Tsutenkaku Tower

Tsutenkaku is the symbol of Shinsekai, the retro entertainment district south of the city centre, and a much-loved piece of old Osaka. The first tower here went up in 1912 as the centrepiece of a new amusement quarter: it was 64 metres tall, modelled on a combination of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, and linked by an aerial cable car to the Luna Park funfair next door. After a fire in 1943 it was dismantled and its steel went to the war effort. The present eight-sided tower, designed by Tachu Naito, who was known in Japan as the father of towers, opened in 1956 and was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2007.

The tower stands 108 metres tall, with the main observation deck at 91 metres. The view is lower than from the city's modern skyscrapers, but the setting is the point: you look straight down onto the neon signs, kushikatsu restaurants and narrow streets of Shinsekai, and across to Abeno Harukas and Tennoji. On the fifth-floor deck sits Billiken, a cheerful lucky figure; the original statue disappeared after Luna Park closed in 1923, and a replacement was installed in 1979. Visitors rub the soles of his feet for luck. Above the main deck, an open-air platform at 94.5 metres, opened in 2015, takes small groups out into the wind for an extra charge.

The newest attraction is the Tower Slider, opened in May 2022, a roughly 60-metre tube slide that spirals from the third floor, 22 metres up, down to the basement exit. At night the tower's lights change colour, and the neon at the top doubles as a weather forecast for the following day. The Hitachi lettering on the side reflects a sponsorship that dates back to 1957.

Practicalities have changed recently. Opening hours were revised from March 2026 and ticket prices from April 2026, so check the official website before you go. When buying tickets you need to reserve an entry time, and buying by the day before guarantees your chosen slot; holders of some regional passes reserve their time at the counter on the day. Allow an hour, or longer at weekends when queues build. Families with children especially enjoy the slide and Billiken.

The tower is about three minutes' walk from Ebisucho Station on the Osaka Metro Sakaisuji Line and about six minutes from Shin-Imamiya Station on the JR Osaka Loop Line. Combine it with a kushikatsu lunch in Shinsekai, a walk to Tennoji Park, or the view from Abeno Harukas for a then-and-now comparison of the city's towers.