• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • World
  • Social
  • Crypto Currencies
  • Privacy Policy

NewsOTP

You Everyday Online News

This Japanese Building Has a Highway Passing Right Through It

July 16, 2021 by World News

JAPAN|

The Gate Tower Building is one of the many several tall office buildings that make up Osaka’s impressive skyline, but there is something about it that makes it unique in the world – it has a functional highway going right through it.

Photos of this architectural anomaly have been doing the rounds on social media for over two decades now, and it’s easy to see why. 16-storey buildings don’t usually have highway off-ramps going right through them, but the Gate Tower Building does, and the traffic doesn’t affect the people working inside it one bit.

The elevators are located on the side of the building, and the highway itself doesn’t touch the tower, which is properly insulated against traffic noise and vibrations anyway. It’s still quite a sight to behold, and if you’re ever in Osaka you should definitely pass by, or rather, through.

The Gate Tower Building was the result of a compromise in a 5-year-long land dispute. Property rights for this particular plot of land had been held by a wood and charcoal company since the Meiji period, but the buildings on it had deteriorated over time, due to gradual decline of the business. However, in 1983, when a redevelopment of the area was approved, the owners of the land were denied permits because the Japanese Government had already planned the Hanshin Expressway to pass through there. This was the beginning of a long and tedious legal battle.

The owners of the land refused to move from their land, so after five long years, to avoid delaying the Hanshin Expressway project any longer, authorities proposed an interesting compromise. The company would maintain ownership of the land, but would agree to have the highway pass through their property. The highway off-ramp is essentially a tenant in the Gate Tower Building and is even listed as such on the list of tenants by floor. And as any good tenant, the highway, or rather its owner, pays rent.Floors 5 through 7 are inaccessible by elevator, as they are taken by the unusual tenant, but you can go up to the 8th floor and watch the traffic pass through from above. The Gate Tower Building is currently the headquarters of the TKP Corporation, so you’ll have to ask for permission to go inside their property.

You would expect working so close to busy highway traffic to be a nightmare for the office workers in the Gate Tower Building, especially those located on the 4th and 8th floors, but that’s apparently not the case at all. Because the highway never touches the building, and because of the excellent insulation work, the unique building is surprisingly quiet.Driving through the Gate Tower Building is not very exciting, as you are basically passing through a short tunnel than doesn’t touch the building. It’s one of those sights that is way more cooler to admire from afar than actually see up-close.

Filed Under: Social

Primary Sidebar

You May Like

Olympic broadcasters curb s3exual images of female athletes

TOKYO| At an Olympics aiming to set the highest level of television standards, the head of broadcasting at the Tokyo Games is trying to banish overly s36xualised images of female athletes. “Sport appeal, not X appeal” is one mantra Olympic officials push in an effort to reach gender equity on the field of play and […]

After a Giant human face appeared in the sky of Tokyo

JAPAN| An unusual sight greeted residents at a popular park in Tokyo Friday morning – a giant face, hovering high in the sky and staring right back at them.The floating head was seen looming above trees in Yoyogi Park, a popular tourist destination in Shibuya City just west of Tokyo’s city centre. Video captured by […]

The Amazing Mirror Cups And Saucers Use Science And Technology To Be Unique

ART| You may think you’ve seen all kinds of designs, shapes, and sizes of cups and saucers there are in the world, from the Victorian times to the modern-day. Although the creators to come up with spectacular designs for these cups and saucers, a scientific approach to their designing is something unheard of. Well, Luycho […]

Tokyo Olympic ceremony director fired over Holocaust jokes

TOKYO| The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee on Thursday fired a director of the creative team behind the games’ opening and closing ceremonies for joking in the past about the Holocaust, the decision coming just a day before the start of the global sporting event. The dismissal of former comedian Kentaro Kobayashi is the latest in […]

S Korea hates Japan more than N Korea, Gallup Poll reveals

TOKYO| Nothing brings a nation together like a common enemy and the Olympics give us an excuse to degrade every other country on the planet world without it seeming xenophobic. It was in the midst of this festive atmosphere that Gallup Korea published their annual poll showing the country’s opinion of the rest of the […]

The Filipino Olympic weightlifting sensation will be given $660,000 and 2 houses for winning her country’s first-ever gold

PH| Diaz spent seven months away from her family after being stuck due to COVID-19 restrictions while on training in Malaysia. ‘I miss my mom and her food,’ she said in an interview ahead of the Olympics. Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the first-ever Olympic gold medal for the Philippines, ending the nation’s 97-year drought. “History. […]

Maggie Mac Neil swims to Canada’s 1st gold medal of Tokyo Olympics

TOKYO| Maggie Mac Neil won Canada’s first gold medal of these Olympics, capturing the women’s 100-metre butterfly in a Canadian record of 55.59 seconds on Monday morning in Tokyo. China’s Zhang Yufei (55.64) took the silver and Australia’s Emma McKeon (55.72) claimed bronze.Mac Neil, from London, Ont., is competing in her first Olympics and already […]

Chinese Embassy Blasts Reuters For Using Ugly Photo Of Weightlifter Who Won Gold

TOKYO| The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka criticized Reuters for its photo choice about Zhihui Hou’s first-place finish in the Women’s 49kg Weightlifting competition. Hou set Olympic records in three different categories — snatch, clean and jerk, and total — bagged gold on July 24 with a total of 210 kilograms (462.971 pounds) and created a […]

French father goes on hunger strike for children ‘abducted’ by Japanese wife

TOKYO| A Frenchman in Japan who says his children were abducted by their Japanese mother began a hunger strike in Tokyo Saturday, in a protest he hopes will bring international attention to his fight to be reunited with his family. “I’ve given everything, I’ve lost my job, my house and my savings in the last […]

Gravure Idol Jun Amaki Has Tries on Backless Virgin-Slayer Sweater

Jun Amaki, the gravure idol with the “2-dimensional body”, posted several photos and a video of her wearing “The Virgin-Slayer Sweater” on her Instagram and Twitter. This…cannot be real.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by 天木じゅん Jun Amaki (@jun.amaki) Why this sweater is called as “Virgin-slayer”? Learn more about it […]

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in