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TOKYO — The huge number of Halloween partygoers that used to descend on the capital’s Shibuya Ward moved to the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro areas this year, the Mainichi Shimbun’s analysis has revealed.
Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe, who had made the unusual call for people to refrain from coming to the area, expressed thanks to the media on the morning of Nov. 1, saying, “It was a relatively quiet Halloween and we are grateful.” On Oct. 31, the downtown area around JR Shibuya Station was less crowded with people in costumes, and there was no noticeable trouble.
On the other hand, according to analysis by the Mainichi Shimbun based on data from SoftBank Corp. subsidiary Agoop Corp., the number of people within a 500-meter radius compared to last year slightly fell or rose around JR Shibuya Station depending on the time of day, but was significantly higher around the JR Ikebukuro Station area and Shinjuku’s Kabukicho entertainment district as the night wore on.
Shibuya saw a slight decrease in crowds from 7 to 9 p.m. Between 10 and 11 p.m., Shibuya observed a small rise of 6%, while Kabukicho saw a 24% boost in numbers and Ikebukuro experienced a 20% increase.
On the evening of Oct. 31, the area around “Toyoko Plaza (Cine City Plaza)” in Kabukicho was crowded with young people in costumes and foreigners who appeared to be tourists.
Some of the Halloween revelers said they had moved from Shibuya. A 22-year-old male university student from the Saitama Prefecture city of Tokorozawa, dressed in a maid costume, said, “I came to Shinjuku because I heard there was a warning not to go to Shibuya. I wanted to have some fun before I enter the workforce.” A 26-year-old British woman on a trip said that there were not many people in costumes in Shibuya, so she came to Shinjuku. She added that she was happy to see people dressed up in eccentric outfits.
Large crowds had been expected this year, partly because it was the first Halloween since the legal status of COVID-19 was downgraded to the same level as seasonal influenza under Japan’s infectious disease control law.
According to the Shibuya Ward Office, at its peak on the evening of Oct. 31, the Shibuya Center-gai street attracted only about 15,000 people, which was 8,000, or 35%, fewer than last year. The ward’s crowd analysis methods and areas covered differ from Agoop’s.
As part of efforts to minimalize crowds, Shibuya Ward had set up a temporary enclosure around the famous Hachiko dog statue in front of Shibuya Station, where many people tend to gather, to cordon off the area. Local convenience stores were asked to refrain from selling alcohol, and other measures were taken to prevent alcohol consumption on the streets, which could lead to trouble.
(Japanese original by Yuta Kumamoto and Hiroya Miyagi, Digital News Group)
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