Published
Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 12:03
- "The larger issue at hand is not simply the 'right to dance,' but the policing of our bodies and their movements."
Terre Thaemlitz, AKA DJ Sprinkles, has weighed in on the recent changes to Japan's "no-dancing" legislation.
Thaemlitz has written a response to the "Declaration On the Future Of Japan's Club Culture," which was signed by 40 Japanese DJs on the same day that the 67-year-old Fueiho law was officially changed by the country's government. Thaemlitz says this declaration "appears to have no purpose other than to comfort members of those reactionary political forces that have historically suppressed Japan's club cultures, going so far as to pledge the future of Japan's club cultures to the service of conservative social ideals."
Thaemlitz writes: "We find their declaration dangerously capitulatory to right-wing and capitalist agendas, and culturally detrimental in its failure to address the ongoing difficulties faced by those in the sex industry and other trades whose lives will remain under the control of the Fueiho after the anticipated revisions regarding dance are finalized. We remind them that the larger issue at hand is not simply the 'right to dance,' but the policing of our bodies and their movements—both physically and socially. In relation to clubs themselves, we remind them that the proposed revisions primarily impact the workings of major venues ('mega clubs'), and do nothing to alleviate the legal and social risks faced daily by the small venues that form the foundations of Japan's underground club cultures."
You can read the piece in full at the comatonse website. It has been undersigned by a number of music and political figures from Japan and elsewhere, including Mark Fell and Finn Johannsen.
Thaemlitz spoke to RA about the Fueiho law as part of the Real Scenes: Tokyo film from 2014.