Shibuya New Year’s Eve countdown event canceled for 3rd straight year

Meanwhile the rest of the world has moved in..,How Lame. They continue to keep Japanese people living in fear.

could cause a cluster of COVID-19 infections

For young people partying at Shibuya, should be read:

’could cause a cold »

Drinking in public spaces will be prohibited in parks and streets around Shibuya Station during the year-end and New Year holiday season

Why?

Because of a probably bad behaviour of drunken people or because of the stupid mindset of some people, that stop drinking will stop Covid?

And Parks and streets are open air!

Look at the Octoberfest this year in Germany. Look and learn!

And how many more years will they continue with this stupid rule?

Corona will never go away. It will always be here.

So will they continue with this stupid rule forever?

‘I urge people to refrain from visiting outdoor venues for countdown celebrations’……brilliant, let’s all meet up indoors where there’s much more chance of spreading a virus compared to outside! Do these people have to pass some form of ‘idiot training’ before they get the job?

Good, well done Tokyo !!..

Meanwhile the rest of the world has moved in..,How Lame. They continue to keep Japanese people living in fear.

If you want to be in Japan, you have to follow the laws whether you like it or not.

Pathetic. Glacial speed again getting over covid. Japan, last country in the world to get back to normal.

I urge people to refrain from visiting outdoor venues for countdown celebrations

But on the other hand, they want tourists to come back.

Do these people have to pass some form of ‘idiot training’ before they get the job?

Absolutely!

But I am wondering who is the instructor?

The local government has been using this to change the behavior, and thus the image of Shibuya. They hope to do what Roppongi did a decade ago. They want more corporate businesses setting up offices and high-end shops/restaurants with less bars, clubs, and love hotels.

Shinjuku also used the mosquito spread virus to remove the homeless then renovated Chuo park before the Olympics.

There will always be people who have certain vices. They need somewhere to go to get them. Cleaning up Shibuya will push it somewhere else. Of course, they want the poor areas of the city to take these problems.

will it be the same for Halloween this year? I'm fine with both events being cancelled. personally I can't see the enjoyment in gathering with 1000s of people but the issue is spreading infection.

Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe said, “The situation remains unpredictable. Drinking in public spaces will be prohibited in parks and streets around Shibuya Station during the year-end and New Year holiday season. I urge people to refrain from visiting outdoor venues for countdown celebrations.”

Even before COVID the usual busybodies were trying to dampen the Shibuya Halloween and New Years gatherings.

Meanwhile all throughout the summer in Shibuya and Setagaya Wards I have seen large clusters of students and families drinking and setting off fireworks in the evenings if the weather was fine.

Since the borders have been opened, I wonder how the foreign tourists will observe these diktats.

Doesn’t mean that people won’t make their own celebrations anyway.

People are still going to go. Urging will do absolutely nothing.

As long as people are still commuting to school and work every day, cancelling events, especially outside events, will do very little to curb the spread. Plus you have TONS of people congregating in Izakaya, coffee shops and restaurants. And those are closed spaces. The countdown is happening outside in the open air.

Makes no sense in cancelling the event unless you're going to go back to a SOE

They're trying to single out and punish Shibuya for being a place where young people, foreigners, loose girls, and other people that don't easily fit into Japanese society can have fun. Nobody who hangs out in Shibuya ever cared about Covid. Nobody there is wearing masks and the entire time the bars remained open even during SoEs (they made a LOT of money too). Meanwhile Yokohama bent the knee during Covid and as a reward is now allowed to host an Oktoberfest which cramped like a thousand people into a large tent.

 I urge people to refrain from visiting outdoor venues for countdown celebrations.

so what? They’ll go to indoor venues instead where they will probably be 10 times more likely to get infected?

Just one nonsensical rule after another from the authorities on COVID in this country.

Just take no notice of these morons.

Party Pooper

How desperately sad. Japan is still clinging onto 2020 Covid status while the rest of the world has moved on. Perhaps in say, ten years, the country will wake up and realize that Covid is just something people live with.

They're just using Covid as an excuse because they never liked these events anyway.

hahaha you mods a weak as p!ss

Politicians will use any excuse to pursue their own agenda... Covid is just another excuse for this!

Let the youngens celebrate. So weak to use Covid as an excuse to shut it down.

It's best to get out of Japan altogether for NYE.

That's what I and family will be doing.

Sad for the Shibuya youth though.

Be tough to be a young person over the last few years. Their formative years have really been destroyed in terms of social events and mingling - I hope the elderly think it's been worth it.

Shibuya New Year’s Eve countdown event canceled for 3rd straight year:

I stayed in Shibuya for 2 weeks in 1983 while on education tour in Japan.

It is a cool place for young people's gathering, full of vitality.

~40 years on, I wonder if it remains the haven for energetic youth..

If there’s no celebration on the street, then the vast majority will simply go to a packed out club or bar instead - what did they think these people would do? Stay at home and watch tv? Just utterly ridiculous.

Covid is hitting Japan pretty hard. Too many seniors who can't handle it. Unfortunately, those seniors are the ones calling the shots, too. We finally have a generation of youth who understand that there are things more fun than what the ministry of education deems so... And they are told they're not allowed to have said fun.

Poor kids.

I guess if they don't conform to working 80 hours a week in suits, they have no say in the matter anyway.

Pathetic! There isn't seem to be and end to the war on having fun.

Fabulous news.!. The jgov is slowly coming around to the concept of being proactive instead of reactive.!. The XBB variant will surely be running wild here by New year’s….

“ Shibuya New Year’s Eve countdown event canceled for 3rd straight year “

Good; we don’t need more perverts and sexual predators out there in the streets; the purpose of this so called “ event “ was to give people the opportunity to do bad / stupid / dirty stuff. The reason why this feels so out of place is because, a) traditionally, the Japanese spend their new year at home with their family or at the shrine/temple (hatsumode) and b) because this never had the full support of the local government. This isn’t New York / Times Square, folks. ( downvote me all you want :) )

..

( as for Covid, ( generally speaking ) I agree that Japan should move on )

( edited )

“ … the Japanese spend their new year at home with their family and friends … “

( edited )

traditionally, the Japanese spend their new year at home with their friends, family and loved ones or at the shrine/temple (hatsumode)

( edit button, please )

They continue to keep Japanese people living in fear.

Fear makes control easier.

The reason why this feels so out of place is because, a) traditionally, the Japanese spend their new year at home with their family or at the shrine/temple (hatsumode) and b) because this never had the full support of the local government. This isn’t New York / Times Square, folks

Tokyo probably is big enough to have shrines and family celebrations as well as parties like most major cities in the world. There are enough young people here who would love to go to a massive countdown event.

Today  03:58 pm JST

“ Tokyo probably is big enough to have shrines and family celebrations as well as parties like most major cities in the world. There are enough young people here who would love to go to a massive countdown event. “

Fair enough; but that’s why I mentioned the lack of support from the TMG; if that wasn’t the case, things would probably look very different and we could be having a very different discussion now, but as numan said:

The local government has been using this to change the behavior, and thus the image of Shibuya. They hope to do what Roppongi did a decade ago. They want more corporate businesses setting up offices and high-end shops/restaurants with less bars, clubs, and love hotels.