Management of PiaPia, a pasta restaurant in Tokyo's west, has posted a handwritten sign on a window at the front of the restaurant bearing the message: "We will be refusing entry to all couples on Dec 24, with no exceptions!"
Featured on the sign is an outline of a male figure and female figure coloured blue and red respectively, a red heart between them – all topped with a huge red cross through the images.
The message says along with distressing single patrons, romantic and affectionate couples on Christmas Eve "would cause severe emotional trauma to members of our staff".
A spokesperson from PiaPia said the sign was put up because the establishment understood single customers would "feel sad that they are by themselves".
"To start with, someone said we should ban couples as a bit of a joke, but then we realised that it's true," the spokesperson said.
"If you are single on Christmas Eve, then it's easy to get down."
