On September 30, Shibuya Ward declared “Zero Nuisance Public Drinking,” with safety measures to be applied from night to early morning.
Shibuya’s “public drinking” tradition has undergone notable modifications in latest months. Young individuals will be seen sitting subsequent to piled-up rubbish baggage, ingesting alcohol as in the event that they have been at residence.
Some international people are even consuming alcohol underneath tents.
The presence of Japanese individuals has diminished, whereas the variety of international guests has surged. According to investigations in Shibuya ward, there are days when the variety of international nationals seen ingesting on the streets is twice that of Japanese individuals.
When a graduate pupil in his 20s was requested why he engaged in public ingesting, he responded by saying, “When drinking in public with foreigners, if I say something like ‘Kanpai!’ as in cheers, they all go ‘Woo!’ and cheer. Everyone becomes like friends.”
The mayor of Shibuya exclaimed, “We’ve observed a larger number of foreigners engaging in public drinking than before. Especially as the post-COVID period is emerging, this has become a significant issue.”
“With a budget of around 200 million yen, we are carrying out patrols within Shibuya Ward. Additionally, we are planning to allocate several million yen more and create a patrol unit focused on standing drinking, particularly in the Shibuya area,” the mayor added.
Starting from September 1st, day-after-day from 8 PM to five AM, six safety personnel from personal firms shall be patrolling Shibuya Ward. Among them, there will even be people who can converse English to handle foreigners.