, or commonly known as Shibuya Crossing, is a popular scramble crossing in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is located in front of the

Shibuya Station is a railway station in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, operated jointly by East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Keio Corporation, Tokyu Corporation, and Tokyo Metro. With 2.4 million passengers on an average weekday in 2004, it is the fourth-busiest ...

Hachikō exit and stops vehicles in all directions to allow pedestrians to inundate the entire intersection. The

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

Hachikō was a Japanese Akita dog remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, for whom he continued to wait for over nine years following Ueno's death. Hachikō was born on November 10, 1923, at a farm near the city of Ōda ...

, between the station and the intersection is a common meeting place and almost always crowded. Three large TV screens mounted on nearby buildings overlook the crossing, as well as many advertising signs. The

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

store overlooking the crossing is also one of the busiest in the world. Its heavy traffic and inundation of advertising have led to it being compared to the

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

intersection in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and Piccadilly Circus intersection in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Shibuya Crossing is the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing, with as many as 3,000 people crossing at a time. Tokyo-based architecture professor Julian Worrall has said Shibuya Crossing is "a great example of what Tokyo does best when it's not trying."

Cultural depictions and media usage

Shibuya Crossing is often featured in movies and television shows which take place in Tokyo, such as ''Lost in Translation'', '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'', and '' Resident Evil: Afterlife'', as well as on domestic and international news broadcasts. The iconic video screen featured in the above movies, in particular ''Lost in Translation'' with its 'walking dinosaur' scene, was taken down for a period of time and replaced with static advertising, although it resumed operation in July 2013. Contemporary British painter Carl Randall (who spent 10 years living in Tokyo as an artist) depicted the area in his large artwork 'Shibuya', exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London 2013. Scramble Crossing is a major location in the video game ''The World Ends With You'' and its sequel, which is set entirely in the neighbourhood of Shibuya.

Foot traffic

Scramble from above, SHIBUYA SKY (49367160502) (cropped)

This intersection is frequently called "the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world" and there is almost no loss of foot traffic at midnight or early morning. Road traffic jams rarely occur here even during

rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

s. According to the Shibuya Center Street in 2016, the number of pedestrians crossing the intersection was as much as 3,000 per green light (every 2 minutes). A 2014 flow measurement survey by the Shibuya Redevelopment Association estimated 260,000 pedestrians per day on week days, and 390,000 pedestrians on non-working days. Others estimate as much as 500,000 people on the busiest days. The 2012 SOTO Outdoor Media Survey estimated 1.5 million pedestrians per week.

History

The crossing was inaugurated in 1973. The crossing was featured in the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony to promote the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. Since the late 2010s it has become a popular place for young people to gather at Halloween, some in cosplay costumes. Increasingly large and chaotic crowds led in 2019 to Shibuya Ward adopting an ordinance banning alcohol consumption in the area at the end of October.

References

{{Reflist Shibuya Tourist attractions in Tokyo