Lost in Translation Filming Locations: Kabuki-cho (Shinjuku)
After the main title card, the film opens with a shot of a clearly jetlagged Bob Harris (Bill Murray) in a taxi, his head pressed up against the window in the rear left passenger seat. The interior of the taxi becomes awash in reflections of city lights and street noise, waking Bob. We then assume his view as he looks out from the taxi into the pulsing neon of Shinjuku’s Kabuki-cho entertainment district. We see glimpses of young Japanese walking along the sidewalks and the camera pans to the large neon signboards that crowd the main entrance to Kabuki-cho on Yasukuni-dori (Yasukuni Street).
Eventually the camera tracks a single billboard on top of a building lining Yasukuni-dori that has a familiar face holding a glass of whiskey — it is an advertisement for Suntory’s Hibiki whiskey (17 years) that Bob is in Tokyo to promote. The sign reads in Japanese “furui tomo to taisetsu na hitotoki, suntory time” (古い友と、大切なひととき、サントリータイム), which loosely translates to “for important times with old friends, make it Suntory time”. Bob rubs his eyes in disbelief at seeing himself on the billboard before he refocuses back on the road and the taxi accelerates to bring him to his lodging at the Park Hyatt, which is also in Shinjuku.
The nighttime Kabuki-cho shots were filmed along the stretch of Yasukuni-dori that generally marks the beginning of one of Tokyo’s most famed entertainment and red light districts in, Kabuki-cho in Shinjuku. Shinjuku itself is one of Tokyo’s major commercial hubs and also home of the Tokyo prefectural government, located in the northwest of larger Tokyo. Shinjuku first began to take form during Japan’s Edo Period (1603–1867) due to its prime location along one of the main highways leaving greater Tokyo for Western Honshu. The 1920s saw many commercial industries start to take root in the area around the new Shinjuku rail station, though the entire city was leveled during the fire bombings of Tokyo in 1945. In the post-war years, there was rapid re-development of the area and many of Japan’s most famous companies located their headquarters in Shinjuku due to this activity and the presence of some of Tokyo’s first skyscrapers. Even today, Japanese blue-chip companies such as NTT East, Olympus, Seiko Epson, and Square Enix have their headquarters in Shinjuku.
To the northeast of Shinjuku Station is Kabuki-cho, which got its name during the post-war reconstruction as a major developer announced plans for the construction of a grand kabuki theatre in the area. Even though the theatre never materialized due to financing issues, the name stuck and Kabuki-cho’s potential as an entertainment hub was soon realized with the construction of movie theaters, a skating rink, restaurants and drinking establishments. Curiously, Japan’s overseas Chinese population was responsible for much of the development as they quickly snatched up plots of land in the area after World War II and invested in the development of the area.
With the rise of video in the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese preferences for live entertainment of the kind found in Kabuki-cho decreased, which resulted in the closure of many of the theatres and cabarets in the area. Seedier elements quickly moved in, and Kabuki-cho is now known as one of Tokyo’s largest red light districts, with numerous fuzoku (establishments offering sexual services) as well as hundreds of kyabakura (cabaret club) which provide opportunities for work-weary salarymen to unwind over drinks and conversation with pretty young women (a similar concept called a hosuto kurabu (Host Club) also exists for Japanese women who want a similar experience with handsome young men). Many of these establishments are directly or indirectly controlled by the yakuza (Japan’s mafia) and it is one of the few areas in Tokyo where tourists should be on alert for scams and other petty crime.
The Kabuki-cho nightlife district generally consists of the ~.15 square mile area north of Yasukuni-dori to Shokan-dori, which is bordered on the east by the JR train tracks and on the west by Meiji-dori, a major Tokyo artery. Bob’s cab traverses Yasukuni-dori from west to east, passing by the large neon facades lining the street. Behind these buildings is the heart of Kabuki-cho, and on most nights (even during COVID-19) it is packed with partygoers and salarymen looking for a cheap thrill and other drunken debauchery. At one point in the scene, the camera briefly looks at the red kabuki-cho ichiban gai gate that sits on the southeast corner along Yasukuni-dori — which is one of the main markers of the Kabuki-cho district and is considered a landmark much like the hachiko statue in Shibuya.
Another Kabuki-cho landmark is the Don Quijote mega-store located at the corner of Yasukuni-dori and Central-dori. Don Quijote is Japan’s most famous discount brand store, carrying a wide range of products from groceries, clothing, electronics and liquor. The store is open 24-hours and is almost always crowded with young adults killing time as they wait for their drinking companions as well as with flocks of tourists looking to make some last minute purchases before heading home. The Kabuki-cho Don Quijote can clearly be seen in the film as Bob takes his drive along Yasukuni-dori and remains largely unchanged, except for some new exterior signage.
The building which hosted Bob’s Suntory advertising billboard is also located along Yasukuni-dori, in between a Karaoke-kan karaoke parlor (see prior post on Karaoke-kan in Shibuya) and a relaxation cafe called Kaikatsu Club (which was formerly a Shidax karaoke parlor). In the film, the billboard appears to be on top of a smaller building which is dwarfed by the Shidax to the right of it. That smaller building has since been torn down and replaced with a much taller building that is generally indistinguishable from the Kaikatsu Club building next to it — unfortunately this means the billboard frame is also gone.
The final shot before Bob arrives at the Park Hyatt is of a blue and red neon sign featuring several Chinese characters in the center around which blue neon rings pulse. This sign is for the Shibuya-based pharmacy and cosmetics chain san-zen riyakuhin, which loosely translates to "3000 chemicals". Although this sign appears in the film during the Kabuki-cho drive, this sign was actually located in Shibuya's scramble crossing, just next to QFRONT. This pharmacy was first established in 1962 as a cosmetics discounter and has been a Shibuya staple ever since, with several prime locations around Shibuya Station. The neon sign seen in the film has since been replaced with a digital screen which loops with various advertising for various products and services.
One final continuity note: in this opening scene of the film as Bob travels west to east across Yasukuni-dori, we are made to understand that Bob has just landed in Japan and is on his way to the Park Hyatt directly from Narita Airport (which is located east of Tokyo bay) due to the Narita welcome announcement that is heard just before the first shot of Bob in the taxi. However, the Park Hyatt is actually located to the west of Kabuki-cho, and if Bob was in fact coming from Narita, he would normally travel east to west on Yasukuni-dori east in order to get to the park Hyatt. In fact, it makes no sense to go anywhere near Kabuki-cho to get to the Park Hyatt from Narita, as most routes would go south of Shinjuku station entirely — see the Google map directions from Narita to the Park Hyatt below (Kabuki-cho, located in the top right of the map, is avoided entirely for either approach).
Don Quijote website: https://www.donki.com/?pre=le
San-zen Riyakuhin website: https://www.3000ri.co.jp/
Soundtrack from the opening scene in Kabuki-cho:
