This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
Beyond the massive Halloween celebrations in Shibuya which seem to have replaced the tradition of costumed passengers riding and partying on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo, life for most people in Japan on and around October 31st is the same as always. That said, Halloween is catching on in Japan. Every year, more and more people, children especially, seem to be partaking in versions of Halloween that have been modified to work in Japan.
From Halloween parties in small English schools to costume parties in elementary schools, the Halloween buzz is growing and it makes perfect sense to me. With Japan’s obsession with present giving, and with its plethora of mythical monsters known as yokai, its rampant stories of hauntings and ghosts, and with the various humanoid monsters known as bakemono that appear in Japanese manga and movies, Japan seems like the perfect place to practice Halloween. The elements of our modern Halloween, giving out candy and celebrating the monsters of our cultural psyche, are already perfectly in place in Japan.
While young people are ready to adopt this holiday without question, adults seem to be a little confused by it. There is a traditional three-day period in Japan that takes place around August 15 which is known as Obon. It is said that during this time, the deceased return from heaven and follow the smells of incense and the trails of candles back to their graves and the altars of their families’ homes. It is a very sacred time in Japan when many people return to the places of their birth, spend time with their families, clean their family graves, and, in a ceremonial sense, communicate with their ancestors. This time of year carries with it old superstitions such as this: the first-born sons of families should not go near water during this time because the returning spirits may drown them. Halloween being a day of the dead, many adults in Japan want to know more about its origins. They have many questions. Namely, is Halloween the Obon of the West? If so, why do we wear costumes? Why do we give out candy? Why do we threaten to play tricks on people if they don’t give us candy?
For the past two years, my family and I have joined a growing group of people at a local English tutoring school and gone trick or treating at a number of nearby shops whose owners have volunteered to hand out candy, rice crackers, and other snacks at the English school owner’s request. It is not the same as trick or treating was for me when I was a child, but it is nice just the same, and I’m glad my children have the chance to experience it. In addition, a group of ten families in the neighborhood where my wife grew up began trick or treating three or four years ago. These families all meet in front of one family’s house and then move as a group of about thirty from participating house to participating house, the adults stand at the edges of the group herding kids and looking out for cars while the children ambush the bag, or sometimes the box, of treats and its holder.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting daily updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.