Arab News Japan

DUBAI: Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward Head Ken Hasebe announced in a press conference this month that Shibuya will be “closed for Halloween.”

It is well-known that Tokyo always hosted impromptu street parties on the night of Oct. 31, which played a huge part in popularizing Halloween in Japan. The Halloween trend surged in the early 2010s in Japan with crowds flocking to Shibuya every year since.

However, the crowds became much larger over the years and the number of high-profile incidents of disorderly conduct, vandalism, littering and violence increased.

In 2023, Shibuya Ward put up signs that said “No events for Halloween on Shibuya streets” in English and “Shibuya is not a Halloween event venue” in Japanese, and this year’s posters will bear the same messages.

Countermeasures have already been put in place to avoid impromptu parties on the streets, including the banning of consumption of alcohol year-round on public streets in the part of the neighborhood around Shibuya Station.

According to reports, the Shibuya Ward administration is also asking that convenience stores in the area refrain from selling alcoholic beverages between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. from the evening of Oct. 26 through the morning of Nov. 1.

A total of 130 ward employees will be patrolling the neighborhood on Oct. 25-30 along with a force of 185 police officers on Oct. 30 and 31, the reports stated.

The police force will also be setting up 10 crowd monitoring towers in the area.

The Shibuya Ward government, however, cannot ban people from celebrating Halloween on the streets of Shibuya as they cannot make it illegal for people to dress up in costumes and walk around the neighborhood.