Tokyo's New Chinatown

Mar 15, 2024 | News On Japan

TOKYO - A residential district in northeast Tokyo is currently undergoing a reformation, with rows of authentic Chinese restaurants, Chinese-style hair salons, and supermarkets displaying signs exclusively in Chinese.

Takenotsuka in Adachi Ward has doubled its Chinese population in a decade.

Entering a store that just opened one month ago, the menu is entirely in Chinese. The food being eaten by customers is also, for the most part, rarely seen in Japan.

In a "serious Chinese eatery," the taste of China is brought over directly.

Soft tofu topped with a thick sauce, a staple Chinese breakfast, its name is "tofu brain."

Chinese regular customer: "It's very delicious! It tastes like my hometown."

A duck dish simmered at low temperature over a long time is also popular.

Many Chinese have become regular customers.

Chinese customer: "The price is cheap. I've come to this store about 4 or 5 times already."

Why are Chinese people moving to Takenotsuka?

Chinese resident in Takenotsuka: "Houses are cheap, and prices are low."

According to a local real estate agency, renting a one-room apartment in central Tokyo costs about 80,000 yen per month, but in Takenotsuka, it can be as low as 30,000 yen.

Chinese resident in Takenotsuka: "I moved here through a coworker's introduction. Everyone is living here."

Experts point out that the rapid increase in Chinese people in Takenotsuka is related to the rising unemployment rate in China due to the economic downturn.

A China expert commentator explained: "In China, unemployment is spreading, and companies are going bankrupt. Small and medium-sized business owners, or individual store owners, have no work in China, so they are going out to find new worlds."

Source: FNN

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