The five-storey tall pagoda measures nearly 50 metres (160 ft) in height, and is part of the Museums of the Far East three-museum complex.

In 1909, with the death of Leopold II, the original plan for a museum was abandoned and the building was donated to the Belgian State.

After that, it was closed to visitors for long periods of time: during the Second World War, and again from 1947 until 1989,[2] when it was restored on the occasion of Europalia Japan.

After a study of the upper floors, requested and carried out by the Belgian building agency in 2010, an important ornamental scheme was discovered, partly made of Japanese lacquer.

The tower reflects this in the sophistication of crafts and technologies employed to decorate its interior, as the apparent extensive use of ikkei saishiki for the doors, pillars and panels will suffice to illustrate.

However, the Flemish public broadcaster VRT reported in 2022 that the Federal Government had decided the previous year not to re-open the complex although no formal announcement had been made to this effect.

[2] Though Belgian craftsmen built the main part of the tower, they initially opted not to use nails, in the traditional Japanese style.

[2] The first floor features a polychrome decoration with a legend of Urashima Taro, plus a coffered ceiling with a depiction of Japanese musicians.

It originally included a ceiling with a painted vellum canopy depicting a group of women over a landscape, probably inspired by woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada.