Tokyo Dome

Tokyo Dome is a stadium in Koraku, Bunkyo, Tokyo, at the center of the Tokyo Dome City complex. Its operator describes it as Japan's first all-weather multipurpose stadium. It holds 55,000 people, or about 43,500 for baseball, and is the home field of the Yomiuri Giants, a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League. Baseball and concerts fill most of its calendar, and a concert is sometimes followed by a baseball game the next day. Tokyo Dome City around it also includes an amusement park, Tokyo Dome City Attractions, and a natural hot spring spa, Spa LaQua.

History

Tokyo Dome replaced Korakuen Stadium, a ballpark that opened in 1937 and closed with a farewell event in November 1987. The roof was raised on 28 June 1987. The opening ceremony took place on 17 March 1988, and the first game, the Yomiuri Giants against the Hanshin Tigers, was played the next day.

The roof

The roof is an air-supported membrane. Fans keep the air inside about 0.3% above outside pressure, roughly the difference between the first and ninth floors of a building, and 54 revolving doors at the entrances hold that pressure. The membrane is made of two layers of glass fiber coated with fluororesin, 0.8 mm outside and 0.35 mm inside, held by 28 cables. About 5% of the daylight passes through it. The building covers 46,755 square meters and the field 13,000 square meters.