The is a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

located in

Nagatachō is a district of Tokyo, Japan, located in Chiyoda Ward. It is the location of the Diet of Japan and the Prime Minister's residence (Kantei). The Supreme Court of Japan is located in neighboring Hayabusachō. Nagatachō is often used to refer ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

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 north ...

. It contains offices, residences, and shops, with 38 floors above ground and a total floor area of 76,634 square meters. It is situated on the Sotobori-dōri trunk road, near the

National Diet Building The is the building where both houses of the National Diet, National Diet of Japan meet. It is located at Nagatachō, Tokyo, Nagatachō 1-chome 7–1, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Sessions of the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives ta ...

and other central government institutions, including the

Prime Minister's Official Residence The Prime Minister's Official Residence is the official workplace and residence of the Prime Minister of Japan. It is commonly referred to as , , or simply . Located at 2-3-1 Nagata-chō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100–8968, it is diagonally adjacen ...

.Prudential Tower
Mori Building Company Floors 26–38 of this mixed-use building are residential, floors 3–24 offices, and the bottom floors retail space. The building can be accessed from five subway lines through the

Tokyo Metro The is a major rapid transit system in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the Tokyo Metro Co. With an average daily ridership of 6.84 million passengers, the Tokyo Metro is the larger of the two subway operators in the city; the other being the Toei ...

stations Akasaka-mitsuke and

History

Prior to and during World War II, the site was occupied by a luxury Japanese restaurant that was one of the command bases used by dissident military officers during the February 26 Incident in 1936. The restaurant was destroyed during the

bombing of Tokyo The was a series of firebombing air raids by the United States Army Air Force during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. Operation Meetinghouse, which was conducted on the night of 9–10 March 1945, is the single most destructive bombing ...

in 1945.

Aiichirō Fujiyama was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and business executive. A business executive who symbolized "big business" in Japan as president of Dai Nippon Sugar Manufacturing Co. and executive officer of Nitto Chemical Industry ...

's business conglomerate planned to build a luxury apartment complex on the site after the war, but the award of the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

to Tokyo led to a "hotel boom" in the city. The site was re-purposed for the Hotel New Japan, one of the first modern hotels in Tokyo, which opened in 1960 and became a center of political, social and media activity in Tokyo during the 1960s and 1970s. The hotel was severely damaged in February 1982 after a guest smoking in bed started a fire, which spread quickly due to a combination of inadequate safety equipment and inadequate staff response, killing 33 people. The Tokyo metropolitan government ordered the hotel closed shortly thereafter, although the hotel's basement nightclub, New Latin Quarter, remained operational through 1989. There are

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

s that the Prudential Tower is haunted by

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

s as a result of the disaster. Chiyoda Life Insurance, a major creditor of the hotel's bankrupt owner, acquired the long-abandoned hotel site in 1996 and began development of an office tower on the site. Chiyoda itself entered bankruptcy in 2000, following which Prudential Life Insurance acquired the project and completed construction through cooperation with

Mori Building is a Japanese family-owned property management firm. As of 2015 its president and CEO is Shingo Tsuji. Its headquarters are in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo. Mori Building has been managing office building leases s ...

. Construction of the 158-meter tower was finished in 2002.

References

External links

Prudential Tower
Emporis Commercial buildings completed in 2002 Residential skyscrapers in Tokyo Buildings and structures in Chiyoda, Tokyo Prudential Financial buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Tokyo Retail buildings in Tokyo 2002 establishments in Japan {{Japan-struct-stub