A transparent light guide member comprising a first light guide unit in the form of a transparent plate having a rectangular light emitting plane and a parallel groove formed on a rear surface located opposite from the rectangular light emitting plane and parallel to one side of the rectangular light emitting plane; and a second light guide unit, which is transparent, having a columnar external shape to be accommodated in the parallel groove and containing light-scattering particles. Let .PHI. be the scattering cross section of the particles, L.sub.G the length of the light guide unit 32 in the direction in which light propagates, N.sub.p the particle density, and K.sub.C a compensation coefficient, then a value .PHI.L.sub.GN.sub.pK.sub.C the light guide member assumes is not smaller than 1.1 and not greater than 8.2, and the compensation coefficient K.sub.C is not smaller than 0.005 and not greater than 0.1.