Sapporo TV Tower

A Tower Built for Broadcasting, Kept for the Skyline

Sapporo TV Tower (さっぽろテレビ塔, Sapporo Terebi-tō) is a 144-metre self-supporting steel tower of 1957 standing at the eastern end of Ōdōri Park in Chūō Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido, registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 13 March 2025. It was designed by Naitō Tachū, the structural engineer behind Tsūtenkaku in Osaka, Nagoya TV Tower and, later, Tokyo Tower.

The commission came out of a specific problem. NHK had begun television broadcasts in Sapporo in the early 1950s, but the signal needed height to travel across the Ishikari plain. A transmission mast alone would have solved it. What the city got instead was a mast with an observatory, a cinema and, from December 1957, a planetarium on the fourth floor.

Construction started in June 1956. The shaft was topped out by December, and on the twenty-second of that month NHK Sapporo sent its first television signal from the structure. The tower opened to the public on 24 August 1957, at a total cost of 170 million yen.

How the Structure Works, and Why It Was Registered

The Agency for Cultural Affairs registered the tower under the criterion "contributing to the historic landscape of the nation," which is the category reserved for buildings that have become part of how a place looks to the people who live there.

Read the tower from the ground up and Naitō's method is visible. The four legs spread to a span of 35 metres at their base and taper inward, the silhouette widening downward in what Japanese descriptions call a suehirogari profile. At each corner the steelwork is assembled into triangular pyramid trusses. The main shaft is divided into fourteen segments, above which a separate lattice section carries the antennas. Below ground the structure runs two storeys deep, and steel and reinforced concrete are used in combination.

An electric clock was fitted in October 1961, after Sapporo residents pointed out that a tower in the middle of the city might as well tell the time. It remains the only clock of its kind on a Japanese tower of this type. Modifications were made in 1963.

Among the towers Naitō designed, Tsūtenkaku received its registration in 2007 and Tokyo Tower in 2013, so Sapporo's arrival on the list in 2025 completed a sequence that had been running for nearly twenty years. By then the tower's original job had largely ended: the FM relay equipment that once sat here was moved to other rooftops in the city, and the antennas no longer carry the broadcasts they were built for.

Visiting the Observatory

The observation deck sits about 90 metres above the ground. Lifts leave from the third floor and take roughly sixty seconds. Ōdōri Park stretches west below in a straight green line, and on clear days the view reaches the Ishikari plain and the Sea of Japan beyond it.

Hours, Tickets and the Best Time to Go

The observatory operates from 9:00 to 22:00, with last admission at 21:50. General admission is 1,200 yen for adults from high-school age upward and 600 yen for primary and junior-high pupils; children below school age enter free. Groups of fifteen or more pay 900 and 500 yen. Residents of Sapporo pay 800 and 400 yen on presentation of proof of address, and an annual pass costs 2,000 yen. The tower closes entirely on a small number of maintenance days each year, so checking the official site before a trip is sensible.

Two views for one visit is a reasonable plan here. A day-and-night ticket at 1,700 yen for adults covers two entries within three days, which suits the gap between the park in daylight and the city lit up after dark. In winter the Sapporo White Illumination and the Snow Festival both run directly beneath the tower.

The Window You Look Down Through

On the southeastern side, three panes were replaced with single sheets of glass running from floor to ceiling. Because the wall leans outward at that point, standing against it puts the ground directly under your feet. The tower calls this corner kowasō, a pun that turns "scary window" into something close to "looks frightening."

Photography from the deck is unrestricted for personal use. The third floor also holds a shop and a small shrine dedicated to Terebi Tō-san, the tower's moustachioed mascot, whose souvenirs are sold nowhere else. Below ground, a food court occupies the basement level, and the entrance to Ōdōri subway station is a few steps from the base.