Free To Dance At Last?

The ban prohibits dancing after midnight in clubs that sell alcohol.

For years, authorities ignored the law, but no longer. Some believe the crackdown is a means of checking illegal drug use, others think it stems from an incident in an Osaka club in 2012 in which a 22-year-old student died after a fight. In any case, the police have taken the law literally by entering “live houses” and issuing summonses to anyone who appears to be dancing.

The crackdown has put a serious damper on dance clubs, which do most of their business in the wee hours. A government panel recently decided the law needs to be overhauled.

The panel’s chairman said outright that Tokyo’s successful bid for the 2020 Olympic Games has something to do with the change, with many foreigners coming to the capital.

He expects the law to be changed by the end of the year. Major Japanese DJs, like Takkyu Ishino and Ken Ishii, have been active in fighting the ban for several years now, having been affected directly when events they were playing at were shut down in mid-performance.

Even outdoor raves, which technically do not involve clubs, have been adversely affected.

Club owners have been arrested and many reacted with their own preemptive measures, such as putting up signs that read “No Dancing” and hiring guards to stand outside their venues to make sure people who are leaving don’t make any noise. Despite the political will to change the law, the National Police Agency wants to keep things as they are, saying that drunken club-goers cause problems after they leave a dance establishment.