Location
A real place in Japan. One Location can be revisited in different seasons, weather, or times of day.
A Window to Japan
Japan, seen slowly. Remembered forever.
TokyoStreetView is a contemplative video project dedicated to documenting Japan as it is: its landscapes, cities, traditions, seasons, sounds, and quieter everyday moments.
The camera is your eyes.
The microphone is your ears.
The tripod is your chair.
What is TokyoStreetView?
TokyoStreetView began with a simple idea: to give people everywhere an opportunity to experience Japan without the rush, commentary, or distractions of a conventional travel video.
Our Videos are built around observation rather than explanation. They allow a place to speak through its own light, movement, atmosphere, and sound.
From temples and gardens to rural landscapes, city streets, coastlines, festivals, craftsmanship, and daily life, TokyoStreetView creates calm and immersive windows to Japan through its many faces of Japan.
Our goal
Our goal is to build a lasting visual record of Japan.
TokyoStreetView documents places that are famous, places that are rarely seen, and moments that may never look quite the same again. Together, these recordings form an expanding library of Japan's natural beauty, cultural heritage, craftsmanship, communities, and everyday life.
The project reaches far beyond Tokyo. For more than a decade, we have travelled across Japan, from its cities to its countryside and from its southern islands to its northern landscapes. Every recording preserves not only how a place looks, but also how it feels.
Locations and Videos
This site separates the real places we document from the individual recordings made there.
Video
One individual TokyoStreetView recording made at a Location. Several Videos can belong to the same Location.
TokyoStreetView in numbers
More than a decade of documenting Japan has created a substantial visual archive and an international community around it.
120K+
YouTube subscribers
A worldwide community watching Japan.
26M+
YouTube views
Millions of individual windows to Japan opened around the world.
650+
Public Videos
Landscapes, culture, traditions, cities, and daily life.
18K+
Instagram followers
A visual community built around Japan.
1,500+
Instagram posts
Photographs and videos shared on Instagram.
90+
Countries reached
Represented in the latest YouTube analytics dataset.
Put into perspective
Larger than Japan's biggest stadium
Our YouTube community could fill Nissan Stadium, Japan's largest, and still leave tens of thousands of people waiting outside.
Put into perspective
Bigger than America's “Big House”
More people subscribe to TokyoStreetView than Michigan Stadium, the largest stadium in the United States, can officially seat.
Put into perspective
A day of newspapers — at national scale
More than 26 million views are roughly equivalent to the entire daily circulation of all newspapers in Japan combined. They also exceed the total daily newspaper circulation of the United States and are close to twice the circulation represented by Germany's national newspaper publishers' association.
Sources for the newspaper comparison:
Japan — Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2025: Japan (26 million daily newspaper copies in 2024).
United States — Pew Research Center, Newspapers Fact Sheet (20.9 million daily print and digital copies in 2022).
Germany — BDZV, German Newspaper Publishers and Digitalpublishers Association (14.3 million copies sold across its member newspapers).
A global window to Japan
TokyoStreetView was created in Japan, but its audience has always been international. Viewers across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and beyond use our Videos to discover, revisit, study, or simply spend quiet time with Japan.
Over the years, TokyoStreetView has also contributed to tourism and cultural projects connected with public organizations, regional initiatives, travel media, and international events. These experiences have strengthened the project's original purpose: helping more people discover and appreciate Japan.
The founder
From a personal passion to a shared window to Japan
TokyoStreetView was founded by Gonzague Gay-Bouchery from a long-standing passion for Japan and a desire to share the country through calm, immersive video.
What began as a personal project grew into an extensive visual record of Japan and a worldwide community drawn to its places, culture, atmosphere, and beauty. The same principle remains at its heart today: observe carefully, record respectfully, and allow Japan to speak for itself.
The journey continues
Japan cannot be captured in a single Video, one journey, or even one lifetime.
There will always be another road, another season, another festival, another quiet temple, and another overlooked corner worth remembering. This site is where these Locations and Videos come together.