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“We’re totally fine if you don’t bother to come” says Tokyo politician on Halloween drinking ban

Casey Baseel Sep 12, 2024
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If you want to get drunk and crazy somewhere else on October 31, Shinjuku is cool with that.

Japan has a complex relationship with Halloween. Go back about 20 years, and it was hardly a thing at all in the country. Slowly but surely, though, Halloween has been building in popularity, thanks in no small part to being an opportunity to enjoy cosplay and sweets, two things people in Japan are pretty enthusiastic about. In recent years, businesses and local governments have largely embraced those aspects of Halloween, with many of them putting up special decorations and hosting parades and official costume events.

But some people see Halloween not just as a reason to get dressed up, but a reason to get liquored up too. Many of the first large-scale Halloween celebrations in Tokyo were unorganized groups of people congregating on the street to show off or check out costumes, often while taking full advantage of Japan’s lax laws regarding public consumption of alcohol. At first it was mostly seen as nothing more than quirky fun, but in recent years public perception of the impromptu Halloween street parties has soured due to acts of violence, vandalism, and other not-so-hilarious Halloween hijinks taking place at them, not to mention large amounts of litter left on the streets the next morning.

So with Halloween not that far off, Japanese politician Kenichi Yoshizumi, head of downtown Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, has a message for anyone looking to get wild on the streets of Shinjuku this Halloween:

“Honestly, we’re totally fine if you don’t bother to come to Shinjuku on Halloween.”

Yoshizumi made the frank statement during a press conference on Tuesday which included a reiteration of the public drinking ban Shinjuku is putting in place for Halloween night. Originally announced in June, the ban will take effect starting 5 p.m. on October 31 and be in place until 5 the next morning, covering the area around Shinjuku Station, including the Kabukicho nightlife district.

“There are people who come to Shinjuku [on Halloween] just to get rowdy, make a mess for other people to clean up, and go home,” said Yoshizumi. “It’s a very peculiar phenomenon, and something we absolutely want them to refrain from doing. Honestly, we’re totally fine if you don’t bother to come to Shinjuku on Halloween.”

Yoshizumi’s choice of words shows that he’s aware that the public drinking ban is likely to make Shinjuku a less attractive destination for a certain segment of Halloween revelers, including travelers who happen to be in Tokyo on October 31. Those are crowds he can do without, though.

It’s worth pointing out that Shinjuku hasn’t experienced Halloween street party problems on the scale that Shibuya, the neighboring neighborhood to the south, has. Shibuya was actually the first part of Tokyo to see massive Halloween parties materialize, with some of its crowds migrating to Shinjuku after Shibuya began cracking down on bad behavior (Shibuya now has a public drinking ban of its own in place on Halloween). One could argue that Shinjuku’s strict policy may end up just shifting the Halloween street party problems to another part of the city, but at least it won’t be on Yoshizumi’s turf.

Source: Teleasa News via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
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