COMPANY
A Japanese company founded in 1987 to keep a record of the city while it sleeps.
KŌHOKU WARD · EST. 1987深更SHINKŌ Co. was founded in 1987, in a small office above Kōhoku station, with a single mission: to document the city at night, when no one is looking.
For a century, the company sent its surveyors out after the last train. They recorded stations, housing blocks, elevated lines and harbours, always at the same hour and in the same silence. Nothing was staged, and nobody appears in the records.
Today the archive is open to the public. Each SHINKŌ video is one of its files: a single place, a single night, a few hours of a future that arrived without anyone noticing.
1987 — 2090
- 深更THE NAME · 深更The deepest hours of the nightShinkō (深更) is the time after midnight when a city is at its quietest. The company chose to work only then.
- 1987FOUNDATION · 創業An office above Kōhoku stationThe first archive office opens. File 001 is recorded the same night, from the street below.
- 1994FIRST SURVEY · 初調査Line 7, end to endSurveyors walk the whole of Line 7 in a single night and record forty stations.
- 2003ELEVATED LINES · 高架線The city lifts its railwaysRailways rise above the streets. The archive follows them into the air.
- 2041BAY DISTRICTS · 湾岸New districts on the waterThe bay districts are recorded for the first time, from a boat on the harbour.
- 2068PUBLIC ARCHIVE · 公開The records open to everyoneThe archive becomes public. Anyone can consult the files, preferably at night.
2090
PRESENT FILE · 現在Nineteen files in circulationA new file is released every few weeks. You are reading this in 2090.
BEHIND THE ARCHIVEBEHIND SHINKŌ
SHINKŌ Co. isn't a real company. It's a YouTube channel, made by someone who has always loved Japanese cities at night: stations after the last train, warm windows, a future that already feels familiar.
Each file is a long, calm visual. No characters, no story to follow, nothing that asks for your attention. Just a place to keep on a second screen while you work, read or fall asleep.