A lighting unit comprising: a light guide plate; a light source disposed on a side surface of the light guide plate, said side surface forming the light incident surface receiving light from the light source; a light modulation device disposed on a light-emitting surface or inside of the light guide plate and bonded to the light guide plate: and a drive circuit for driving the light source and the light modulation device, wherein the light modulation device includes a pair of transparent substrates (31, 37) disposed opposite to each other with a distance in between, a pair of electrodes (32, 36) disposed on respective surfaces of the pair of transparent substrates (31, 37), and a light modulation layer provided in a gap between the pair of transparent substrates (31, 37), one or both of the pair of electrodes (32, 36) have a plurality of partial electrodes (32A, 36A) arranged in a direction orthogonal to the light incident surface the light modulation layer totally or partially exhibits a scattering property or transparency to the light from the light source depending on a magnitude of an electric field generated by the electrodes (32, 36), the drive circuit is configured to sequentially drive the plurality of partial electrodes (32A, 36) on a predetermined unit basis to scan the corresponding region exhibiting the scattering property of the light modulation layer in the direction orthogonal to the light incident surface, and the light modulation layer exhibits transparency when a voltage is not applied between the pair of electrodes (32, 36), and exhibits the scattering property when a voltage is applied between the pair of electrodes (32, 36), characterised in that each of the partial electrodes is patterned in a manner that the area occupied by the partial electrode is changed, and a pattern density of each of the partial electrodes is varied depending on the distance from the light source. a light guide plate; a light source disposed on a side surface of the light guide plate, said side surface forming the light incident surface receiving light from the light source; a light modulation device disposed on a light-emitting surface or inside of the light guide plate and bonded to the light guide plate: and a drive circuit for driving the light source and the light modulation device, wherein the light modulation device includes a pair of transparent substrates (31, 37) disposed opposite to each other with a distance in between, a pair of electrodes (32, 36) disposed on respective surfaces of the pair of transparent substrates (31, 37), and a light modulation layer provided in a gap between the pair of transparent substrates (31, 37), a pair of transparent substrates (31, 37) disposed opposite to each other with a distance in between, a pair of electrodes (32, 36) disposed on respective surfaces of the pair of transparent substrates (31, 37), and a light modulation layer provided in a gap between the pair of transparent substrates (31, 37), one or both of the pair of electrodes (32, 36) have a plurality of partial electrodes (32A, 36A) arranged in a direction orthogonal to the light incident surface the light modulation layer totally or partially exhibits a scattering property or transparency to the light from the light source depending on a magnitude of an electric field generated by the electrodes (32, 36), the drive circuit is configured to sequentially drive the plurality of partial electrodes (32A, 36) on a predetermined unit basis to scan the corresponding region exhibiting the scattering property of the light modulation layer in the direction orthogonal to the light incident surface, and the light modulation layer exhibits transparency when a voltage is not applied between the pair of electrodes (32, 36), and exhibits the scattering property when a voltage is applied between the pair of electrodes (32, 36), characterised in that each of the partial electrodes is patterned in a manner that the area occupied by the partial electrode is changed, and a pattern density of each of the partial electrodes is varied depending on the distance from the light source.