To provide a lighting unit which: does not greatly affect the design of a light guide plate; and has a long lifetime, high efficiency, and a wide color reproduction range by means of a phosphor. In view of the foregoing, the lighting unit of the present invention is constituted in such a manner that a phosphor bead or a phosphor film is arranged on at least one of the light irradiation plane of alight guide plate, the rear surface of the light guide plate, and the light incidence plane of the light guide plate. In addition, a phosphor film is constituted by using: a phosphor bead formed of aphosphor particle and a water-impervious material with which the phosphor particle is coated so that the particle is confined in the material; and a polymer film holding the phosphor bead.