The world’s first large display of living corals.

Advanced technology for underwater discoveries

“We’re first and best in the world in quite a few ways,” says Kinjo Yuka, the aquarium’s PR point woman. She takes us straight to the pride of the place, the Kuroshio Seas tank, clearly visible through an amazingly large window 8.2 meters high, 22.5 meters long and 60 cm thick. There is not even a single pillar to help the window hold back the immense volume of water. It is just as if we are underwater, interacting with creatures of the sea.

The company Nippura made the window by bonding large layers of acrylic panel together. There are seven panel sections in all, each weighing about 20 tons. The manufacturing process involved difficult, specialized technologies, and the end result is remarkably transparent and huge—so huge that the Guinness Book of Records lists it as the largest acrylic panel in the world. Its seven sections were transported from the factory to the aquarium and joined together, side by side.