Music

Japan just lifted a 68-year ban on dancing after midnight

by Richard Howard

June 23, 2016

A World War Two era law has been lifted so clubs can stay open until 5 a.m.

Wanna play six degrees of Kevin Bacon? OK, here’s a good one: Kevin Bacon and Japan. Bacon starred in Footloose where a rural town banned dancing and… wait, so did Japan for nearly a century? Fine, I don’t really know exactly how to play the Kevin Bacon thing. But a recent change in regulations has actually brought to light a Japanese law which effectively banned late night dancing in nightclubs for 68 years.

Commonly known as known as ‘fuzoku’ or ‘fueiho’, the 1948 law classified dance clubs as ‘adult entertainment venues’ which were required to obtain a special license and close between midnight and sunrise. The rule was actually an attempt to curb prostitution – apparently middle America wasn’t the only place back in the day that saw dancing and alcohol as an expressway to the devil’s work. This wasn’t a case where dancing was simply a casualty in a battle against alcohol; believe it or not, dance schools were given the same classification as well.

While enforcement of the rule was lax for some time, noise complaints saw a 2010 crackdown. When the owner of a popular nightclub was arrested and charged for allowing customers to dance past the allotted time while serving food and alcohol, a petition called ‘Let’s Dance’ (R.I.P. David Bowie) was embraced by the public and well-known musicians, forcing the government to look at revising the outdated law.

The government has now added a classification of ‘nighttime entertainment restaurant operations’ for restaurants and clubs which offer food, alcohol, and yes, dancing overnight. These clubs will need to be located outside of residential areas and the noise emanating from them must be below a certain level. Awesomely, the Japanese government is retaining some of its high school principal swagger by requiring these establishments to keep the lighting at a certain minimum level (10 lux, which is described as similar to a movie theatre before the lights are turned down).

“Yuki! I see you close-dancing over there. Keep it at arm’s length – leave room for Jesus!”