May 19 (theguardian.com) - Avivid rainbow heralds the arrival of dusk in Tokyo, but the fabled promise of a pot of gold must seem like a cruel joke to restaurateurs in Shimbashi, where office blocks stand in happy proximity to hundreds of watering holes.
In pre-coronavirus days, nightfall would be the cue for the neighbourhood’s neon lights to flicker into action and for touts armed with laminated menus to beckon office workers inside with promises of cheap food and drink.
But as Tokyo begins the fourth week of its latest coronavirus state of emergency, the usual post-work bonhomie that spills out on to Shimbashi’s narrow backstreets has been replaced by anger and despondency.
“Take a look … it’s empty,” says Yasuko Matsui, the owner of a small restaurant serving Nagasaki-style noodles. “We’re not allowed to serve alcohol, so no one is interested in eating out. Imagine going to a pub or restaurant where you can’t even order a drink.”
A ban on alcohol is one of several restrictions Tokyo’s eateries have been told to observe as the city attempts to arrest a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, two months before it is due to host the Olympic Games. Even those that switch to serving only soft drinks must close at 8pm. As an incentive, the government is offering daily subsidies of between Y40,000 and Y200,000 depending on the establishment’s size, along with the threat of a Y300,000 fine for noncompliance.
Even alfresco drinking is discouraged, with burly men in hi-vis jackets and baseball caps positioned on street corners to deter “displaced” carousers from congregating in a nearby park.
While sales at fast-food chains have grown during the pandemic thanks to higher demand for takeaways, those at bars and izakayas, a type of informal bar that serves drinks and snacks, plunged by almost 40% in March compared with the same month last year, according to the Japan Foodservice Association.
A report by Tokyo Shoko Research, a corporate analysis firm, says 842 restaurants nationwide filed for bankruptcy in 2020, up 5.3% from a year earlier. But it is at smaller izakaya pubs – a fixture of Japanese social and cultural life – where the virus is causing most damage. In the year through to the end of March, 175 went out of business – an annual rise of 17%, it said.
