Yokohama Customs Building (Queen's Tower)

The Yokohama Customs Building, known as the Queen's Tower, is the most graceful of the city's famous Three Towers, its slender green dome rising above the harbour like a beacon. Completed in 1934, it is the headquarters of Yokohama Customs, the agency that has policed the flow of goods through Japan's greatest trading port since the treaty-port era, and it remains in active government service today. The nickname "Queen" captures both its elegance among the trio—King, Queen and Jack—and its place in the playing-card legend that links the three towers.

The building's signature is its verdigris dome, an unusual dome in a faintly Islamic or Byzantine idiom that sets it apart from the more sober King and the clock-towered Jack. Locals call the dome the "Queen's crown," and its soft green curve, especially when floodlit at dusk, has become one of Yokohama's most photographed silhouettes. The rest of the structure is a solid interwar office block, but the tower gives it real romance, echoing the exotic, cosmopolitan flavour of a port that for decades was Japan's main window onto the outside world.

Inside, and unusually for a working government building, there is a genuine attraction: a free customs museum, sometimes called Queen's Square, on the ground floor. Its displays trace the history of Yokohama Customs and the port itself, and—more entertainingly—showcase seized contraband, counterfeit brand-name goods, smuggling methods and the tools customs officers use to catch them. It is a surprisingly engaging half-hour and a rare chance to see the inner workings of a border agency turned into public exhibition.

The Queen stands on the Kannai waterfront amid the historic government quarter, close to its sibling towers. There is a well-loved local tradition that seeing all three towers together from viewpoints such as Osanbashi Pier, Zou-no-hana Park or the Red Brick Warehouse brings good fortune, and the Queen's dome is often the easiest of the three to pick out. This little wish-granting game has made spotting the towers a small ritual for Yokohama visitors.

The visiting experience is free and easy. The customs museum generally opens daily during the day, admission costs nothing, and the ground-floor galleries are accessible; allow about half an hour. The exterior, and especially the illuminated dome, is worth seeing after dark. As a functioning customs headquarters, only the museum area is open to the public.

To reach it, take the Minatomirai Line to Nihon-Odori Station and walk toward the waterfront in Kannai, about four minutes on foot; JR travellers can approach from Kannai Station. The Queen sits within a short stroll of the King's Tower, the Jack (Port Opening Memorial Hall), the Red Brick Warehouse and Zou-no-hana Park, so it slots perfectly into a compact half-day exploring the maritime and civic heart of old Yokohama—ideally finishing at a harbour viewpoint where all three towers line up at once.