A city for the young and young at heart, Shibuya. The area is composed of a mess of streets all with a different atmosphere, including a few main streets connected by narrower alleyways. Each street has developed its own personality and role, including lighting conditions to create the Shibuya night. From the scramble intersection in front of Shibuya Station, 3 distinctive roads, Dogenzaka, Center Gai, and Koen Dori radiate. After dusk, the lights come on and the personality of each street is even more clearly defined. As the title implies, Center Gai is the center of Shibuya geographically and caters to the young as the center for shopping and entertainment. This street is full of light. Each shop seems to be competing for the brightest facade with infinite amounts of luminous signage and advertising, creating a 3-dimensional playground. Dogenzaka is a festive street with a steady flow of pedestrians, but turn down one of the narrow side streets and the atmosphere changes immensely. The facades of many love hotels packed into the area are saturated with color creating a seedy blend of light and young couples prowling the Maruyama-cho area.

In front of the main gate to Senso-ji Shrine lies the neighborhood of Asakusa. One of Tokyo’s most popular entertainment districts, Asakusa flourished with kabuki, opera, and comic storytelling from the Meiji Era to the end of WWII. The Lighting Detectives discovered a variety of decorative streetlights and a lighting atmosphere fitting for this lively cultural destination. Upon entering the famous Kaminarimon, the Nakamise approach proceeds towards the shrine with bright-white, fluorescent-tube illuminated signage lining both sides. After navigating this corridor, walls of softly glowing lanterns come into view. The lanterns once lit with fire were replaced with incandescent bulbs and now fluorescent lamps. In popular neighborhoods like Shibuya or Roppongi, architectural facade lighting or neon signage fills the vertical space and “street lighting” is virtually non-existent. However, a variety of decorative streetlights festively illuminate the streets of Asakusa for a very fitting lighting environment. Pub signage and lanterns dispersed along the dark streets of Asakusa create an uncanny charm in this neighborhood. Roadway lux levels are a fairly dim 10-16 lx, but the red lanterns hanging from the eaves of establishments dig up affection for this old town.

2023.01.26-01.29　Masafumi Yamamoto + Yuki Ito　 Okinawa is a place where diverse cultures and histories are intertwined. In Okinawa, each region has its own unique streetscape, and this is due to the fact that each region has a completely different historical background. The following is a simplified explanation of the historical background of each area. The Naha area was severely damaged in the war and was rebuilt; the Koza area was influenced by the U.S. military base and retains a strong American culture; and the Bise and Imadomari areas retain the traditional streets of the Ryukyu Islands. By comparing the light environment of each area, this survey sought to determine what kind of lifestyle culture and light features each area has, and what kind of light is unique to Okinawa. ■Sakae-machi MarketSakae-machi Market, located in Naha City, is a shopping street that was established during the postwar reconstruction period and has remained almost unchanged since then. Today, the market is a lively place where locals gather during the daytime, but at night it transforms into a more local haunt, drinking district that is quite different from the impression it gives during the daytime. The only light at night is from the taverns and the faint fluorescent lights in the upper part of the shopping street. (Floor illumination: approx. 20 lx) The illuminance alone gives the impression of dimness, but the actual atmosphere was not as dark as the impression given by…

In the middle of Tokyo is the Imperial Palace, a haven for runners and tourists, alike. The lighting in the palace outer garden and nearby Wadakura Fountain Park has been renewed and replaced with environmentally conscious LED fixtures. We surveyed the unique pocket of darkness that surrounds the Imperial Palace along with lighting environment of nearby parks and roads. Imperial Palace Outer Garden. The fancy pole lights in the outer garden are originally gas lamps, but the light source has been changed to high-pressure sodium lamps and now upgraded to LEDs. The average lux level is only 1-2lux along the paths lined with these LED fixtures, but inside the fixtures are 6, 26watt LED modules all pointed in different directions. This application helps to spread the light around without making a too bright, but comfortably dim atmosphere. Daikancho Street Daikancho Street runs along the north side of the palace grounds, is a much narrower street and pedestrian sidewalk compared with the rest of the facilities surrounding the palace. Along the tidy, hedged sidewalk, streetlights are placed at 3-meter intervals. Mostly for crime prevention, the lights are very bright and glaring. Ohtemachi Entrance The Ohtemachi Entrance area leads to an inner palace garden and is surrounded by a main arterial road on the outside, for a very open and accessible area. Most lighting is road lighting, mounted on 10-meter tall poles arranged down the middle of the street, but plenty bright…

2025.06.26 Yumi Honda +Qiaoxi Wang+ Momoe Nomura We observed and recorded the nighttime light environment of the newly developed commercial complex Senkyaku Banrai in the Tokyo Bay Area and its surrounding public spaces (green plaza, station area, and Gururi Park). We conducted a multifaceted analysis, including the placement of lighting fixtures, illuminance, and the impression of the space, to determine how light affects the atmosphere of the facility and the city in the Toyosu area, which is being developed as a tourist hub. The Toyosu area is a point of interest where the latest urban spaces and the lively atmosphere of shitamachi (old downtown) coexist due to redevelopment. We walked through the area around Toyosu Market Station, the green plaza, and Gururi Park, observing how light design impacts the impression, comfort, and safety of the town. ■Senkyaku Banrai Senkyaku Banrai is a commercial facility that opened in 2024 next to the Toyosu Market. It’s a spot where both tourists and local residents can enjoy the array of restaurants and souvenir shops. Through architecture and lighting design incorporating traditional Japanese motifs, it exudes a uniquely Japanese warmth and vitality, even within the contemporary urban nightscape. The lighting plan inside the facility is unified, as befitting a new commercial complex, and was designed with both aesthetic appeal and functionality in mind. The main path lighting uses warm, incandescent colors, creating a nostalgic atmosphere reminiscent of a Showa-era shopping street. This fosters a…