The Tokyo Tower has turned 50 with a rock concert, sales of memorabilia and a talk show with the author of a best seller which uses the landmark as an emotive backdrop.Modelled on Paris’ Eiffel Tower but painted orange and white for aviation safety, the world’s tallest free-standing steel structure has attracted 157 million tourists.A symbol of Japan’s post-war economic miracle, the 333-metre tower has been the centrepiece of a dozen novels and movies as well as 20 songs and a romantic spot for young lovers in the heart of the capital.

But the tower, the tallest man-made structure in Japan, faces burgeoning competition from rival tourist spots present and future — including a planned communication tower which would be hundreds of metres taller and clusters of new high-rise buildings.

In an anniversary message, the Tokyo Tower’s owner, Nippon Television City Corp, vowed to secure its future with a makeover and safety maintenance work.

“Looking ahead to its 100th anniversary, we aim to make the Tokyo Tower one of the best city landmarks in the league of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty,” said the company’s president, Shin Maeda.

“We will strive to become more attractive and compatible with the society of digital information and the age of international tourist exchanges.”

Maeda blew out candles on a birthday cake with Masaya Nakagawa, alias Lily Franky, whose autobiographical novel features the Tokyo Tower as a place watched by his mother as she is dying of cancer in a nearby hospital.

The 2005 book has sold more than two million copies and its movie version won the country’s top cinema awards, contributing to a revival of the tower’s popularity.

The number of visitors has risen for five straight years to 3.3 million last year, many lured by nightly light shows. The tower also has a four-storey annex featuring a wax museum, an aquarium, a “Guinness World Record Museum”, souvenir shops and restaurants.

“Without the Tokyo Tower, a painting of Tokyo won’t be complete,” said Nakagawa, 45, also an illustrator. “It has already become something of a national monument. It cannot be torn down.”

The new 610-metre Tokyo Sky Tree tower is to be built in 2011 and will take over television broadcasts from the Tokyo Tower the following year — just months after Japanese networks are due to switch entirely to digital transmissions.

The Tokyo Tower, which has depended on antenna leasing for half of its revenue, will become a substitute television post but will continue to be used by FM and other broadcasters.