• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

  • Photowalks
  • Book and Prints
  • Newsletter
  • Portfolio
  • About/Contact
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • RSS

Aug 25 2017 10 Comments

Japanese nationalists and the police in comedy confrontations

With their love of noise pollution and military-style fatigues, the Japanese far-right aren’t exactly shy about their affiliations. Yet despite their reputation, each and every time I’ve seen them in action — whether planned or otherwise — there’s only ever been the pretence of violence. Long-practiced piercing looks are invariably aimed at the police. As are similarly well-honed and suitably guttural sounding insults. But that’s really been about it. Or at least it was until this incident fairly recently.

Initially there was the usual parade of vehicles blasting out music and those aforementioned tough guy tirades.

Japanese nationalists fighting the police

Then briefly, and quite comically, it all kicked off. Well, kind of.

Japanese nationalists fighting the police

Japanese nationalists fighting the police

When things settled down again, and nudged hats or ruffled hair had been properly readjusted, the clear winner for me was team number 3. The inventive choreography and wonderful expressions were impressive enough, but the added flourish of shadow puppetry made the whole performance an almost perfect 10.

Japanese nationalists fighting the police

Should you wish to see more, my favourite (and mostly non-comedic) shots of the Japanese far-right can be seen here.

Categorized: Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Denton says

    8/25/2017 at 12:00 pm

    Very nicely done. I really like the framing of the opening shot but the last is just hilarious! 🙂

    Reply
    • Lee says

      8/25/2017 at 6:55 pm

      Cheers! The last one is by far my favourite too. Perfectly summed up the rather farcical nature of the whole thing.

      Reply
  2. MrSatyre says

    8/27/2017 at 4:48 am

    Top caption could be:

    “Please help! My van is making left turns! I’m so humiliated! Plus, the dashboard is very hot and burning my bottom.”

    Reply
    • Lee says

      8/27/2017 at 10:34 am

      Haha, that’d make a lot more sense than what he was actually spouting!

      Reply
  3. kikuhouse (Joanna) says

    8/27/2017 at 7:56 am

    It looks more like performance art in that last one! You have captured it perfectly…

    Reply
    • Lee says

      8/27/2017 at 10:35 am

      Thanks! The reality really wasn’t that different. Lots of pushing and shoving, plus some comedy chases, but all very much for show.

      Reply
  4. mih says

    8/28/2017 at 9:28 pm

    As a gaijin photographer, have you ever been the subject of any sour looks or verbal abuse from the far-right wingers?

    Reply
    • Lee says

      8/29/2017 at 10:08 am

      To be fair, I’ve had very little negativity from them. Took a photo of a nationalist fella giving a speech once and commented that he hoped the gaijin’s photo would be good. Quite funny really. And at events at Yasukuni that I’ve covered, the worst I’ve got is the odd slightly sour look. I think they simply don’t care. A bit like with the yakuza in a way I suppose. So long as you don’t actively go out of your way to bother them, they barely see you.

      Reply
  5. cdilla says

    8/29/2017 at 6:21 pm

    The final photograph in the set really is the best. Put traditional dress and kabuki masks on them and they would look right at home on stage.
    Over the years I’ve seen a few demonstrations decay into impromptu hair-pulling and face slapping playground scuffles where the police try to pull apart without too much force – and they are more amusing than frightening. But I’ve also taken part in demos seeded with psycho thugs when I’ve been thankful of a line or two of suitably attired combat ready police.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      8/29/2017 at 8:24 pm

      Totally agree. The others were really just to set the scene for that last one.

      Thankfully real violence (or at least the threat of it) is very rare here. Something that I’m always hugely grateful for. A bit of handbags, for want of a better description, is the worst I have seen, and hopefully that’ll continue to be the case.

      Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Tokyo Times