A lighting device of the present invention has a wire-shaped cathode provided along an axial direction, a phosphor-coated anode that opposes to the wire-shaped cathode in the axial direction and a vacuum sealing tube that vacuum-seals these cathode and anode, wherein the wire-shaped cathode has a wire and a carbon film provided on the entire circumference of this wire, and the phosphor-coated anode has an anode section and a phosphor section provided on this anode section.