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Tokyo Tower

tower in Tokyo, Japan

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ183536
Source-derived summary

Tokyo Tower (東京タワー, Tōkyō Tawā; pronounced [toːkʲoː taꜜɰᵝaː] ), also known by its official name Japan Radio Tower (日本電波塔, Nippon denpatō) is a communications and observation tower in the district of Shiba-koen in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, completed in 1958. At 332.9 meters (1,092 feet), it was the tallest tower in Japan until the construction of Tokyo Skytree in 2012. It is a lattice tower inspired by the Eiffel Tower, and is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations.

The tower's main sources of income are antenna leasing and tourism, and its five-story base building FootTown houses a number of restaurants, gift shops, and other attractions. Departing from it, guests can visit two observation decks: the two-story Main Deck at 150 m (490 ft), and the smaller Top Deck at 249.6 m (819 ft). The tower is repainted every five years, the process itself taking a year to complete.

In 1961, transmission antennas were added. They are used for radio and television broadcasting and now broadcast signals for media outlets such as NHK, TBS Television, and Fuji Television. The height of the tower was not suitable for Japan's planned terrestrial digital broadcasting planned for July 2011, and for the Tokyo area. A taller digital broadcasting tower, known as Tokyo Skytree, was completed on 29 February 2012.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tokyo Tower” as tower in Tokyo, Japan. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1958, 2012, 1961, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957-05-08. The account is most persuasive where Tokyo, Tower and tower can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as tower in Tokyo, Japan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q183536. VIAF identifies the subject as 251876111. Authority coordinates are 35.659, 139.746. 2 of 18 selected statements include explicit references; 15 carry qualifiers and 7 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 2012, 1961 and 2011.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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 “Tokyo Tower”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tokyo Tower primary sources, Tokyo Tower archive and Tokyo 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 “Tokyo Tower”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Tokyo 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.