Yokkaichi Industrial Night View

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

調査・執筆 Hinato

Yokkaichiindustrial night viewpetrochemicalpollution historynight cruise

Photo: ot0rip 604 from Japan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · original

Yokkaichi's petrochemical complex is the reason the city is known nationally, and for the worst reasons — the air pollution here in the 1960s caused Yokkaichi asthma, one of Japan's four recognised pollution diseases, and the litigation that followed changed environmental law in the country. The plants were cleaned up and remain.

At night they become something else: several square kilometres of pipework, flare stacks and lighting, and a night-view industry grew around photographing them. A boat runs a circuit at close range from the port, sixty or ninety minutes, and the fourteenth-floor observation room of the Port Building — Umiterasu 14 — gives the only elevated view in a flat city, for ¥310. Both are worth doing with the history in mind rather than without it.

基本情報

営業時間

Umiterasu 14 observation room keeps daytime and evening hours | Cruises on the operator's schedule

定休日: Confirm cruise sailing days and observation room rest days before travelling

料金

Umiterasu 14 ¥310 adults, free for junior high school age and under | Night cruise around ¥4,000–5,000 adults

ベストシーズン

Year-round | Autumn and winter for clear air

滞在目安

60–90 minutes for the cruise | 45 minutes for the observation room

アクセス

アクセス情報

Yokkaichi port. The Umiterasu 14 observation room on the 14th floor of the Yokkaichi Port Building at Kasumi charges ¥310 for adults and is free for junior high school age and under. Night cruises through the petrochemical complex are operated commercially, with 60-minute and 90-minute courses at around ¥4,000 and ¥5,000 for adults and ¥3,500 and ¥4,500 for children; booking is online and a free shuttle runs from Kintetsu Yokkaichi and JR Yokkaichi stations. Confirm sailing days and times with the operator. The complex was the site of the Yokkaichi asthma pollution disease of the 1960s.

インサイダーガイド

**Know what you are photographing.** Yokkaichi asthma was one of Japan's four major pollution diseases and the court case here reshaped environmental law. The plants are aesthetic at night and were lethal by day. **Book the cruise online.** Sailings are limited and the free shuttle from the stations needs arranging with the booking. **Umiterasu 14 is the cheap option.** ¥310 for the fourteenth-floor view, free for junior high age and under, and the only height in a flat city. **Sixty or ninety minutes on the water.** The longer course goes further into the complex. Both are cold on deck in winter. **It is an operating plant.** Photography from the water and the observation room is fine; approaching the perimeter on land is not.

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