World History of Revolutionary Music - Part 2: Japan

I have said repeatedly on this blog that the western perception of Japan is heavily shaped by the media, especially anime. There was one particular anime that I remember fondly from high school called Code Geass, a show about an exiled prince who attempts to overthrow a tyrannical empire who colonized Japan and turned all the natives into second class citizens. Further into watching the show, I started to see a lot of parallels to the treatment of minorities in America, especially African Americans. I remember thinking to myself, "What the hell does Japan know about that?”. At the time, my only impression of contemporary Japan was of a uniform orderly society who’s markets only consisted of sugary pop music, “backwards” comics, and of course anime. Obviously, I was taught about World War II, but my knowledge didn’t extend beyond that, not until I started diving deeper into the Japanese music of the 70s & 80s.

Many don’t realize it, but Japan has its own skeletons in the closet. In many ways they were just as guilty of racism and social disparity as America. You wouldn’t know about many of them unless you read the right books, or in my case heard the right songs. Post WWII Japan saw the rise of much civil unrest; servicemen who returned from war and felt abandoned by society formed biker gangs called Kaminari zoku (雷族 “Thunder Tribe”), labor strikes and student protests were held across the country to oppose the adoption of a revised Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. In the midst of all the chaos, a movement of folk music emerged that would pave the way for singer-songwriters. 

During Japan's occupation period, people were exposed to American culture for the first time through music. Inspiration from singers like Bob Dylan helped a new generation of musicians find a new voice in a struggling Japan and allowed them to express themselves in a way that hasn't been done before through traditional Japanese music. 

Obuyasu Okabayashi (岡林信康) - The Letter & San'ya Blues

One of the misconceptions that we have about Japanese people is that they are an ethnically monolithic society. However, there are many native minorities that have faced discrimination from mainstream Japanese society, from the abuse and mistreatment of Okinawans during WWII, to the many attempts to erase the cultural identities of the indigenous Ainu people. 

One particular minority group that is not often discussed is known as Burakumin. Burakumin ("hamlet people") refers to a group of people discriminated against based on occupation/social status as opposed to ethnicity. They are those with occupations considered impure or tainted by death (executioners, undertakers, butchers, or tanners), which have severe social stigmas of kegare ("defilement") attached to them. What was supposed to be a forgotten fragment of Japan’s feudal era, unfortunately, carried over into modern Japan and has led to poverty and discrimination.

Being associated with burakumin was seen as the equivalent to dealing with lepers, so they were forced into ghettos & hamlets, the most famous being the community Sany’a, where the burakumin go to become day laborers. One man who experienced this first-hand was legendary folk singer, Obuyasu Okabayashi, who’s often called the “God of Folk” and “Japanese Bob Dylan”. Before he was a cultural icon, he worked alongside these outsiders and wrote several songs about their daily grievances. One of the most famous songs was called San'ya Blues, which described the harsh conditions of day laborers and how they are mistreated by society even though they were responsible for building all the new roads and buildings. Another famous song was “The Letter” (手紙), which tells the tale of a woman who has to break up with her lover, for if they get married the man will be denied his inheritance for being with someone born a burakumin.  

Unfortunately burakumin still face discrimination today, as people are wrongfully accused for crimes, and sent death threats at their job, all because of their ancestry.

Ryo Kagawa (加川良) - Lesson 1

I've always held tight to the notion that patriotism is a waste of time. It's a scam to make people submissive to the state through propaganda and scapegoating. America has had a long history of making people's life harder all in the name of patriotism. If you don't support sending young men off to a foreign country to die for a false cause, you're not considered a patriot. If you agree with peaceful protest against police brutality, you don't love America.

Apparently, folk singer Ryo Kagawa felt the same way about Japan when he made his solo debut with his life-affirming anti-war ballad "Kyookun I" (Lesson One). Lesson One was performed at the 2nd Nakatsugawa Folk Jamboree (1970), one of the premier underground folk and rock festivals at the time. The song called for individuals to reject state demands to sacrifice oneself in war, encouraging listeners to run the other way and that the government has no way of replacing your life. Combined with rhetoric that works off gender expectations, and allusions to the propaganda of WWII, Lesson 1 is considered one of the world's greatest anti-war songs.

Shogo Hamada (浜田省吾) - Tokyo

I remember when I first listened to Ice Cube's rap tune, "How to Survive in South Central", and how it poked fun at how they advertise Los Angeles for tourism while rapping about the actual struggle to survive for those who live there. It reminded me that corporations aren't above ignoring the city's disparity for marketing purposes. Apparently something similar happened in the case of Japan's own famous metropolis, Tokyo.

On New Year’s Day of 1980, superstar idol Kenji Sawada released a single called "TOKIO", a fun whimsical pop tune that advertised the wonders of the largest city in Japan, praising it as this pristine paradise where in his words “kind girls sleep and the sad boys howl” ... whatever the hell that means. It was received well by many and became a chart topper, however there was one man who had a problem with the songs ignorantly blissful message, and that was Shogo Hamada.

Shogo Hamada is a Japanese singer-songwriter who made his solo debut in 1976. He's become one of Japan's premiere classic rock stars, with his trademark being his signature Ray-Bans and his Bruce Springsteen style rock & roll. Another big part of Hamada's musical identity was the very strong protest tone within his music which was influenced by his father's experience as a victim of radiation poisoning following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Many of Hamada’s songs have a strong critique of the Japanese working society during the rapidly expanding, albeit unstable, economy and the lifestyle that it bred.

Several months after Kenji's single, Shogo responded with his antithesis, also called “Tokyo” but instead, as an edgier hard rock song highlighting the darker side of Japan’s capital. Literal talks of prostitution & gang violence are heard within the first 30 seconds of the song. While the picture Hamada paints may sound like a far-fetched image of the glamour of the “Bubble economy” of 1980's Japan, I can at least confirm that the rise in gang violence is somewhat accurate, as street gangs such Bosozoku (暴走族) & Sukeban(スケバン/助番) became very popular during this time

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Tatsuro Yamashita (山下達郎) - The War Song

You didn't think I was not gonna mention ol’ Tatsu did you? Even though he emerged in a slightly different era of music, the king of city pop definitely has a few songs under his belt that enlightened me to unspoken parts of Japanese history.

The Cold War was still very much a reality across the world in the 80s. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan had just announced the Strategic Defense Initiative to prevent foreign missile attacks. It was also that year that he developed a friendship with then newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, colloquially known as the Ron-Yasu friendship, which garnered worldwide attention.

Soon after, Prime Minister Nakasone pledged that in the event of a war, he’d make Japan an "unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Pacific", assisting the US in defending against the threat of Soviet bombers. To put it simply, an unsinkable aircraft carrier is a term for an island that is converted into an airbase used to extend the power projection of a military force. Of course, his comments were met with much opposition and backlash, with people calling him a "dangerous militarist". Unabated, Nakasone doubled down on his promise by increasing defense spending in Japan.

Yamashita made his own response to the prime minister’s actions in 1986, through "The War Song". An anti-war ballad calling for people to turn off their televisions and recognize that around the world weapons of mass destruction are being unleashed in people's backyards, and that while we live in complacency, the screams of children are disappearing in the wind. The song ends with the call to action to stop the violence: "We just gotta get up right now! We must save the world somehow!

I'm sure they teach some of this stuff in the Japanese curriculum, but this certainly isn't common knowledge anywhere else. I'm grateful that I was able to discover these songs, as they provided a solid foundation on learning about the real history of Japan, and reveal that even from across the ocean, or even the world, things that we struggle with in society: discrimination, economic disparity, and clashing political ideologies, are more universal than we think.

For the record, my goal in sharing this information isn't to get people to dislike Japan, but rather to provide a simile of cultures. In order to truly understand and even appreciate another culture, you have to acknowledge both the good and the bad. If you just focus on the positive it could lead to stuff like fetishism & tokenism, and just focusing on the negative leads to prejudice & discrimination. People should be able to listen to music that offers non-traditional perspectives on a culture, in order to gain a more well-rounded understanding of their history and why their culture is the way it is.