The Birth and Development of High-Rise Buildings in Japan: Focusing on the Historical Development of Height and Floor Area Ratio Regulations

This paper reviews the history of the birth and development of the skyscraper in Japan, mainly from the perspective of the legal system, and presents the following points: 1) After 1919, building height was limited to 31 m or less, which continued after the war and defined the skyline of Japan's major cities; 2) The 31-meter height limit became a problem during rapid economic growth. With the development of tall building construction technology, the height limit was eliminated, and skyscrapers were born in Japan in the 1960s; 3) Later, the number of skyscrapers increased more rapidly in the post-bubble period after the collapse of the bubble economy in the 2000s than in the boom years of the 1980s, when the floor-area ratio was relaxed for economic uplift and urban renewal. The number of skyscrapers increased rapidly against the backdrop of the deregulation of the floor-area ratio.