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is a pedestrian shopping street lined with fashion boutiques, cafes and restaurants in
Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 chōme to 4 chōme. In popular refere ...
in
Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. Stores on Takeshita Street include major chains such as
The Body Shop The Body Shop International Limited, trading as The Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care and perfume company. Founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, the company currently has a range of 1,000 products sold in about 3,000 stores, divided ...
,
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
, and 7-Eleven, but most of the businesses are small independent shops that carry an array of styles. The shops on this street are often a
bellwether A bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends.bellwether
" ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Ret ...
for broader fads, and some are known as "antenna shops," which manufacturers seed with prototypes for test-marketing. Located directly across from the exit of JR East's Harajuku Station, Takeshita Street is very popular with young teenagers, particularly those visiting Tokyo on school trips, or local young people shopping for small "cute" goods at weekends.


History

Takeshita Street was a reliable place to go and purchase fake Japanese and American street brand goods from the early 1990s to 2004. Since 2004, a stronger metropolitan government stance on counterfeit merchandise has led to a decrease of such items being available to the public.


2019 New Year's Day vehicle attack

During the early morning of January 1, 2019, a 21-year-old man named Kazuhiro Kusakabe drove his minicar into the crowd of pedestrians celebrating New Year's Day on Takeshita Street. The man claimed his actions were a terrorist attack, and later stated that his intention was to retaliate against the usage of the death penalty. The man attempted to flee from the scene but was soon apprehended by authorities in a nearby park. It is believed that the attack has some connection to the execution of
Shoko Asahara , born , was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced ...
leader of the
Aum Shinrikyo , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year. The group says ...
doomsday cult in July 2018.


References

{{coord, 35.67125, N, 139.70481, E, source:placeopedia, display=title Harajuku Pedestrian malls Shibuya Streets in Tokyo