LIGHTBEATS

LIGHTBEATS is a light and sound installation spread over three districts in the south of Tokyo: WATERS takeshiba in Takeshiba, TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY in Takanawa and OIMACHI TRACKS in Oimachi. It is organized by JR East, the East Japan Railway Company, and was first held in the winter of 2026.

Sensors pick up the movements of visitors at each site and send signals between the three, so that light and sound answer across all of them. The organizer treats each visitor's movement as a heartbeat: the different rhythms of the three sites meet and overlap to form one beat for the whole area.

What happens

Walking through some of the installations sets off light and sound. In front of a fountain, waving an arm makes the water jets and the lights move with it. Projections on the ground at the three sites are linked to each other, and touching a Suica, JR East's IC transit card, brings up an effect of its own.

Each site has a theme of its own: at WATERS takeshiba the heartbeat spreads, at TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY it starts, and at OIMACHI TRACKS it resonates. All three lie in what JR East calls Greater Shinagawa, the area from Hamamatsucho Station to Oimachi Station that the company is developing around its stations.