Food Trucks on Street of Business District in Tokyo

There are many office buildings in the western part of Shinjuku in Tokyo and on the street just around the buildings, mobile catering vehicles showed up to provide many kinds of services for office workers and tourists.

This is a new plan being created by an organization made up by local companies in the western part of Shinjuku. 500 meters of the street next to skyscrapers became full of people and mobile catering vehicles. These vehicles provided many kinds of services including lunch sets for good value, coffee, sweets and more.

It was not allowed to have a mobile catering vehicles on the walking street because of a regulation for road usages. However, the regulation were relieved by utilizing the advantage of the special system of the country to allow this kind of business.

On October 23, there were many office workers and foreign tourists on the street for purchasing items from the mobile catering vehicles. Some were asking  price for items such as lunch or coffee, some were sitting down on the bench to relax and enjoy the whole atmosphere which is so unusual for streets next to skyscrapers.

This time, the catering service vehicles are allowed to be on the street until the 30th of the month. The organization holding this short event will look for more business opportunities and will continue to have this kind of events more often.

An office lady who enjoyed this system of buying food on the street for lunch said to NHK, "Usually, this place is somewhere that we only walk passed by but we enjoyed a lot because we can relax and enjoy our lunch on the bench."

Governor of Tokyo, Masuzoe was also at the street for inspection. He said, "It has been a long time since Western part of Shinjuku were maintenanced and atmosphere were not attractive.  This event can be a booster in order to be the more attractive city."