Authorities Keep Close Eye on Halloween Revelers in Tokyo’s Kabukicho

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:01 JST, November 1, 2024

People dressed up in costumes to mark Halloween flocked to the Kabukicho entertainment district in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, and the area near Shibuya Station in the capital Thursday evening.

In a bid to prevent problems that arose when huge crowds of people celebrated Halloween in public in recent years, Shinjuku Ward in June this year enacted an ordinance that prohibited drinking on the streets during the annual event. On Thursday evening, ward officials and other personnel keeping an eye on the crowds in Kabukicho warned some young people who were drinking canned alcoholic drinks on the street.

In 2019, Shibuya Ward enacted an ordinance that prohibited street drinking during the Halloween period following a raft of problems caused by revelers near the station in previous years. Last year, the ward even asked people not to come to Shibuya for Halloween. As a result, hordes of young people instead congregated in Kabukicho, which led to huge amounts of rubbish being discarded on streets in the area and other problems. This prompted Shinjuku Ward to establish a similar ordinance this year.

Riot police squad officers from the Metropolitan Police Department also directed traffic in front of Shibuya Station on Thursday evening.