Fukui: Seaside Park Illuminations Evoke Vast Ocean at Japan’s Historic Tsuruga Port

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:45 JST, November 29, 2025&

TSURUGA, Fukui — The annual “Miraie” illumination event is underway at Kanegasaki Park in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. The city has been focusing on tourism since the Hokuriku Shinkansen line was extended to Tsuruga Station.

For this year’s event, the seaside park at Tsuruga Port is illuminated by approximately 650,000 LED lights. The event has been held since 2014 and is organized by an executive committee formed by local businesses and industries.

Tsuruga had a prosperous history due to passengers traveling between Tokyo and Europe via rail and sea routes. Tsuruga Port, in particular, is known as the “Port of Humanity” for accepting Jewish refugees prior to World War II, and a nearby museum displays records of this history.

The event was started as a way to boost visitor numbers to the port, as they tend to drop in winter.

The entire lawn area of the park is covered with blue LEDs, evoking the sea. Additionally, a red torii gate, inspired by the iconic large torii at Kehi Jingu shrine in the city, is depicted with LEDs, and a light tunnel about 70 meters in length has been installed.

A 26-year-old man from Fukui City said, “The beauty and scale of the illuminations made it worth coming from far away.”

The LEDs are lit from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the event runs through Dec. 25. Admission is free.