Umeda Sky Building, Osaka, November 2016 -01

Umeda Sky Building, Osaka, November 2016 -02

The is the nineteenth-tallest building in

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nar ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, and one of the city's most recognizable landmarks. It consists of two 40-story towers that connect at their two uppermost stories, with bridges and an escalator crossing the wide atrium-like space in the center. It is located in

Umeda is a major commercial, business, shopping and entertainment district in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, and the city's main northern railway terminus (Ōsaka Station, Umeda Station). The district's name means "plum field". History Umeda was historical ...

district of

Kita-ku, Osaka is one of 24 wards of Osaka in Japan. Incidents and accidents 2021 Osaka building fire Notable locations Kita-ku, particularly the Umeda area surrounding Osaka Station, is one of the main commercial centers of Osaka. Kita-ku is also a fin ...

. The building was originally conceived in 1988 as the "City of Air" project, which planned to create four interconnected towers in northern Osaka. Eventually, the Japan economic bubble of the 1980s burst and brought the number of towers down to two. The 170 m (568 ft) building was designed by Hiroshi Hara. It was constructed by

Takenaka Corporation is one of five major general contractors in Japan. Takenaka provides architectural, engineering, and construction services and has its headquarters located in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture. Takenaka has eight domestic offices in Japan with ...

and was completed in 1993. The building features a rooftop observatory, ''The Floating Garden Observatory'', as well as an underground market that attempts to recreate the atmosphere of Osaka in the early 20th century. At the base of the towers is an urban garden with walking trails and water features.

Ownership

The building was mainly owned by

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

Corporation through Toshiba Building Co., Ltd. In July 2008, Toshiba sold a majority stake (65%) in Toshiba Building to Nomura Real Estate co. but maintains a 35% ownership.

Tenants

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one ...

has an office in the Umeda Sky Building Tower East. The Consulate-General of Germany in Osaka is located on the thirty-fifth floor of the Umeda Sky Building Tower East.

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includi ...

have their Japanese and Asia-Pacific headquarters in the East Tower.

PlatinumGames PlatinumGames Inc. is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure o ...

is also located in the building.Inside Platinum Games: we chart the history and future of the studio behind Bayonetta
" Retrieved on October 19, 2014.

Ownership

Tenants

See also

References

External links