Photo/Illutration Some businesses in the Shinjuku entertainment district remain open after 8 p.m. despite a Tokyo metropolitan government request to close by that time. (Yoshitaka Unezawa)

Surprise visits to Tokyo bars and restaurants by metropolitan officials to check for compliance with anti-COVID-19 requests are drawing fire for including police officers, which puts undue pressure on owners, critics say.

The manager of an “izakaya” Japanese-style pub in Shinjuku said the first thing he felt was fear upon seeing a group of four strangers suddenly enter his establishment who looked like they had no intention of being customers.

The izakaya, run by the man in his 20s, had been complying with the metropolitan government’s requests until about May. But according to the manager, the decision was made to open up because the total rent of group businesses came to about 10 million yen ($91,200) a month.

The manager said such explanations were ignored by the visiting metropolitan government officials, who only reiterated their request for cooperation.

When asked why a police officer had to be part of the team, a metropolitan government official said it was intended to prevent trouble.

Since early August, teams of four have been visiting bars and restaurants in the major entertainment districts of the capital. Two members are metropolitan government officials who are accompanied by a police officer and a firefighter.

Media representatives were allowed to observe the visitation program in early August.

The visits are intended to convince bars and restaurants to comply with metropolitan government requests to close operations if alcohol is served and to call it a day at 8 p.m. if no alcohol is provided.

Before the visits started, metropolitan government officials checked on the exterior of bars and restaurants from July 12 and found that of a total of 129,193 establishments, 4,872, or 3.7 percent of the total, were still open after 8 p.m.

The visits were initially focused on five areas, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Shinbashi, Ueno and Ikebukuro. Four days were set aside for the visits from Aug. 3. The four-man teams made their visits for about two hours from 8:30 p.m. and went to about 20 establishments each night.

The areas of Roppongi, Akasaka and Kichijoji will be added as target areas and about 700 establishments will be visited by the end of August.

Tsutomu Shimizu, a lawyer who belongs to a group trying to create a more positive image for the police, raised concerns that having police officers in the teams could be considered a strong-arm tactic.

He said “psychological pressure” would be applied to those subject to the visits because they could become worried that the police might target them for other suspected crimes if they did not comply with the requests.

The central government has encouraged including police officers and firefighters in the visiting groups as an effective way to gain cooperation. But currently, the only other prefecture that has turned to the police is Osaka.

The four other prefectures currently under a state of emergency have not used police officers on the grounds that it could place undue pressure on the businesses.

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