The end of Covid-19 restrictions on Japan’s nighttime economy has brought more people out on to the streets of Tokyo – but it could also be contributing to a spate of deaths among people who are struck by cars as they sleep on the road.
The number of deaths among people who sleep where they drop on the capital’s roads has nearly doubled from last year, from seven to 13, according to police.
Concern is rising that the death toll will rise again over the coming fortnight, as office workers get together to mark the end of the year at alcohol-fuelled bonenkai parties – a custom many shunned during the pandemic.
The sharp rise in the number of fatal incidents has prompted the metropolitan police department to urge people to drink sensibly during the annual bonenkai season and to make sure they and their colleagues get home safely.
According to police, 10 of the people killed in Tokyo so far this year had been drinking before they were struck while sitting or lying in the road.
The department has released a public information film with the comedy duo Cowcow warning people of the risks of excessive drinking and offering other road safety advice. The film is being shown on in-vehicle monitors in 60,000 taxis in Tokyo and other areas until New Year’s Eve, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.
Police have also asked organisations representing the taxi and trucking industries to request their drivers slow down while driving at night and keep their headlights on full beam.
Bonenkai – literally “forget the year” parties are supposed to be an opportunity for colleagues who spend hours together in the workplace to get together for an evening of nomunication, a portmanteau of the Japanese verb to drink, nomu, and communication.
But many workers say they dread the tradition, because of the pressure to mind their manners in front of their bosses, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey last year in which one respondent described the get-togethers as “utter torment”.
Another poll, by Nippon Life Insurance, found that more than 60% of respondents believed that after-hours drinking with colleagues was “unnecessary”, while just 11% said it was an absolute necessity.
Tokyo is not the only part of Japan struggling with alcohol-fuelled somnolence, with other regions reporting a rise in “road sleeping” at weekends and at the end of the year, when people tend to drink more.
In 2020, police in Okinawa reported more than 7,000 cases of rojo-ne – literally sleeping on the road – the previous year, a phenomenon some attribute to the southern island’s balmy weather and enthusiastic consumption of awamori, a strong local spirit.
