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The Shibuya crossing, also known as theShibuya scramble, is without a doubt one of the most famous locations in the world. Now the go-to location for establishing shots of Japan when producers aren’t focusing on geisha and picturesque temples, the intersection has been featured in numerous TV shows and movies, and is a must-see for any visitor to Tokyo.

Surrounded by tall buildings, each covered in giant screens and ads vying for pedestrians’ attention, the Scramble is traversed by an incredible 500,000 people each day, with roughly 3,000 pedestrians crossing every time the lights change during peak hours, making it one of the flashiest and most popular places to advertise in Japan.

And now, it’s about to get just a little bit flashier.

From June 1, the Shibuya scramble will be lighting up even more faces with the addition of an enormous LCD screen from Hit Vision. Why is this news, you ask? Well let’s take a look at the sheer size of the thing.

Hit’s newest LCD screen is a whopping 17.3 metres tall and 24.3 metres wide (or 56 x 79.7 feet for those who are afraid of the metric system with its nice, round numbers), or just a little smaller than a typical basketball court. That makes it anywhere up to 10 times the size of the screens currently installed over the crossing and shouting at you about shampoo, pop idols or laser hair removal.

The screen will no doubt look pretty epic when it’s powered up next month, and we’re sure the initial bunch of ads displayed on it will get all the more attention for that reason, but with the scramble already being such an awe-inspiring spot, one has to whether the addition of a few extra metres of screen will add that much to the experience. I mean, as much as it pains you when your mother dollops an extra spoonful of ice cream onto your Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner dessert and insists that you eat it, after five courses and more calories than any normal human being would ordinarily consume in an entire week, it probably won’t make much difference…

Source: IT Media
Feature image: Wikipedia: Joshua Doubek