[KineJapan] An inquiry about emergency lights in movie theaters

[Mathieu Capel]

Dear Kinejapaners,

In a 1980 piece of writing ("Seido toshite no eiga"), Hasumi Shigehiko
talks about how it became impossible in Japan to watch a film in total
darkness after the 1964 Olympic Games.
I was able to find an article by Tadahisa Jin ("History of the Emergency
Exit Lighting Sign") who seems to confirm it ("I first got aware of
emergency lights in movie theaters in the second half of the sixties", does
he begin), but his history does not provide any kind of details regarding
the year emergency lights began to be used, or mandatory, and so on.
Unfortunately, Kato Mikiro talks a lot about air conditioning in his *Eigakan
to kankyaku no bunkashi, *but I couldn't find anything about lights when he
describes the emergence of modern movie theaters.
Would someone on the list have some more details about the so-called "end
of total darkness" Hasumi refers to ?
Many thanks,

Mathieu Capel
University of Tokyo
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