is a building complex located in East

Ikebukuro is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro Station, and several shops, restaurants, and department stores are located within city limits. Transportation At the center of Ikebukuro is ...

Toshima is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. It is one of the eight central wards of the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Located in the northern area of Tokyo, Toshima is bordered by the wards of Nerima, Itabashi, and Kita in the north and N ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. It has the 240-metre tall

Sunshine 60 is a 60-story, mixed-use skyscraper located in Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo, adjoining the Sunshine City complex. At the time of its completion in 1978, the 239.7 m (787 ft) building was the tallest in Asia, a title it held until 1985 ...

skyscraper at its centre. Sunshine City consists of four buildings: Sunshine 60, the main and tallest building, which includes corporate offices as well as restaurants; the Prince Hotel; the World Import Mart; and the Bunka Kaikan building. The complex sits on land that was once occupied by

Sugamo Prison Sugamo Prison (''Sugamo Kōchi-sho'', Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: ) was a prison in Tokyo, Japan. It was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima 23 special wards, ward of Tokyo, Japan. History Sugamo Prison was orig ...

. The lower floors of the complex cater toward passerby and customers with a large

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

and numerous restaurants, while the higher floors tend to include corporate offices and hotel rooms. The complex, which was opened in 1978, contains numerous attractions including an observatory (observation deck) located at the top of Sunshine 60 called Sky Circus, the Ancient Orient Museum, an aquarium, a

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

, the Prince Hotel, a Namco-run indoor amusement park, a convention centre, and a theatre. When it was opened, Sunshine 60 office tower block was reputed to be the tallest building in Asia. It is an early example of a "city within a city", a self-contained area with places to live, work, and shop all within one area. Since Sunshine 60's Sky Circus observatory was opened, other observation decks have opened in Tokyo, such as at

Roppongi Roppongi (, , 'six trees') is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous for the affluent Roppongi Hills development area and popular night club scene. A few foreign embassies are located near Roppongi, and the night life is popu ...

and the Tokyo Government offices.

Attractions

Ancient Orient Museum

The is a small private museum in Sunshine City at the 7th floor of the Cultural Center (文化会館), specializing in artifacts of the ancient

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. It has a collection of

Greco-Buddhist art The Greco-Buddhist art or Gandhara art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between Ancient Greek art and Buddhism. It had mainly evolved in the ancient region of Gandhara, located in the northwestern fringe of t ...

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

, and several pieces pertaining to the art of

Palmyra Palmyra ( ; Palmyrene dialect, Palmyrene: (), romanized: ''Tadmor''; ) is an ancient city in central Syria. It is located in the eastern part of the Levant, and archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first menti ...

and

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Image:Palette.JPG, Gandhara

stone palette A stone palette (also called a toilet tray) is a round tray commonly found in the areas of Bactria and Gandhara, and which usually represent Greek mythological scenes. Some of them are attributed to the Indo-Greek period in the 2nd and 1st centu ...

Image:PalletteFragment.JPG, Fragment of a Gandhara stone palette Image:PoseidonGandhara.JPG, Gandhara

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

Image:GandharaTriton.JPG, Gandhara

Triton Triton commonly refers to: * Triton (mythology), a Greek god * Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune Triton may also refer to: Biology * Triton cockatoo, a parrot * Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails * ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...

Sunshine Aquarium

Sunshine City World Import Mart is home to Japan's first rooftop

public aquarium A public aquarium () or public water zoo is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and aquatic plant, plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, ...

, which opened in October 1978. It is operated by Sunshine Enterprises, Inc. Formerly known as Sunshine International Aquarium. The aquarium was closed for one year from September 1, 2010 for a full renovation, and reopened on August 4, 2011.

Namco Namja Town

Namco Namja Town (ナムコナンジャータウン lit. ''Namuko Nanjā Taun'') is an indoor theme park in the second floor of the Sunshine City shopping complex. The park was opened in 1996 by

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

, a Japanese company best known for producing

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

, although the park itself does not completely focus on those games. Instead, it features themed dining, carnival-style games, a haunted house, and a line of character mascots exclusive to the park. Various promotions related to video games exist as well, often on a rotating basis. Namco developed two games based on the park; the first of which, ''Nakavu no Daiboken: My Favorite Namja Town'', was released in 2000 for the PlayStation in Japan only, while a second game, simply titled Namja Town, was released for iOS in the early 2010s. Namco also ran J-World Tokyo, a manga-themed park which opened in 2013 on the third floor immediately above Namja Town. J-World Tokyo closed on February 17, 2019 due to poor attendance.

Sunshine City Prince Hotel

Sunshine City Prince Hotel was opened in 1980 (renovated in 1996) by Prince Hotel on the grounds of Sunshine City. Until the restructuring of the Seibu Group in March 2006, Seibu Railway, Kokudo, and other companies owned the Prince Hotel building, but this was the only property directly owned by Prince Hotel (the former company). In 2007 (Heisei 19), the banquet halls on the 2nd and 3rd floors were closed and the head office of Prince Hotel Co., Ltd. moved to the former site, which will be used as a research facility after the head office relocates back to Diamond Gate Ikebukuro in 2019 (Heisei 31). In 2007, Trianon, a restaurant operated by the hotel on the 59th floor of Sunshine 60, and Windsor, the main bar on the first floor of the hotel, were also closed, and a Family Mart is now located on the site of Windsor. The hotel underwent a four-year renovation starting in 2015 (Heisei 27), and in addition to the renovation of all guest room floors, a concept floor "IKEPRI 25" will be launched on April 6, 2019 (Heisei 31) on the 25th floor, targeting subculture fans, mainly anime and manga from Japan and abroad 2 In conjunction with this, on July 15, 2016 (Heisei 28), the lobby lounge on the first floor was renovated into the "Chef's Palette" cafe and dining room, and the all-day dining function was transferred from the "Bayern" buffet restaurant on the basement floor. will no longer be open for breakfast, and "Bavaria" will once again become an all-day dining restaurant. File:Sunshine City PRINCE HOTEL 20070307-01.jpg, Exterior view of Sunshine City Prince Hotel File:Sunshine City PRINCE HOTEL 20070307-03.jpg, Entrance and Exit of Sunshine City Prince Hotel

References

External links

*
Japan-Guide: Ikebukuro
*
Namja Town website
*
Namja Town Guidemap PDF

(English) {{Authority control Ikebukuro Buildings and structures in Toshima Tourist attractions in Tokyo Mitsubishi Estate 1996 establishments in Japan Aquaria in Japan