ASAHI SHINBUN PUBLISHING
The world entered the era of highrise building in the 1920s. A monument to that era was the 102-story Empire State Building in New York. The first highrise buildings in Japan were built in 1968. The 60-story Ikebukuro Sunshine City Building was built in 1978, and from that time on many highrise buildings were built. Progress occurred not only in advanced building technology, but also in transport and communication infrastructure such as disaster prevention systems, elevators and telephones, thus highrise buildings were becoming like a city within a city, containing business, restaurants and leisure areas within. The towers that once symbolized mankind's universal wish to get even a step closer to the sky have now changed to buildings that flaunt economic strength and prosperity. However, the feeling we get from looking at such high buildings remains the same now as it was in the past.