{"id":76482,"date":"2012-03-14T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com?p=10351"},"modified":"2016-04-01T01:42:12","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T16:42:12","slug":"if-you-go-down-to-the-club-tonight-youre-sure-of-a-big-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/if-you-go-down-to-the-club-tonight-youre-sure-of-a-big-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"If you go down to the club tonight, you\u2019re sure of a big surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hugh McCafferty, gauges the international community\u2019s reaction to the current clamp-down on dancing in Fukuoka.<\/em><\/p>\n

As most regular clubbers will know, venues in Fukuoka have recently started imposing a most unusual ban. In a city famed throughout Japan for its nightlife, to which people from all over Kyushu flock at the weekend, late night revellers are now routinely asked the unthinkable: to stop dancing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reaction from some has been one of total disbelief. \u201cI was flabbergasted, flummoxed, whatever adjective you want to use.\u201d Johnny Price explains. \u201cI went to a club with some friends a while back. We went in, heard the music and started to dance. Suddenly, I get a tap on my shoulder and I\u2019m being asked to stop dancing. I was like, \u2018What is this? Footloose? Where\u2019s the joke at?\u201d Originally from Chicago, Price first came to Fukuoka in 1994 and spent the next three years DJing in venues around the city. He has recently returned to the city and notes that the change has been remarkable. \u201cI\u2019ve never been in a town that prohibited dancing,\u201d he reflects bemusedly.<\/p>\n

Ina Linge-Granger and her fellow exchange students at the Fukuoka University of Economics are more indignant: \u201cI have come across it, but I refuse to go to a place where I can\u2019t dance. We are all generally very annoyed with that rule.\u201d The rule to which she refers is part of the fuuzoku eigyou torishimari hou or Law Regulating Businesses Affecting Public Morals. First drafted in 1948, and amended several times thereafter, this law regulates, among other things, the opening hours of \u201centertainment businesses\u201d (the category into which clubs officially fall).<\/p>\n

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Article 13 states that such businesses cannot open from midnight to sunrise, unless the local public safety committee grants an extension (which only stretches as far as 1 am). This might come as a surprise to anybody who, until recently at least, has ever gone clubbing in Japan. If dancing is illegal after 1 am, why have venues routinely stayed open far beyond that? A prominent club-owner in the Oyafuko-dori area, who wishes to remain anonymous, explains: \u201cThis license only allows you to open until 1 am. Due to these restrictions, clubs and dance bars all over Japan have decided to do business under the bar\/restaurant license which allows you to open all hours but doesn\u2019t allow entertainment, including dancing and DJs.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until now everyone who owns or runs a place has known this but it has been an acceptable risk due to lax police enforcement of this law. But for whatever reason, they have recently started enforcing this particular law against clubs in a big way. Most clubs have had no choice but to comply by adding tables and chairs to their dance floors, covering up DJ booths, turning up the lights and stopping people dancing. The other choice is to allow dancing and close at one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although critical of the early hours that licensed clubs must keep, Johnny Price looks less kindly on the contribution owners have made to the current situation. \u201cThey\u2019re pushing it. When I was here in the 90s, a few places stayed open after hours. They were successful and nobody said anything, but then everyone started jumping on the bandwagon. The reason that clubs are getting in trouble is that they\u2019re being greedy \u2013 the cops are just trying to do their job.\u201d These comments may explain club-owners\u2019 motivation to open later than permitted but it remains unclear as to why the authorities effectively allowed them to do so for so long by not enforcing the law consistently.<\/p>\n

Whatever the rationale behind previous laxness, the last few months have seen a sudden, sharp increase in enforcement. The turning point, it would seem, was the arrest of Kazuya Oda, owner of Kieth Flack, in November for allowing unlicensed dancing at his club. Soon after, \u2018no dancing\u2019 signs started to appear at venues around the city that had previously operated under regular bar or restaurant licenses. Kieth Flack has since resumed business, with a full dancing license, and is sticking strictly to regulations. Other clubs in the area have followed suit.<\/p>\n

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Despite the abrupt implementation of restrictions, some of the biggest nightlife fixtures in the city remain packed at the weekend. Moses Yamane, who has owned The Dark Room for the best part of 17 years, wryly admits his disappointment that the turmoil hasn\u2019t benefited his bar. \u201cTo be honest, I thought it would work to our advantage with all the clubs getting pressured but it hasn\u2019t really helped to the extent I’d hoped for.\u201d People may still be out, but the night time atmosphere has definitely taken a hit, he notes. \u201cIt has sort of soured the mood a little bit. It\u2019s just not as fun. I\u2019ve gone out to clubs a couple of times and I\u2019ve just stood there \u2013 it\u2019s weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamane recognises the need for regulation. The point he raises, however, is that the law, in its current form, seems to go about it in an unnecessarily indirect way. \u201cI understand the police don\u2019t want customers coming out on to the street and drunk-fighting at 8 or 9 in the morning, with kids going to school and people trying to get to work, but they should deal with it directly. There\u2019s a really weak connection between people dancing in a club and fighting on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

With zealous enforcement of regulations in businesses throughout the city, it\u2019s interesting to note that dancing is permitted just about anywhere else \u2013 on the street, in karaoke parlours, even at establishments, like dance schools, that make a direct profit from it. \u201cIt\u2019s something we joke about,\u201d Yamane says, \u201c\u2019If I wanted to have dancing, instead ofThe Dark Room (Urban Rock Bar), why don\u2019t we just have The Dark Room Dance School?\u2019 I don\u2019t know if the police would buy it, but it\u2019s the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely, then, that the point of fuuzoku eigyou legislation is to curb the physical act of dancing. However, as one exasperated bar manager, who doesn\u2019t want to be named, puts it, \u201cThe cops have to enforce the law but it seems the \u2018no dancing\u2019 aspect is the only thing they can play on.\u201d He believes that regulations, as they stand, do not reflect the kind of businesses that have emerged in Japan over the last decade or two. \u201cOur business, and a lot of other bars in Fukuoka, should be in a category that doesn\u2019t exist now in the law. A normal bar can open at five o\u2019clock in the afternoon but with our bar, most of our customers come at one o\u2019clock in the morning. So what I would call a \u2018DJ bar\u2019 should be part of a third category \u2013 not a club, not a dining bar, but something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

With dancing restrictions likely to remain in place for the time being, what do you make of the situation? How does the law here compare to that of other countries? Is it time for a change to licensing regulations or do they serve their purpose in keeping the streets trouble-free at night?<\/p>\n

Leave your comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hugh McCafferty, gauges the international community\u2019s reaction to the current clamp-down on dancing in Fukuoka. As most regular clubbers will know, venues in Fukuoka have recently started imposing a most unusual ban. In a city famed throughout Japan for its nightlife, to which people from all over Kyushu flock at the weekend, late night revellers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"10351","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-others","location-fukuoka-city","location-tenjin","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/MG_7257-e1328577985301.jpg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85567,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76482\/revisions\/85567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}