Ikebukuro – Tokyo’s Chinatown?
The Asahi reports that a group in Tokyo is trying to organize the 200 Chinese enterprises around Ikebukuro station into forming an official Chinatown. It might sound like a good idea to boost tourism, but some Japanese shopkeepers in the area are not pleased:
For the past 40 years, the Nishiguchi shopkeepers’ association has run tourist events, including the large Fukuro Festival in autumn held near Ikebukuro station. That event attracted 1.2 million visitors last year.
To make the area more welcoming to families and shoppers, the Nishiguchi association regularly patrols the area to weed out unsavory elements, including touts for massage parlors, Miyake said.
Chinese business operators, the Nishiguchi group says, have hardly joined in their activities at all. They have also refused to pay utility charges for anti-prowler street lights voluntarily installed by local shopkeepers, he says.
The Japanese store operators have also complained in the past about their Chinese counterparts ignoring trash disposal rules and other local regulations.
According to Miyake, the group has informed the Chinatown group they do not “agree with a plan to call Ikebukuro a Chinatown,” adding that the Chinese had proceeded without the consent of the Japanese business operators who worked on area revitalization for years.
Meanwhile, some Japanese business owners like the idea of an Ikebukuro Chinatown because they think it will increase the area’s uniqueness and competitiveness against other major shopping areas in Tokyo.
