If you're ever minded to dance the night away to trance music, or even old-fashioned rock, you may have a tough time finding a venue in Japan these days. In fact, you may end up waltzing away hours inside a police station, peeing into a cup after being rounded up in a raid. Yes, indeed, a War on Dance is raging.
On Sept. 2 in Tokyo, members of a gang called the Kanto Rengo burst into a VIP room in Roppongi's Club Flower at 3:40 a.m. and clubbed a man to death in front of 300 people. Since then, police raids have intensified on the clubs, discos and live-music venues that make the city's night life vibrant and fun for many.
However, the raids didn't begin in the capital, but in Osaka earlier in 2012. Ostensibly, the clubs there — as later also in Tokyo and Fukuoka especially — were targeted for violating Japan's archaic Adult Entertainment Laws (AELs), which forbid dancing after midnight. The police are simply enforcing the laws — at least that's the official line.