By TAKASHI ENDO/ Staff Writer
December 21, 2022 at 07:00 JST
People pass near Shinbashi Station in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on the night of Dec. 1. (Tetsuro Takehana)
Japan’s first “bonenkai” period with no virus-related restrictions in three years has started, but consumers and companies are still refraining from holding huge year-end parties.
It’s not only lingering concerns about COVID-19 that are keeping numbers down but also changing attitudes toward drinking and the pressure to join work-related booze sessions.
Bars and restaurants are offering special services to ensure their seats are filled during what is normally the most lucrative period of the year.
On the night of Nov. 28, crowds of commuters passed through Tokyo’s Shinbashi entertainment district. A man in a business suit and three others said they were heading for a bonenkai at a Japanese-style “izakaya” pub.
Bonenkai are usually held in December, but this year, business operators have promoted and accepted earlier reservations in hopes of hosting parties before another wave of infections strikes.
The Nikuya Yokocho barbecue restaurant in the Udagawacho district of Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward distributed discount tickets worth 2,900 yen ($21) to people who dined there by the end of November. The tickets can be used from January.
“We wanted to take an ‘early-as-possible approach’ to capture the needs for bonenkai,” said a representative of the restaurant’s operator.
Around 10 groups of diners a day had visited the outlet on weekdays, but the number rose to 20 through 30 in November, the representative said.
Hotel New Otani Osaka also released its first “earlier bonenkai” package this year.
A free glass of champagne was served to bonenkai diners at its two directly run restaurants by Dec. 4.
Some businesses are giving special offers related to COVID-19 to those who book bonenkai.
Watami Co., which runs 193 izakaya in Japan under the Miraizaka and Sandaime Torimero brands, is waiving fees for day-before cancellations caused by novel coronavirus infections.
“Anyone can catch the coronavirus no matter how careful they are,” said a Watami public relations official. “This risk is a source of worries among party organizers, and we hope this service will put their minds at ease.”
DEMAND STILL SLUGGISH
According to data from Tokyo-based restaurant booking site operator TableCheck Inc., reservation numbers at its 6,300 registered eateries nationwide in November recovered to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
But the reservation figure for December was less than 30 percent of the level in the same month in 2019.
According to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd., 61.4 percent of companies have no plans to organize bonenkai or New Year’s “shinnenkai” parties, mainly because of COVID-19 concerns.
“We will not be holding a company-wide bonenkai,” said an executive, 68, of a corporation in Kobe. “Our division heads can decide on their own whether to organize bonenkai for staff members at each workplace.”
A woman, 26, in Kagoshima Prefecture said her workplace decided not to hold its bonenkai this year, too.
She said she joined the company four years ago and has attended few parties with her workplace colleagues during the pandemic.
“I have to pay consideration to others while drinking with my co-workers,” she said. “I do not want such events to take place.”
Jun Yokokawa, a professor of restaurant industry studies at Asia University’s faculty of Business Administraiton, said the public consciousness toward bonenkai “has undergone a clear alteration.”
“Consumers are now not sticking to large-scale bonenkai with their co-workers,” said Yokokawa, who is also a vice president of the Japan Society of Foodservice Studies.
“The patron number recovery will stagnate at some point, and the kind of bonenkai held before the coronavirus outbreak will never return.”
Yokokawa said that even after the practice of organizing large bonenkai is abandoned, a certain number of people will continue holding smaller parties with close friends or no-alcohol sessions.
“Restaurant operators are facing a period of transition right now,” Yokokawa said. “They will have to present a new model of bonenkai, keeping in mind people’s changing views and needs.”
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