In pictures: Tokyo’s incredible ‘shrinking hotel’

AT first glance, this former luxury hotel does not betray anything out of the ordinary.

However, Tokyo residents have started to notice something rather odd about this 40-storey building - it has shrunk to about half its original height.

Passers-by in the Japanese capital’s Akasaka district have witnessed the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka being demolished by construction company Taisei Corporation with a rather unique method.

Engineers reinforced the top floor with steel beams and then effectively lopped it off, keeping it in place to be used as an adjustable lid that can be lowered down the building on an external support frame.

Slowly but surely, and with none of the explosions or dust normally associated with the demolition of skyscrapers, the hotel is being torn down.