Roppongi Hills was unlike anything Tokyo had ever seen before. Until it opened 10 years ago, Roppongi was more often seen as a "High Touch Town," where businessmen partied with foreign hostesses and off-duty soldiers packed the nightclubs.
Roppongi Hills gave the area a more wholesome and stylish appeal. The developer of the project, the late property tycoon Minoru Mori, said at the time that he believed Roppongi Hills would become "the ultimate destination for people all over the world." While that may have been a tad hyperbolic, it certainly gave the capital somewhere special: A place where people could spend the day shopping, go to view art or take a date to a classy restaurant.
Roppongi Hills also attracted major overseas corporations such as Lehman Brothers and Google, who moved into the offices of the area's crown jewel — Mori Tower. The complex's swanky living quarters saw an influx of celebrities and company-funded expatriates, lending the area a certain cosmopolitan cachet.