Happy Halloween from Japan
It is morning here, but on the far side of the world where many of you are reading this, the ghosts and goblins are coming out and I imagine many of you are out trick-or-treating with your kids or just getting home. I just wanted to wish everyone celebrating a happy Halloween.
Whether you’re out with your kids, watching horror movies, or raiding the kids’ candy after they go to bed, I hope it’s a fun one.
Here in Japan, Halloween keeps growing every year. Department stores and convenience shops fill up with orange and black displays, and there’s no shortage of costumes.
But the one thing still rare here is trick-or-treating. Japan has a strong sense of neighborhood privacy, and most people wouldn’t dream of knocking on a stranger’s door. Instead, you’ll find organized events in shopping streets or schools where children can “trick or treat” in a controlled way. Even so, the holiday has carved out its own Japanese flavor — part cosplay, part street festival.
It’s always interesting watching how Western holidays take root here. Christmas became a couple’s night with fried chicken; Valentine’s Day became a one-way women-chocolate-giving ritual — and a new day, White Day, materializes as the reverse, men giving to women. Halloween is newer and we don’t know quite what Japan will do with it yet, but it is growing more and more every year.
Here’s a haiku I wrote some years ago for the event:
in this country too
the little demons
are preparing
Wherever you are — happy haunting.
❦
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David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. |
Interesting... I didn't know about "trick or treat" in Japan.What little I know of their culture and traditions is what I've seen in animated series (anime), which, by the way, are many, and you can see at a glance how much of a fan I am. 😅
It is very interesting to learn about Japan and its culture or way of seeing popular things like Halloween, for example. I wish I could live there too. 🥺
Happy Halloween... belated, but oh well. 😅
Thankyou @dbooster I did enjoy my Halloween as I always do- because its actually my birthday on Halloween Eve(il bastard that I am...Wahahaaaaa😆🤣😂😅
Nah seriously though, I have always wondered how Americans justify sending their kids out to strangers’ houses — wandering among unknown adults, faces hidden beneath murderous and macabre costumes — in a culture so deeply fearful of kidnapping and danger.
It’s such a surreal contradiction: we warn children every day not to trust strangers, yet once a year we celebrate a night where every rule about safety and identity suddenly gets reversed, all in the name of candy....
So personally I think that they way the Japanese have incorporated it into their lives is actually much better and just as fun.
Thanks so much for sharing and Happy Halloween to you too, although I find it so weird to hear that and say that since traditionally it was a very solemn event...
That is interesting that Halloween is getting bigger each year, not only over there in Japan but around the world. It may have started as a principally US holiday but it sure has spread like wildfire around the world!
!PIMP
I like your Halloween haiku! Yeah, a decade ago, people in Japan had no idea about Halloween trick-or-treating, just like you said. I had to arrange visits with my acquaintances in advance so we wouldn’t surprise them when we went trick-or-treating.
When I was young, we had a very similar event during summer around Obon. We carried lanterns and said, “おかしをくれなきゃ、かっちゃくぞ、ひっかくぞ！” (“Give us sweets or we’ll scratch you!”).
Nowadays, cosplayers never miss the chance to dress up for Halloween in Japan, right? Sometimes even more enthusiastically than kids! I also love watching the Kyoto Yokai Festival video!
https://www.toei-eigamura.com/yokai/