Playback ’14: University Students Ragging Around in Their Underwear… Confessions of the Members of the Shinjuku Kabukicho “Mass Coma Incident

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we bring you a report from 10 years ago, in the July 11, 2002 issue, about a ” stupid circle” of female students at Meiji University who fell unconscious on the street.

The scene that quickly spread on SNS late at night on June 20, 2002, was bizarre. In Cine City Square in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district, college girls were lying around in their underwear. Toxic gas? Some kind of mass poisoning? The Internet was in an uproar over the cause of the incident. (The descriptions in parentheses below are quoted from past articles.)

Without taking care of his fallen comrades, he said, “Yay! without taking care of his fallen comrade.

A man who was watching the whole thing said, “He was returning from a party around 10:00.

Around 10:00, three male students who looked like they were returning from a party appeared holding three drunken female students by their shoulders, and 10 minutes later, six men and six women, including a girl in a coma, followed a few minutes later by another group of six ……, and within 30 minutes there were about 25 students. They were crouched or collapsed in the street. Some of the guys were fine, and without any care, they were hustling around, ‘Yay!’ ‘ without any help.”

Soon after, police and paramedics arrived, and the two men were taken to the hospital.

The drunken group turned out to be members of the “Christenis Club,” a club officially recognized by Meiji University and Japan Women’s University. About 150 people belong to this club, and the ratio of men to women is 50-50. So what was going on in this club?

The article at the time stated.

“This night was a drinking party called ‘VS Drinking,’ in which freshmen girls and senior boys were supposed to deepen their relationship with each other. It seems that underage first-year students who were not accustomed to drinking got into trouble.

An alumnus of the same circle said.

An alumnus of the same club said, “I think this was the first time even in Kreis that so many people fell down at a drinking party. For a long time, senior boys have been sneaking small bottles of Spiritus (vodka with more than 90% alcohol by volume) into bars and mixing them with the girls’ drinks to get them drunk. We have heard that such behavior occurred in this case as well.

Speaking of spiritus, it became famous when the “Superfree” club at Waseda University, which made numerous arrests in a gang rape case in 2003, used it to make a “Super Yari Yari Sour” to inebriate the women. It seems that this kind of behavior was also common at “Kreis. Moreover, after the incident, the club’s executive committee tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

“After this incident, the executive committee sent an e-mail to all the club members saying, ‘This is a regular occurrence, so please don’t worry about it.

It seems that there is no medicine for stupid students.

According to a later announcement by Meio University, a joint get-together with other universities was held at a restaurant in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, after the final practice of the spring semester, attended by 34 students (21 of whom were underage) from the university. In addition to underage drinking, the students reportedly drank to excess, chugging vodka and whiskey with high alcohol content.

As a result, two male students were taken to the hospital, but they were treated and returned home safely a few hours later. Furthermore, the police interviewed the students on the day of the incident and found no evidence of an incident. Japan Women’s University also announced that nine of its students, eight of whom were underage, participated in the event and drank to excess. Both universities also stated that “Kreis” would be discontinued and the students would be given individual guidance, including strict warnings.

Drinking at university student club parties has become less of a problem over the years as the dangers of chugging and underage drinking have been pointed out and as people have become more strict about underage drinking. Furthermore, since the COVID-19 crisis broke the “tradition,” the number of drinking parties has further decreased in recent years.

Such incidents as the coma incident may be hard to believe from the perspective of today’s students.