Cover latest Hiroshima dance club to be raided by police

no dancingAfter a quiet summer, and 4 months on from the raid on El Barco, the police are out enforcing ‘public morality’ again.

Gillian Kyle reports here on a police raid that occurred at the “Dirty” club event held at Cover last night in which police shut down the sound and checked the alien registration cards of the non-Japanese clubbers.

It’s unclear whether the raid was made on the basis of enforcing Japan’s silly licensing laws that govern when and where you can dance (from what we learned about these confusing laws Cover should not have been in breach of the law as it ‘Dirty’ is a private party), or with the specific purpose of checking the IDs of the non-Japanese customers.

We will post further details as and when they become available.

If you were at the event please feel free to add any information you might have in the comments section below.

Comments

Windcheater

ffs

I would love to know the reasoning for this one.

After the Barco raid I wrote to the Mayor. My email was passed on to the ‘relevant department’ which turned out to be the Citizens Safety Promotion Division/International Human Rights Affairs Division

They were pretty helpful and contacted the prefectural police with the questions I asked and got back to me with their reply. I say helpful,they were at acting as an intermediary, but they did make it clear that it was a a Hiroshima prefectural Police matter. I’m not sure how they intend to promote citizen safety if they then say it’s ‘nothing to do with us’.

Anyway, as I said they did get in touch with the police and put my questions to them and then passed on their reply to me, so if any of you (like me) want to know what the hell this one is about, the address is (and I imagine this address is a public thing so ok to put up) [email protected].

Anonymous

I just want to say, the raids on the dance bars in Hiroshima might not be justified but what foreigners living in Japan is forgetting is their living in Japan. Japan might not seem as a conservatinve country but their government is as strict and conservative as they were a hundred years ago. Japan is a homogenous country and their govenments are xenophobic as they were long time ago and it is this dichotomy which is why some foreigners live and love Japan. If Japan was more like other democratic countries they would lose their distinct features and attitudes which makes Japan, Japan.

I believe foreigners sometimes forget they are living in Japan and they should try to understand Japanese attitudes and traditional ideals. It is extremely unfair at times but life isn’t fair, even in other democratic countries.

I lived in Japan before and I was frustrated with many Japanese bureaucratic bull but while I am currently studying Japanese history, culture etc… I come to understand their culture and it is still the same as it was hundreds of years ago so you can not change their ideas of how to run things. As a foreigner, visitor or citizen you can only add to the culture not change it. This is how you change the bull while respecting the bull.

Anonymnous comment removed

Windcheater

I’ll try and respect the GHblog and not post what I would really like to say, but this:

“I believe foreigners sometimes forget they are living in Japan and they should try to understand Japanese attitudes and traditional ideals. It is extremely unfair at times but life isn’t fair, even in other democratic countries.”

Utter rubbish. Life isn’t fair so you shouldn’t complain about anything?

And don’t come with the ‘Japanese’ attitudes and traditional ideals nonsense. They aren’t the attitudes and ideals of the Japanese I know.

I would say that you are the same anonymous poster who posted a nasty piece on the Barco raid. That poster claimed he (I’ll bet my life savings your a man) wasn’t Japanese too. I reckon you are. Old school, out of date and unwanted. Maybe I’m being unfair but life isn’t fair.

Sorry to the bloggers for biting….. m(_ _)m

Sam

‘I belive foreginers sometimes forget they are living in Japan and they should try to understand Japanese attiudes and traditional ideals. It is extremly unfair at times but life isn’t fair, even in other democratic countires.’

What I would like to ask if selling women to men is one of the above-mentioned ‘traditional ideals’. I ask this as that is what is going on around the corner from bars such as Cover and Barco. Why are people who are just dancing and having a good time being targeted, but the men/women buying into the sex industry around the corner left alone.
Sorry ‘anonymous’, its bullshit, just like you not giving your name. Good for you WC writing to the Mayor.

Windcheater

Well, his entire argument can be summed up with the old ‘If they don’t like it they can go back where they came from’. It’s just dressed up in flowery language with some pseudo-historical/philosophical nonsense thrown in too. Much like ‘our very own’, increasingly popular BNP does these days.

This is a repost of a post which can still be seen at http://gethiroshima.blogspot.jp/2006/09/cover-latest-hiroshima-dance-club-to.html

Paul Walsh

Paul arrived in Hiroshima "for a few months" back in 1996. He is the co-founder of GetHiroshima.com and loves running in the mountains.