75 YEARS AGO
Friday, Dec. 13, 1940
Young men spending more on alcohol
With their pockets filled with money and their hearts joyful over the
anticipation of year-end bonuses, Tokyo’s young men are spending more
on liquor, if the evidence gathered by a Miyako reporter at Shimbashi
and Yurakucho stations can be taken as proof.
Late Wednesday night a Miyako reporter saw a young inebriated fellow
severely taken to task by a policeman close to Shimbashi Station,
apparently on account of his careless conduct caused by his drinking.
Then, a few steps away, another intoxicated case, causing some trouble
to a station employee, was found by the same reporter.
A staff member at Shimbashi Station, when approached by the Miyako
representative, is quoted to have said: “About 60 percent of those
taking trains here after 11 o’clock at night these few days are more or
less intoxicated, I can assure you. Maybe it is because the majority of
salaried men’s pockets are now warm with their year-end bonuses. Anyway,
we strongly doubt if there are many bars around here where liquor is
sold so late at night. After all, the sight of young men feebly walking
under the strength of alcohol is not very encouraging when a new
national structure (to ready Japan for a protracted war) is being
promoted.”
One of the clerks at Yurakucho Station, when met by the same
reporter, admitted that they also are having many drunken passengers to
handle late at night. “Now, we generally have 700 to 800 passengers who
take trains after 11 o’clock at night. More than half of them are seen
enlightened with alcoholic beverages.”
However, the paper continues, the cases of complete drunkenness are
rare. Some are happy after imbibing in a few drinks, but not drunk;
others wobble a bit while climbing the station steps; and not a few
appear to be partially intoxicated; but complete drunkenness is seldom
noticed.
