“Yoroshiku onegai shimasu [Please regard us favorably],” a group of four young male South Korean singers said in halting Japanese as they handed pedestrians flyers about their live show.
A swarm of young Japanese women surrounded the entertainers when this scene occurred recently on Okubo-dori avenue in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.
The area near JR Shin-Okubo Station is dubbed Korea Town. It is home to many Korean restaurants and shops, and amid the current South Korean pop culture boom such establishments are rapidly increasing in number. Many young women come to see ikemen (good looking) South Korean singers perform in Okubo venues.
Local residents, however, complain that the bad manners of the operators and patrons of new businesses are making the neighborhood a less pleasant place to live. Particularly offensive, residents say, are littering and illegally placed signboards on the streets.
The big draw of Okubo is that it gives fans of South Korean pop music, or K-Pop, the opportunity to see budding stars in person.
Narie Ishii, 19, a first-year university student of Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, is one of the women who flocked to the singers mentioned at the beginning of this story. She wore a big smile after getting their autographs.
“I like coming here to see South Korean singers because they talk very openly to their fans,” Ishii said. “When I told my grandfather I was going to Okubo, he was surprised. He told me: ‘Don’t go there. It’s dangerous.’” Ishii did not appear concerned.
Singers who perform at K-Pop live houses in Okubo often stand outside the venues before their shows, aggressively asking passersby to join the audience.
Nobuo Suwa, 60, director of Shin-Okubo Shotengai Shinko Kumiai, a local shopping promotion association, said, “The number of women in their teens and 20s coming to the area has increased dramatically this year.”
Suwa said some locals find it irritating that the area’s narrow streets are often crowded with K-Pop admirers.
Some newly opened restaurants have begun placing signboards on public streets, angering local residents. Some restaurants leave plastic bags of garbage in places that are not designated garbage collection points.
Some visitors to the area eat while walking down the street and litter the streets with packaging and other rubbish.
Local residents are fed up, and have begun complaining.
Suwa said: “More new shops have opened here during the last year than in any other year in the past. They’re welcome, but they even don’t know how to put out the garbage properly. On top of that, cars are often blocked by signboards in the street, and there are so many pedestrians on the narrow streets.”
Nearly one-third of the association’s 170 member shops are operated by South Koreans, Suwa said. Many shops that have not joined the association are unaware of local rules, Suwa said.
Once a week, Shinjuku Ward government officials conduct surprise inspections in Okubo to check for illegally placed signboards and garbage that has been dumped in the wrong place. Ward officials have reportedly instructed local business owners to ensure their signboards do not obstruct traffic.
Monthly patrols are conducted jointly by the Tokyo metropolitan government, the Metropolitan Police Department and others. On each patrol, 20 to 30 cases of illegally placed signboards or other problems are spotted and the business owners involved given warnings.
A Tokyo metropolitan government official said, “Because these businesses change operators every two or three years, we have to keep issuing these instructions over and over.”
Some South Korean residents of Shinjuku Ward have begun an initiative to understand and observe local customs. Shinjuku Kanjin Hatten Iinkai (Shinjuku South Koreans’ development committee), set up in 2009, organizes a monthly cleanup event and asks South Koreans doing business in Okubo to participate.
Lee Hyo Yeul, 53, chairman of the group, said: “As residents of the area, we need to help promote it. I want Okubo to be a town where Japanese and South Koreans live in harmony.”
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