TOKYO (TR) – A corner of Shinjuku Ward’s neon-lit Kabukicho district has earned a grim moniker among locals: “Devil’s Street.”
Plagued by drug deals, violent assaults, and a bloody double suicide, the area has rapidly degenerated into a lawless haven for streetwalkers and runaway youths, reports Friday (July 14).
The epicenter of the violence is a cluster of three budget love hotels, referred to pseudonymously by locals as “X,” “Y,” and “Z” (with Hotel Z closed for renovations since April). Collectively known as “XYZ,” the trio offers some of the cheapest rates in the district, with short “rests” costing under 4,000 yen and overnight stays priced at around 6,000 yen.
According to neighborhood residents, the cheap rates and proximity to Kabukicho’s prostitution zones have drawn streetwalkers relocating from nearby Okubo Park.
Driven out of internet cafes and evicted from their usual gathering spot at Cinecity Square during a police crackdown this April, the runaway youths known as “Toyoko Kids” have flocked to the street.
Safe haven
The main draw is the hotels’ notoriously lax age verification. While police and citizen volunteers heavily patrol central Kabukicho and most establishments strictly refuse minors, hotels X, Y, and Z reportedly turn a blind eye. Word quickly spread among the runaway teens that the hotels were a safe haven.
With the influx of destitute youth has come a wave of severe crime that goes largely unreported by mainstream media. Locals report daily incidents requiring police and ambulances, including gang beatings, drug overdoses, and a recent incident involving a man swinging a metal bat in the street.
Plainclothes police have stepped up patrols in the area, frequently stopping individuals for questioning and conducting drug tests. “Since the start of the year, shady, yakuza-type men have started gathering on ‘Devil’s Street’ alongside the Toyoko Kids and prostitutes,” a local resident said. “Rumor has it they are dealing illegal drugs.”
Double suicide
The street’s dark reputation recently culminated in a gruesome double suicide at Hotel Y involving a young couple.
According to a female acquaintance of the deceased man, the couple broadcasted their bloody final moments on social media. “They went into Hotel Y together and were filming for TikTok,” the woman said. “A video was streaming showing the man covered in blood, collapsed on top of the woman on the bed. Police and paramedics arrived and tried repeatedly to resuscitate them with an AED, but they both died.”
The tragedy is not an isolated event. Kabukicho has been battling a highly publicized epidemic of young people leaping from buildings, and Devil’s Street is located right in the shadow of these frequent suicide spots.
Just this April, two youths plunged to their deaths from the roof of Hotel X, cementing the street’s deadly reputation.
