Shibuya渋谷

Trend-setting center for young people, shopping streets for families "Bit valley" that supports the IT industry.

Shibuya Station, located in Tokyo's Shibuya-ku, is a terminal for a number of different rail lines: the JR Yamanote and Saikyo lines; the Tokyu Toyoko, Den'entoshi, and Keio Inokashira lines; and the Tokyo Metro Ginza and Hanzomon lines. It is a prominent downtown area of Tokyo rivaling Ginza, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Asakusa.

Shibuya is unique in that every street and area in the district has a completely different atmosphere. The Shibuya Center Street is crowded with a multitude of shops, including youth fashion shops, fast food restaurants, and game centers, and it is famous as the place where new trends are born that quickly spread among the youth nationwide. It is always crowded day and night, mostly with teenagers, and you can get a direct feel for today's Japanese fashion trends there.

Koen-dori Street, which extends to Yoyogi-koen Park, is a shopping street with a row of department stores and fashionable buildings that attract families in particular. Shibuya Mark City, which opened in 2000, is the biggest shopping complex in Shibuya. Comprised of a large-scale hotel, business floors, and fifty-five shops, it sparked a rush of high-rise building construction in the area. The area is now known as "Bit Valley," (a play on words referring to Shibuya, which literally means "bitter valley" and the computer lingo "bit") where venture enterprises that support the IT industry are concentrated. Thus, Shibuya is attracting eager eyes from all over the world, not only for fashions and shopping, but in the area of state-of-the-art industries as well.