It has been revealed that the Rainbow Bridge, the pride of Tokyo’s waterfront development, actually is a major blunder that has shut the Queen Elizabeth 2 and other modern passenger liners out of the city’s Harumi Terminal because its clearance is too low.

The Tokyo metropolitan government had the QE2 in mind when it built the 9.1-billion-yen Harumi terminal in 1991 as Tokyo’s only pier for international liners.

But the ship has never called at the port since the Rainbow Bridge, a 918-meter-long suspension bridge, was completed in 1993.

The government believed that if large luxury passenger ships visited Tokyo as part of their cruises, it would help promote tourism and produce significant economic effects.

The bridge girder was set at 52 meters because the height of its towers was restricted under the aviation law to ensure the safety of aircraft that use the nearby Haneda Airport.

As a result, ships calling on Japan tend to dock at Yokohama.

In 2006, only 10 foreign passenger ships visited the Tokyo port, less than half of 22 in 2001. The number of visits at the Yokohama port surged to 13, up from four in 2001.