Two towers, ten kilometres apart, and they are not competing for the same visit
Tokyo Skytree or Tokyo Tower — which should you go up?
Skytree is nearly twice as tall and gives the bigger view. Tokyo Tower is smaller, older, more central, and gives the better photograph — partly because it is the better photograph. This is an honest comparison of what each one actually offers, and who should pick which.
Book your Skytree entry ↗The one-line answer
If you want the biggest possible view over Tokyo, go up Skytree. If you want to see a view that looks like Tokyo, with landmarks you recognise and a skyline that reads, go up Tokyo Tower. If you want a photograph of a beautiful tower, photograph Tokyo Tower — you cannot do that from inside it.
The numbers
Tokyo Skytree is 634 metres tall, with observation levels at 350 and 450 metres. Tokyo Tower is 333 metres tall, with observation levels at 150 metres and 250 metres. So Skytree's lower deck begins 100 metres above Tokyo Tower's upper one. Skytree opened in 2012; Tokyo Tower opened in 1958.
What the height actually buys you
Less than you would think, and this is the point most comparisons miss. Above about 250 metres you are already looking down on essentially everything, and the extra 100 metres mostly widens the circle rather than revealing anything new. What height genuinely changes is the sense of scale: from Skytree, Tokyo stops looking like a city and starts looking like terrain, sprawling past the horizon in every direction with no visible edge. Some people find that overwhelming and magnificent. Others find it abstract and slightly boring.
The location difference matters more than the height
Tokyo Tower stands in Minato, in the middle of the city, surrounded by the things people picture when they picture Tokyo. From it you look across at Roppongi, Shibuya, the Imperial Palace grounds, Tokyo Bay and, on a clear day, Fuji. Skytree stands in Sumida, out to the east, past the edge of the dense centre. From it you look back at that centre from outside, across a very large amount of low-rise residential Tokyo. The Skytree view is bigger; the Tokyo Tower view is more legible.
The Skytree view includes no Skytree
This sounds obvious and it is the single most practical point in this whole comparison. Tokyo Tower is a beautiful object — an orange-and-white lattice that reads instantly in a photograph. Skytree is a beautiful object too. From the top of Skytree, Tokyo Tower is a small orange detail in the middle distance and it looks superb. From the top of Tokyo Tower, Skytree stands on the eastern horizon and it looks superb. From the top of either, you cannot photograph the one you are standing in.
Crowds and booking
Skytree runs timed entry and genuinely sells out at peak windows, so it needs planning. Tokyo Tower is more forgiving and can usually be done on the day, though its own peak evenings get busy. If your trip is loosely planned and you dislike committing to a time slot days in advance, that alone may decide it.
Cost
Tokyo Tower's main deck is meaningfully cheaper than Skytree's Tembo Deck, and both charge extra for their upper level. If budget is a real constraint and you want to go up something, Tokyo Tower's lower deck is the economical way to get above the city.
Which to pick if you only have time for one
First-time visitor who wants the iconic Tokyo experience: Tokyo Tower, in the evening. First-time visitor who wants to be astonished by the scale of the city: Skytree, on a clear morning. Returning visitor who has already done Tokyo Tower: Skytree, definitely. Travelling with someone who is nervous about heights: Tokyo Tower, and stop at the main deck.
Doing both
Entirely reasonable, and they combine well precisely because they are different. The usual pairing is Skytree in the morning for the clear long view and Tokyo Tower after dark for the city lights and the photograph. They are about ten kilometres apart and roughly forty minutes by train, so both in one day is comfortable if you want it.
A third option nobody mentions
If what you actually want is a high view of Tokyo without a ticket queue, several of the city's office towers have free or cheap observation floors — the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku is the best known, and it costs nothing. It will not give you 350 metres, and it will not give you a glass floor, but it is worth knowing about before you assume a tower ticket is the only way up.