Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Watching over the increasingly cosmopolitan expanse of Tokyo, this lofty building is an architectural wonder. The Kenzo Tange-designed building, with its two distinctive towers, was the tallest building in Tokyo until 2006, when it lost its title to the Midtown Tower. Completed in 1990, the enormous building takes up three city blocks. Designed to look like a computer chip, the building has been called a beacon of technological advancement that embodies the contemporary vigor that the city is known for. The building itself is stunning and is topped by observation decks which afford dynamic views of the city sprawled below. The gargantuan scale of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building befits the sheer enormity of its function; it is from here that all of the 23 wards, as well as the various towns and villages of Tokyo are governed.