Kabukicho is an entertainment district located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Known as Kabukicho, this area is home to a plethora of host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, earning it the nickname “Sleepless City”. Kabukicho also includes the Shinjuku Golden Gai, which is famous for its many small bars.
The area’s name comes from plans to build a kabuki theater in the area in the late 1940s. Despite the fact that the theater was never built, the name stuck and became the designation of this entertaining zone.
Kabukichō has many cinemas and is in close proximity to Shinjuku Station, Seibu-Shinjuku Station, and other major train and subway stations.
Initially, this area was called Tsunohazu and was a swampy area. During the Meiji period, it was a site for ducks. Later, in 1893, the Yodobashi treatment plant was built here, which caused the reservoirs to fill up. In 1920, a girl’s school appeared here, and the area gradually turned into a residential area.
Prior to World War II, Kabukicho was one of the areas available to foreign-born property owners, mainly from Taiwan and Korea. They were primarily involved in the tsurekomi yado business, a forerunner of today’s love hotels.