River
The Rivers of the Kanto Plain: 6 Live Cameras in Japan
Six rivers of the Kanto Plain on live video: the Tone, largest basin in Japan; the Arakawa, widest in Japan; the Watarase and its floodway.
What you can see
All six are touring streams. One feed steps through several cameras along the river in turn, so you wait for the point you want. You cannot choose it.
The Tone and Karasu drain the largest basin in Japan. Upstream the feed shows a mountain valley, downstream a wide floodplain: the same single stream changes scene completely. The Karasu joins at Takasaki and is part of the same feed.
The Watarase comes down from the hills of Ashio onto the plain and joins the Tone, and below it lies the largest retarding basin in Japan — land kept empty on purpose so floodwater has somewhere to go. The Kinu and Kokai rise in the mountains of Nikko and run south side by side with a narrow plain between them, and also join the Tone. These three rivers are connected upstream.
The Arakawa and Iruma come from the Chichibu mountains to Tokyo Bay. Midstream there is a reach where the levees stand more than 2.5 km apart, called the widest river in Japan. The Edo, Naka and Ayase are the Edo, which branches off the Tone and runs to Tokyo Bay, and two rivers flowing beside it to the west; for long stretches the land around them sits lower than the water.
The Naka and Kuji run from the mountains of Nasu to the sea in Ibaraki, both meandering widely through farmland near their mouths. This is the one feed of the six with no sample picture yet.
Cameras you can watch now: 6
All 6 are live video. Tap one to open it in the camera list.
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Stream cover
Tone and Karasu rivers
Gunma–Saitama · River
The Tone has the largest catchment in Japan; the Karasu joins it at Takasaki. Upstream is a mountain valley, downstream a broad floodplain, so the view changes completely.
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Stream cover
Kinu and Kokai rivers
Tochigi–Ibaraki · River
Two rivers rising in the mountains of Nikko that run south side by side into the Tone, with a long narrow plain held between them.
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Stream cover
Watarase River
Gunma–Tochigi · River
A river that leaves the Ashio mountains for the Kanto plain and joins the Tone. Japan's largest flood detention basin spreads across its lower course.
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Stream cover
Ara and Iruma rivers
Saitama–Tokyo · River
The Arakawa comes down from the Chichibu mountains to Tokyo Bay, joined on the way by the Irumagawa. Midstream there is a reach more than 2.5 km between the levees, said to be the widest river channel in Japan.
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Stream cover
Edo, Naka and Ayase rivers
Chiba–Saitama–Tokyo · River
The Edogawa branches off the Tone and empties into Tokyo Bay, with the Nakagawa and Ayasegawa running alongside to the west. For long stretches the surrounding land sits lower than the water.
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Live video, rotating
Naka and Kuji rivers
Ibaraki–Tochigi · River
Two rivers running from the mountains of Nasu to the Ibaraki coast, shown one after another in a single stream. Both meander widely through farmland downstream.
When to watch
Heavy rain and typhoons are when these are most useful. The broad riverbed you normally see goes under water from the bottom up. Without reading a gauge, how far the water has climbed across the sports grounds and paths tells you the situation.
Because the six are connected upstream, opening them in order shows the sequence. The Watarase and the Kinu run muddy first, and the Tone below them moves later. The Edo branches off the Tone, so rain upstream comes round to it.
But the rougher the day, the darker the picture, and raindrops blur the lens. Do not expect too much of it, and make evacuation decisions from your local authority. These cameras are for seeing how things look.
On a calm day the wide reaches are the ones to open. How far the ground between the levees runs is clearer when the water is low. The operators publish no best season, so we do not set one here either.
If it isn't showing
The source is the Kanto Regional Development Bureau. These are test broadcasts and can stop without notice. How to tell why a screen is blank is in What is happening when a live camera shows nothing.
By prefecture: two in Gunma, one in Tochigi, one in Saitama. The Naka and Kuji are counted in Ibaraki and the Edo, Naka and Ayase in Chiba, but each of those prefectures has only one camera on this site and no page of its own, so this page is the only way to reach those two feeds.
The Arakawa also appears on The Arakawa, with ten cameras on its lower course. Those are still pictures refreshed every minute, each fixed on one point down to the mouth. For moving video of the middle reaches use this page; to follow the river to the sea, that one. Another river through a city is The Yodo River System.
Where to find The Rivers of the Kanto Plain
Agencies publishing the cameras on this page
- MLIT river live streams (Government Standard Terms 2.0) — Official site
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.