Two of the street ordinances in force in Shinjuku work very differently from each other. One bans touting in five named chome and can end in a fine of up to 50,000 yen. The other restricts drinking in the street, names two calendar dates, and prints no penalty at all. Below are the rules, the free observatory, the garden, and the numbers the ward itself publishes.
Shinjuku City counts 355,042 residents, and 51,175 of them are foreign nationals
Shinjuku City publishes its resident-register figures every month. At 1 September 2026 the ward recorded 355,042 people: 178,128 men and 176,914 women. Of that total, 303,867 were Japanese nationals and 51,175 were foreign nationals. Dividing one by the other is my own arithmetic, not the ward’s: 51,175 out of 355,042 works out at about 14.4 per cent, or roughly one resident in seven.
The household figures split the same way. The ward recorded 234,860 households, of which 193,141 were Japanese-only, 38,330 were foreign-only, and 3,389 contained members of more than one nationality. By age band, 28,964 residents were under 15, 259,447 were aged 15 to 64, and 66,631 were 65 or over.
Shinjuku City Hall does not sit beside the station or in the skyscraper district. Its postal address, printed at the foot of every page on the ward website, is Kabukicho 1-4-1, postcode 160-8484. The town hall is inside the entertainment quarter it regulates.
Five chome are named as solicitation zones, where the fine reaches 50,000 yen
The ordinance is the Shinjuku City Ordinance on the Prevention of Solicitation and Related Acts in Public Places, enacted on 19 June 2013 as Ordinance No. 32 and brought into force on 1 September 2013. It was amended with effect from 1 April 2016, and the penalty provisions took effect on 1 June 2016.
Article 2 defines the banned conduct in six limbs: soliciting for premises serving alcohol; soliciting for private karaoke rooms; soliciting for the store-based and non-store-based adult businesses defined at Article 2, paragraphs 6 and 7 of the amusement-business regulation law, which the ordinance cites as Act No. 122 of 1948; recruiting a person into work that involves sexual contact or hostessing with alcohol; recruiting a person to be the subject of obscene filming; and waiting in a public place for the purpose of doing any of the above. Handing out tissues or flyers to no one in particular is not covered, and neither is calling out to passers-by from the shop front; the ward says so explicitly on its own explanatory page.
The ward’s page on the amendment, last updated 28 July 2025, names the designated zones where the penalties bite: Kabukicho 1-chome and 2-chome, Shinjuku 2-chome and 3-chome, and Nishi-Shinjuku 1-chome. That is five chome across three parts of the ward. Enforcement escalates in four steps — guidance, warning, recommendation, then publication and fine. Article 19 sets the fine at not more than 50,000 yen, and Article 20 adds dual liability: where an employee commits the act, the company or individual employing them is liable for the same fine.
The prohibition runs against the person doing the soliciting rather than the person approached: Article 7 bans the conduct by any person, and the escalation at Articles 10 to 12 is directed at whoever carries it out. The designated districts are the five chome named above, and Article 9 lets the ward change the boundary of a district or lift the designation altogether, by public notice.
The 2024 street drinking ordinance runs to nine articles and names no penalty
The second ordinance is newer and much shorter. The Ordinance for Ensuring a Safe and Orderly Environment in the Area Surrounding Shinjuku Station, to use the name on the ward’s own English page, is Shinjuku City Ordinance No. 31 of 2024, and the ward’s page on it was last updated 1 October 2024. Article 2 defines the covered area as Shinjuku 3-chome and Kabukicho 1-chome.
Article 6 stops visitors drinking in the street on two dates, 31 October and 1 November, and it bites not on the whole of that area but on the part of it fixed by ward regulation. It lets the mayor add further periods, lets the restriction be limited to particular hours within a day, and does not apply where the mayor finds special circumstances. The implementing regulation, which is the document that carries the ordinance number, puts the exact boundary on a separate map and requires the mayor to give public notice of any additional period and of the hours the restriction runs.
For 2026 the ward has used that hours power. Its Halloween page, last updated 24 August 2026, sets the restriction at 17:00 on Saturday 31 October to 05:00 on Sunday 1 November, in part of Shinjuku 3-chome and Kabukicho 1-chome. The same page says ward staff will instruct anyone drinking in the street to stop, and that the ward will ask shops selling alcohol inside the restricted area to hold off on sales.
Article 8 separately bans nuisance conduct in public places anywhere in the covered area, by visitors and businesses alike, and Article 2 defines it as four categories of act done without legitimate reason: using fire, climbing street lamps or structures, generating noise through speakers and similar equipment, and anything else the mayor judges likely to disturb or endanger others.
The ordinance ends at Article 9 and a single supplementary clause, which brings it into force on the day of promulgation. Its only enforcement step is Article 7, which lets the mayor instruct a person to stop. Not one of the nine articles carries a fine, a penalty provision or publication of a name — a real difference from the solicitation ordinance, which sets a fine out expressly at Article 19.
| Ordinance | In force from | Where it applies | Strongest measure in the text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solicitation in public places | 1 September 2013, penalties from 1 June 2016 | Kabukicho 1 and 2, Shinjuku 2 and 3, Nishi-Shinjuku 1 | Fine of not more than 50,000 yen (Article 19) |
| Safe and orderly environment around Shinjuku Station | The day of promulgation, as Ordinance No. 31 of 2024 | Shinjuku 3-chome and Kabukicho 1-chome, drinking limited to the part fixed by regulation | Instruction to stop (Article 7) |
The 202-metre observatory in west Shinjuku charges nothing and takes no bookings
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building stands at Nishi-Shinjuku 2-8-1, about ten minutes on foot from the west ticket gate of Shinjuku Station, with Tochomae on the Toei Oedo Subway Line listed as the nearest subway station. Two observatories sit on the 45th floor of Building No. 1, at a height of 202 metres above ground. The Bureau of Finance page gives the admission charge as free.
The two decks keep different hours and close on different days. The south deck admits visitors from 9:30 to 21:30 and closes at 22:00; it is shut on the first and third Tuesday of each month. The north deck admits visitors from 9:30 to 17:00 and closes at 17:30, except on days when the south deck is shut, when the north deck stays open until 22:00; it is closed on the second and fourth Monday. Where a closing day falls on a public holiday, the deck opens and closes on the following weekday instead. Both decks close from 29 to 31 December and on 2 and 3 January, and on building inspection days.
The page adds two things to plan around. Neither advance booking nor group booking is accepted at all. And the queue is stated on the page itself as 20 to 30 minutes, varying with the weather and the time of day.
Each deck has one retail outlet. CAFE&SHOP SOCOCOCO is on the north deck, open 9:30 to 17:30 and to 22:00 on south deck closing days; GIFT SHOP TOKYO Mikke! is on the south deck, open 9:30 to 22:00. A piano stands on the south deck and may be played between 10:00 and 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00, and 19:00 and 21:00 on days the south deck is open. The page asks visitors not to take photographs using a tripod.
Shinjuku Gyoen works to three closing times across the year and shuts on Mondays
Shinjuku Gyoen sits on the eastern side of the district and is run by the Ministry of the Environment through the National Gardens Association. Admission for an adult is 500 yen. People aged 65 and over pay 250 yen, students from high school upward pay 250 yen, and children of junior high school age and under enter without charge. A group of 30 or more paying visitors pays 400 yen a head for an adult, while the 65-and-over rate and the student rate stay at 250 yen; children admitted free do not count toward the 30, and annual-pass holders inside their year of validity do count. Holders of a physical, intellectual or mental disability certificate enter free with one carer on showing the certificate at a staffed window, and assistance dogs are admitted. An annual pass costs 2,000 yen, or 1,000 yen for a high school student, and runs one year from the date of purchase; it is sold at the gate ticket offices from 9:00 until one hour before closing, and the page says issuing is suspended on free-admission days.
The closing time takes three values across the year, 16:30, 18:00 and 19:00, and the last admission is always 30 minutes before closing.
| Period | Open | Last admission | Greenhouse |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 October to 14 March | 9:00 to 16:30 | 16:00 | 9:30 to 16:00, last entry 15:30 |
| 15 March to 10 June and 1 August to 30 September | 9:00 to 18:00 | 17:30 | 9:30 to 17:30, last entry 17:00 |
| 11 June to 31 July | 9:00 to 19:00 | 18:30 | 9:30 to 18:30, last entry 18:00 |
The garden closes every Monday, moving to the next weekday when the Monday is a public holiday, and from 29 December to 3 January. There are two exceptions each year when it opens every day: 25 March to 24 April in spring, and 1 to 15 November in autumn. Whether a timed ticket is needed for that spring period is covered separately in our article on when a timed ticket is actually needed at Shinjuku Gyoen.
Tickets are sold at the Shinjuku, Okido and Sendagaya gates. The machines there take cash, credit cards, transport IC cards and code payments; UnionPay cards, UnionPay QR and J-Coin Pay are accepted only at the staffed windows. The entry gates themselves read transport IC cards, and an advance web ticket is scanned as a QR code at the same gates.
Read on 24 September 2026. Ordinance texts and figures above are quoted from the pages and PDFs published by Shinjuku City, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Finance, and the National Gardens Association on that date.
Sources Checked
Shinjuku City — page on the enactment and amendment of the solicitation ordinance and the acts it bans
Confirmed that the ordinance took effect in September 2013, that it was amended in April 2016, that publication and the charge have been applied since June of that year, that the page groups the banned conduct as touting, street scouting and waiting for a counterparty, and that distributing tissues or flyers to no one in particular and calling out from a shop front are not banned by this ordinance.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/anzen/kikikanri01_000001_00057.html
Shinjuku City — page recording the amendment of the solicitation ordinance, last updated 28 July 2025
Confirmed that the ordinance commenced on 1 September 2013, that the amendment took effect on 1 April 2016 and the penalty provisions on 1 June 2016, that the districts designated at present are Kabukicho 1-chome and 2-chome, Shinjuku 2-chome and 3-chome and Nishi-Shinjuku 1-chome, that guidance, warning and recommendation precede publication and the fine, and that the penalties apply to the person soliciting and to their employer.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/anzen/kikikanri01_001047.html
Shinjuku City — full text of the solicitation ordinance (PDF)
Confirmed that it is Ordinance No. 32 of 19 June 2013, that Article 2 defines the banned conduct in six lettered limbs and cites Article 2, paragraphs 6 and 7 of Act No. 122 of 1948 for the two categories of adult business, that Article 7 bans the conduct by any person, that Article 9 lets the mayor designate a district and change or lift that designation by public notice, that Articles 10 to 12 set guidance, warning and recommendation, that Article 19 sets a charge of not more than 50,000 yen, and that Article 20 imposes the same charge on the employing company or individual.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/content/000196698.pdf
Shinjuku City — page on the ordinance securing a safe and orderly environment around Shinjuku Station, last updated 1 October 2024
Confirmed the restricted area as part of Shinjuku 3-chome and Kabukicho 1-chome, the dates 31 October and 1 November, and the four categories of nuisance conduct.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/anzen/kikikanri01_000001_00164.html
Shinjuku City — full text of the Shinjuku Station area ordinance (PDF)
Confirmed that Article 2 defines the area as Shinjuku 3-chome and Kabukicho 1-chome, that Article 6 stops visitors drinking in the street on 31 October and 1 November inside the part of the area fixed by ward regulation, that Article 6 also allows further periods, allows limited hours and does not apply where the mayor finds special circumstances, that Article 7 provides only for instruction to stop, that Article 8 bans nuisance conduct in public places in the area, that Article 2 defines nuisance conduct as four categories of act done without legitimate reason, that the text ends at Article 9 with one supplementary clause bringing it into force on the day of promulgation, and that no article in it carries a fine, a penalty provision or publication.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/content/000400399.pdf
Shinjuku City — full text of the implementing regulation for the Shinjuku Station area ordinance (PDF)
Confirmed that the ordinance is Shinjuku City Ordinance No. 31 of 2024, that Article 3 places the restricted drinking area on a separate map annexed to the regulation, and that Article 4 requires the mayor to give public notice of any further restricted period and of the hours the restriction applies.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/content/000400400.pdf
Shinjuku City — Halloween 2026 page, last updated 24 August 2026
Confirmed that for 2026 the street drinking restriction runs from 17:00 on Saturday 31 October to 05:00 on Sunday 1 November, that the restricted area is part of Shinjuku 3-chome and Kabukicho 1-chome, that ward staff will instruct anyone drinking in the street to stop, and that the ward will ask shops selling alcohol inside the restricted area to refrain from selling it.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/anzen/kikikanri01_000001_00197.html
Shinjuku City — monthly resident-register population page
Confirmed the figures at 1 September 2026: 355,042 residents, 178,128 men, 176,914 women, 303,867 Japanese nationals, 51,175 foreign nationals, 234,860 households, 193,141 Japanese-only households, 38,330 foreign-only households, 3,389 mixed-nationality households, the age bands 28,964, 259,447 and 66,631, and the ward office address Kabukicho 1-4-1 with postcode 160-8484 printed in the page footer.
https://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/kusei/index02_101.html
Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Bureau of Finance — observatory information page
Confirmed the height of 202 metres, the 45th floor location in Building No. 1, free admission, the south deck entry window of 9:30 to 21:30 with closing at 22:00, the north deck entry window of 9:30 to 17:00 with closing at 17:30, the extension of the north deck to 22:00 on south deck closing days, the closing days of the first and third Tuesday and the second and fourth Monday, the holiday substitution rule, the year-end and new year closures, the stated queue of 20 to 30 minutes, the refusal of advance and group bookings, the two shops and their hours including the north deck shop running to 22:00 on south deck closing days, and the three piano windows.
https://www.zaimu.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/tochousha/goannai/tenbou
Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Bureau of Finance — building guide page
Confirmed the address Nishi-Shinjuku 2-8-1, the stated walk of about ten minutes from the west ticket gate of JR Shinjuku Station, and Tochomae on the Toei Oedo Subway Line as the nearest subway station.
https://www.zaimu.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/tochousha/goannai
National Gardens Association — Shinjuku Gyoen admission page
Confirmed the admission prices of 500, 250 and 250 yen and free entry for junior high age and under, the group rate of 400 yen for an adult from 30 paying visitors with the 250 yen rates unchanged in the group column, the free entry for certificate holders with one carer, the annual pass prices of 2,000 and 1,000 yen with sale from 9:00 until one hour before closing and no issuing on free-admission days, the three seasonal opening periods with their closing and last-admission times, the greenhouse hours, the Monday and new year closures, the spring and autumn continuous opening periods, and the payment methods at the three gates.
https://fng.or.jp/shinjuku/guide/
Last updated: September 2026
