New Tokyo Tower to Be Built in Sumida Ward in 2010

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Mar. 25–TOKYO — Japan Broadcasting Corp. and five commercial TV broadcasters in the Tokyo area have decided to build their planned new radio and TV transmitter tower, dubbed the New Tokyo Tower, in the capital’s Sumida Ward by 2010, sources familiar with the project said Saturday.

The tower — to be about 600 meters high, nearly twice as tall as the 333-meter Tokyo Tower in the capital’s Minato Ward and higher than the world’s current tallest tower, the 553-meter CN Tower in Canada’s Toronto — will be built on a former railway shunting yard along the Tobu-Isesaki Line’s Narihirabashi and Oshiage stations, they said.

Tobu Railway Co., the owner of the site, has expressed willingness to shoulder part of the estimated 50 billion yen construction cost. Japan’s public broadcaster, known as NHK, and the five other broadcasters are expected to also stump up several hundred million yen each for the project.

The broadcasters will announce the site by the end of this month, the sources said, adding the railway operator will soon set up a project task force and call for investments by other entities.

The broadcasters are currently using Tokyo Tower in Minato Ward as a transmitter for both analogue and digital terrestrial broadcasting.

But Japan plans to switch broadcasting waves completely from analogue to digital capable of high quality audio visual transmission and two-way communications by July 2011.

A new service of cellphone-based terrestrial digital broadcasting, named “wan-segu” (one-segment broadcasting) is also being launched in April to offer clearer images with less disruption while in motion.

In view of such changes and to utilize the features of digital broadcasting, the broadcasters drew up plans for a second Tokyo Tower tall enough to transmit digital waves over high-rise buildings.

Several local governments and businesses had been competing to have the tower built in their areas.

They included the municipal government of Tokyo’s Hachioji, which wanted to build the tower at a site in Tama New Town, and that of the city of Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, which wanted the tower as part of its Saitama New Urban Center project.

In March 2005, the broadcasters tentatively concluded that an area in Tokyo’s Sumida and Taito wards would be the most suitable for the tower.

But they took time to examine the Saitama plan as the location, northwest of Tokyo, would have been advantageous in case of a large disaster in Tokyo.

The Sumida Ward site was picked in the end because the location is close and convenient to the broadcasters’ headquarters and because strong support from local businesses was also seen as favorable, the sources said.

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