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Flyer for Tokyo Dark Castle’s last 2012 event (JGoth added question in red)

This blog entry is an update on the lack of overnight events this year in Tokyo’s dark scene.

In case you have not already noticed, iconic events such as Tokyo Dark Castle and Midnight Mess have gone strangely quiet in recent months. There could be a few reasons for this, but it seems one big issue is the re-enforcement of some old laws.

Tokyo has began re-enforcing a 60-year old law that makes late night dance activities illegal. There could also be some other re-animated regulations too, but that makes it hard to have the overnight events – especially lively events such as TDC.

Essentially, if an organizer wants to have late-night dancing, they need to have certification from a recognized dancing association to avoid the risk of them and their patrons being arrested. While it is possible to get certification for many standard dance styles, I do not think that there are any “disco” “mosho” dance associations out there, so it looks like the best of Tokyo’s Gothic night events have closed shop for a while.

Why was dancing without a license made illegal?

Well, it seems that it was somehow connected with prostitution when it was originally installed – perhaps offering a venue for solicitation. However, nowadays in Tokyo, walking down any of the night district streets will get you more solicitations than you can point a stick at.

So the question becomes… Why?

There was a case where one guy was beaten to death at a club last year, but that was more a case of gang members coming in with metal pipes and baseball bats, than being danced to death.

The end result is that overnight events are out for the time being. The early evening events appear to continue without problems, so if you are considering Gothing in Tokyo, an evening event may be the type of event to pursue…