TOKYO: The world’s tallest tower, the Tokyo Skytree, opened to the public yesterday with tens of thousands of visitors flocking to the Japanese capital’s newest attraction.
Despite rainy weather, residents and tourists gathered around the 634-meter (2,080-foot) tower and its adjacent shopping and amusement complex ,which also opened on Tuesday.
But those hoping for spectacular views from the observation deck 350 meters up were thwarted by the weather.
“I have long been looking forward to coming here,” said Ayumi Nakazawa, who won tickets to the opening ceremony of the tower, which ranks as the world’s second-tallest structure.
“I can’t see the view (because of the rain), but it was exciting,” Nakazawa told reporters after becoming the first official visitor to the observation deck.
Japan’s hard-hit tourism sector is hoping the tower will boost the number of visitors from abroad after figures plummeted in the wake of Japan’s quake-tsunami disaster last year.
The disaster, which sparked the worst nuclear crisis in a generation, saw the number of visitors to Japan fall 27.8 percent from the previous year to 6.22 million, according to the Japan National Tourist Organization.
Amid safety concerns, the tower’s operator said Tokyo Skytree was equipped with state-of-art technology to counter the earth tremors that regularly shake Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active nations.
The Tokyo Skytree is the world’s second-tallest manmade structure, topped only by the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
It stands taller than the 600-meter Canton Tower in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and the 553-meter CN Tower in the Canadian city of Toronto.
In Japan’s capital the Tokyo Skytree overshadows landmarks in the upscale western district including the 333-meter Tokyo Tower, which was built in 1958 and became a byword for the country’s rapid post-war growth.
World’s tallest tower opens in Tokyo
World’s tallest tower opens in Tokyo
Bulgarian president appoints caretaker government and sets snap election date for April 19
- Yotova singled out the preparation of fair elections as the most important task of the new interim government
- The interim Cabinet must be sworn in formally at a special ceremony in Parliament
SOFIA: Bulgarian President Iliana Yotova on Wednesday appointed a caretaker government ahead of another round of parliamentary elections in April in a bid to stave off the country’s political instability and economic woes.
Yotova singled out the preparation of fair elections as the most important task of the new interim government. She also referred to the urgent need to allay people’s fears of rising prices of goods and services, following the country’s adoption of the single European currency in January.
The president also said that the interim Cabinet must be sworn in formally at a special ceremony in Parliament, and that she will issue a decree to hold snap parliamentary elections on April 19.
The resignation of the outgoing governing coalition led by the center-right GERB party came in the wake of nationwide protests at the end of 2025 that were sparked by public anger over corruption, injustice, and perceived oligarchic influence.
The collapse helped pave the way toward a new election — the eighth since April 2021 — which analysts expect could increase the number of seats held by nationalist and pro-Russia groups.
Interim Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov, 50, holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Truman State University in Missouri and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in Austria. Having held senior positions in academia and European financial institutions, he was appointed deputy governor of the Bulgarian central bank in Sofia in 2023. Before that, he was also a lawmaker and floor leader of the reformist “We Continue the Change” group in parliament.
The new caretaker premier will be backed by a Cabinet of experts for his main tasks: to ensure fair and transparent elections and restore public trust in institutions that has been eroded by political uncertainty plaguing the EU and NATO member nation.
Gyurov is set to head Bulgaria’s 12th caretaker government, half of them appointed by the former head of state, Rumen Radev. He left the presidency to start his own political party and will be standing as a candidate in the snap elections.
