This busy Tokyo neighborhood draws thousands of Halloween visitors. Some locals have had enough of the party

More than 500,000 people march, walk, skateboard and dance across Shibuya Crossing every day. As the world’s busiest and most famous intersection, it’s an essential Tokyo tourist stop.

Many places around the world would love to have a “must visit” destination of this cachet. But Shibuya, one of the city’s most popular neighborhoods, is not so sure it wants to be one of them.

Amid complaints of too many tourists and bad behavior, which have led to clashes between residents and visitors, Shibuya’s local government has been trying to change the district’s fashionable reputation.

The neighborhood has long been considered the ultimate spot for young people to celebrate Halloween in Japan. In the early 2010s, Shibuya became popular with young families whose kids wanted to dress up in cute costumes. But adults wanted to get in on the fun, too. In 2017, the neighborhood actively promoted “ShibuHallo” as a community event.

Shibuya’s central location and popularity with foreigners — it has more than 1,000 registered hotels and other accommodations — meant the party got bigger every year.

Now, a decade after “ShibuHallo,” many Shibuya locals want to put the genie back in the bottle.

Tokyo is made up of 23 smaller cities, or wards, each with its own leaders, rules and regulations. Ken Hasebe has been the mayor of Shibuya since 2015, and Halloween celebrations have become a bête noire of his administration.

This year, Shibuya isn’t pushing ShibuHallo. They’re promoting a different slogan aimed at preventing public disturbances: “Goodbye Bad Halloween.”

Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images

After Japan reopened post-pandemic, tourism surged — and hasn’t stopped. Mount Fuji ’s hiking trails, Niseko ’s ski slopes, and Nara’s deer park all began to sag under the weight of overtourism.

In 2025, Japan welcomed more than 40 million foreign visitors — about five times as many as in 2012.

Amid the increased number of travelers, cultural clashes and misunderstandings have grown more common.

For example, visitors to Kyoto’s historic Gion neighborhood were so often seen chasing, harassing, and photographing the city’s famous geishas that locals coined the term “ geisha paparazzi .” The city put up signage in multiple languages asking tourists to behave themselves around the women, but not everyone paid heed. Some residents took matters into their own hands, chasing away badly behaved visitors or blocking off private roads.

In the capital, though, it’s Halloween, a holiday associated with all things spooky and scary, that has become a real-life nightmare.

During Hasebe’s tenure as mayor, Shibuya City’s Halloween celebration has gone from being a neighborhood gathering to an international event. With that came all kinds of new problems: public urination, noise complaints, broken bottles in the street and building damage, among others.

In 2018, Hasebe welcomed visitors to the area but urged them to enjoy Halloween without causing inconvenience to others.

Although there were hiccups along the way, including a handful of arrests, it seemed like Shibuya City’s polite requests might work to balance a love of dressing up and having fun with a respect for one’s neighbors. But on October 29, 2022, the stakes became much higher.

Two days before Halloween 2022, celebrations were in full swing in Itaewon, the hipster-filled neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea. Some 100,000 people descended on the neighborhood, causing human traffic jams in the narrow streets. Then, tragedy struck — as more and more revelers tried to cram into a popular alleyway, it became a pressure point. People began to collapse, and without a way to quickly exit they began to pile up on top of each other. Some suffocated. Others were crushed. In all, 154 people — mostly Koreans in their 20s and 30s – died that night .

The Itaewon news sent shockwaves around the world. Other cities began to wonder if a similar disaster could happen in their own streets. In Shibuya, Halloween festivities were already a nuisance — but now, officials realized there was more to worry about than empty bottles and loud music.

Hasebe wrote a public note expressing his condolences for the Itaewon tragedy, adding, “the crowdedness around Shibuya station on the weekend makes us worry that a similar accident might happen in Shibuya, too.”

In addition, the mayor made public statements asking people not to come to Shibuya for Halloween. While about 15,000 people still showed up in 2023, it was significantly lower than the crowds of 60,000 or so in previous years. In 2024, crowds were about 20,000. Hasebe estimates that 70-80% of them are international travelers.

Over the years, the government has made incremental changes during Halloween week, such as putting up fences around the statue of the famously loyal dog Hachiko — which often has lines of visitors waiting to snap selfies — and asking local shops not to sell alcohol. This year is no exception, with extra security guards set to be stationed at 10 locations around Shibuya during the Halloween weekend.

But some Shibuya business owners say the Halloween restrictions hurt them financially. Others complain that they face more issues from local law enforcement than they do from would-be partiers.

One izakaya owner told CNN, “Early in the evening there are more police vehicles and officers than people in costume. Police vehicles line up in front of the restaurant, making it impossible to park delivery vehicles.” She asked that her name not be used because she feared repercussions against her business.

Nicolas Datiche/Sipa USA

She adds that her regulars, who are Shibuya office workers, tend to go home early on Halloween to avoid the chaos. She also said that her restaurant — which, while still in the neighborhood, is off the main drag — has “never” been harmed by Halloween partying. For her, the biggest challenge is navigating the crowds in order to make it to the Shibuya Station and not miss the last train of the night, which departs around midnight.

Some feel the restrictions don’t go far enough.

Tatsuji Suzuki, chairman of the busy Center Gai shopping street, says that while there are more rules in place, such as a 2,000 yen ($13) fine for littering, “there are no penalties.” Without rigorous enforcement, he says, there’s no reason for people to change their behavior.

Rather than expect Shibuya City to help, Suzuki says he and his fellow association members decided to work together. “The area once had poor public safety and few rules. Fearing the shopping street would stop functioning if visitors stayed away, the association took action. Because the shopping street acted first, the ward joined in, creating a united front to protect the area.”

Now, street cleaning on Center Gai happens every day, rain or shine, and a crime-prevention unit prowls the area.

Shibuya has also closed off some public toilets and changing areas in the train station so they can’t be overtaken by partiers getting into their costumes. All-caps posters plastered around the district blare NO LOITERING and NO OBSTRUCTING.

For Suzuki, the ultimate goal would be turning October 31 back into just another regular day on the calendar. He tells CNN that Halloween has already begun to fall back out of favor with local Japanese, with fewer people getting into the spirit every year.

“It’s reached the point where people feel embarrassed to dress up.”

Mayor Hasebe, whose annual Halloween campaigns focus on asking people to mind their manners, suggests an alternative: Celebrate indoors.

每天有超过50万人涌入涩谷十字路口，或步行、或滑滑板、或跳舞。作为世界上最繁忙、最著名的十字路口，它是东京必游的景点之一。

世界上很多地方都渴望拥有一个像涩谷这样声名远播的“必游之地”。但涩谷，这个东京最受欢迎的街区之一，却并不确定自己是否想成为其中之一。

由于游客过多和不良行为引发居民与游客之间的冲突，涩谷地方政府一直在努力改变该地区的时尚形象。

长期以来，涩谷一直被认为是日本年轻人庆祝万圣节的最佳地点。2010年代初期，涩谷开始受到年轻家庭的青睐，孩子们都喜欢穿上可爱的服装。但成年人也想参与其中，享受节日的乐趣。2017年，涩谷积极推广“ShibuHallo”社区活动。

涩谷的中心位置和其在外国人中的人气——拥有超过 1000 家注册酒店和其他住宿场所——意味着派对规模逐年扩大。

如今，距离“涩谷万岁”事件发生已经十年了，许多涩谷居民希望将这股风潮重新压下去。

东京由23个较小的城区（或称区）组成，每个城区都有自己的领导人、规章制度。长谷部谦自2015年起担任涩谷区区长，而万圣节庆祝活动已成为他执政期间的一大难题。

今年涩谷没有推广“涩谷万圣节”（ShibuHallo），而是推广另一个旨在防止公共骚乱的口号：“告别糟糕的万圣节”。

山崎雄一/法新社/盖蒂图片社

日本疫情后重新开放，旅游业蓬勃发展，而且一直没有停止。富士山的徒步路线、二世古的滑雪场和奈良的鹿苑都开始因过度旅游而不堪重负。

2025年，日本接待了超过4000万外国游客——大约是2012年的五倍。

随着游客数量的增加，文化冲突和误解也变得越来越普遍。

例如，在京都历史悠久的祇园街区，游客追逐、骚扰和拍摄当地著名艺伎的现象屡见不鲜，以至于当地人创造了“艺伎狗仔队”一词。京都政府竖立了多种语言的告示，要求游客在艺伎面前举止得体，但并非所有人都听从了。一些居民甚至自行采取行动，驱赶行为不端的游客或封锁私人道路。

然而，在首都，万圣节——这个与所有诡异恐怖的事物联系在一起的节日——却变成了现实生活中的噩梦。

在长谷部担任市长期间，涩谷市的万圣节庆祝活动从邻里聚会发展成为国际盛事。随之而来的是各种各样的新问题：随地小便、噪音扰民、街头遍地碎酒瓶以及建筑物损坏等等。

2018 年，长谷部欢迎游客来到该地区，但敦促他们在享受万圣节的同时不要给其他人带来不便。

尽管过程中出现了一些波折，包括几起逮捕事件，但涩谷市礼貌性的请求似乎能够平衡人们对盛装打扮和娱乐的热爱与对邻居的尊重。然而，2022年10月29日，事态变得更加严峻。

2022年万圣节前两天，首尔梨泰院——这个潮人聚集的街区——正值庆祝活动如火如荼地进行。约10万人涌入这里，狭窄的街道上人山人海，交通堵塞。随后，悲剧发生——随着越来越多的狂欢者试图挤进一条热门的巷道，这条巷道成为了一个压力点。人们开始倒下，由于没有快速出口，他们开始互相挤压。有些人窒息而死，有些人被踩踏致死。当晚，共有154人丧生，其中大部分是20至30岁的韩国人。

梨泰院的惨剧震惊了世界。其他城市开始担忧类似的灾难是否会在自己的街道上重演。在涩谷，万圣节庆祝活动原本就令人烦恼，但现在，官员们意识到，除了空酒瓶和嘈杂的音乐之外，还有更多问题需要担忧。

长谷部发表公开声明，对梨泰院惨案表示哀悼，并补充道：“周末涩谷站附近人潮拥挤，让我们担心涩谷也可能发生类似的事故。”

此外，市长还公开呼吁民众不要在万圣节前往涩谷。尽管2023年仍有约1.5万人到场，但与往年约6万人的盛况相比，人数已大幅下降。2024年，人群规模约为2万人。长谷部估计，其中70%至80%是国际游客。

多年来，政府在万圣节期间逐步调整了相关措施，例如在著名的忠犬八公雕像周围设置围栏（该雕像经常吸引大量游客排队拍照），并要求当地商店停止销售酒类饮品。今年也不例外，万圣节周末期间，涩谷周边10个地点将增派保安人员。

但一些涩谷商家表示，万圣节的限制措施给他们造成了经济损失。另一些商家则抱怨说，他们面临的来自当地执法部门的麻烦比来自那些想来聚会的人的麻烦还要多。

一位居酒屋老板告诉CNN：“傍晚时分，警车和警察的数量比穿制服的人还多。警车排成一排停在餐厅门口，外卖车根本没法停。”她要求匿名，因为她担心自己的生意会受到牵连。

Nicolas Datiche/Sipa USA

她补充说，她的常客都是涩谷的上班族，为了避开万圣节的混乱，他们通常会在万圣节当天早早回家。她还说，她的餐厅虽然也在附近，但并不在主干道上，所以“从未”受到过万圣节派对的影响。对她来说，最大的挑战是如何在熙熙攘攘的人群中穿梭，赶到涩谷站，不错过午夜前后发车的末班车。

有些人认为这些限制措施力度不够。

繁华的中心街商店街的董事长铃木达治表示，虽然现在出台了一些规定，例如乱扔垃圾罚款2000日元（约合13美元），但“并没有真正的惩罚措施”。他认为，如果没有严格的执法，人们就没有理由改变自己的行为。

铃木表示，他和协会的其他成员并没有指望涩谷市政府提供帮助，而是决定共同努力。“这片区域曾经治安很差，规章制度也很少。协会担心如果游客减少，这条商业街就会停止运营，所以他们采取了行动。由于商业街率先行动，区政府也加入了进来，形成了一个统一战线来保护这片区域。”

现在，无论晴雨，Center Gai 每天都会进行街道清洁，而且还有犯罪预防小组在该地区巡逻。

涩谷还封闭了火车站内的一些公共厕所和更衣室，以防止派对参与者占用这些区域更换服装。该地区各处张贴着醒目的全大写海报，上面写着“禁止闲逛”和“禁止妨碍交通”。

对铃木来说，他的最终目标是让10月31日回归普通日子。他告诉CNN，万圣节在日本本土已经开始不再受欢迎，每年参与庆祝的人都越来越少。

“现在已经到了人们不好意思盛装打扮的地步了。”

市长长谷部每年都会开展万圣节活动，呼吁人们注意礼仪。他建议大家换个方式庆祝：在室内庆祝。