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Tokyo Live Cameras in Japan — 13 official webcams

Two very different sets: six cameras on the volcanoes of the Izu Islands, and seven on the lower Arakawa. Ocean 100 km south of the city, and levees in the east of the ward area.

13 cameras in Tokyo

All 13 are still images. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

The island cameras are the volcanoes that belong to Tokyo, listed north to south: Oshima, Niijima, Kozushima, Miyakejima, Hachijojima and Aogashima. Every one is surrounded by sea, so there is a horizon somewhere in each frame. Aogashima has the unusual shape of a caldera inside a caldera, and is also the least populated municipality in Japan.

Island cameras live at the mercy of the weather. Fog and cloud build fast over the sea, and from the rainy season through summer the screen can stay white for days. The dry air of a winter pressure pattern gives the longest views.

The Arakawa cameras come from the ministry's Arakawa-Karyu River Office: Goshikizakura Bridge and Nishiarai Bridge (Adachi), Horikiri (Katsushika), Hirai Bridge, the Metropolitan Expressway Route 7 crossing and Komatsugawa (Edogawa), and Shinsuna (Koto) — arranged from upstream down to the mouth. Everything below the Iwabuchi Floodgate is a man-made channel, dug between the end of the Meiji era and the early Showa era to carry floods out to sea, which is why it runs so straight and wide between high levees.

Each image is stamped with the river name and the distance marker, in kilometres from the mouth. Horikiri, Komatsugawa and Shinsuna are emergency wharves, built to move people and supplies by boat during a disaster.

River cameras earn their keep in heavy rain and typhoons. Normally the water is low and the floodplain shows a wide expanse of playing fields and grass; as the river rises that goes under in sequence, so watching from Sasameba upstream to Shinsuna at the mouth shows the water arriving. On a clear day the minute-by-minute stills change little beyond a few walkers on the bank and traffic crossing the bridges.

Closer looks at cameras here

Agencies publishing the cameras on this page

The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.

To filter or re-sort, go to the camera list. You can narrow all 172 cameras by format, region, subject and provider.
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