Talk:Kabukichō

Kabukichō is not particularly dangerous, especially during the daytime or the early evening. It is quite a bit safer than similar entertainment districts in Paris, London, New York City, Boston, San Francisco, or Seattle. The greatest danger is unexpectedly high charges, especially if you go drinking.

The dinner crowd, especially the families with kids, diminishes around 9PM; and is replaced by the nightclub crowd. Most of the bar crowd clears out before the trains stop running around midnight. After midnight is when the hard-core denizens are about.

Reservations are highly recommended at the better restaurants.

Kabukichō is the kind of place that, if you are looking for a particular type of entertainment and are willing to pay for it, you'll probably find it. But its reputation is highly exaggerated. You can ignore the nightclub touts (and they won't waste their time on couples in any case); and if you are solicited by a prostitute you may want to consider what behavior patterns you were exhibiting to make her think that you would be a potential client.

[for african AMERICANs, its dangerous alright, because the africans GENERALLY don`t like african-americans. one (african) picked a fight with me last night. i ignored him and immediately left the area. i hope he (Ishihara) gets them on visa problems as well... they are making us all look bad. now store owners follow me around the store. they never used to do that. it`s becoming like america.]61.215.196.2 03:06, 15 May 2007 (UTC)yfs (forgot my password)

Yeah, it's a terrible shame that African-American culture has gotten so bad that people the rest of the world over (particularly African Africans) should be upset and angry over it. Also, of course, a terrible shame that you should be the victim of discrimination and treated like just any other African-American. But, you really have to admit, there's a huge swath of people in the States who have no respect for authority whatsoever, or for other people in general, and rather deserve whatever's coming to them for making black people look bad.

Passive Text

I'm concerned about the way much of this article is written. It is written in a style that is not encyclopedic. It does not state facts, but rather makes judgements based on values. The text is very passive. for example, the paragraph:

"Nonetheless, Kabukichō's reputation of being a dangerous or otherwise unseemly area is highly exaggerated. There is little reason for visitors to be concerned for their physical safety. With this said, women, especially foreign women, are advised to be wary of harassment or solicitation, particularly recruitment for employment in hostess clubs. Couples are never harassed; and in the early evening there are numerous adult couples, some with children in tow, patronizing the high-class establishments. Lone individuals wandering the area aimlessly late at night are a different matter"

This paragraph has no citations and is written by someone who clearly has a 'viewpoint' of the town, like someone trying to advertise the town. I recommend it be sharpened up. Although it reads nicely, I don't think it is written in an encyclopedic fashion. Loki at6 08:01, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

It's been a month and a half and nothing's been changed. Parts of this article are clearly written by someone with biases, and perhaps a vested interest in making this place sound nice. I'm sure it is nice, but this is an encyclopedia not a tourist pamphlet. If it isn't altered soon I will change it myself on the grounds that it is not encyclopedic and is POV.Loki at6 02:32, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Furthermore, the following paragraph has a fundamental problem:

"Crimes caused by illegal immigrants are also a problem. According to a 2002 report by the Immigration Bureau, 75.6% of the illegal immigrants are either Korean, Chinese, Thai, or Russian. But since the bureau set up an office in Kabukichō in 2003, the number of illegal immigrants here have reduced drastically."

Although there is a reference for the statistics on illegal immigrants, there is not reference for the fact 'crimes caused by illegal immigrant are... a problem". If there is no evidence of this then the whole paragraph is unwarranted, and almost borders on racist. To give this statistic is totally unnecassary since it bares no significance at all on whether or not the crimes are a problem or whether or not they are performed by illegal immigrants. Loki at6 02:39, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Feel free to edit the article (see WP:BOLD). The following templates may also be of some use to you: {{Fact}}, {{POV-statement}}, {{Verify source}}. Bendono 02:49, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Good statements. There is a serious problem with racism and xenophobia in some area's of Japan; attributing crime to "illegal immigrants" is one way that it's been seen to manifest. Also, that nonsense about African-Americans above is pure racist drivel. The vast majority of African-American's are law abiding; crime rates among African-Americans seems disproportionate because the poverty among African Americans is disproportionate-a correlation can be made, reasonably, between the two. Negative attitudes about Blacks in Japan have existed since slaves where seen on the Black Ships, and have continued ever since-that being said, plenty of Japanese persons treat Black folk like any other folk (mostly the younger generations). ````Christopher —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.52.123.5 (talk) 23:07, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Someone has sanitized this entry entirely too much. While there is mention of massage parlors, love hotels etc., there seems to be no explicit mention that prostitution occurs, nor of the methods of solicitation. One is almost given the impression that it is the only red-light district in the world that doesn't have prostitutes. In fact the only explicit mention of brothels is to tell the reader that many have been shut down. Anyone, at least any male, that has ever been there can tell you that you literally cannot take ten steps into the place without being solicited by various male touts wandering the area. When I was last there with a friend, I had been past the entrance (the famous one pictured in the entry) for less than thirty seconds(this is not an exaggeration) before I was told that "shower, massage, sex" would cost me 18000 yen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.141.152.223 (talk) 17:23, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

I feel sad about the prejudice in this article

I think most of us can agree that this article has some serious prejudices that linger. Apparently by reading this, one would think that by reducing illegal immigrants, crime has been greatly reduced. What kind of crime are we talking about? Illegally working, or assault? Of course there is no citation to support this outlandish argument, other than that a crude note at the bottom of the page which explains the primary source of this article is the Japanese version of wikipedia. (Just don't ask me what pages the Japanese version cited, because I'm afraid to look and find nothing.)

I feel sorry for the people who continue to digest whatever racist, discriminatory, prejudiced, and/or xenophobic garbage the Japanese version contains. It doesn't reflect well on the people who write those articles, or who read them, and then still permit them to exist. --98.119.157.233 (talk) 08:53, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

The African hustlers in Kabukicho are extremely aggressive. It's hard to ignore them when they grab you and insult you, but responding to them is even worse. There's no way they can be good for any kind of business in the area. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.26.245.194 (talk) 06:52, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Man, you aren't kidding about the African hustlers being aggressive. When I was there last in 2006, one of them actually followed me and a friend around the entire district trying to entice us to enter a bar/strip club. He even followed us into a Circle K that is located on the outskirts of the district. The fact that we told him no at least a dozen times had no discernible effect. And when he finally left us alone, he accused us, no I am not kidding, of racism for not following him. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.141.152.223 (talk) 17:11, 13 February 2012 (UTC)