Balancing act: Satisfying appetites for better nighttime entertainment in Japan

Japan’s nightlife isn’t up to task apparently, and with visitors pouring back into the country after a pandemic-induced dry spell, businesses and organizations are picking up initiatives to develop the nation’s nighttime economies. 

Walking home from work I often pass through the narrow streets west of Tokyo’s Shimbashi station lined with small bars and restaurants which catch much of their business from the flow of workers pouring out of the office towers of Shiodome. 

On a weekday evening the area is typically crowded, steamy and smoky. The smell of grilled meat, the sound of laughter, and a warm glow of light pours out onto the street, block after block. It’s intoxicating, slightly debauched, and renders any idea that Tokyo’s nightlife is lacking almost absurd. 

In even more booming hubs like Shinjuku and Shibuya bars, clubs and restaurants are stacked on top of each other like the latter stages of a game of Jenga. The choice appears to me overwhelming, so much so that I often give up on picking a place and instead just opt for a nighttime wander, an experience which in itself can be entertainment enough. 

Surveys say though, that Japan’s nighttlife is actually to be found lacking, for visiting foreigners at least.

“The nighttime economy (in Japan) is the biggest weakness of inbound tourism,“ reads a 2022 paper on night culture and economy published by the Cabinet Office.  

The paper cited a Development Bank of Japan survey in which Asian visitors to Japan detailed the most unsatisfactory aspects of their visit, with those related to nightlife accounting for a large number of the responses. Visitors apparently lamented the lack of opportunity to experience bars, clubs, night markets, sports, gambling and shows, among other potential after-hours experiences, according to the survey. 

Prior to the pandemic Japan’s nighttime economy was seen as an area of untapped potential by the country’s tourism agency. In a 2019 paper the agency stressed that the nighttime economy had an important role to play in the revitalization of cities in Japan in terms of both culture and economy, even going on to say that nightlife “will become the face of the city and have great potential to attract people from both Japan and abroad.”

The agency eyed with envy the scale of the after-dark economies of London and New York - 3.7 trillion yen for the former 2017 and 2.1 trillion yen for the latter in 2019 - saying that they make a significant contribution to job creation.

“Overseas cities that promote the nighttime economy also focus on cultural values such as art, music, and historical buildings with cultural backgrounds, and their protection and nurturing are integrated with the promotion of the night time economy,” the agency said in its report.

“Popular night experiences available overseas include entertainment shows and live performances that start after 20:00, use of cultural facilities such as art galleries and museums at night, and citywide events.”

And then the pandemic happened.

As overseas visitors flock back to Japan (2.79 million in February, a 7.1 percent rise from the same month in 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization) stakeholders in both the public and private sector are keen to make sure that they won’t leave lamenting the lack of nightlife.

In January Japanese travel agency JTB Corp. and one of Japan’s major brewers Asahi Breweries Ltd., announced that they were collaborating on a project to develop a “high-quality nighttime economy for foreign visitors to Japan.” 

Through the project the two companies aim to provide original tours for the increasing number of foreign visitors to Japan in order that they can experience nighttime entertainment and services unique to the country. 

The project also aims to revitalize the economies and culture of local communities by generating a ripple effect that will provide opportunities for new businesses, including accommodation and transportation, and by focusing on cultural aspects including art, music, and other potential tourism resources.

“We will contribute to the development of sustainable communities by developing tourism content that utilizes local resources to increase the number of people interacting with each other,” President and CEO of JTB Corp. Eijiro Yamakita said of the project.

There are other projects already well underway, including those aimed at helping foreign tourists navigate the more labyrinthine aspects of Japan’s nightlife. 

During the pandemic Online Snack Yokocho Bunka Co. began facilitating online drinking parties at Japan’s snack bars - those pint-sized watering holes often run by women known as "mama-san.” The online parties cracked open the doors to an establishment and culture that had often been viewed as off-limits to all but the most deeply embedded Japanese locals. 

Post-pandemic Snack Yokocho now offers in-person snack bar tours for foreign visitors, sending its customers down the nation’s “yokocho” - narrow alleyways lined with bars - accompanied by an English-speaking guide for a couple of cozy hours consuming liquor and karaoke. 

In the right hands, conducted in the right volume (in terms of numbers), such tours look like good sense - offering inquisitive visitors insight into local Japanese culture and helping local businesses stay in business so that they can keep the bar stools warm for the regulars.  

Speaking at a talk session on developing nighttime economies post-corona in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward last June, Tak Umezawa from the Japan Nighttime Economy Association said that nighttime economies have a major role to play in the revitalization of commercial areas. “Even those efforts where profit is difficult to achieve, including the preservation of culturally significant independent stores, are essential to the maintenance of the city's cultural ecosystem,” he said.

In the development of nighttime economies across Japan the papers and proposals can often be found talking about the need for content creation. 

Content creation perhaps sounds like a banal term but in tourism industry terms it might be something to read about with trepidation.  

Left in idle hands with budgets that need using up, is it content creation that led to the psychotically annoying, and not to mention inexplicably irresponsible, street go-kart tours that can be seen terrorizing traffic in Tokyo? (100 reports concerning traffic violations and noise disturbances related to the tours received by the Metropolitan Police Department in the past year, according to recent reports.) 

And into the night, was it content creation which saddled us with the Robot Restaurant in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district? Not only devoid of taste, the restaurant seemed to me at least proof that it's possible to tinker with and combine so much of Japan’s unique culture and yet come up with something so culturally bankrupt that it beggars belief.  

That the Robot Restaurant was cited as something of as nightime economy content success story in the tourism agency paper might be cause for concern. The restaurant is now closed (although seems to have been repackaged in the guise of the Samurai Restaurant performing tricks at a club called Giragiragirls which has a website that is not safe for work).

I would argue that in the above examples we have cases where content creation has come up with something which rather than celebrating and showcasing Japanese culture and its potential to entertain actually detracts from it. Two and two have been put together to make a product which is so far removed from the sum of its parts that its only value is to be found in profit.

While Japan’s major urban centers perhaps lack a Broadway or West End, I would think that the country already has enough cultural content to satisfy visiting appetites hungry for something to do at night.  

Rather than creating the nonsensical and perhaps unsustainable there is surely more reward to be found by making existing content more accessible. In this respect the stakeholders in Japan might be guilty of overthinking things. In many cases that bar, restaurant, pub or club could become a legitimate resource for foreign visitors simply by translating the menu and fitting a window or two so people can actually assess the situation inside. 

This approach might also lend itself better to sustainability with Japan already struggling with a labor shortage which makes the staffing of existing content problematic.  

Sustainability will also take the form of how much satisfaction these developing nighttime economies can deliver for both visitors and locals.

Last year authorities in Shibuya spent much of 2023 campaigning for people to stay away from the city at night during Halloween. The albeit unofficial Halloween event which used to see tens of thousands of visitors take to Shibuya’s streets for revelry and cosplay it could be argued had actually put Tokyo up for consideration as offering something for people to do at night. At the same time though, revelers left behind a trail of mess and destruction for increasingly disgruntled locals to clean up.

Japan appears to be struggling to strike a balance which keeps visitors and locals satisfied even in the light of day. At the same time as some people want the tourists, others are banning them from streets in Kyoto.  

In developing the nation’s nighttime economies this balance is something which will require even greater care and attention given that so much of what might be offered for visitors and locals at night could center on them getting liquored up.

Do you find Japan to be lacking in nighttime entertainment options?  Let us know in the comments.