Kabukicho, Redevelopment and Night Resistance: 2003-2020

Kabukicho, Redevelopment and Night Resistance: 2003-2020

In the early 2000s, Kabukicho began to undergo a major transformation through a redevelopment policy called "Operation Cleanup. Under the slogan of "creating a safe and secure town," the government promoted the elimination of gangs, the closure of illegal stores, and the installation of security cameras; this purification campaign, which began in 2003, was continued after 2008 and the Lehman shock, and the opening of the Shinjuku Toho Building in 2015 accelerated the transformation of the area into "Shinjuku, the tourist city. Behind the scenes, however, people who have made the nightlife district their place of life began to lose their place.

For hosts, cabaret girls, and bar workers, the night was not only a time for work, but also a reality in which they could preserve themselves. Cleansing also means erasing their living space. With each crackdown by the police and the government, the lights of the stores went out, and the cheap hotels and old bars disappeared. Safety" was the word of the administration, and for the night people it meant exclusion.

Still, small resistance continued. In a corner of Kabukicho, moms of old snack bars, actors of small theaters, and workers of the doyagai tried to protect their spaces. In Golden Gai, shopkeepers once again strengthened their support for each other, creating their own nighttime autonomy. The more the government held up the light, the more they redefined the place of darkness.

With the development of social networking and night media, night culture has once again become visible. But it is also synonymous with commercialization. The streets have become cleaner and brighter, but the raw chaos that once inhabited them has faded. For the inhabitants of the night, resistance means living without turning off the neon lights. To leave a ray of human light in the orderly light of the government.

Today, Kabukicho continues to breathe between purification and regeneration. The redevelopment of the nightlife district is not mere urban improvement, but continues to raise the question, "Who is the city for?