SPOOKY JAPAN

It's the Halloween season, and the ghouls, ghosts and zombies are out in force, also in Japan.

Japan, though, has a rather interesting (one could even say 'spooky') relationship with festivals or traditions originating in the West.

Take Christmas, for instance: Japan being a Buddhist country, it cannot really relate to the birth of Christ, which, of course, is the original reason we celebrate Christmas - although that may often go forgotten amidst all the commercialism surrounding us. Still, where I come from, Christmas holds a special part in people's hearts, from a very early age. For the children it's the presents (of course!). For the adults it's a time for reflection, for candles and carols, Christmas markets and those typical Christmassy smells in the air, and the time to be kind to each other - though I would argue that this should apply throughout the entire year.

And although Japan appears to have all the trimmings of the actual event, with decorations, multiple versions of Santa Clauses making the rounds, and Christmas tunes playing up and down the shops and malls, it has morphed into a rather different event, and with a completely different focus. But that's a story for another day (stay tuned for that!).

Easter meanwhile simply doesn't exist here, not in any shape or form. Well, perhaps apart from the chocolate eggs you can buy at a Lindt store in Tokyo... But I guess it's reasonable to assume that if you don't celebrate the birth of Jesus, why would you need a festival to celebrate his resurrection? Actually makes perfect sense.

Valentine's Day, in contrast, does exist here, but with a little twist (well, actually not that 'little'...): In Japan it is customary on Valentine's Day for women to give chocolates to the men in their lives. No red roses for Japanese girlfriends or spouses. Sorry, girls!

However, a month later, on the specifically Japanese invention called 'White Day', all men who received presents must return the favour. One can be forgiven for thinking that it must be a clever marketing ploy invented by someone in the Japanese chocolate industry. And it probably is.

And then there is Halloween, which has been wholeheartedly embraced in Japan only in recent years. Not in its original form with its Celtic roots, celebrating the end of the harvest and wearing costumes to ward off ghosts, but in its much more recent reincarnation as a festival giving kids the opportunity to dress up and go wild, as depicted in so many Hollywood movies.

Theme Parks like Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios in Osaka no doubt had their hand in introducing Halloween to Japan.

Truth be told, Japan didn't need to import Halloween with its original (Pagan) meaning to the country, because Japanese culture already has its own 'Halloween'. It's called 'Obon' or 'Bon' and is a Buddhist event that takes place in August, where people show their respects to the spirits of the dead, and where it is said that one's ancestors’ spirits return to earth to visit their relatives. It's not the dark winter period when the spooky stuff happens in Japan, and when scary stories are being told, but the height of summer. Aspects of life in Japan often appear to resemble those in Western culture - at least on the surface. Until you realise that they're completely different. Welcome to Japan!

So while, for instance, everyone in the western world probably associates Halloween with 'trick-or-treating', this is not a thing in Japan. You may ask why. Well, in a country where there is traditionally a great level of respect for personal boundaries and privacy, and where many go to great lengths to avoid inconveniencing others, kids knocking on a stranger's door and asking for sweets would probably be seen as intrusive. Hard to argue with that...

So Japanese Halloween in October is basically just a fun celebration, allowing people to blow off steam, and it has no cultural meaning.

And when I say 'people', I mean not only kids, but adults as well.

To the sheer horror of the local authorities, Shibuya, one of the many commercial centres within Tokyo, over the past few years had increasingly become a hotspot for unruly Halloween street parties, with tens of thousands of revellers descending on the streets in costumes and letting their hair down - with lots of alcohol involved.

In a country where 'going wild' and being different is generally frowned upon, many must have seen this as a once-a-year opportunity to do so 'incognito', not recognisable under an elaborate costume.

But as crowd sizes grew during the height of the pandemic, when drinking in bars and restaurants was banned, so did cases of vandalism, massive littering and noise, as well as concerns by authorities over safety, even well before last year's fatal crowd crush during Halloween celebrations in South Korea's capital, Seoul.

So this year the message is to stay away, with a massive police presence to enforce that.

As far as the small kids are concerned, however, there are plenty of opportunities to attend Halloween events in structured settings at schools or at shopping malls. The latter presenting businesses with a relatively new occasion to increase sales throughout the month of October, tempting the kids (and their accompanying parents) with all sorts of Halloween-themed merchandise. While Easter (for reasons already stated) will certainly not increase the turnover of businesses in Japan, Halloween most definitely will, as it is here to stay, whether drunken street parties are being banned or not...