Four Seasons Tokyo (2026): Two Hotels, One Confusing URL — and Only One of Them Has a Pool

Guide·August 27, 2026·16 min read·Sourced & cross-checked

Tokyo has two Four Seasons hotels, and almost everything written in English about them blurs the two together. Start with the trap: fourseasons.com/tokyo/ is Marunouchi, the intimate 57-room one — not the 190-room tower at Otemachi. Then the timing problem: Marunouchi closed on July 1, 2025 for a full renovation and reopened on May 26, 2026, so a year of reviews describes a building nobody could enter. And the fact that settles most decisions: Otemachi has a 20-meter pool, Marunouchi does not. Here is what the official pages actually say.

Honto check: Room counts and sizes, amenity lists, spa hours and age rules, the published day-pass price, access directions, family policies and the renovation and chef announcements were read from fourseasons.com and press.fourseasons.com on August 21, 2026. Michelin status was read from Michelin's own restaurant pages via archived snapshots, because the live pages sit behind a bot wall. 🚨 Deliberately not stated: nightly rates (Four Seasons publishes none and says rates vary), check-in and check-out times (genuinely absent from both properties' official pages), pet policies (no official statement found), and est's star count in the current guide — we could only verify the 2025 edition.

TOC

The two hotels at a glance

	Tokyo at Otemachi	Tokyo at Marunouchi
Official URL	fourseasons.com/otemachi/	fourseasons.com/tokyo/ (yes, really)
Opened	September 2020	October 2002 · reopened May 26, 2026 after renovation
Rooms	190 (170 + 20 suites)	57 (48 + 9 suites)
Where	Top 6 floors of the 39-story Otemachi One Tower	7 floors of a 31-floor building by Tokyo Station
Entry-level room	49 m² Superior	44 m² Eki / Marunouchi
🚨 Pool	20-meter indoor heated pool	None listed — onsen bath and sauna instead
Spa rooms	5 (incl. couples' suite)	2
Michelin	est — one star, 2025 guide · hotel holds 3 Michelin Keys	SÉZANNE — three stars, 2026 guide · World's 50 Best #7 (2025)
Nearest	Otemachi Station Exit C4 (5 subway lines)	Tokyo Station, 4-min walk from Yaesu South
Rates	Variable — Four Seasons publishes no fixed nightly rate for either

A detailed Japanese stay report from Otemachi, suite and afternoon tea included:

The URL problem, and why it matters more than it should

Why does "Four Seasons Tokyo" land on the smaller hotel?

Because Marunouchi opened first and took the canonical address. Four Seasons redirects /marunouchi/ to /tokyo/, which means the page a reader reaches by typing the obvious thing is the 57-room property, while the 190-room tower most people picture sits at /otemachi/. Guides link to whichever one their writer found, photos get mixed between the two, and readers arrive expecting a skyline pool at a hotel that has an onsen bath instead. Before booking, look for the words "at Otemachi" or "at Marunouchi" in the property name — they are always there, and they are the only reliable label.

How different are they, really?

Different enough to be different products. Otemachi is a vertical hotel — six floors stacked on top of a 39-story tower, with all four dining outlets and the entire spa on the 39th floor, views over the Imperial Palace gardens and, Four Seasons says, Mount Fuji in the distance. Marunouchi is a horizontal one — seven floors, 57 rooms, described in its own words as "a contemporary manor steps from Tokyo Station," looking out at the red-brick station facade and the shinkansen sliding in and out. One is a landmark; the other is a townhouse that happens to sit above a railway terminal.

The renovation nobody updated their guide for

Check the date on anything you read about Marunouchi. Four Seasons' press room announced that renovation began July 1, 2025, and a later release confirmed the completed reopening on May 26, 2026. For roughly eleven months the hotel did not operate. Reviews, room photos and "best hotels in Tokyo" lists published in that window describe either a closed building or the pre-renovation interior. The room names changed entirely; the room count did not.

What is actually new?

The interiors are André Fu's again, reworked around what Four Seasons calls a contemporary Japanese manor idea, with the room lineup rebuilt as Eki, Marunouchi, Ginza, Corner Ginza and Four Seasons Room (44 to 65m²), rising to the Marunouchi Suite at 72m², the SÉZANNE Suite at 102m² and the Tokyo Manor Suite at 160m². In-room technology the hotel names specifically: 65-inch televisions and portable speakers. The spa keeps its two treatment rooms; the onsen bath is reservable in 60-minute sessions and does require booking ahead.

And the arrival ritual?

This is the detail worth knowing before you compare prices. Four Seasons describes a welcome glass of Champagne followed by being escorted straight to the room for private check-in — no lobby queue at all — and separately offers to meet arriving guests on their platform at Tokyo Station, along with a station greeting and departure service. If you are arriving off a shinkansen with luggage, that is a materially different experience from walking into a lobby, and it is published, not implied.

Pool, spa and the family question

Which hotel suits children better?

Otemachi, if water matters; Marunouchi, if food does. Otemachi has the 20-meter pool with children 15 and under welcome 9:00am to 6:30pm accompanied by an adult, under-4s in swimming diapers, cribs and rollaway beds on request, babysitting arranged in advance, and a Kids Academy program for direct bookings. Marunouchi answers differently: complimentary amenities for ages 3 to 12, and at MAISON MARUNOUCHI free dining for children 4 and under with 50% off breakfast for ages 5 to 12 — also direct bookings only, with possible blackout dates. Note the bedding difference: Otemachi rooms take a rollaway and sleep three; Marunouchi rooms take a sofa bed and are described as three adults, or two adults and one child.

Is the day pass worth it if you are staying elsewhere?

It is the only way to use either spa without a room, and Four Seasons prices it openly: 12,650 yen for two hours of visitor pool access at Otemachi. For a rainy afternoon with a 39th-floor lap pool and locker rooms with ofuro and steam, that is a defensible number in a city where the alternative view costs a similar amount at an observation deck. Marunouchi publishes no visitor access and no age table.

Michelin: three different awards, routinely mixed up

Stars, Keys — what is the difference?

Stars rate restaurants. Keys rate hotels. Otemachi holds three Michelin Keys for a second consecutive year — Four Seasons' release calls it one of just seven properties in Japan and one of 143 worldwide — and separately houses est, which held one star in the 2025 guide. Marunouchi houses SÉZANNE at three stars in the 2026 guide, but we found no Key award for the hotel itself. So the sentence "the three-Michelin Four Seasons in Tokyo" can point at either property and mean two completely different things.

Where else can you eat?

Otemachi puts everything on the 39th floor: est (French, 68 seats plus a 10-seat terrace, which the hotel says runs on 95% locally sourced ingredients), PIGNETO (Italian, 105 seats plus a 40-seat terrazza and four show kitchens), VIRTÙ (a 60-seat Art Deco bar that placed 45th on the World's 50 Best Bars 2025 and has made Asia's 50 Best four years running) and THE LOUNGE. Marunouchi runs leaner: SÉZANNE with a 38-seat dining room and a six-seat chef's table, the all-day MAISON MARUNOUCHI, and a bar and Champagne lounge. If you are weighing this against the wider field, our luxury hotels in Tokyo guide covers the rest of the top tier, hotels near Tokyo Station handles the transit-first case, and where to stay in Tokyo starts from neighborhoods rather than brands.

(For a hotel across the moat from the Imperial Palace gardens: our Palace Hotel Tokyo guide covers 284 rooms, all 45 square meters or larger, in a building that opened in 2012.)

FAQ

How many Four Seasons are there in Tokyo?

Two: Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Otemachi and Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi. Four Seasons’ own global directory lists exactly four properties in Japan – the two Tokyo hotels plus Kyoto and Osaka – and its press room showed no Tokyo property in the pipeline when we checked in August 2026. They sit about a kilometer apart in the same central district, which is why they get conflated so often.

Which one does fourseasons.com/tokyo/ actually go to?

Marunouchi – the 57-room one. This trips people up constantly. The address fourseasons.com/marunouchi/ redirects to /tokyo/, so the URL that looks like it means ‘the Four Seasons in Tokyo’ is the canonical page for the smaller, older property. Otemachi lives at fourseasons.com/otemachi/. If you booked from a link, check which name appears at the top of the page before you assume you know which hotel you have.

Which one has a swimming pool?

Otemachi. Its 39th-floor spa lists a 20-meter indoor heated pool, a vitality pool, mist chairs, ofuro and steam in both locker rooms, and a 24-hour fitness center. Marunouchi’s official amenity list reads: restaurants and bar, retail boutique, spa with two treatment rooms, traditional onsen bath and sauna, 24-hour fitness center, private event spaces. No pool appears anywhere on the property site or the press fact sheet. For families, this is usually the deciding line.

Can I use the Otemachi pool without staying there?

Yes, and Four Seasons publishes the price – a rarity. The spa page lists Visitor Pool Access as a day pass at 12,650 yen for two hours. Age rules are published too: 16 and over for the fitness center, ofuro and steam room and for spa treatments, children under 4 in swimming diapers, and children 15 and under welcome in the pool from 9:00am to 6:30pm with an adult. Marunouchi publishes no equivalent age table at all.

Why do older reviews of Marunouchi feel wrong?

Because the hotel they describe is gone. Four Seasons announced that renovation began July 1, 2025, and its press room later confirmed the reopening; the property came back on May 26, 2026 with a fully reworked interior by André Fu and an entirely new room lineup – Eki, Marunouchi, Ginza, Corner Ginza, Four Seasons Room, plus the Tokyo Manor Suite. The room count stayed at 57. Any review written between mid-2025 and mid-2026 is describing either a closed building or the pre-renovation hotel.

What are the Michelin stars, exactly?

SÉZANNE at Marunouchi holds three stars in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Japan, having gone from one star in 2021 to two in 2022 to three in 2024; it also placed 7th on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 list. est at Otemachi held one star in the 2025 guide – we could not verify its 2026 status because Michelin’s live pages are behind a bot wall, and Four Seasons’ own site says ‘Michelin-starred’ without naming a year. Separately, Otemachi holds three Michelin Keys, which rate hotels, not restaurants, and are a different award entirely.

Is the chef at SÉZANNE still Daniel Calvert?

Not according to Four Seasons. A February 2026 press release named Stephen Lancaster as Executive Chef of the hotel and of SÉZANNE, effective April 1, 2026. Michelin’s own restaurant page still described Calvert’s cooking when we read it, which is why so many guides have it wrong. We’re reporting the hotel’s announcement as of that date rather than claiming to know who is on the pass tonight.

What time is check-in?

Four Seasons does not publish it for either Tokyo hotel. We checked both property sites, both contact pages and both press fact sheets, and the FAQ and hotel-policies paths return errors because they don’t exist. Rather than repeat the 3pm/12pm convention that every guide assumes, we’ll say what’s true: it isn’t stated, so confirm it with the hotel when you book. Marunouchi’s arrival is unusual anyway – see the next question.

What is Marunouchi’s ‘private check-in’?

There isn’t a lobby desk moment. Four Seasons describes guests being welcomed with a glass of Champagne and then escorted directly to their room or suite for check-in there. The property also offers to meet arriving guests on their platform at Tokyo Station, plus a station greeting and departure service. For a first-time visitor hauling luggage off a shinkansen, that platform meeting is arguably the most practical amenity either hotel publishes.

Are they connected to the station?

Not in the underground-passage sense, despite the marketing language. Otemachi says it sits inside Otemachi One Tower adjacent to Exit C4 of Otemachi Station, which serves five subway lines, and its own walking directions take you up an escalator to street level, past Masakado’s tomb monument and a chocolate shop before you reach the entrance and ride to reception on the 39th floor. Marunouchi is a four-minute surface walk from Tokyo Station’s Yaesu South Exit. Both are close; neither is indoors the whole way.

Sources

Property counts, room types and sizes, amenity lists, spa hours and age rules, the visitor day-pass price, dining venues and seat counts, access directions, parking rates and family policies: the official property sites for Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Otemachi and at Marunouchi, plus their press-room fact sheets, read August 21, 2026. Renovation dates, the reopening and the executive-chef appointment: Four Seasons press releases, same date. Michelin star status: Michelin's own restaurant pages, read through archived snapshots because the live pages block automated access — SÉZANNE from a December 2025 snapshot (2026 guide), est from a September 2025 snapshot (2025 guide). The embedded video is by its creator.

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