This study explores the transition of illuminance of Japanese office environment as well as subjective evaluation toward brightness by reviewing existing scientific literatures of over half century. In total 484 data of illuminance of actual office and 28 literatures which studied the relation of lighting environment and subjective evaluation were extracted. In the last over half century, the illuminance of office environment have been increasing along with the recommended level of illuminance of JIS. Before 1980s, the actual illuminance level of Japanese office was higher than the recommended level of JIS, and then it became to be settled on or less than the recommended level of JIS standard. The subjective evaluation of illuminance also have been changing since 1950s. Before 1970s, people satisfied lighting environment less than 300 lx, and people became to be unsatisfied of 300 lx after 1980s. On the other hand, illuminance level of 750 lx has been evaluated positive consistently since 1970s.