When I first came to Japan in 2001, Halloween was not a thing. At all. Well, it was if you were foreigner, but Japanese people just didn’t really get it. Now they do more than ever and are putting their own spin on it. So what happened?
Image: nakano_ena, via Twitter
This piece originally appeared October 25, 2012.
The two things that have really made Halloween in Japan are Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan. Tokyo Disneyland held its first Halloween event in 2000, and each year it’s gotten bigger and bigger. Ditto for Universal Studios Japan in Osaka which followed suit with its own celebrations.
Image: Nan-Cheng Tsai
Both Tokyo Disneyland and USJ provided an easy way for Japanese people to enjoy Halloween and laid the groundwork for the Halloween to expand to other businesses hoping to cash in.
【ひとりハロウィンパーティ@マック】
黒バーガー。どっかで見た気が…というツッコミはさておき。
ハロウィンメニューならカボチャパンを使うとか、
かぼちゃの天ぷらをはさめばいいのに…(。-∀-)
って文句言いながら喰う(;・∀・)。 pic.twitter.com/XW5DVQRXMq— Masaki SAKAKIBARA (@mshoht73) October 22, 2014
Prior to this, Halloween in Japan used to only mean foreigners wearing funny customs in bars and drinking on public transportation. The infamous “Halloween trains” in both Tokyo and Osaka became infamous, with foreigners in costumes taking over trains and turning them into wild parties, disrupting people’s commutes.
These Halloween trains caused such an outrage online in Japan that in 2009 protesters appeared at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo carrying signs that read, “Stupid Gaijin, Get out of Japan!” and “We Japanese Don’t Need Halloween!” Obviously, people were upset with how these Halloween trains were disrupting commutes in disrespectful ways, but images like this and Japan Probe‘s coverage at that time remain curious time capsules when looking at how Japanese people in costume now celebrate the Halloween in Tokyo by flooding into streets, turning either areas into street parties like this:
Image: kimubert
Even before Halloween caught on, it seemed like it would be a logical fit for Japan, being the country that gave the world cosplay. There isn’t widespread trick-or-treating (and where there is, it can be highly organised), but more and more kids are going to Halloween parties and dressing up.
Then there’s an increasing amount of merchandising, which ranges from small pumpkins (normal sized ones are incredibly expensive), cakes, cookies, ice cream, and more. You now see Halloween decorations in stores and even on some TV shows and each year, it’s more and more popular. If you’ve lived in Japan for the past decade, you’ve seen the birth of a new holiday right before your very eyes.
Image: Tomohiro Ohtake
But it’s not as simple as Japan importing an American holiday or just playing dress up. Take the colours associated with Halloween. In America, the dominate Halloween colours are orange and black, but green and purple also put in appearances. The same is true for Japan, but purple has a slightly different nuance.
The purple in Japanese Halloween does refer to witches or spells, but it also sweet potatoes, which are autumn and winter foods in Japan and which can have purple skins. There are also purple yams, which are, well, purple inside and out.
さつまいもと紫いもが旬を迎えています。紫芋のポタージュは、今月のハロウィンパーティーで、きっと子供ウケが良いですよ。おばけのスープとしてね。#紫いも #ハロウィン #秋のポタージュ pic.twitter.com/8ruMijE3sU
— 青果店 築地ミクリヤ 阿部秀馬 (@612_sss) October 2, 2015
The connection is not lost on the Japanese and you might see Halloween cakes made with sweet potatoes or even Halloween themed sweet potato food products, such as this:
最近しんどいことが多くて、自分を励ますためにシュークリーム食べることにした。さつまいも!?って思って買ったんやけども…何このハロウィンな色!紫芋やけども…(笑)確認したらヤバイ着色料ではなかったので安心して食べる。お味はスイートポテトみたい。いい気分転換になったよ!(視覚的にも) pic.twitter.com/ZRI65rlhBs
— ロンTrb (@yuumaio) October 7, 2016
These McDonald’s Halloween fries have “purple yam and chocolate sauce”.
今日からマクドナルドで「ハロウィン魔女ポテト」が発売???
紫いも×チョコソースの組み合わせ??
今日の放課後に食べに行きたいですね?? pic.twitter.com/jLhZ4sbJP0— チームシンデレラ (@cinderella_sho1) October 18, 2016
Japanese pumpkins are also a autumn food, but they are green on the outside, so imported orange pumpkins are not a symbol of the autumn harvest, but of Halloween, full stop. So, even though Halloween is still fairly new to Japan, the country is already doing its own take on Halloween, changing to it suit the its own culture. There are, however, important intrinsic differences between Halloween in Japan and Halloween in America.
Japan-based game localiser and writer Matt Alt, co-author of Yurei Attack!, calls Halloween a “kid’s version” of the Japan’s traditional spooky season, which is in August. (Full disclosure: Tuttle, which is publishes my books, also publishes Alt’s.)
That month, there are the Obon holidays, when the spirits of the dead visit household shrines and when families clean the graves of the deceased. (However, these days, some people go on vacation or just relax at home for a “death free” Obon.) Still, the idea of death is tangible as people visit their family graves. Spending time in cemeteries means the spooky notion remains, with people telling scary stories on TV. During the hot, sticky month, people traditionally tell scary tales to send chills down their spines. Yurei, or vengeance spirits, often appear in these stories.
{image: Ari Helminen]
“I can almost guarantee you that you will never hear the word ‘yurei’ with Halloween in Japan,” Alt tells Kotaku. “You’ll hear ‘ghost’ or ‘obake’, the Japanese word for ghosts, because those are relatively cute. Yurei are fucking terrifying. You can quote me on that — fucking terrifying.”
Yurei Attack!‘s co-author Hiroko Yoda says that the lesson behind yurei is that if you mistreat someone, they will come back to haunt you. “It’s a karmic thing,” she says. Yurei, however, are indiscriminate. Alt calls yurei “spiritual landmines” that are relentless and determined to kill pretty much whomever is in their way, and it doesn’t matter if you are completely innocent or not.
The West has a wide variety of ghosts — from terrifying, vengeful ghosts to, well, friendly, cute ghosts. Yurei are not cute. They are not friendly. Because of that, Alt points out, you pretty much never see “Yurei” marketed on toys. Instead, toy companies use “obake” (ghost), which seem softer.
[Image: Hideya HAMANO]
What’s more, Obon isn’t marketable in the same way Halloween is and doesn’t exactly inspire a slew of merchandise.
In the West, Halloween is closely connected to death, with its roots in festivals of the dead as well as All Saints’ Day. But in Japan, it isn’t seen that way; it’s a holiday imported from America. It doesn’t have the close connection to death like Obon, thus making it somewhat abstract in Japan.
That doesn’t mean it cannot be scary in Japan — there is an uptick in the number of haunted houses during autumn and many of them are terrifying. Though, like the Resident Evil attraction now at USJ, they’re not centred around yurei but zombies. There’s still a clear distinction.
【15周年の特別なハロウィーン・ホラー・ナイトは、究極に〝やり過ぎ”です!】いよいよ終盤!あなたをどこまでも追いつめる〝やり過ぎ”ゾンビがお待ちしております! https://t.co/3fVSOkRzKd #USJ pic.twitter.com/TaXJcXzrDQ
— ユニバーサル・スタジオ・ジャパン公式 (@USJ_Official) October 17, 2016
While the Disney version of Halloween is cute, zombies add the scares for Halloween in Japan, so it’s not uncommon to see groups of young women dressed up in nurse or maid outfits that are “zombied” with the addition of blood or a troupe of young dudes all dressed as Power Rangers. As each new generation of Japanese grows up with Halloween, it will continue to evolve and suit local sensibilities, and it might blur lines between traditional Japanese horror and the newer Halloween traditional.
チャッキー本間に怖かった??
夜はゾンビに間違えられる事が多かったけどそれはそれで楽しかった??ʬ
お姉ちゃんありがとう♡
又 行きたいな❤#USJ#コスプレ#ポリス#Halloween#sister pic.twitter.com/EuAv6EAlDs— ちゃんえな(中野恵那) (@nakano_ena) October 11, 2016
Even now, bit by bit, there appears to be a conflation between traditional Japanese scary creatures and Halloween. No doubt, with the passage of time, this will most likely accelerate.
Tokyo station is decked out in a cute yokai-meet-Halloween theme for the season. So odd seeing yokai with Jack-o-lanterns! pic.twitter.com/qWp1Qo8Z0C
— Matt Alt (@Matt_Alt) October 21, 2016
“Everyone loves haunted houses, because they’re fun,” says Alt. “Everyone loves candy and dressing up. Halloween becomes an excuse in Japan to enjoy the spooky season again.” In Japan, Halloween is still a stopgap of sorts, allowing Japanese people the opportunity to enjoy another spooky season, that’s slightly more carefree and fun, instead of tangible death and terrifying yurei.
Image: Big Ben in Japan
Comments
13 responses to “How Halloween Became A Thing In Japan”
Glowing endorsement right there 😛
SOOOO sick of being redirected to Kotaku Australia. All the goodness of Kotaku, but with fewer articles, fewer comments, and a aggresive geo-locational fascism system. Suck a bag of dicks, jerks!
Show us on the doll
I could go with more articles, but the US Comments Area is fucking horrible. I moved out of AU, and I still come to the AU site because the comments are better, if fewer
Eurgh. Halloween. It’s been getting more and more intrusive in Australia over the last few years.
I don’t get the anti-Halloweeners in Australia. Halloween is fun, but if you don’t like it pretty easy to avoid. Oh, and kids are already trick or treating, but depending where you live it’s hardly new. I was admittedly a pretty horror obsessed kid but I trick or treated when I was little and am now in my 30s.
Because most of the pushing is done by business, not people.
Last year everyone was drooling over the retail numbers out of the US.
Seeing the odd kid having fun is fine by me, but when everything gets a Halloween markup, just seems so hollow.
If we are dealing with the spirit of the holiday, just throw a Halloween party for the kids, they get tons more fun and candy out of it.
Oh my god it’s happening to them to!
Please stop the spread of Halloween. In Australia it is becoming a bigger thing every year. Right now it’s tolerable since there is no trick-or-treating. But if it grows and if neighbourhoods decide to hold trick or treating festivals or whatnot, it will spread, spread I tell you!
Who the hell wants kids coming to your door, walking all over your garden, pestering you for treats and threatening you with tricks!? Stand agains this nonsense! Say no to halloween! Stop the spread, end the madness!
Pfft, Halloween’s the best holiday. Sif hate on a good excuse to dress up in costume 😛
Thays why they are so desperate to get Halloween in to the mainstream though.
Here we have parties or go to themed bars, we don’t spend millions on costumes and candy.
We took what we wanted and left the corporate crap behind.
I’ve never hated Halloween, but I’ve always been pretty indifferent. Now I have a son, I’m super excited about it.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve taken friends’ kids out Trick or Treating. Their neighbourhood is pretty organised, so the houses who are taking part have decorations, and the kids know to avoid the ones that aren’t. It’s pretty easy to avoid if you don’t want to be involved. Just put a sign up if you don’t want trick or treaters.
I just wish we would switch Halloween to the equivalent season here.
It is too hot for costumes usually, and doesn’t get dark enough until too late.
Switch it for the southern hemisphere to late Autumn and it would be great.
But it’s never too hot for a sexy costume!