Luminescent Plants Exhibition — Light for a Sustainable Future at Shibuya Sakura Stage
For five days from Thursday, November 19 to Monday, November 23 (national holiday), 2026, LEP Inc. will hold Luminescent Plants Exhibition — Light for a Sustainable Future, an experiential demonstration of self-glowing plants, at Shibuya Sakura Stage (Shibuya, Tokyo).
Luminescent Plants Exhibition — Light for a Sustainable Future
▪️Dates: Thursday, November 19 – Monday, November 23 (national holiday), 2026 (5 days)
▪️Hours: 17:00–21:00 daily
▪️Venue:
In front of Shibu S, Shibuya Sakura Stage (Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)
Nigiwai STAGE / Shibu S / Hagukumi STAGE
▪️Discovering in the Dark (guided experience):
Saturday, November 21, Sunday, November 22, and Monday, November 23 (national holiday)
Four sessions daily: 17:30 / 18:30 / 19:30 / 20:30
First come, first served. Registration at the Nigiwai STAGE tent (no reservation required).
▪️Who can join: Open to all ages. Young children must be accompanied by a guardian.
▪️Admission: Free (no reservation required)
▪️Organized, planned, and produced by: LEP Inc.
▪️In cooperation with: Tokyu Land Corporation
▪️Artist: Mikiko Kamada
▪️Special website: https://www.start-lep.jp/gvs
▪️Official social media:
X: https://x.com/LEP_Inc_Japan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/LEP_Inc
The event may be canceled or changed in the event of severe weather. Updates will be posted on the special website and LEP’s official social media.
This exhibition is a demonstration experiment that invites visitors to experience light born from the plants’ own living processes, while exploring how it might be used in urban spaces. The program includes a “Glowing Photo Booth” made with approximately 300 petri dishes, an installation on Shibu S, a large S-shaped monument, and a participatory program in which visitors carry lamps as they wander through the darkness. Anyone may join free of charge, regardless of age.
This demonstration experiment is carried out as a selected project of GREEN VALLEY SHIBUYA, a startup support program in the green tech field operated by Tokyu Land Corporation as a partner project under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “TOKYO SUTEAM” initiative.
LEP is an Osaka University spin-off startup that aims to bring a new culture of light, one that does not rely on electricity, to society by applying the mechanism of bioluminescence (the phenomenon in which living organisms such as fireflies and luminous mushrooms emit light through their own metabolism) to plants. In this demonstration, self-glowing plants developed at Osaka University, Light Emitting Plants (hereinafter “Luminescent Plants”), will be brought into the heart of Shibuya at Shibuya Sakura Stage. The experience is designed so that visitors can walk among, photograph, and talk about the organic light that living plant cells emit on their own, without any electricity.
Following Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, and the ROKU KYOTO, LXR Hotels & Resorts hotel in Kyoto in September 2026, this project will examine what kinds of experiences and value living light can create not in a laboratory, but in a city where people come and go every day. Based on visitor surveys, the project will evaluate the feasibility of plant light as part of urban infrastructure.
For further details, please see the press release.