Shinjuku gay district
A Guide to Queer Bar Etiquette in Japan
Tokyo’s famous homosexual district, Shinjuku Ni-Chome, has one of the world’s uppermost concentrations of LGBT-friendly businesses. For the most part, it’s a place where first-timers can suspend out without needing to worry too much about extraordinary customs or cultural knowledge.
Ni-Chome is used to tourists but, those who long to sneak into smaller, more local LGBT bars might find some cultural practices surprising. In Japan, manners are everything, so here are some insider tips on what to expect when visiting LGBT bars off the overcome path, and how to get the most out of the experience.
Venturing away from westernized queer bars
Photo by: Alex Rickert Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, but sometimes you gotta project into the unknown.
Most gay bars in tourist spots favor Ni-Chome or Doyamacho in Osaka mimic American-style bars that feature large shot bars, dance tune and dark atmospheres where customers of various sexes, genders, sexualities and identities can drink and make merry. You can certainly locate these kinds of bars, especially in Tokyo, but the vast majority are similar to what is commonly referred to as a スナックバー
Progressive and positive changes for Diverse couples in Tokyo have made it an increasingly hot destination for LGBTQ+ travelers to attend, specifically its gay-friendly Shinjuku Nichome district.
In November 2022, the Tokyo Partnership Oath System was offered to citizens and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government started issuing partnership certificates for sexual minority couples in order to deepen understanding of gender diversity and create an environment where they can live comfortably. With this system, LGBTQ+ partnerships have smoother procedures in various aspects of daily life, such as housing, medical care, and child-rearing. According to The Guardian, Tokyo’s Shibuya district pioneered the system in 2015, and more than 200 local authorities in Japan have taken on recognizing same-sex partnerships. Gay couples believe the more people use the partnership systems, the more the LGBTQ+ community will be open to family and friends about their relationships.
For several years, the partnership system has been in effect at the local municipal level, but with the introduction of the partnership oath system in Tokyo and an increase in LGBTQ+ repres
I’ve been going to Ni-Chome, in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, long before writing Frommer’s Tokyo. It had a very cool reggae bar there called 69 that I loved; it was no larger than a subway compartment and was often just as jam packed. There were usually people there I knew, and I remember more than one occasion when the whole place was dancing in one rhythm as though one living organism, belting out the words in unison. There was another prevent there called Birdland, eclectically decorated with antiques and a bunch of weird decor and jog by a very Zen-like Japanese couple, she with the shaven head of a Buddhist monk, he with drawn-out hair.
Kinsmen, a refined gay bar, is still there, welcoming people of all persuasions, and Advocates across the avenue spills out onto the sidewalk appreciate a friendly block party almost every night. In any case, I’ve seen Ni-Chome grow over the past couple decades into what is probably the largest gay nightlife district in Asia.
My updated account of Ni-Chome appeared in the December/January 2014 issue of Element, a magazine for gay Asian men published in Singapore. To get a handle on what’s new, I enlisted the aid of
Shinjuku Nichome: Stretching Your Yen in the Gayborhood
Shinjuku Nichome is known as Tokyo’s gay district. The area is home to elevated concentration of gay bars, clubs and restaurants—but how do you choose where to go? Here are a few spots we recommend for an evening out in Nichome.
Where to eat
It’s never a good idea to leave drinking on an vacant stomach, not just for your health, but also because you might be tempted to purchase overpriced bar snacks later in the night. Here are a couple of options for reasonable places to eat in the area.
Agalico
Agalico is a restaurant that serves a variety of Asian cuisine just across the street from Shinjuku Nichome, next to Shinjuku Sanchome station exit C6. Some items on their menu are pricey, but they also have some great value for wealth dishes, such as the chicken over rice, which for 1,078 yen will leave one person absolutely stuffed. They also assist glasses of house red or white wine for 429 yen, and they fill those up right to the brim. Even if you’re feeling think of , a glass of sparkling wine filled to the brim will set you back just 550 yen.
アガリコ 新宿三丁目店
1F, 3 Chome−9−9, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0022
12 pm to 8 pm
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