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Beppu Tower

observation tower

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ818646
Source-derived summary

Beppu Tower (別府タワー, Beppu Tawā) is a 100-meter-tall (330-foot) lattice tower located in Beppu, Ōita, Japan. Initially built to help boost tourism in the area, today the tower is primarily used as TV transmission tower. It has an observation deck at a height of 55 metres (180 ft).

History

Beppu Tower was built in two years, from 1956 to 1957 and was originally planned to open the Beppu Tourism Exhibition, held from March 20 through May 20, 1957. Construction was slightly delayed, however, and the tower was not completed until May 10, ten days before the exhibition ended. Its original name was Sightseeing Center TV Tower (観光センターテレビ塔, Kankō-sentā-terebitō) until 1961 when it was officially changed to Beppu Tower.

The tower first displayed advertising for National. Currently, it displays eight neon Asahi signs—four in English, four in Japanese.

In popular culture

Godzilla vs.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Beppu Tower” as observation tower. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Beppu, Tower and observation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1956, 1957, 1961—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Beppu, Tower and observation providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Beppu Tower”, the useful work is to connect “observation tower” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q818646. Authority coordinates are 33.282, 131.506. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956, 1957 and 1961.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Beppu Tower”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Beppu Tower primary sources, Beppu Tower archive and Beppu research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Beppu Tower”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Beppu Tower” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.