hey just wondering.. whats the purpose of city lights on JDM headlights?

I think they are there too look cool..

 

One of the main purposes of "city lights" is to provide a marker in the event that a headlight fails, helping to maintain visibility of both sides of the car to oncoming drivers. They perform a similar function to USDM "parking lights", which JDM cars are not equipped with.

 

I always heard they were used because lights in the city are bright enough to not require headlights, but the city lights just illuminate the headlight housing so other cars can see you, not in order to light up the road.

 

They're also good for having on during the day or right before it gets dark.

 

they're not as bright as normal DRL's so they don't really do anything in the daytime. In fact they're pretty much not even visible in the daytime (little 5W wedge bulb inside the big headlight housing).