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Tokyo Live Cameras in Japan — 19 official webcams

Five street-level live streams, six cameras on the volcanoes of the Izu Islands and eight on the lower Arakawa. Crossings in Shinjuku and Shibuya, and volcanic islands more than 100 km south of the city.

What you can see

The nineteen fall into three groups. Five are street-level live video, six are Japan Meteorological Agency cameras on the volcanic Izu Islands, and eight are Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism cameras on the Arakawa.

The five street cameras are streamed by the owners of the buildings they sit on, or by broadcasters, under their own names. Shinjuku Station East looks down on the plaza from the position of the large screen known for its 3D cat, and plays inside this page. Shibuya Scramble Crossing and the Rainbow Bridge come from a broadcaster, and Senso-ji is two cameras run by the temple itself, one facing the main hall and one facing the Kaminarimon gate.

The islands, north to south: Izu-Oshima, Niijima, Kozushima, Miyakejima, Hachijojima and Aogashima. All have eruption records, and on Izu-Oshima (1986) and Miyakejima (2000) the whole population was evacuated off the island.

The eight Arakawa cameras run downstream in order, from the Iwabuchi Floodgate in Kita ward at 20.5 km to Shinsuna at -0.5 km. Because every one carries a kilometre marker, adding the two Saitama cameras upstream lets you step from 28.8 km down to the mouth.

19 cameras in Tokyo

5 video, 14 still. 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: the Iwabuchi Floodgate (Kita), 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 that 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.

The street cameras work the other way round: the hour is everything. At Shibuya and Shinjuku the crossings fill and empty with each change of the lights, busiest from early evening into the night and close to empty by the small hours. Senso-ji opens its main hall at 06:00 (06:30 from October to March), so before the Nakamise shops open the stone paving is bare. The Rainbow Bridge has its best colour around sunset.

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 the cameras by format, region, subject and provider.