Kazuki Harada, owner of the gay bar New AO, disinfects a plastic panel which was installed to prevent infection at Shinjuku Ni-chome gay district in Tokyo, Japan, Nov 27, 2020. TOKYO: When Toshitsune Tamashiro was young and closeted in 1980s Japan, Tokyo's Shinjuku Ni-chome gay district was a haven. Now he runs a bar there, and has fought to keep the district going during the coronavirus pandemic.
Closed for several months, he sold"reserve" bottles to customers for extra income. Others peddled T-shirts or held online"dance parties", waiting for government subsidies to come through.Unlike Japan's other entertainment districts, Ni-chome, with 400 bars packed into a space of several blocks, has always emphasised community.
Low overheads helped many muscle through the worst months, along with rent cuts, often 30 per cent and sometimes more."If we didn't do this, places were going to fail one after another and Ni-chome as a gay town might change or disappear," said realtor Takamitsu Futamura, who negotiated rent cuts for more than 200 properties.
Officials do not have data on Ni-chome coronavirus cases, but bar owners have heard of a dozen or so. Futamura said maybe 30 to 40 establishments had been linked to cases, in the summer.
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