Every year, when Halloween approaches, the mayors of Shibuya and Shinjuku, two special wards of Tokyo known for their shopping and entertainment offers, anxiously check the calendar. However, their concern isn’t about being unprepared for the spooky night. Quite the opposite.
What worries them is the thought of the cities’ streets being crowded with people in costumes who get louder and messier the more they drink. This concern has become even more palpable in 2024, with international tourism reaching record levels across the country.
Ready for Halloween? Halloween is making headlines in Japan, but not for the usual reasons. On Monday, Ken Hasebe and Kenichi Yoshizumi, the mayors of Shibuya and Shinjuku, respectively, held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan to send a strong message. They said they didn’t want their streets to be crowded with visitors, looking to celebrate the night with drinks, on Oct. 31. To emphasize this, both mayors posed for photographs with signs stating that drinking in the streets isn’t allowed.
Unsurprisingly, the signs were both in Japanese and English, which indicates that the message targets local residents and international visitors. In Shinjuku, authorities will display similar posters and also display them on giant screens. Meanwhile, in Shibuya, guards patrolling on Halloween will be equipped with automatic translators.
Alcohol and the streets don’t mix well. However, the mayors of Shibuya and Shinjuku are going beyond just posing with posters. In 2019, Shibuya banned alcohol consumption on certain streets and during specific times of the year, like Halloween and New Year’s. Now, the local authorities have extended this ban to cover the entire year and a larger area of the neighborhood.
According to local outlet Kyodo News, the new ordinance took effect earlier in October and prohibits alcohol consumption between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. near Japan Railway and Keio Shibuya stations. In Shinjuku, authorities have banned alcohol consumption on the streets on the afternoon and evening of Oct. 31, starting at 5 p.m. and lasting for 12 hours.
Will there be further measures? Yes. In Shinjuku, authorities have asked stores not to sell alcohol around the station and in the Kabukicho area on Halloween night. Additionally, a hundred or so guards will be on duty to watch the busiest streets. As if that weren’t enough, there will be posters hung up to warn of the ban. In Shibuya, automatic translators will be provided to officers to ensure they can understand foreign tourists.
Joining forces. The decision to join forces isn’t a coincidence. Shinjuku and Shibuya are neighboring districts, so what one mayor does can affect the other, especially when it comes to limiting street parties. In 2023, Shibuya took the lead in adopting measures to discourage Halloween celebrations on its streets, which had an impact on the neighboring Shinjuku.
The campaign was considered a success, with an estimated 15,000 people gathering around Shibuya Station, considerably less than the expected 60,000. However, a significant portion of these people ended up in Shinjuku, leading to a large influx of visitors in the “tight space” of its entertainment area. As a result, Yoshizumi described the situation to the press as “really troublesome crowds.”
“Loud noise and littering.” It may seem like an exaggerated position, but the mayors of Shibuya and Shinjuku insist that crowds of people drinking in the streets on Halloween night cause a nuisance. In fact, they cause a lot of them. “Drinking on the street has led to environmental damage, including loud noises and littering,” Hasebe said. Yoshizumi added that when people gather to get drunk, “accidents and fights occur.”
“If you want to drink alcohol, please enjoy it inside bars or restaurants in accordance with the rules,” the mayor of Shinjuku said. As the South China Morning Post reports, during Halloween celebrations in 2018, a group of young people overturned a light truck.
Foreign tourism, in the spotlight. Shinjuku and Shibuya aren’t only popular destinations for foreign visitors celebrating Halloween. The complaints from their mayors have also reflected the effects of the surge of international tourism in Japn. This surge has broken previous records in recent months, largely due to the country’s popularity, the end of the pandemic, and the weakness of the yen. The fact that the campaign was launched at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan and that its posters were published in English indicates that it’s aimed at an international audience.
Major Japanese and Asian media outlets such as Nikkei, Kyodo News, The Asahi Shimbun, and The Japan Times have reported on the mayors’ concerns, associating them with the rise in tourism and the influx of foreign visitors. According to Yoshihiro Sataki, a professor at Japan’s Josai International University, Tokyo’s Halloween has gained popularity due to its festive and carefree atmosphere. Sataki also says visitors go to the country during this time of the year because they believe they can safely drink in the streets.
Eyes on the central government. The Shibuya and Shinjuku wards have called on the central and Tokyo metropolitan governments to implement stricter measures in response to the current situation. Despite the success of last year’s campaign in Shibuya, local ordinances have limitations when it comes to enforcement.
In 2023, it became evident that measures taken independently in one district, like Shibuya, can have counterproductive effects on another within the same city, like Shinjuku. However, not everyone in the country shares the same perspective on Halloween. Toshima, another special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis, is organizing a Halloween Cosplay Festival, which attracted thousands of people last year.
Image | Sofianna p | Dick Thomas Johnson
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