Kyoto DOOH · Kyoto Station · Shijo-Kawaramachi · Gion · June 2026
An old imperial capital near 1.46 million ringed by temple-covered hills, from Kyoto Station to the Shijo-Kawaramachi core to the Gion lanes, bookable by the hour, priced per play, matched to how Kyoto actually moves.
Kyoto billboard and DOOH (digital out-of-home) costs span from a few cents per play on urban panels to premium Shijo-Kawaramachi, Karasuma and landmark networks. On Blindspot, Kyoto screens are booked by the hour and priced per play, entry plays start around $0.34, with no contracts or minimums.
The smart Kyoto play isn't one screen for a month. It's the right screens at the right hours: the arteries at commute peak, the malls through the afternoon, the nightlife and tourist cores after dark.
Billboard ranking points
Directional 1–10 scores based on zone type and footfall, not audited measurements. Every zone is bookable by the hour on the platform.
The Shijo and Kawaramachi crossing is the commercial heart of the city, packing the densest shopper, office and pedestrian traffic in Kyoto.
The vast Kyoto Station hub, where the Shinkansen, JR, subway and Kintetsu lines meet, carries the city's heaviest arrival and commute traffic.
The Gion geisha district, the Pontocho lane and the Kawaramachi blocks run hot after dark for dining, bars and the visitor crowd along the Kamo River.
The Karasuma-Oike corridor around the subway interchange and City Hall carries the city's main daytime office and civic traffic.
The Higashiyama hills around Kiyomizu-dera and the Yasaka Pagoda draw the city's heaviest sightseeing crowds, peaking in blossom and foliage seasons.
The Karasuma and Tozai subway lines and the dense city bus network carry transit riders across the historic grid.
The media estate · operator partners
Blindspot puts digital out-of-home (DOOH) and classic out-of-home from Kyoto's media owners, MCDecaux (JCDecaux Japan), JR West rail media, Hankyu and Keihan rail media among them, onto one map, bookable by the hour. Below: real partner screens across the city's prime zones.
Imagery from media-owner/operator partners. Locations indicative; live availability and per-screen pricing show in the platform.
Formats
From a highway bulletin to a single mall screen, Blindspot puts Kyoto's digital out-of-home and classic OOH formats on one map, each priced per play and bookable by the hour. The formats that matter here:
Large-format LED on highways, bridges and boulevards, motion, dayparting and dynamic triggers.
Pedestrian-scale panels and citylights in high-footfall retail and downtown corridors.
Highway and arterial bulletins built for commuter frequency on the busiest routes.
High-intent shoppers from midday to evening across the city's retail destinations.
Kyoto Municipal Subway and city bus-shelter screens plus stations and place-based screens with captive dwell.
Landmark and spectacular placements for brand statements in the city's signature locations.
Location insights
Kyoto was Japan's imperial capital for over a thousand years, a grid of temples, machiya houses and quiet rivers ringed by hills. Mornings load the Karasuma subway line and the JR and Hankyu lines toward Kyoto Station and the Shijo office core; lunch and afternoons fill the Shijo-Kawaramachi and Teramachi shopping arcades and Nishiki Market; evenings pull crowds to the Pontocho and Gion lanes and the Kamo River banks. Cherry-blossom spring and the autumn-foliage season pack the Higashiyama temples and the city is busiest then. Buy the Shijo daytime peak and the Gion evening peak.
Kyoto Station and the main arteries surge 7:30–10 AM and 5–8 PM. Book exactly those hours and your frequency climbs for the same budget.
Karasuma and the city's malls hold heavy footfall from noon to evening, long windows where dwell and shopping intent, not rush, do the work.
Shijo-Kawaramachi shifts from daytime to social and tourism after dark. Different audience, same screens, swap the creative, not the location.
Location intelligence summary
Kyoto doesn't have one rush hour; it has rotating audiences sharing the same streets. The only buying model that matches that is hourly: pay for the windows when your audience owns the city, skip the ones when it doesn't.
| Objective | Book these zones | Best hours |
|---|---|---|
| Brand launch | Shijo-Kawaramachi + Kyoto Station | 6–11 PM |
| Commuter frequency | Gion, Kyoto Station | 7:30–10 AM · 5–8 PM |
| Retail foot traffic | Karasuma, Shijo-Kawaramachi | 12–8 PM |
| B2B / decision-makers | Higashiyama temple district, Kyoto Station | Weekdays 9 AM–6 PM |
| Tourism & events | Shijo-Kawaramachi, Subway | 10 AM–8 PM |
A month-long 24/7 rotation pays for 3 AM plays nobody sees. Hourly booking concentrates the same budget into Kyoto’s proven peak windows, and typically saves 30%+ versus a flat four-week flight.
Morning commuters read in 2 seconds; evening crowds dwell for minutes. Run different creative by hour on the same screens, even trigger swaps on weather or live data.
Every play is logged. Blindspot campaigns report verified plays and attribution, measured against control groups, not estimated reach.
The zones above already draw a specific buyer: consumer electronics, Nintendo's global headquarters sits about a 15 minute walk south of Kyoto Station, so engineers and corporate staff pass through that corridor daily, and department store retail, Takashimaya and Daimaru anchor the Shijo-Kawaramachi intersection and pull steady shopper traffic to the exact blocks the screens cover.
Book Kyoto by the hour →Cite this
Pricing · updated June 2026
Per-play prices, not CPM mysteries. Live per-screen pricing and real-time availability are on every card in the platform; the ranges below reflect typical Blindspot pricing as of June 2026.
| Format | Price per play | Typical presence | Why it works |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadside & arterial digital | from ~$0.34 per play | $100 buys hourly bursts on the Karasuma and Horikawa arterials | drive-time commuter reach |
| Shijo-Kawaramachi retail digital | from ~$0.52 per play | the commercial heart of the city | shopper and office audiences |
| Kyoto Station concourse digital | from ~$0.48 per play | the Shinkansen and rail interchange | arrival and commute dwell |
| Gion nightlife digital | from ~$0.44 per play | the Pontocho and Kawaramachi blocks | visitor and going-out audiences |
| Kyoto subway screens | from ~$0.36 per play | the Karasuma and Tozai line platforms | walk-up urban commuters |
No minimums · no contracts · pay per verified play · hourly scheduling per screen
Four things move the price on any Kyoto screen: the format (pricing runs higher on kyoto subway screens than on roadside & arterial digital), the zone (Shijo-Kawaramachi carries the highest footfall premium), the daypart (peak commute and evening hours price above the overnight lull), and how far in advance you book, since the busiest zones and formats sell out first.
What a campaign costs
Because you pay per play and schedule by the hour, your budget buys the exposure you actually need, not filler plays, so it works as hard on a big campaign as on a small one, with no minimum. Here's what budgets realistically buy. Live numbers per screen are in the platform.
Commute test
A week of morning and evening bursts on the Karasuma arterial into the Shijo core.
Multi-zone Kyoto push
Shijo-Kawaramachi, Kyoto Station and Gion running together across peak dayparts.
Imperial capital flagship
Full Shijo and station saturation timed to cherry-blossom spring, the autumn foliage and the Gion Matsuri.
FAQ
No. Blindspot books time on screens that are already installed and permitted by their media-owner operators, MCDecaux (JCDecaux Japan), JR West rail media, Hankyu among them, so you're leasing airtime on an existing structure, not erecting a new one.
Specs vary by screen: orientation, resolution and file format differ from one panel to the next. Every screen shows its exact requirements in the platform before you upload, so there's no separate spec sheet to track down before you book.
Yes. Every Kyoto screen on Blindspot is bookable by the hour, with no minimum contract and no retainer. You pick the exact windows, so you can buy the morning commute on Kyoto Station & Hachijo, the afternoon retail stretch around Karasuma & Oike, or the evening social hours in Shijo-Kawaramachi, and skip everything between. Because you pay per play instead of for a fixed four-week flight, the same budget concentrated into proven peak windows buys more useful frequency than the same money spread across every hour including the overnight ones nobody sees. Availability and the per-play price are visible before you commit, and you can start with one screen and one daypart.
Blindspot puts the bookable digital out-of-home screens across Kyoto on a single map: roadside and boulevard LED, street-level panels and citylights, transit and station screens, mall and place-based displays, and landmark placements, all priced per play and bookable by the hour. That spans zones from Shijo-Kawaramachi through to Subway & bus network. The underlying screens are owned and run by media operators such as MCDecaux (JCDecaux Japan), JR West rail media and Hankyu and Keihan rail media, and Blindspot books time on their existing, already-permitted structures rather than reselling a fixed package. You see each screen, its zone, its per-play price and its live availability before committing, so you are choosing specific screens and hours rather than buying an unspecified network bundle.
Often within hours: upload, pass creative pre-check, and digital screens need no printing or installation. Content approval typically averages around two business days across networks.
More than most people expect, because you are buying plays rather than weeks. A $500 budget in Kyoto typically funds a multi-day hourly presence on a high-traffic corridor such as Kyoto Station & Hachijo, a concentrated burst across the busiest retail and transit screens at peak hours only, or thousands of plays on central urban panels where the per-play price is lowest. At entry prices around $0.34 per play, the arithmetic is straightforward and visible before you commit. What it will not stretch to is 24/7 coverage of a landmark spectacular, and that is the point of hourly buying: concentrate a small budget where and when it is seen instead of thinning it across hours with no audience.
No. Blindspot has no minimums, retainers or platform fees; you can run a focused hourly burst on a single screen or a full multi-zone Kyoto campaign.
How to book
No sales calls, no contracts, self-serve from the map to live creative.
01
Open the map, filter Kyoto by zone and format, and select the exact screens and the exact hours your audience is out.
02
Every screen shows its price per play and real-time availability before you commit. Build the plan; the running total is always visible.
03
Upload creative, pass pre-check, and go live, often within hours. Track verified plays and attribution as the campaign runs.
Keep exploring
The old imperial capital. Your hour.
Pick the screens, pick the hours, see the price per play, live in hours.
