Tokyo Life 東京日記: street

若者か自己主張したい人達の表現手段にもなっている落書きは、東京都内のあちこちで見られます。放棄されて、面積の大きい壁や構造物が少ないせいか、サイズの大きい落書きはあまり見られません。
それでも、店のシャッターや、電気配線箱（？）、橋の柱、古い壁等では、小型のものはよく見られます。内容としては、絵画系は少なく、シグネチャ的なものが多いです。見てきた中で一番きれいなのは、渋谷のセンター街の中にあるものでした。残念ながら、酔っ払いのショウベン場でもあるので、あまり長居はできませんでした。

渋谷にある大物。昔はおしっこの匂いがプンプンだったが、今大分良くなった

六本木ヒルズの近く

幡ヶ谷駅付近商店街のシャッター

Hinoya　Curry 日乃屋カレー　新宿御苑
落書きではないが、落書き的な格好いいシャッター

渋谷の橋下

落書きではないが、渋谷や新宿の裏路地によくあるのはこのようなステッカーで覆われるものをよく見られる。

According to Oxford Dictionary, Graffiti is "writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place". Whereas Wikipedia defines it as "the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire."
&nbps; Tokyo does not have many public, and unoccupied or discarded walls for such kind of purpose. Among the most commonly encountered ones, most of them are drawn on the shutters of (mostly small) shops. The most frequent works are text based ones.

As most people consider the graffiti works (examples above) pranks of naughty kids, there are many efforts to stop them. One example is to get volunteers to have more "meaningful" and pleasant art works. Below is one example.

The most famous episode centered around Graffiti would probably be the one occurred in Singapore, as described by Wikipedia as follows. However people look at it, law is law.

In 1993 in Singapore, after several expensive cars were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing the car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six lashes of the cane, but the then President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes

参考リンク
渋谷宇田川町　落書きポップアート
渋谷・宇田川町のレコードビルに巨大「合法的」グラフィティー
【日本で見れる】グラフィティアーティスト DOLKの作品まとめ
NORIKIYOの巨大アート、シスコ坂に出現
街と落書きについて
トランスボックス 30 基にラッピング装飾！

路地と路地裏と裏路地と横丁の違い

渋谷の落書きに書かれた文字の意味とは・・・？【グラフィックアート？】

麻布十番は高級住宅地として知られています。麻布十番の商店街に、面白い肖像があります。もともと高級感あふれる街にさらに楽しさが増します。
Azabujuban is an area both fashionable, expensive and foreign to most of Japanese. There are almost as many Japanese as foreigners. Among many interesting shops, there are more than 40 bars of various styles, e.g. Bar Allegro, PaZZLE DINING-BAR, BAR 331, blank azabu, AZABU MISHIMA, Dining Bar B.A.C.S , DIX LOUNGE, Wild Side, Kaion 701, cafe nest, On The Rocks, Bar Melfome, THE BAR OLD＆NEW AZABU, Bar Tellus, Onpoo etc. What might of more interests are the art works along some of the roads.