No. of Zushi beachgoers drops 50% from 2013 due to ban on loud music, alcohol

And the volume of trash left by the revelers on the beaches which must then be cleaned up has also been greatly reduced, so this is also positive on both the environment and the cost of clean up. A win-win.

It was the local businesses that brought about this ban and now they have just lost 50% of their customers. I hope the bullet wound in your foot heals quickly!

Ive been to Zushi many times and I can say most of the kids there were loud drunk poopheads, so I can understand the ban. The tattoo ban and convenience store dress code is, however, over the line.

But hey, they're free to make the rules and adjust to the consequences. I have a feeling over time Zushi could get new visitors and maybe returning visitors who left because of the poopheads. I wont be returning as I am undesirable with my tattoo.

So just when you think you can go and have a beer at the beach enjoying the sunset the hut will tell you they are closing! I can understand the neighbors living close to the shore are unhappy with the noise and garbage... But at least leave the beach houses till 8-9 pm - it's the most pleasant time to enjoy the scenic and the breeze!

Have been there once this summer. Boring and dirty beach.

Sounds awesome! Most places in Japan tend to be spoiled by one thing: too many damn people!

Probably still overcrowded.

How much do you want to bet the government and businesses in the area are now crying about the result of their actions? I hope they lose all their business until someone with a tattoo walks in and asks for a drink.

Dumb law, all they had to do was enforce the drunk in public place law, or fighting in a public place, or creating a public nuisance law, and everyone could have still enjoyed themselves.

Now all the local business' are suffering, pretty sure none of these idiots who made this new law have a economic, financial, business or common sense brain cell between the lot of them.

Hope you old fools down Zushi are happy now.

Boycott the place, damn kill joys have no idea about reality.

They local government put this ban what did they expect the beach goers to increase???

anyway what is it with the tattoo ban? I find that ridiculous

Zushi needs to build a boardwalk and open a miniature golf course and salt water taffy shops to attract beachgoers.

"No tattoos" - meh.

"No loud music" - meh.

"No alcohol" - meh.

"No barbecues" - WTF!?! WHAT SORT OF FASCIST GOVERNMENT DO THEY HAVE IN KANAGAWA PREFECTURE?! PROTEST! STAGE A SIT-IN! "ATTICA! ATTICA!"

How big is this beach? No room for party zones?

Surely it's illegal to ban people with tattoos from a public beach?

Public safety and disturbing the peace after hours play a significant role here, and I can understand the local business-makers concern. Yet, on a sad note, beachfront businesses will face loses regardless of their share on taxes. Might as well shut down Zushi if this is the case. Only then the locals will learn to appreciate how strong is Zushi as a profit center in the entertainment industry.

Pertaining tattoes and trash, I still can't see what these have anything to do with safety and noise.

Wish the best of luck to you Zushi Beach !!!

They had a report on the TV news a couple of weeks ago about the effect of the ban. There has been an increase in the number of families visiting the beach, but their numbers are nowhere near enough to replace the losses of young people who the ban has driven away. Local business owners they interviewed were mostly grudgingly admitting that though they deplored the manners of the young people, they are feeling the pinch since they stopped showing up and spending money in their town.

I feel a bit conflicted about it. On the one hand I have some sympathy for locals whose beach was being swamped with rude and noisy litterbugs each summer. On the other, it is a shame to see another example of a once lively (if perhaps a bit unruly) place being turned into another rule-bound, boring place that nobody wants to visit, which this country already has in spades.

It strikes me that in addition to being excessively broad, the over-reach in the rules seem specifically designed to make it an unattractive destination for people in general. Bans on loud music and perhaps alcohol make sense and are rationally connected to the aim of making the beach quieter and a bit better behaved. Bans on tattoos are just small minded prejudice. Bans on barbeques seem to be nothing more than an overt attempt to squash even innocent fun activity that harms nobody.

Bans on barbeques seem to be nothing more than an overt attempt to squash even innocent fun activity that harms nobody.

but this is where most of the litter comes from. and what to do with the burning coals or the ash from the BBQ? people bring quite a bit of food, and alcohol, for a BBQ so this is perhaps the only rule that makes sense.

I can see now Happy Fishes are dancing , swinging up & down, back flipping, flapping around and enjoying Sun in the sea.

Fishes said Thank you very much to Zushi local government officials.

It is a boring and dirty beach so all the nonsense about this being good for nature etc etc is garbage. whole pojnt iof zushi was to go and have fun and play music and drink too much. now it is just pointless.

but this is where most of the litter comes from. and what to do with the burning coals or the ash from the BBQ? people bring quite a bit of food, and alcohol, for a BBQ so this is perhaps the only rule that makes sense.

But surely there are a lot of measures short of an outright ban that could have been used to deal with those problems - such as actually enforcing fines for littering, charging a tariff for BBQ users the proceeds of which could be used for cleaning up, etc. Banning it outright (in the context of all the other new rules) seems excessive to me, at least if they want to continue attracting people (families might want to BBQ too after all).

I'm not a lawyer and don't know the ins and outs of such law in Japan, but how can it be legal to tell people to cover tattoos in a public area? Hotels, pools and other privately owned spaces are one thing, but asking people to cover tattoos on a public beach is like asking people to do the same on a street. Legality?

Bull! It was the sucky weather. As a long-time Kanagawa beach-house goer/worker (over 25 years) I can tell you that the rules cited have been in place for several years at ALL Kanagawa beaches. Zushi just chose to more rigorously enforce them. The only rule that's been added in recent years is smoking in the open. The little-known place where I live in Wada Nagahama, Yokosuka/Miura, also experienced low turn-out as did Miura Kaigan.

Hey Zushi, I didn't miss you at all. Miura was cool. Tsujido was pretty fun and even though Shirahama was far, it was fantastic! They accepted the loud music, tattooed people and trash. They even had a truck which came by late in the evening to separate and haul away the trash. Not to mention the eye candy, which was RIDICULOUS!

Other news reports are saying Kamakura was down only -9% this year, but on the other hand the picked up Otodama live house which Zushi nixed.

I am not a lawyer either, but as far as I know there is no law against drinking alcoholic beverages in public in Japan. In Zushi, the mayor and some senators passed ordinances - not laws - to say no drinking outside umi no ie, no tattoos. They did this to placate retirees who want to turn Zushi into a retirement home.

At first, cops handed out memos, but they even gave that up since people ignored them. There is no problem drinking on Zushi beach anywhere you like - there is no penalty, and nobody even asks you to stop. And by mid-summer people did not bother to cover up tattoos either. In this respect, it did not seem different from any other summer, other than the fact that it seemed like there were half as many visitors. The biggest downer is that the umi no ie are only open until 6:30pm and they do not play live music. This is a tragedy - a couple of years ago I just happened to be at an umi no ie on a weeknight and Leyona was playing - just a quiet set with a couple of instruments and you could not even hear it on the beach, so it certainly was not harming any fuddy-duddies in Zushi, and it was great.

I saw a couple of posts about Zushi being a "dirty beach". Zushi is quite clean, but it is not a white sand beach. If you think it is dirty please substantiate your claim.

Don't give up on Zushi beach yet! These rules could change if there is a change in political office.