If you live in Tokyo or any part of major city in Japan, nighttime city view is definitely one decent activity you should appreciate.
Within the Tokyo bay area, there are more than 25 night time scenery (which we call yakei) spots and I personally visited most of them myself.
Yakei kansho (watching nighttime scenery) has become widely practiced since the industrialization of the whole country.
I heard that the history of yakei kansho originally started after the WW2 when American culture was introduced in Japan, including Christmas.
The Christmas illumination became an important tradition in postwar (especially in the city area I think) and that was how people started to recognize the nighttime city view for fun.
It is especially more promoted after the invention of LED and now the whole cities became more decorative.
Now growing up to the largest mega-city in the world, Tokyo itself has a series of illumination events and yakei spots known by the tourists.
Although I don't know much about the foreign cultures, Japan has a culture that they practice activities at nighttime such as Tsukimi (moon watching) and yomatsuri (night festival).
There is a movement to make use of yakei for business as well.
Also, there is a newly created qualification called "yakei kantei-shi" (nighttime view appraiser)
This gives you enough idea about how yakei is becoming more and more important tourist attraction of this country.