The Environment Agency has compiled guidelines that could bring back twinkling stars to the nation's urban skies.

The new guidelines ask local governments to draw up plans for their area's street lighting, and to reduce the use of such lights to allow a better view of the stars.

The agency points out that excessive lighting in urban areas disturbs astronomical observation, prevents sound sleep and disrupts the healthy growth of fauna and flora as a result of what the agency calls "lighting pollution."

The guidelines outline four categories:

1) Nature parks that give clear views of star-spangled skies;

2) Suburbs from where the Milky Way can be viewed;

3) Cities from where the Big Dipper can be viewed;

4) City centers that can be used for astronomical observations.

The guidelines call on local governments to improve street lighting so it fulfills one of the four categories and to adopt lighting devices that emit less light. The measures also include a separate section that covers illuminations used for advertising, and suggests that businesses not use searchlights and laser beams.

The agency will introduce a plan as early as this fiscal year to train lighting specialists and illumination designers to work on the problem in cooperation with local governments.

Reiji Matsumoto, the cartoonist behind "Ginga Tetsudo (Galaxy Train) 999," a popular strip about a sci-fi journey on a flying train, said he supports the agency's plan because stars stimulate children's imagination. "To balance our lives with industry will be a difficult task, but it would be great to see the two shake hands," Matsumoto said. "Although the guidelines should have been made much earlier, I welcome the idea. I really want children to know the rhythm of nature and sharpen their five senses," said Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb the world's highest summits in seven continents.