This year, two of Tokyo’s most popular nightlife districts – Shibuya and Shinjuku – started cracking down on party gatherings and public drinking over Halloween to tackle rowdy behaviour. Additionally, Shibuya has taken a firmer stance by expanding on existing measures to ban public drinking all year round. With that in mind, Shibuya will not be hosting any celebrations to ring in the 2025 New Year, either.
As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, Shibuya ward has stated that it will not be hosting an official New Year's Eve countdown at the Scramble Crossing due to safety concerns. This is not surprising, as Shibuya had previously suspended New Year's Eve festivities in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ever since then, the ward has not hosted any new year celebrations, claiming that large gatherings in the area could become a safety issue.
For this coming New Year's Eve, temporary fencing will be set up around the Hachiko statue from December 31 to 1am on January 1. Additionally, convenience stores and other shops selling alcohol have been asked to temporarily halt sales for the year-end holidays.
New Year’s Eve celebrations around Shibuya Crossing started back in 2016. In 2018, a whopping total of 120,000 people were reported to have gathered around the world-famous landmark to ring in the new year. So far, there’s no news whether Shinjuku will be following suit. But if we hear anything, we’ll keep you posted.
This article was published on November 14 2024 and updated on December 6 2024.
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