The mayors of two wards in central Tokyo called on Monday for people to follow rules during the Halloween season.
Shibuya and Shinjuku wards have each set an ordinance to prohibit drinking on the streets in downtown areas during the Halloween period, after street drinking by young people and foreign visitors to Japan became a problem.
Speaking at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo, Shibuya Ward Mayor Ken Hasebe disclosed a plan to urge the central government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to strengthen measures against overtourism, or the negative impact of an influx of tourists on the daily lives of local residents. “We’ll call on people to stop annoying acts,” Shinjuku Ward Mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi said during the same news conference.
In Shibuya Ward, young people dressed up for Halloween were repeatedly seen drunk and making noise around Shibuya Station, prompting the ward to enact in 2019 an ordinance banning drinking on the streets during certain times of the year, including the Halloween season.
After Japan downgraded COVID-19 to a lower-risk category under the infectious disease control law in May 2023, movement restrictions were removed and drinking in public by foreign visitors to the country and others became normal. The Shibuya Ward ordinance was revised in June this year to ban drinking on the streets throughout the year, and this came into effect Tuesday.
In June this year, Shinjuku Ward, where the number of visiting young people increased after neighboring Shibuya Ward strengthened measures against drinking in public, enacted an ordinance banning street drinking during the Halloween period in the Kabukicho entertainment district and elsewhere.