Tower of the Sun

The tower was built for Expo '70 and housed in the Festival Plaza building known as "Big Roof" designed by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange.

The gallery inside displayed a huge artwork called the "Tree of Life", which represented the evolution of creatures.

Once a claim to demolish it arose, yet it was decided to be preserved and repair work began in November 1994, ending in March 1995.

[3] On October 11 and 12, 2003, the inside of the Tower of the Sun was opened to a selected 1,970 people (the figure was chosen for the year the expo was held).

[3] Those and subsequent, similar events that took place at irregular intervals were attended by over 40,000 people[4] in total visited the inside of the tower until October 2006.

[3] The 1970 Japanese kaiju film Gamera vs Jiger features Expo 70 prominently, including location shots, voice-over descriptions and scale models.

In 2014, Bandai created Taiyō no Tō no Robo (太陽の塔のロボ), a 288mm Chogokin toy replica of the Tower of the Sun that transforms into a giant robot.

As part of ad campaign for the model, the tower is shown in a short animated sequence in which would transform and briefly fight a monster in same style as tokusatsu programs.

[12] The Tower of the Sun, as well as the Expo of 1970, plays a central role in Naoki Urasawa's manga: 20th Century Boys.

The Tower of the Sun shows up as a pilotable giant mecha in the 2010 Shingo Honda's manga Creature!