The building measures 634 meters and is second only to the Dubai's Burj Khalifa. Tthree and a half years in building, the work stopped for two months following the March 2011 earthquake, but the structure was not damaged. Symbol of the country's economic recovery, but studies show that real estate gigantism is a sign of crisis.

Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Today in the Nippon capital Skytree Tokyo the world's highest broadcast opened to the public. The building (pictured) measuring 634 meters and is twice the size of the Tokyo Tower, the most famous and popular symbol of economic progress of the Land of the Rising Sun. It took three and a half years to build the tower, the government leaders hope that it will give new impetus to the tourism industry and contribute to domestic and international growth, in a time of great crisis also due to the earthquake of March last year and the resulting tsunami, which triggered the nuclear accident at the nuclear plant in Fukushima.

The main attraction of the structure - designed and built in the shape of a needle and twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower - consists of two observation points located respectively at 350 and 450 meters in height. From next year, the building will be used by major television networks in Japan, including the public broadcaster NHK, for signal transmission in the entire metropolitan area.

Local media report that the first observation point can accommodate up to 2 thousand people, the second at least 900. The building, still under construction, has withstood the damage caused by the earthquake last year and work has continued regularly, after two months of outages for technical checks. It has become a "symbol" of the resilience to natural disasters in Japan and the desire for economic revival and should generate a turnover exceeding 170 billion yen annually.

However, as already reported in a previous article (see AsiaNews 11/01/2012 Building skyscrapers is a sign of economic crisis) international studies show a "sinister correlation" between the construction of skyscrapers and multi-storey buildings, with a succession of economic crises that affect a nation. For the experts, in fact, the policy of property "gigantism" is the symptom of a sick system characterized by an "incorrect allocation of capital."

Dubai's Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, with its 828 meters, now followed by the Tokyo Skytree, which also boasts the distinction of highest TV signal transmission tower; in third place in this strange category is the Chinese Canton Tower in Guangzhou, which is also used for broadcasting and 600 meters high.

 

• japan
• tower
• sky
• tree
• tokyo
• crisis
• economy