Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall (Jack's Tower)

The Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall, universally known as Jack's Tower, is the oldest and most beloved of Yokohama's Three Towers, a red-brick landmark whose 36-metre clock tower has watched over the Kannai district since 1917. Built to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Yokohama Port, it was funded largely by citizens' donations and designed as a public assembly hall for the people of the port city—a role it still fills today as a community hall and event space. Designated an Important Cultural Property, it is the human-scaled, civic heart of the famous trio.

Architecturally the hall is a striking composition of red brick and white granite banding in an eclectic style blending Queen Anne and neo-Renaissance elements, crowned by the tall clock tower that generations of sailors nicknamed "Jack"—old slang for a common seaman—giving the building its enduring name. The tower's clock and its silhouette became a fixture of the Yokohama skyline, and the building's warm brick colouring makes it an appealing counterpoint to the stone King and the green-domed Queen.

The hall carries the scars and the resilience of the city's history. In the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 the interior was gutted by fire while the brick shell largely survived; the dome and interior were subsequently rebuilt, and later restorations returned the building to something close to its original glory. The interior highlight is a set of beautiful stained-glass windows—including a striking phoenix rising and maritime motifs celebrating the port—which glow when sunlight streams through them and can be admired free of charge in the public areas.

The hall is bound up with the wish-granting legend of the Three Towers. According to well-loved local lore, anyone who can see the King, Queen and Jack together from certain vantage points—Osanbashi Pier, Zou-no-hana Park or the Red Brick Warehouse among them—will have a wish granted, and Jack, with its distinctive clock tower, is often the anchor of the search. This little tradition has turned tower-spotting into a favourite Yokohama pastime.

The visiting experience is free and welcoming. The building functions as a public hall, so the entrance area, corridors and stained-glass windows are generally open to visitors during the day, while event rooms may be in use; allow about half an hour to look around and admire the interior. The ground floor is accessible. Come during daylight to see the glass at its best.

Standing on the corner of Honcho-dori and Nihon-Odori, Jack is the most convenient of the three towers to reach—barely two minutes from Nihon-Odori Station on the Minatomirai Line, or a short walk from JR Kannai. It sits within a few minutes of the King and Queen towers, the Red Brick Warehouse and Zou-no-hana Park, so it is the natural starting point for a compact half-day tracing the civic and maritime history of the port—ideally ending at a harbour viewpoint where all three towers align and you can make your wish.