptualised the 21_21 Design Site with renowned fashion designer Issey Miyake.
Miyake hoped the institute would help change a society "solely focused on consumption."
"Today in Japan, we only create products to sell. There is a competition, devoid of feeling, that revolves around the packaging. The goal of design is elsewhere. It is necessary to make more ties with society," Miyake said.
Iwasa, head of the Midtown design, said the project would help Tokyo retrieve an international standing that has slipped since Japan's 1990s recession, as other Asian cities such as Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong catch up.
"Winning against international competition (depends on) Japan's aggressive application of design, which is one of the reasons for Japan's competitiveness and is internationally acclaimed," Iwasa said.
Tokyo Midtown lies close to Roppongi Hills, another giant complex of shops, restaurants and condominiums which opened in 2003 and has quickly become a magnet for a young generation of entrepreneurs -- most famously fallen Internet tycoon Takafumi Horie.
Experts said the growing number of mega-complexes in Tokyo was one just one step in ensuring that the metropolis remains attractive.
"Japan needs to make Tokyo sexier," said Yoji Otani, a real estate analyst at Credit Suisse Securities.
"Midtown is not enough. Tokyo will need to develop more diverse facilities and think seriously of ways to make itself attractive for reasons other than its economy."