"Shopping at the sidewalk stalls in front of Matsuya on the Ginza (at the time the big store was temporarily the Tokyo PX_. These stalls were mostly operated by organized gangs and often sold illegal merchandise. They lined both sides of the Ginza for blocks, but they were all gone by the 1960s, due to new municipal regulations, and opposition from the reviving big, elegant Ginza stores. The man whose back faces the camera is wearing his Japanese army officer's boots."

From: Bennett, John W. Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951: A Personal and Professional Memoir, 2002, http://library.osu.edu/
sites/rarebooks/japan/2_1_photos.html.