American Photographer Captivated by the Chaos of Kabukicho and Shibuya Streets

Japanese and foreigners mingle and frolic all night long, but safe and happy!

2025-07-07

“Two heavily intoxicated men got into a fistfight in the early morning!” In April of this year, two French men were seen exchanging blows on a street in Shibuya early in the morning. Passersby watched from a distance.

Captivated by the chaos of the entertainment district

The dull thuds of fists hitting flesh and the shouts of men echoed through the early morning entertainment district—

The scene was Shibuya Center Street in Tokyo. In April this year, two drunken French men were engaged in a flashy brawl on the street.

“It was around 5 or 6 a.m. Both were young men in their twenties. The man on the right suddenly struck the man on the left. The man on the left said he didn’t understand why he was being hit,” recalls Harrison Tez (34), an American photographer. He has been interested in Japanese since childhood and used to watch Japanese dramas such as Long Vacation and My Boss My Hero. After graduate school, he worked at a consulting firm’s Japan office and came to Japan in October 2018; he is now in his seventh year here.

His life’s work is photographing the wild nightlife of places like Shinjuku’s Kabukicho and Shibuya Center Street three to four days a week. Harrison shares (comments below are his):

“Kabukicho and Center Street are among the most stimulating and fascinating entertainment districts in the world. Drinking to drunkenness on the street is extremely dangerous abroad—you never know who might attack you. But in Kabukicho and Center Street, Japanese and foreigners mix happily while drinking. It’s a phenomenon unique to safe Japan. Captivated by the chaos of these two neighborhoods, I have been photographing them for about two years.”

I’d like to introduce the chaos of Japan’s entertainment districts through Harrison’s photos.

In Kabukicho, Harrison met a foreign man who had a container filled with high-proof alcohol connected to a tube. Several passersby took up the challenge, putting their mouths to the tube for a daring chug. The man filmed the challengers as they got drunk, presumably to post on social media.

At a bar in Shibuya, a disturbance occurred. A Japanese staff member tackled and took down a foreign man, then applied a headlock. A woman, seemingly the man’s partner, shouted repeatedly, “No! No! Stop!”

Harrison has photographed and interviewed over 300 residents of these entertainment districts.

“In Kabukicho and Center Street, you meet all kinds of people. I was surprised to find groups of runaway youths, called ‘Tōyoko kids,’ gathered on the streets. I shoot for five to six hours each time and always discover something new.”