I’ve spent my fair share of time in Kabukicho. Most of my social life outside of work is there. And my work with UJ takes me there on a regular basis to boot.
Given all the time I spent there, I can confirm: Kabukicho is a wild fucking place, man.
But while Kabukicho is wild, that doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. Yes, you’d best avoid the barkers and scouts while you’re out and about. But 2020s Kabukicho is nothing like 2000s Kabukicho, when the area was a hothouse of yakuza and other violent criminals. Like most of Tokyo, it’s a relatively safe neighborhood.
Still, violence does break out on occasion. That’s bound to happen in the district of lost souls, where money is often traded for a quick fix that approximates love. In 2023, for example, a woman stabbed a man who worked as a host at one of the red light district’s host clubs.
Given that some hosts use every trick in the book to bilk their female customers out of money, no one was surprised to hear this. (In reality, this case was more complicated. The two were in a relationship, and the woman had apparently driven herself bankrupt supporting his lifestyle. She also accused him of physical abuse.)
Sometimes, though, as in any busy nightlife district, the combination of alcohol, sleep deprivation, and bad tempers creates a perfect storm that leads to random violence. That was the case in September 2025, when Asari Fuzuki, 26, challenged a stranger, Matsuda Naoya, aged 30, to a fight in Kabukicho’s Toyoko area.
According to Mainichi Shimbun, Matsuda walked away from the 10-minute fight. However, three days later, he was taken to the hospital, where he died from brain injuries.
That qualifies Asari for a manslaughter charge, at the very least. But this week, prosecutors announced they were additionally charging him under an old Meiji Era law that’s only been used 34 times since its passage.
The question is: Why?
Fists at dawn
Japan still has a number of laws on the books that date back to the period after the demise of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Many of these were either patterned after European laws or passed to prevent undue foreign influence in the country. UJ readers will be familiar with the most controversial of these – the law that requires married Japanese citizens to have the same spousal surname – which was based on laws that existed in France, Germany, and other countries at the time.
