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Whistling in Japan at night is taboo because doing so summons snakes to appear
Snakes, per se, are wonderful creatures. However, they are also the medium through which evil spirits can conjure terrible things.
In rituals at shrines you can hear the beautiful sounds of musical instruments such as flutes, which have the power to summon gods and spirits. Whistling produces a tone similar to that of a flute, and is said to also have the power to attract sacred things.
However, at night it's the demons and evil spirits who are attracted by that music.
Why snakes? Because serpents are universally associated with evil. Music stimulates their movement, as snake charmers in India used to do. (The practice was banned in 1972, though can still be observed in other Asian and North African countries.)
The evil manifests itself as a thief or kidnapper, just as The Pied Piper of Hamelin kidnapped the children.
It is said that snakes have no ears, and therefore cannot hear. But evil spirits can hear very clearly!
It's true that snakes have no external ear, but like the humans, they do have an inner ear.
It differs from the human's inner ear in that it connects to their jawbone, enabling them to sense vibrations. However, they can only sense a portion of the sounds we hear. Snakes can detect vibrations between 50 Hz and 1,000 Hz. The human whistle frequency is typically 1,500-5,000 Hz
Whistling at night can be anti-social, but won't summon snakes.