Ward governments in Tokyo are ramping up the war to stop the invasion of rats throughout the city, which can pose health and hygiene risks and threaten the capital's clean image.

Businesses in the posh Ginza district are especially concerned that the increasing vermin could tarnish the reputation of their up-scale community.

The Ginza district and its businesses first began dealing with rats five years ago during the move of the nearby Tsukiji market to the Toyosu district of Koto Ward.

The Tokyo metropolitan government announced that it would exterminate about 8,000 rats that had been living at the Tsukiji market once it closed in October 2018.

However, a number of the displaced vermin began appearing in the Ginza district late at night, leading to an increase in complaints.

What began with two neighborhood associations exterminating the vermin extended to 23 organizations.

For a one-year period from September 2019, those organizations spent 24 million yen ($159,000) on a massive extermination effort and a revaluation of how businesses were discarding their garbage. The Chuo Ward government provided a subsidy covering 75 percent of the cost.

The study into garbage disposal showed that cutting off access to food scraps in the trash was key to controlling the rat population. The Ginza association asked businesses to use garbage cans with lids rather than simply leave garbage bags out on the street.

They also asked that garbage be put out late at night for early morning collection.

This led to a significant increase in the usage of garbage cans from 22 percent to 60 percent. Moreover, about 1,000 rats were exterminated by poisoning.

However, since bars and restaurants have returned to normal business operations after the pandemic restrictions were lifted, rat sightings have increased, as has the amount of rat poison used between September 2022 and June 2023.

“Many bars and restaurants closed and were replaced by new establishments during the health scare, and fewer of these places use garbage cans with lids," said Yoshikuni Matsuzawa, 52, the president of a Ginza company and chairman of a committee handling the environment and safety. "We will have to ask businesses to implement garbage disposal measures more thoroughly.”

WARD MAYOR PITCHES IN

The Chiyoda Ward government has also been forced to deal with a growing number of complaints about vermin.

While about 50 such complaints were received by public health offices in the ward annually between 2014 and 2018, the number increased sharply to 169 in 2019. There were 203 complaints in 2022 and, as of the end of June this year, there were 69.

Ward officials said that while between 20 and 30 dead rats on average were removed every month, the number increased to 50 in August.

The Chiyoda Ward government set aside about 16 million yen in the current fiscal year budget to deal with the rodent problem. In addition to asking pest control companies to exterminate the rats, a study will be conducted over about three years to determine the extent of the problem.

The neighborhood association of businesses and residents in front of JR Kanda Station set up a panel in July to consider how to deal with the rats.

About 70 volunteers, including ward Mayor Takaaki Higuchi, cleaned areas where rats might hide, such as narrow spaces between buildings and under vegetation.

Keiichi Hirano, 73, the chairman of the neighborhood association, said, “This is an old shopping district so there are many spaces between buildings. It is possible that rats are creating lairs in those areas.”

After a video was posted on social media of rats swarming over garbage in the Kabukicho entertainment district of Shinjuku Ward, the ward government decided to spend about 12 million yen this November to exterminate the vermin and study the problem.

RATS MULTIPLY RAPIDLY

According to Tokyo metropolitan officials, most of the rats spotted are either black rats or brown rats.

Last year, the metropolitan government received 6,399 queries about the vermin problem, 445 more than in the previous year.

In addition to spreading infectious diseases, rats can also cause fires by chewing on electrical wiring.

Katsuya Takahashi, the manager of the Marunouchi office of the exterminator Civil International Corp., said a pair of rats can produce 80 offspring over the course of a year.

“The resumption of business by bars and restaurants has led to an increase in garbage, which means more food for the vermin,” Takahashi said.

Another exterminator, the Osaka-based Gaijukujo Taisaku Center, did an analysis of exterminations in 2022 as well as the 19,000 or so inquiries received at its branches, which extend over the Kansai, Kanto, Tokai and Kyushu regions.

Not surprisingly, heavily populated urban areas had the most rats, with Tokyo leading the way, followed by Osaka and Kanagawa prefectures.

One estimate is that 250,000 rats live in Tokyo, with about 80 percent found in the 23 wards.

A center official said there were five times as many extermination requests in October than in the month a year ago.

Meanwhile, a Chiyoda Ward official said the efforts by the Tokyo metropolitan government from about 20 years ago to get rid of crows may have also contributed to the increase in rats, since there are now fewer of the birds in the city to prey on young rats.