Japan gets Statue of Liberty

The statue alongside the sweeping Rainbow Bridge

The world's third Statue of Liberty is set to be officially unveiled in Tokyo.

Liberty: Popular on top of "love hotels"

She is four times smaller than the 46m (150 feet) New York original, but bigger than her other sister in Paris, according to reports.

Located behind the futuristic headquarters of Fuji Television Network, she faces the Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay.

"It has already become one of the most photographed monuments in Tokyo," said Fuji TV deputy chief executive Jitsunosuke Kawai.

Millions of people have already come to admire the statue

Jitsunosuke Kawai, Fuji TV

The statue's construction has been financed by a consortium of businesses in the Tokyo Bay area, including Fuji TV.

But it is not the first time Japan has had a Statue of Liberty - Paris loaned her version to Tokyo in 1998 to celebrate France Year, an event to showcase French culture.

Reports say she has also long been a popular decoration on the rooftops of Japan's so-called love hotels - the gaudy motels offering rooms by the hour.

Gift

The original Statue of Liberty in New York harbour is 46m tall

The original New York statue, created by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, was a gift from France, commissioned in 1876, to mark the 100th anniversary of the United States' independence from Britain.

It was finally erected 10 years later, and in 1879 a smaller statue went up in Paris - a gift from the city's American community to mark the centenary of the 1789 French Revolution.

Like her sisters, Tokyo's Liberty is made of iron and green copper bronze, with gold leaf encircling the torch of freedom.

Tokyo already has a copy of Paris' Eiffel Tower, albeit an orange one.