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For the first time, prostitution in Japan became illegal. īefore 1957, Tokyo’s red-light districts had flourished as legally-licensed centers for sex workers but, armed with a new constitution and an Equal Rights amendment, post-occupation Japanese women's Christian groups and the like successfully lobbied the Diet to pass the Prostitution Prevention Law in 1956. As early as 1948, there is mention of a gay Shinjuku tea shop, and by the 1950s gay bars publicly emerged both in name and form in Ni-chōme. The history of Ni-chōme as a gay neighborhood generally begins around the time of the American Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) and ties strongly to the fall of its red-light districts ( akasen). In fact within the five blocks centering on street Naka-Dōri between the BYGS building at the Shinjuku San-chōme Station and the small Shinjuku park three blocks to the east, an estimated 300 gay bars and nightclubs provide entertainment. Within close walking distance from three train stations (Shinjuku San-chōme Station, Shinjuku Gyoenmae Station, and Japan's busiest train station, Shinjuku Station), the Shinjuku Ni-chōme neighborhood provides a specialized blend of bars, restaurants, cafes, saunas, love hotels, gay pride boutiques, cruising boxes ( hattenba), host clubs, nightclubs, massage parlors, parks, and gay book and video stores. With Tokyo home to 13 million people, and Shinjuku known as the noisiest and most crowded of its 23 special wards, Ni-chōme further distinguishes itself as Tokyo's hub of gay subculture, housing the world's highest concentration of gay bars. Shinjuku Ni-chōme (新宿二丁目), referred to colloquially as Ni-chōme or simply Nichō, is Area 2 in the Shinjuku District of the Shinjuku Special Ward of Tokyo, Japan.