Tokyo’s Kabukicho is Infested With Rats. No, We Mean, Literally.

There are rats in Kabukicho. (And no, we don’t mean the ones in the host clubs.)

By Himari Semans

Plastered across Kabukichō (歌舞伎町), Shinjuku Ward, are posters that read: PLEASE STOP FEEDING RATS.

Nezumi e no esayari nado wa oyamekudasai. (ネズミへの餌やりなどはおやめください)

Kabukichō has long been a site for rats to congregate. Reports of kitten-size rats and rats in ramen broth sent Japan’s biggest red light district’s health and safety evaluation into the gutter.

But when videos of people feeding rodents began surfacing online more frequently this May, officials decided it was time to put a stop to Kabukichō’s rotting reputation.

Expensive extermination

The videos that galvanized the Shinjuku Ward Council into putting together a supplementary budget bill of about ¥8,650,000 ($57,788 USD) to tackle the rat infestation starting in November showed twenty to thirty rats piling over an open bento box in an alleyway.

Similar videos appearing to literally fuel the rats in Kabukichō’s bar scene have appeared on YouTube and TikTok so frequently that it began worrying business owners, who flooded officials with…