A major land reclamation project brought new life to the Tokyo Bay waterfront about five years ago. An urban center called Odaiba has sprung up there, complete with a number of leisure attractions. The one that catches the most attention is the Ferris wheel, which soars 115 meters into the sky. It has enjoyed landmark status ever since it began operations in March 1999. For a while it was the largest Ferris wheel in the world.

The wheel was designed by a company that also builds ships, Sanoyas Hishino Meisho Corporation. It has constructed about 100 Ferris wheels of all sizes, exporting some to other Asian countries.

Abe Kazunori works in the Design Department of the company's Leisure Business Group. He reports that over the last few years the company has received many orders from Japanese clients looking for large Ferris wheels. "The orders are coming not so much from amusement parks but increasingly from entrepreneurs who want to install just a wheel in the middle of an urban center. A good example is the "Wonder Wheel" we installed on top of an office building in Osaka. It weighs 56 tons, and soars high, so our first consideration was to make sure it would be secure even during an earthquake or gale. The design process alone took more than four years!"

The wheel comes equipped with a unique mechanism to prevent swaying in the wind. Riders get the easy-going, serene feeling they like, another result of the advanced technology of which the company is proud.