With city dwellers around the world in lockdown, increasing reports have surfaced about wild animals infiltrating urban areas.
Tokyo is no exception, although "wild" isn’t quite appropriate in this case. As a sanitation worker in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward relates to Shukan Gendai (May 16), "From about two weeks ago, I've seen rats swarming in the residential area around nearby Hatsudai Station. With more people confined to their homes, the volume of waste has increased and, since it takes us longer to collect it, rats have been ravaging the plastic bags for food. It makes for even more work."
In normal times, the urban rat population is said to be most active between October and February, but the rodents appear to have been emboldened by fewer humans being out and about.