After snake-dance demonstrations of 1960s and 1970s by radical
leftists, sometimes with poles swung and rocks hurled, have lost steam, today’s demonstrators of various stripes resort to more peaceful and yet more attractive forms of demonstrations, often with a lot of music.
Sound Demos with Lots of Music
“We try to make our demonstrations as pleasant as possible,” said Yutaka Ooki, a representative of the Business People’s Council of Shimo-kitazawa, Tokyo, which uses “sound demos” to express their opposition to the construction of a wide highway cutting through the densely populated commercial and entertainment district.
Music plays an important role in the sound demos which usually are a noisy but peaceful procession of cheerful people. “We don’t want people in the street to look at us as some sort of dubious organization,” he added.
Yutaka Ooki
is a representive of the Business People’s Council of Shimo-kitazawa, Tokyo
“We have paraded like a costume parade, hoping that people in the street may even want to follow,” said Ooki. “I think we succeeded in letting people know what we are doing although our petition to the Setagaya Ward office was turned down.”
Analyzing the emergence of musical demonstrations, Karin Amamiya, a writer and the deputy representative of the “Anti-Poverty Network” said, “Demonstrators in the past, most typically the new left, had a menacing air about them, wearing slogans on the back and headbands. They would shout things totally incomprehensible to onlookers. They seemed crude and unseemly and were frowned upon and thoroughly ignored.”
“On the other hand, sound demos are a pop culture stemmed from street DJ booths made by young people in England who didn’t have money to go to disco,” Amamiya said.
Sound demos can wipe out negative images and bad impression created by demonstrations of the new left, making it easier to join in, she added.
Karin Amamiya
is a writer and the deputy representative of the “Anti-Poverty Network”
Active Communities Support Demos
Saying sound demos takes root in music, Ooki added that a lot of musician lives in the district crisscrossed with narrow alleyways which are a perfect place to meet people and strike up music and conversations.
“It seems only natural that people here resort to music by way of demonstrating,” Ooki said. “They sing songs and play the guitar to convey whatever they have to say. So, if they see a trouble in their neighborhood, they will use music to show what they think,” he said.
Hajime Matsumoto, a leftist activist and the representative of voluntary group “Poor People’s Group for Great Rebellion” which held a sound demo in Koenji, Tokyo, said, “When we did it in Koenji, people kept jumping in, boosting the number of people three-fold from the start.”
Saying he has never seen so many people in favor of his demonstration, Matsumoto added, “It was a lot of fun.” He then realized that since he was doing good for the society, he should be feeling good while doing so.
Hajime Matsumoto
is a leftist activist and the representative of voluntary group “Poor People’s Group for Great Rebellion”
“There is no point otherwise,” he said.
Tomohiro Akagi, a former part-time worker turned freelance writer who often participates in discussions and writes articles on the plight of irregularly employed workers, noted that sound demos took place in Koenji because they were accepted by the merchants of Koenji, an active community where people have close contacts with one another.
Tomohiro Akagi
is a former part-time worker turned freelance eriter eho often writes articles on the plight of irregularly employed workers
Akagi said sound demos will not happen in suburbs, which are essentially communities comprised of families, allowing little leeway for individuals. If individuals wanted to express their frustrations, they would be barred by many other elements of the communities.
In a reference to local characteristics, Akagi also said demos demanding “free rent” took place in Tokyo because there are many tenants in the megacity. “I would say individuals can express themselves only in Tokyo, and for that matter, only in some parts of Tokyo where many young people live,” he added.
One-Phrase Message
Akagi went on to say that demos are, after all, a one-phrase form of expression just like the way SNS and Twitter are. “SNS and Twitter may be real time and dynamic but can only express opinions in one-phrase only,” he said. He said one can write 2,000 to 3,000 kanji characters in a single posting on the blog, which is a static media, making one’s point carefully. A Twitter posting of less than 400 characters was said to be completely different in terms of action as well as methodology.
Saying people tend to make short and assertive comments on Twitter, Akagi added that demonstrations in the streets are very much alike. “To make a case before onlookers, statements have to be one-phrase,” Akagi said, “so are demonstrations which have always been done in one-phrase.”
One-phrase demonstrations give very little information about themselves, which may be easier to understand but are simplified and superficial. “People will only see the surface of a movement,” he said.
“It is just fine,” said author Amamiya who explained that demos are the entrance and essence of a movement. “It’s like the clear top of a miso soup,” she said.
Writer Amamiya noted that extracting a one-phrase message from an entire movement is a fairly sophisticated and difficult proposition. “Some may say sound demos are no more than a play,” she continued, “they don’t know how much planning goes in every weekend. It takes a lot of works to have fun.”
Demos are usually followed up with mixers and drinking parties, offering an opportunity to discuss and share views, Amamiya said.
“Demos offer an important community for poor people. With mixers and drinking parties included, demos are a set of opportunities where they can deeply discuss a single subject,” Amamiya said.
Amamiya added there is no other place in Japan where the poor people can engage in serious discussions. “Culture schools (continuing-education centers) charge money,” she said.
No Confrontation with Power
Freelance writer Akagi said as Japan’s economic growth made snake-dance demonstrations obsolete as a means of labor-management negotiations, only the harmful aspect of demos was spotlighted, the useful aspect forgotten.
Hidemi Suga, a literary critic, said people in Shimo-kitazawa and Koenji, led by “freeters” a made-up word meaning young part timers with an increasingly unstable income in economic recession, resort to demonstrations because they have complaints to make. “But,” he said, “students don’t. I wonder why. Students are would-be freeters and are in a position to be aware of problems.”
Suga suggests that students’ inactivity may stem from a loss of intellectuals standing against power. As journalism collapse and university teachers are bribed into silence, Suga said, there is no one around to make statements up against power. Students have to either hold intellectuals by contempt or follow in their wake.
Suga said there is no longer a confrontation between power and anti-power. “It’s sad,” he said.
Juror who disclose information from a trial can be punished by a fine or imprisonment.
Hidemi Suga
is a literary critic and the professor of Kinki Univ.
BY Kouhei Takahashi
EDITOR Kyosuke Higuchi
