Giant advertising screens on buildings overlooking a popular scramble crossing near Tokyo's Shibuya Station will be turned off earlier than usual on New Year's Eve, as one of the efforts to deter people from gathering amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The Shibuya Ward Office asked operators of 13 large screens in and around Shibuya's main intersection to switch the screens off from 11 p.m. on December 31, two hours earlier than last year.