The tallest office building in Japan is set to open in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on Nov. 24, carrying hopes that it can help the capital become a more appealing hub for foreign businesses.

Real estate giant Mori Building Co., developer of the 330-meter Mori JP Tower, part of the sprawling Azabudai Hills complex, says the structure contains unprecedented features to attract foreign companies and investments from overseas.

The same building will offer a combined luxury living-working environment, as well as facilities that include an international school and university hospital, the company said.

“Expectations are high that the opening of Azabudai Hills will serve as a ‘litmus test’ measuring how many companies and people can be attracted to Tokyo today,” said Masaaki Uto, a professor of urban engineering at Tokyo City University.

“The incentives for foreign companies and high-skilled personnel to come to Tokyo have been decreasing year by year,” Uto said.

Contributing factors to the trend include Japan’s sluggish economy, high corporate tax rates and slow progress in breaking language barriers and improving the living environment, he added.

According to an industry ministry survey in 2017, the number of regional headquarters of foreign companies in Japan was 26 percent of that in Singapore.

The ministry said corporate workers from Europe and the United States likely feel more comfortable relocating to Singapore than to Tokyo.

Tokyo placed third, following London and New York, in the 2022 Global Power City Index, an annual survey released by the Institute for Urban Strategies at the Mori Memorial Foundation, Mori Building’s think tank.

Certain indicators for Tokyo were relatively low, such as number of high-class hotel rooms and foreign residents, the survey showed.

If size matters, then Azabudai Hills is on the right track to turn things around for Tokyo.

The site measures roughly 64,000 square meters, and Mori JP Tower will be almost as tall as the 333-meter Tokyo Tower, which is located only about 400 meters to the southeast.

The area is renowned for hosting many foreign embassies, and it was once densely packed with wooden buildings.

Mori Building had been in redevelopment negotiations with about 300 landowners since 1989, explaining the necessity to prevent fire disasters.

Construction of Azabudai Hills started in 2019.

The company has completed well-known redevelopment projects in Minato Ward, such as Roppongi Hills and Toranomon Hills, but it said Azabudai Hills is “special.”

A Mori Building official said the latest project embodies the “future form of the Hills by incorporating all the knowledge we’ve gathered and adding new functions.”

Azabudai Hills actually consists of three skyscrapers, the tallest one being the 64-story Mori JP Tower.

It surpassed Japan’s previous height record for a building, the 300-meter Abeno Harukas in Osaka.

Azabudai Hills contains about 210,000 square meters of office space.

Its ground-level green space will be the largest of any Mori Building property, at 24,000 square meters.

Another feature is diverse residential units.

The 54th to 64th floors of the Mori JP Tower contain 91 units of “Aman Residences, Tokyo” developed by Aman Resorts Ltd., which operates luxury resort hotels in 20 countries.

Each unit has two to six bedrooms. Other high-end facilities, such as a dining space with a dedicated chef and a spa, will be available, according to the company’s website.

Mori Building has not disclosed the selling prices of the units.

A real estate agent in the ward said, “Prices will probably be at least several billion yen to 10 billion yen ($70.5 million) per unit.”

There will be 1,400 units across the three buildings of Azabudai Hills, exceeding the 840 units at Roppongi Hills.

The Azabudai Hills complex also houses a 4,000-square-meter area for grocery shops, an international school, Keio University Hospital’s Center for Preventive Medicine, and a permanent exhibition space for digital art group Team Lab.

“We aim to enhance Tokyo’s urban capabilities,” the Mori Building official said.

The international school will accept around 700 students aged 3 to 11 from more than 50 countries, making it one of the largest in central Tokyo.

In June, the Tokyo metropolitan government proposed to the central government a special district system that would provide tax incentives for developers of the school.

The metropolitan government believes that a stable operation of the international school is indispensable for the further internationalization of the capital.

ONE BUILDING MAY NOT BE READY

However, one of the three skyscrapers under construction is still only a few tens of meters high, and opening it this fall is almost impossible.

When completed, the 64-story building will be around 270 meters tall and house 970 residential units, a nursery school and offices.

Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., which is building the skyscraper, declined to comment on the project.

“At present, all we can say is that construction is proceeding diligently toward the opening in autumn,” a Mori Building official said.