[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

This paper reconsiders the terminology of landscape at night in a geographical context, by examining the definition of the landscape, a subject of longstanding discussion across several academic disciplines in both humanities and sciences. The German term Landschaft, from which the Japanese term keikan for landscape derives, has become a key concept in geography of science, and it was defined to be visually, statically and morphologically capturable together with the development of methodology within natural sciences. On the other hand, in the humanities, the terms keikan and fūkei were defined separately, and even especially to the modern perspective within keikan, a critical review has been conducted especially since the 1970 s, when visual images such as pictures and paintings were set as main objects. Under the definition of night as absence of sunlight, when humans are not able to visually ‘see’ the surface, the meaning of Landschaft as ‘area’ becomes apparent. This will contribute to critical rethinking of the hierarchy of the visual in modern society. At the same time, since the dawn of modern society with industrialisation, humankind evaluated both light and darkness, associating them with enlightenment and obscurantism, urbanity and naturalness. That is, to light up the historical centre in European cities or delight the starry sky which gets visible in real nature. Both are interdependently existing both in the natural environment and urban society in our modern society.

View full abstract

Urban strategies and tourism policies directed towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics regard restaurants agglomerated in commercial areas of cities as tourism and nightlife resources that attract much attention. This study clarifies the characteristics of three famous commercial areas in Tokyo (Shinjuku, Ginza, and Shibuya) in terms of the agglomeration of restaurants and their business hours. Using voluminous restaurant POI data, the spatial distribution of restaurants’ opening hours during the day (at 13 : 00 as a representational time), night (at 19 : 00), and late-night (at 25 : 00) were analyzed. The results revealed many restaurants that open at night, day, and late-night. This is because many restaurants located in these areas are “izakaya (Japanese style bars),” “dining bars, bars, and beer halls,” and “yakitori, meat dishes and skewers” and open at night. Some restaurants that provide alcoholic beverages continue or commence their business during late-night hours, although almost all other types of restaurants do not. This is one of the characteristics of entertainment districts. As for the spatial distribution, restaurants that open during late-night hours are concentrated over a certain range rather than ones that open at night (especially in Shinjuku and Ginza).

View full abstract

Okubo Koreatown in Shinjuku-ward, an ethnic town located in the inner city of Tokyo, has been formed mainly since the 1990 s with an increasing number of Koreans, and the area started to become a tourist destination for Japanese since 2004. Although Kabukicho, known as Japanese night-life district, is located next to Okubo, the relationship between these two areas has not been explored in previous research. Therefore, this study examines how the geographical scale in the daytime differs from that in the nighttime, by examining the bordering area between Okubo ethnic town and Kabukicho night-life district.

View full abstract

Darkness in the night brings about the feeling of fear and a sense of liberation for human. Japanese ghosts called yokai and yurei were the creation of fear of darkness, while the fear continues to exist today being manifested as urban legends and the occult. Urban legends and the occult are consumed as a result of human curiosity in the form of ghost tours. This study attempts to examine the relationship between the human feeling of fear and the feared places in Japan. Haunted places and ghost tours are thus studied, by analyzing human fear of darkness in the night and ghost tourism based on the curiosity of fear. Reflecting the local characteristics of places, haunted places vary in terms of the source of fear, and many types of ghost stories are told. Ghost tours operated by a company examined in this study are not for the purpose of profit but for the means of advertisement, thus ghost tours are ethically considered. The routes of ghost tours, visiting haunted places in the suburbs, do not reflect the overall distribution pattern of hauted places.

View full abstract

In academic discourses, “night” or “night-life” tend to be connected to the urban and urbanity. Therefore, academic research and discussion about night in non-urban, namely natural or rural areas is in demand. Astronomical tourism in Ishigaki Island is a practice of commodification of night in a natural area and was started to be promoted by the city administration since 2011, contributing to the setting of a “International Dark Sky Places” in 2018. This study will examine how night tourism exists in a Japanese natural area.

View full abstract