On Monday, the first day izakaya pubs and other eating and drinking establishments were asked by the Tokyo metropolitan government to close by 10 p.m. due to a rise in coronavirus infections, those in downtown areas were divided into two camps. While some businesses have complied, others continued serving past that time after agonizing over the decision.
--Forced to shorten hours
On Monday evening, Miyuki Shoji, 51, owner of Hariya, a long-established izakaya traditional Japanese pub in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, pasted a piece of tape on a signboard. On it, the closing time was written as 10 p.m. instead of 11:30 p.m.
The izakaya has about 20 seats for customers. It resumed business in June after the government totally lifted the state of emergency on May 25.
The number of customers, mainly those who came frequently, had been recovering recently. But Shoji decided to accept the metropolitan government's request, predicting that the number of customers will fall again anyway.
"If this situation continues, I fear people may feel that they should not go to izakaya at all," Shoji said.
A 57-year-old company employee at the izakaya that day said: "Though I can still enjoy coming here if it closes at 10 p.m., the flow of customers differs among izakaya. I doubt it is appropriate to make all of them close at 10 p.m."
--40,000 businesses affected
The request to shorten business hours is based on the revised law on special measures to cope with new strains of influenza and other designated infectious diseases.
It asks eating and drinking establishments serving alcohol and karaoke parlors in Tokyo to shorten their hours and close at 10 p.m. from Aug. 3 to 31.
It is estimated that about 40,000 establishments are affected by the request.
The metropolitan government is providing 200,000 yen each in cash to businesses that comply, and businesses also have to display stickers indicating that they are complying with the metropolitan government's guidelines to prevent infections.
On Monday, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told reporters at the metropolitan government office, "Infections are being spread through group dining."
The governor asked both businesses and customers to cooperate on the measures to prevent infections spreading further.
--Protecting employees
Around 10 p.m. Monday in the Akasaka area of Minato Ward, Tokyo, despite a remarkable number of night-life businesses being closed, not a small number remained open.
A 36-year-old manager of a bar said: "More than 70% of sales in this bar are earned from customers who come after 10 p.m. The shortening of business hours is no different from telling me, 'Please go bankrupt.'"
To supplement a decline in sales, the bar has also opened during lunchtime since June. Despite the effort, monthly sales are about 2 million yen, which is about half what they were before the pandemic.
The bar manager said bitterly, "Even if I receive the cash payout for cooperation, it's only worth the salary of one part-time worker. To protect this bar and its employees, I have no choice but to stay open [beyond 10 p.m.]"
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