■Who are the Lighting Detectives? All sorts of different nightscapes exist in the sleepless city of Tokyo. Beautifully illuminated landmarks, bright, chaotic neon, or soft, inviting strings of lantern are all light environments that create the allure of this urban nightscape. However, the ‘darkness' of the city is being lost in an over-abundance of brightness, and words like ‘light pollution' and ‘loud light' are now commonly heard. Lighting designer, Kaoru Mende, is the chief leader of the Lighting Detectives, a non-profit research group established in 1990, and dedicated to the study of lighting culture through the observation and surveying of urban light environments in Japan and throughout the world. Since the creation of the Lighting Detectives, on-going fieldwork of urban light environments have been conducted and survey work from the detective's travels was published in 1993 in Shomei Tanteidan/ SD Extra Issue (Kashima Publishing). Originally started in the streets of Tokyo, fieldwork has expanded to include surveys of local towns and other cities around the world. The Lighting Detectives are always looking for new members and in 1995 started a practical lecture series at the Tokyo Design Center entitled, ‘You can be a lighting detective, too!' In conjunctions with this opportunity, the Lighting Detectives started to sponsor events like, Nightscape Watch, Light Up NINJA, or Urban Walking Surveys where anyone and everyone was invited to attend. Also, “The Lighting Detectives” Exhibit at the Ginza TEPCO Gallery, others exhibits since, and the Lighting Detectives Club Newsletter keep members busy and the Lighting Detectives are continually recognized in newspapers, magazines, and clips on T.V. These and other activities keep the detectives busy, but mostly a detective can be found on the beat, roaming the dark and brightly lit streets of Tokyo and around the world.