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Jun 15 2014 7 Comments

The World Cup, Cops and Shibuya Crossing

Even with the country’s wonderfully relaxed licensing laws, a kick-off time of 10am for Japan’s first game of the 2014 World Cup seemed to suggest a huge police presence really wasn’t necessary. But a huge police presence was exactly what Shibuya got.

World Cup 2014 Japan fans Shibuya Crossing

A funnelling of fans and shoppers that admittedly seemed like a good idea at first.

World Cup 2014 Japan fans Shibuya Crossing

But it was an idea that quickly turned into semi-organised chaos.

World Cup 2014 Japan fans Shibuya Crossing

The fun of which at least helped to ease the pain of Japan’s opening loss.

World Cup 2014 Japan fans Shibuya Crossing

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bernadette Marchetti says

    6/16/2014 at 5:42 am

    I know that the Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, but that guy is a bit much! Then again, it is Shibuya…Waiting for the US scores, but I’m not expecting a whole lot. The highest the US ever got was 3rd place…in 1930.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/16/2014 at 8:57 am

      Yeah, anything goes in Shibuya!

      He was quite comical actually, blowing his whistle and showing his red card to the police.

      I watched England lose yesterday, so I hope you do better than us. Tough group you’ve got though…

      Reply
  2. Linette says

    6/16/2014 at 1:09 pm

    What? Why? Really?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/16/2014 at 4:13 pm

      Excessive caution is the only explanation I can think of. But even then it’s not like Japanese football fans cause bother at all. Especially not at that time of the day.

      Still, it was entertaining to watch!

      Reply
      • Linette says

        6/18/2014 at 11:24 am

        Definitely!

        Reply
  3. Hans ter Horst says

    6/16/2014 at 2:22 pm

    I watched an Edo-style Tokyo Jidai Matsuri in Asakusa last year and was first amused by the over-policing of the many cops and their whistles. We got bored with the matsuri as waiting 20 minutes to see a float shuffle by is too slow, and I got really irritated by that bullying behaviour of the police who amongst them were giving contradictory directions yet seemed so full of themselves with their whistles that they forgot to think what they were really there for. We left early 🙂

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/16/2014 at 4:17 pm

      Don’t blame you!

      To be fair, this lot weren’t aggressive at all. Not in the slightest. The only really annoying thing was their excessive use of whistles. Something you have clearly had to put up with.

      But as I mentioned above, the entertainment value far outweighed any annoyances!

      Reply

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