After a prolonged campaign by local residents, the apartment building in the western suburb of Kunitachi is to be knocked down just after being finished because it obstructed the line of sight from a road officially called Fuji Viewing Avenue.

The development, called Grand Maison Kunitachi Fuji Viewing Avenue, contains 18 apartments up to 820 sq ft in size. Its selling point was the vistas of the 12,389 ft mountain on the western horizon — views it spoilt for everyone else, The Times reports.

Sekisui House, the developer, said: “There are no problems with the structure of the apartment building, and no violations of the law, but there was insufficient consideration given to the impact on the surrounding environment, such as the scenery.”

The company had already down scaled Grand Maison from 11 to ten floors. But local people insisted that they would tolerate no more than four storeys, which would have made it uneconomical for the developer. Buyers of the 82 million yen (£410,000) apartments, who were due to have moved in next month, have been informed of the imminent demolition.

Despite clusters of business skyscrapers in the centre, much of residential Tokyo was until recently relatively low rise. On clear winter days, the snow-covered outline of Fuji can be seen from elevated points in the city.