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Shinjuku Ni-chōme (新宿二丁目), referred to colloquially as Ni-chōme or simply Nichō, is Area 2 in the Shinjuku District of the Shinjuku Special Ward of Tokyo, Japan. With Tokyo home to 13 million people, and Shinjuku known as the noisiest and most crowded of its 23 special wards,〔Sandra Buckley, ed., Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture (New York: Routledge, 2002), 165, 409, 453-4.〕 Ni-chōme further distinguishes itself as Tokyo's hub of gay subculture, housing the world's highest concentration of gay bars.〔Mark Mc Lelland, Ktsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker, Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan’s Sexual Minorities (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2007), 248, 262, 320-323.〕 Within close walking distance from three train stations (Shinjuku San-chōme Station, Shinjuku Gyoenmae Station, and Japan's busiest train station, Shinjuku Station),〔Beth Reiber, Frommer’s Tokyo, 6th ed. (Chicago: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 2000), 37, 212.〕 the Shinjuku Ni-chōme neighborhood provides a specialized blend of bars, restaurants, cafes, saunas, love hotels, gay pride boutiques, cruising boxes (hattenba), host clubs, nightclubs, massage parlors, parks, and gay book and video stores. In fact within the five blocks centering on street Naka-Dōri between the BYGS building at the Shinjuku San-chōme Station and the small Shinjuku park three blocks to the east, an estimated 300 gay bars and nightclubs provide entertainment.〔McNeill, David, "(Shinjuku gay enclave in decline but not on the surface )", ''Japan Times'', February 24, 2010, p. 3.〕 ==History== The history of Ni-chōme as a gay neighborhood generally begins around the time of the American Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) and ties strongly to the fall of its red-light districts (akasen).〔Bonnie Zimmerman, ed., ''Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia'' (New York: Garland, 2000), 412.〕 As early as 1948, there is mention of a gay Shinjuku tea shop, and by the 1950s gay bars publicly emerged both in name and form in Ni-chōme.〔Gregory M. Pflugfelder, ''Cartographies of Desire: Male-male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950'' (London: University of California, 1959).〕 Before 1957, Tokyo’s red-light districts had flourished as legally-licensed centers for sex workers but, armed with a new constitution and an Equal Rights amendment, post-occupation Japanese women's Christian groups and the like successfully lobbied the Diet to pass the Prostitution Prevention Law in 1956.〔 For the first time, prostitution in Japan became illegal.〔Sandra Buckley, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture'' (New York: Routledge, 2002), 165, 409, 453-4.〕 As the traditional sex industry left Ni-chōme, a gay subculture began to fill its place.〔Nicholas Bornoff, ''Pink Samurai: Love, Marriage, and Sex in Contemporary Japan'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 219, 423.〕 By the late 1950s Ni-chōme was known for its popularity in the gay subculture, and a club scene began to emerge. More recent years have seen the establishment of a counseling room for young gay men in 1976, the first AIDS candlelight vigil in 1986, the 1992 inauguration of (Tokyo’s annual International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival ), Japan’s first lesbian and gay pride parade in 1994, and the founding of its first gay community center, (AKTA ). Today Shinjuku Ni-chōme continues to provide a home base for many milestones in the history of Japan’s LGBT community.〔Mark Mc Lelland, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker, ''Queer Voices from Japan: First-Person Narratives from Japan’s Sexual Minorities'' (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2007), 248, 262, 320-323.〕 ''The Japan Times'' reported in February 2010 that the area was in decline, with the number of gay-oriented clubs and bars having declined by one-third. The decline was attributed to the construction of the nearby Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line, which has pushed up property values in the area, and the rise of the Internet.〔 As of August 17, 2012, dancing has been banned in a number of popular clubs in Ni-chome, including Arty Farty, Annex, Arch, and Aisotope. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shinjuku Ni-chōme」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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