Popular Retail Street in Kyodo, Japan, Installs 82 Cameras

April 1, 2005
District to become most surveilled street in Japan

KYOTO, April 1 (Kyodo) - Kyoto's biggest shopping street, the Shijo Street, installed 82 security cameras Friday, outnumbering the some 50 cameras set up in Tokyo's Kabukicho red-light district to become the most security camera-equipped shopping street in Japan.

''We would like to manage the cameras, while taking into consideration protection of personal information,'' said Ryotaro Takahashi, chief of the Shijo Haneikai Street Promotion Associations.

Takahashi said that he hoped the cameras will be effective in curbing crime.

According to the group, the cameras are placed at 50-meter intervals on both sides of the street's shopping arcade, covering about 1,100 meters.

A facility of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corp. will manage the images, which can only be accessed by using several passwords.

The images will not be provided to police without the approval of the association's board of directors or of the board chairman, its members said.