Shibuya Tackles Street Drinking with a New Ordinance

Alcohol Patrol

At just after six in the evening of October 1, a group of men wearing blue security uniforms gather in front of a police box at Shibuya Center-gai, one of Tokyo’s busiest shopping streets. They wear blue caps, and the words “Shibuya Crime Prevention Patrol” are printed on the front and back of their uniforms. The men in the patrol have been hired by the municipality to crack down on street drinking in line with an ordinance that went into effect earlier that day.

A patrol circulates to instruct members of the public not to drink alcohol on the street in Shibuya Center-gai, Shibuya, Tokyo, on October 4, 2024. (© Inose Hijiri)

This is the first time a Japanese ordinance has banned street drinking in an urban area throughout the year. It is an amendment of a 2019 ordinance, which banned open-air drinking around key dates like Halloween and New Year’s Eve. The revision expands its regulations and prohibits drinking every day from six in the evening until five the following morning in streets, parks, and other public spaces in the area around Shibuya Station; this area was also expanded in the amendment.

The patrol soon encounters a couple drinking canned highballs, sitting on some roadside planters. They explain about the ordinance, showing a map, and persuade them to stop. Patrol members take the half-empty cans and throw the contents away, before putting them in a large plastic bag prepared for the purpose.

The couple are two tourists from Seattle, both aged 32. The woman says, “Drinking on the street isn’t allowed in the States, but my friend told me you could do it in Japan.” She says she did not know about the ordinance, and asks me, “Will street drinking be banned all over Japan?”

Pandemic Normalization

I asked Higashiura Sachio, who heads Shibuya’s municipal safety division, about the background to the ordinance. He says that while drinking had been observed from time to time in areas like Shibuya Center-gai for many years, repeated recent Halloween disturbances through daytime and into the night were the impetus for its implementation. As the Western festival caught on in Japan, a trend developed of large crowds gathering around Shibuya Station, leading to numerous incidents.

In 2018, the mayhem included drunken young people overturning a kei truck on Center-gai, leading to arrests. The municipality took this unruly behavior seriously, introducing a “Halloween ordinance” the following year that banned street drinking in the area by Shibuya Station around Halloween and the New Year period.

Despite the ordinance, there was unexpected growth in street drinking, as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2020 to 2021, bars and other drinking establishments were forced to close their doors to prevent the spread of infection, and the number of street drinkers skyrocketed. They were mainly Japanese, due to tight restrictions on international visitors entering the country.

Having become normalized, street drinking continued after pandemic restrictions were eased and bars reopened for business. These were not just solo drinkers; there were late-night parties too, drawing complaints from people in the area. When the country opened up, and a wave of tourists came in, they copied what they saw the Japanese doing. Street drinking became an everyday sight in downtown Shibuya.

Around Shibuya Station, signs inform people that drinking is prohibited. Photograph taken at Miyashita Park, Shibuya, Tokyo, on October 4, 2024. (© Inose Hijiri)

Deeply concerned by the adverse effects of this behavior, in September 2023 the municipality started patrols around Shibuya Station every evening, calling on people to stop public drinking. However, the former ordinance was based around voluntary self-restraint, and had limited effect, so the municipality had no choice but to introduce an amendment. It strengthened its patrols when the amendment came into effect, and there are now speakers of English, French, and Chinese who can convey the message to foreign tourists.

What is wrong with drinking on the street? Higashiura says, “Groups of drinkers block the road, stopping traffic from passing, and they drop litter and speak in loud voices, disturbing the businesses around them. There are also cases of property damage and violent incidents.” He goes on to stress, “There’s nothing wrong with drinking alcohol in itself, but street drinking is a problem.”

Ōnishi Kenji, chair of the Shibuya Federation of Stores Association, welcomes the crackdown, agreeing that drinking alcohol is fine in itself, but saying that “Street drinking makes the area dirty and leads to trouble.”

Most Comply

Has the ordinance had its intended effect? I walked around Shibuya Station with a patrol on the day that it came into force and October 4, which was the first Friday afterward.

We encountered many street drinkers. Usually they were alone, or sometimes in twos or threes, drinking canned chūhai or liqueurs. Maybe because it was early, there were no large groups. Whether it was because of the ordinance or not, the Shibuya municipal representative with us said, “There seem to be far fewer people than usual for the weekend.”

I had the impression that there were many foreign tourists drinking on the street. According to municipal records kept since the start of patrols last year, two out of three people warned about drinking are non-Japanese. Although most of the people walking around were Japanese, the majority of street drinkers appeared to be from other countries.

Connecticut-born MJ, a YouTuber who has lived in Japan for 17 years, says that for many foreign visitors, drinking on the street is one of the things they want to try when they go to Japan, like going to a maid café. This is because it is not unusual to have strict restrictions on drinking in public places in Western countries, so the experience becomes a special travel memory. MJ himself says that he remembers thinking “that’s awesome” when he first came to Japan and learned it was possible to drink in public.

From what I saw, whatever their nationality, most street drinkers were quick to give up their partially finished alcoholic drinks when they were approached by patrol members. Almost all the foreign drinkers said they did not know about the ordinance and would of course follow it. The Japanese drinkers were the same. However, some foreign drinkers resisted or ignored the patrol members’ words. Two men who appeared to be foreign tourists refused to hand over their drinks, insisting that they were for the train as they walked away.

Two foreign men with cans of beer who refuse to hand over their drinks even after learning that street drinking is forbidden. Photo taken near Shibuya Station on October 4, 2024; edited to preserve privacy. (© Inose Hijiri)

Further Measures?

There are no fines or other penalties for violating the ordinance. Alcoholic drinks must be voluntarily given up and cannot be forcibly taken away. This situation has led to some doubts about the ordinance’s effectiveness.

There are also concerns that the street drinking problem may move to other municipalities. After Shibuya’s municipal government launched a campaign to discourage people from visiting last Halloween, using social media and other means, some revelers held major street parties in the Kabukichō district of Shinjuku. This year, the Shinjuku government quickly passed its own ordinance banning street drinking around Kabukichō from five in the afternoon of October 31 to five the following morning.

Shinjuku Mayor Yoshizumi Ken’ichi (left) and Shibuya Mayor Hasebe Ken talk about their street drinking ordinances at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on October 7, 2024. (© Inose Hijiri)

Shibuya Mayor Hasebe Ken and Shinjuku Mayor Yoshizumi Ken’ichi promoted their ordinances at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on October 7. Hasebe said that if there is no improvement, there may need to be further measures, commenting, “As in many countries, there’s a need to be strict.” He also said that in such a case, “The municipalities of Shinjuku and Shibuya are thinking of asking the national government and Tokyo metropolis to establish laws with fines and other penalties.”

A foreign man hands over his canned cocktail after listening to a patrol’s explanation near Shibuya Station on October 4, 2024. Photo edited to preserve privacy. (© Inose Hijiri)

While large tourist numbers have positive economic effects, they can also quickly lead to friction and problems due to differences in customs and ways of thinking. For Japan, which aims to become a major tourist destination, Shibuya’s issues do not only affect one municipality. They must be considered and addressed by the country as a whole.

(Originally published in Japanese on October 18, 2024. Banner photo: Shibuya Mayor Hasebe Ken at the head of a procession in Shibuya Center-gai promoting the introduction of the ordinance banning street drinking from October 1, 2024. © Inose Hijiri.)