Opening of JMSDF Sasebo Museum "Sail Tower" (1997)

Sasebo has been a naval port since the Sasebo Naval District was established in 1889; after the war it became a base shared by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Sasebo District and the United States Navy. In 1968 the JMSDF set up a 'Self-Defense Force Defense Materials Museum' inside the Sasebo Supply Facility (today's Hirase building) to collect material on the Imperial Navy and the JMSDF; this was the predecessor of the present museum.

On March 10, 1997 the JMSDF Sasebo Museum reopened at its current location on the site of the former Sasebo Suikosha. The Suikosha was the Imperial Navy officers' club, providing social, lodging and welfare facilities; the surviving building is dated to 1898 and was used by US forces as an officers' club after the war. Part of the restored Meiji-era building was incorporated into the lower two floors, keeping its stone facing and octagonal roof on the Kokusai-dori side, while a modern seven-story glass structure rises above it. The sail-shaped rooftop panels gave the museum its nickname, 'Sail Tower'.

The facility houses approximately 4,400 artifacts, about 1,300 of them on permanent display across seven themed floors, documenting Sasebo's naval history from 1889 to the present. Visitors start at the top: the 7th floor has an observation room and video hall; the 6th covers the navy's beginnings from the Nagasaki Naval Training Institute to the opening of the Sasebo Naval District; the 5th the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars; the 4th the Pacific War; the 3rd the ships and history of the JMSDF; the 2nd equipment, activities and a library; and the 1st floor special exhibitions and a shop.

The museum is a JMSDF public-relations facility. Admission is free, with visitors signing in at the first-floor reception. It preserves part of one of the few surviving Meiji-period naval buildings in Sasebo.