Tokyo’s Shibuya district, which has lengthy been referred to as the centre of teenybopper tradition in Japan, has as soon as once more moved to limit its Halloween side road celebrations. A mayoral edict towards so-called “Nuisance Halloween” has ended in a chain of strict measures lately, together with a public consuming ban, to curb rowdy behaviour.
This draconian edge echoes Japan’s wider flip underneath its new high minister, Sanae Takaichi. She positioned an emphasis at the tighter keep watch over of public area and actions throughout her management marketing campaign, mentioning the desire for a “strict response to law-breaking foreigners”.
A decade in the past, Halloween in Shibuya acted as a store window for “Cool Japan”, a state-sponsored initiative to leverage the cool dimensions of Jap tradition across the world. Large costume-clad crowds crammed the well-known Shibuya crossing, one of the most international’s busiest pedestrian intersections, in a spontaneous birthday party that aligned international youngsters tradition with Tokyo’s city vibrancy.
Since then, then again, the temper has shifted some of the ranges of presidency that make up the arena’s biggest city. Shibuya mayor, Ken Hasebe, has again and again prompt partygoers – particularly vacationers – to not accumulate for Halloween. And to deter problematic behaviour, he has bolstered bans on public consuming and has requested outlets to halt alcohol gross sales.
A big crowd of other folks accrued on the iconic Shibuya ‘scramble’ crossing at Halloween in 2018.
Shawn.ccf / Shutterstock
The turning level got here in 2018, when a gaggle of Halloween revellers overturned a truck close to the Shibuya crossing. The incident drew nationwide complaint and ended in the arrest of 4 other folks after CCTV research.
365 days later, Shibuya offered a public consuming ban round Halloween and New 12 months’s Eve. This used to be the primary formal restriction on a in large part unregulated amassing that had, till then, loved the endorsement of town leaders as a part of nascent branding efforts.
A crucial global reference level used to be supplied in 2022, when a crowd overwhelm throughout Halloween festivities within the Itaewon nightlife district of Seoul, the South Korean capital, killed 159 other folks. Shibuya has skilled no similar incidents, however Mayor Hasebe has continuously cited Itaewon when pleading with revellers to not crowd the streets. He has framed his movements as important to steer clear of a equivalent result.
Via 2024, everlasting midnight bans on public consuming were offered in portions of Shibuya. This used to be adopted via additional tightening. Alcohol gross sales had been limited via retail outlets throughout Halloween nights, smoking spaces had been closed, side road layouts had been altered to disrupt crowd go with the flow, and safety patrols had been expanded.
On Halloween in 2025, electrical scooter and e-bike products and services may also be suspended at quite a lot of lending and go back ports close to the busiest spaces. What used to be as soon as an natural, globally visual amassing has progressively been controlled, discouraged and hollowed out.
Towns international are confronting equivalent stress. However somewhat than taking steps to limit such process outright, many have sought to manipulate it extra strategically.
Amsterdam pioneered the workplace of “night mayor” in 2012 to stability divergent pursuits within the Ecu nightlife capital. London then followed a equivalent idea thru its personal “night czar”, whilst New York Town has established an workplace of nightlife to regulate late-night tradition as a coverage area somewhat than a policing factor.
Shibuya itself used to be as soon as in the leading edge of this manner. The district appointed Jap hip-hop artist Zeebra as its nightlife ambassador in 2016, selling a imaginative and prescient of curated and accountable midnight process. The present Halloween deterrence technique marks a definite shift from integration to avoidance.
Converting political local weather
Japan’s converting nationwide political local weather provides this native pivot a deeper resonance. Takaichi, Japan’s much-vaunted first feminine high minister, puts a heavy emphasis on social order. She has referred to as for more potent policing and the security of nationwide id amid emerging tourism and migration.
Whilst Shibuya’s nightlife insurance policies don’t seem to be enacted via the nationwide executive, they echo a broader shift in Japan that connects perceived dysfunction – specifically related to foreigners – to a necessity for proactive keep watch over.
This marks a pointy ruin from the “Cool Japan” technology of the 2000s and 2010s, when casual side road tradition and youth-led cultural imagery had been keenly leveraged as comfortable energy. As a spot the place vacationers may in short take part in Jap cultural lifestyles, Shibuya used to be emblematic of that openness. The similar phenomenon has now been reclassified as a conceivable danger.
It is very important recognize the actual dangers related to city crowd control. Itaewon demonstrated how a carnival environment can flip deadly in mins. On the other hand, when protection messaging merges with narratives about public order and international affect, city law dangers drifting from crowd control headlong into cultural gate-keeping.
Japan’s new high minister, Sanae Takaichi, has referred to as for a ‘strict response to law-breaking foreigners’.
Eugene Hoshiko / EPA
Tokyo isn’t by myself in limiting components of nightlife when public tolerance is exceeded. Amsterdam has cracked down on what it calls “disruptive tourism”, whilst Barcelona has sought to curb late-night side road gatherings that disrupt neighbourhood lifestyles. However Japan’s trajectory seems distinct in that it isn’t running towards new fashions of controlled coexistence between nightlife, citizens and guests.
Shibuya’s reaction may additionally set a precedent for different city hubs in Japan. This sits uneasily along nationwide ambitions to draw extra vacationers, recruit international employees and draw global skill at a time of inhabitants decline and near-zero birthrates.
Japan now faces a catch 22 situation: can it manage to pay for to retreat from culturally open public areas on the very second it wishes to look extra welcoming at the international level? The Halloween crackdown displays a polarising governance selection – now not with reference to public protection, however about what sort of society Japan needs to venture to the out of doors international.
