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The Statue of Liberty in Tokyo

In Odaiba there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty. Japanese people love to bring the best things in the world to Japan and adapt them according to their needs and tastes. Apart from the Statue of Liberty replica, in Tokyo there is also a red color replica of the Eiffel Tower called the Tokyo Tower, but in this case the Japanese replica is a little bit higher than the original.
The interesting thing is that the Japanese Statue of Liberty is NOT a copy of the American statue. It is an almost exact copy of the statue located in the Sena river in Paris. Japanese people built it in Odaiba to celebrate and strengthen Franco-Japanese relations.

The Japanese Statue of Liberty is located next to the sea in front of the Aqua City building in the Odaiba island (the best way to get there is using the Yurikamome line and stop at the Daiba station). The best photo of the statue can be taken during sunset, as the Sun appears on the left side or behind the statue depending on the season. If you take a picture in Summer there is also a lot of ships on the bay, which will give you the opportunity to take even a more original photo.

This is the best shot I have been able to get until now:

Odaiba
Maybe I played around with Lightroom too much and the photo ended up with some exaggerated halos!

7 replies on “The Statue of Liberty in Tokyo”

Ha, I saw this and took a picture of it when I got back home, the joke was that I got to get close to the Statue of Liberty. (Our family only being to NYC twice and not going over to the island to see it)… And I got to see it in Tokyo.

Roy your a bit off.

Technically speaking while the one in Japan is a replica of a Statue of Liberty in France it is still a replica of the original Statue of Liberty in New York as that is the very first Statue of Liberty ever made. The one in France is not the original or “real” one. It was made in 1889 while the one in New York is 1886.

The one in France that the Japanese Statue is based off of has two dates on it as well and faces the one in New York. One of those dates is the independence day of the USA.

This second Statue of Liberty in Paris is near the Grenelle Bridge on the Île des Cygnes, an island in the river Seine (48°51′0″N 2°16′47″E / 48.85°N 2.27972°E / 48.85; 2.27972, 11.50 m (37 feet 9 inches) high. Dedicated on November 15, 1889, it looks towards the Atlantic Ocean and hence towards its “larger sister” in New York Harbor, which had been erected three years earlier. Its tablet bears two dates: “IV JUILLET 1776” (July 4, 1776: the United States Declaration of Independence) like the New York statue, and “XIV JUILLET 1789” (July 14, 1789: the storming of the Bastille).

Just some facts for you all ^^

John, the only point I was trying to make was the actual original France one was in Japan between 1998-1999 but now it’s been returned and a replica has taken its place. I don’t know enough about the statue to tell you what that replica in Odaiba is based on but thanks for the trivia.

There’s an even stranger similarity between Japan and France, in that France for a short time had “reign years” named after the president, in the same way Japan has years named after the emperor. However the French system also had 10-day “weeks” and months of equal length. The left over days where spread around the year and designated as holidays with names like “womens day” and “workers day”. The system didn’t last long!

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