The Tobu Railway Company, Ltd. ( 東武鉄道株式会社 , Tōbu Tetsudō kabushiki gaisha ) is a Japanese commuter railway and keiretsu holding company in the Greater Tokyo Area as well as an intercity and regional operator in the Kantō region . Excluding the Japan Railways Group companies, Tobu's 463.3 km (287.9 mi) rail system is the second longest in Japan after Kintetsu . It serves large portions of Saitama Prefecture , Gunma Prefecture and Tochigi Prefecture , as well as northern Tokyo and western Chiba Prefecture . The Tobu Railway Company is listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 index.
24-574: The Tobu corporate group is also engaged in road transportation (bus/taxi), real estate, and retail. It is the owner of the Tokyo Skytree , the third tallest tower in the world. The company is a member of the Fuyo Group keiretsu . The name "Tobu" is formed from the kanji for east ( 東 ) and Musashi ( 武 蔵), the initial area served. Tobu is one of the oldest railway companies in Japan. It
48-791: A tree topology starting at Asakusa in Tokyo, with the Isesaki Line as the trunk, and the Tobu Kameido Line , Daishi Line , Tobu Urban Park Line , Tobu Sano Line , Koizumi Line , Tōbu Kiryū Line , and Nikkō Line forming the branches, with further branches into the Tobu Utsunomiya Line and Tobu Kinugawa Lines . It offers surcharged, seat-reserved limited express services from Tokyo to Nikkō and Kinugawa. The Tojo Line runs northwest from Ikebukuro in Tokyo to central and western Saitama Prefecture . A branch,
72-457: A crowd of tens of thousands, despite rainy conditions which blocked the view from the tower's observation deck . Strong winds also forced two elevators to be shut down, leaving some visitors briefly stranded on the observation deck. According to Tobu, 1.6 million people visited Skytree in its first week. Local residents reported that the influx of visitors disturbed the peace of their community and had, so far, generated little economic benefit for
96-431: A structure similar to a tripod ; from a height of about 350 m (1,150 ft) and above, the tower's structure is cylindrical to offer panoramic views of the river and the city. There are observatories at 350 m (1,150 ft), with a capacity of up to 2,000 people, and 450 m (1,480 ft), with a capacity of 900 people. The upper observatory features a spiral, glass-covered skywalk in which visitors ascend
120-570: Is a broadcasting and observation tower , located in Sumida , Tokyo , Japan . It is the tallest tower in Japan since opening in 2012, and reached its full height of 634 meters (2,080 ft) in early 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, displacing the Canton Tower , and the third tallest structure in the world (behind Merdeka 118 (678.9 m or 2,227 ft) and Burj Khalifa (829.8 m or 2,722 ft)). The tower
144-556: Is a front for a revolutionary political organization called the Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction) . An investigation of this is ongoing. The East Japan Railway Culture Foundation is a non-profit organization established by JR East for the purpose of developing a "richer railway culture". The Railway Museum in Saitama is operated by the foundation. JR East held
168-415: Is illuminated using LEDs . From October to November 2007, suggestions were collected from the general public for the name to be given to the tower. On 19 March 2008, a committee chose six final candidate names: Tōkyō Sukaitsurī ( 東京スカイツリー , "Tokyo sky tree") , Tōkyō Edo Tawā ( 東京EDOタワー , "Tokyo Edo tower") , Raijingu Tawā ( ライジングタワー , "Rising tower") , Mirai Tawā ( みらいタワー , "Tower of
192-668: Is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange (it formerly had secondary listings in the Nagoya and Osaka stock exchanges), is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and is one of three Japan Railways Group constituents of the Nikkei 225 index, the others being JR Central and JR West . JR East was incorporated on 1 April 1987 after being spun off from the government-run Japanese National Railways (JNR). The spin-off
216-599: Is owned and operated by the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central), although it stops at several JR East stations. These lines have sections inside the Tokyo suburban area (Japanese: 東京近郊区間 ) designated by JR East. This does not necessarily mean that the lines are fully inside the Greater Tokyo Area . Below is the full list of limited express and express train services operated on JR East lines as of 2022. During fiscal 2017,
240-484: Is the primary television and radio broadcast site for the Kantō region ; the older Tokyo Tower no longer gives complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting coverage because it is surrounded by high-rise buildings. Skytree was completed on Leap Day, 29 February 2012, with the tower opening to the public on 22 May 2012. The tower is the centrepiece of a large commercial development funded by Tobu Railway (which owns
264-664: The Isesaki Line between Asakusa (later Narihirabashi, today Tokyo Skytree Station ) and Nishiarai . Tobu was the first railway in the Kanto region to adopt quadruple tracks, on the Kita-Senju to Takenotsuka sector in 1974. The Tobu Dobutsu Koen (Tobu Animal Park) opened in 1981. Tobu has two isolated networks which are connected by the Chichibu Railway for ferrying of its rolling stock. The Tobu Main Line network has
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#1732780245839288-614: The Ogose Line , runs to Ogose from Sakado . Tobu's terminals in Tokyo are at Asakusa (Main Line express services), Oshiage (most other Main Line services) and Ikebukuro (Tojo Line). The Skytree and Isesaki Lines interoperate with the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line , Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line and the Tokyu Den-en-toshi Line to serve central, southwestern Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture , while
312-558: The Kinugawa Line from 10 August 2017 using JNR Class C11 steam locomotive C11 207 loaned from JR Hokkaido together with JNR Class DE10 diesel locomotive DE10 1099 purchased from JR East , a fleet of six 12 and 14 series coaches purchased from JR Shikoku , and two Yo 8000 brake vans purchased from JR Freight and JR East. Tokyo Skytree Tokyo Skytree ( 東京スカイツリー , Tōkyō Sukaitsurī , [toːkʲoː sɯ̥kaitsɯriː] ) , also written as Tokyo Sky Tree ,
336-765: The Tojo Line interoperates with the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line , Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line , Tokyu Toyoko Line and Minatomirai Line to serve central and southwest Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture . As of 1 April 2016, Tobu Railway operates a fleet of 1,890 electric multiple unit (EMU) vehicles, the third largest fleet for a private railway operator in Japan after Tokyo Metro (2,728 vehicles) and Kintetsu (1,905). Eight new three-car 500 series EMU trains were introduced on limited express services on lines from Asakusa on 21 April 2017. Tobu plans to operate steam-hauled tourist services on
360-700: The busiest stations in the JR East network by average daily passenger count were: JR East co-sponsors the JEF United Chiba J-League football club , which was formed by a merger between the JR East and Furukawa Electric company teams. JR East aims to reduce its carbon emissions by half, as measured over the period 1990–2030. This would be achieved by increasing the efficiency of trains and company-owned thermal power stations and by developing hybrid trains . The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has stated that JR East's official union
384-471: The complex) and a group of six terrestrial broadcasters headed by NHK . Trains stop at the adjacent Tokyo Skytree Station and nearby Oshiage Station . The complex is seven kilometres (4.3 miles) northeast of Tokyo Station . Sumida Aquarium is in the Tokyo Solamachi complex. The tower's design was published on 24 November 2006, based on the following three concepts: The base of the tower has
408-442: The energy from an earthquake. The exterior lattice is painted a colour officially called "Skytree White". This is an original colour based on a bluish-white traditional Japanese colour called aijiro ( 藍白 ) . The illumination design was published on 16 October 2009. Two illumination patterns alternate daily. One is the sky blue Iki (chic, stylish), and the other is the purple Miyabi (elegance, refinement). The tower
432-406: The future") , Yumemi Yagura ( ゆめみやぐら , "Dream lookout") , Raijingu Īsuto Tawā ( ライジングイーストタワー , "Rising east tower") . The official name was decided in a nationwide vote, and was announced on 10 June 2008 as "Tokyo Skytree". The name received around 33,000 votes (30%) out of 110,000 cast, with the second most popular name being "Tokyo Edo Tower". The height of 634 m (2,080 ft)
456-400: The last 5 metres to the highest point at the upper platform. A section of glass flooring gives visitors a direct downward view of the streets below. The tower has seismic proofing , including a central shaft made of reinforced concrete. The main internal pillar is attached to the outer tower structure for the first 125 metres above ground. From there until 375 metres the pillar is attached to
480-612: The local area. Sources JR East The East Japan Railway Company is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as JR Higashi-Nihon ( JR東日本 , Jeiāru Higashi-Nihon ) in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in Yoyogi , Shibuya , Tokyo , next to Shinjuku Station . It
504-424: The tower frame with oil dampers, which act as cushions during an earthquake. Additional resilience is achieved through an "added mass control mechanism" (or tuned mass damper ) – a damping system which, in the event of an earthquake, moves out of step with the building's structure, to keep the centre of gravity as central as possible to the tower's base. According to the designers, the dampers can absorb 50 percent of
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#1732780245839528-603: Was established in November 1897 and began operation between Kita-Senju and Kuki in August 1899. The Tojo Railway was founded in 1911 as a separate company, but shared its president and head office with Tobu. In 1905, Nezu Kaichirō became the president of Tobu Railway and successfully helped to grow the company to one of the largest private rail operators in the Kanto region. In 1924, Tobu began operating its first electric train on
552-687: Was nominally "privatization", as the company was actually a wholly owned subsidiary of the government-owned JNR Settlement Corporation for several years, and was not completely sold to the public until 2002. Following the breakup, JR East ran the operations on former JNR lines in the Greater Tokyo Area , the Tōhoku region , and surrounding areas. Railway lines of JR East primarily serve the Kanto and Tohoku regions , along with adjacent areas in Kōshin'etsu region ( Niigata , Nagano , Yamanashi ) and Shizuoka prefectures . The Tokyo–Osaka Tōkaidō Shinkansen
576-569: Was selected to be easily remembered. The figures 6 (mu), 3 (sa), 4 (shi) stand for " Musashi ", an old name for the region where the Tokyo Skytree stands. Tokyo Skytree is used as a radio/television broadcast and communications tower. As the Skytree's opening approached, people reportedly waited in line for a week to get tickets. By the opening, trips up the tower were fully booked for the first two months of operation. The opening day drew
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