punk 10 (1) pp.

119–140 Intellect Limited 2021

Punk & Post-Punk

Volume 10 Number 1
© 2021 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/punk_00056_1
Received 10 May 2020; Accepted 22 May 2020

JAMES D. LETSON
Independent Scholar

Stay punk!! Stay free!!

Subcultural identity,
resistance and Covid-19 in
northern Japan

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Punks have been a feature of subcultural scenes in Japan since as early as 1977. punk and hardcore
One of the main hubs of punk and hardcore activity outside of Tokyo is Sapporo, subculture
where an eclectic mix of both domestic and international influences has informed identity
the growth and maintenance of a broad and inclusive community. Here, ‘punk’ everyday resistance
and ‘hardcore’, rather than being seen as different, are considered to be just two Japan
points on a wide spectrum of ‘punkness’. In a country often described as cultur- Covid-19
ally conservative, northern Japan’s punk and hardcore subculturalists provide an
opportunity to reassess ideas of subcultural resistance. Through their everyday
practice of resistance, which is simultaneously spectacular, yet unrecognized as
resistance, the punk community in Sapporo reject the ‘salaryman’, as a symbol
of Japanese ‘national character’. This article comprises an ethnographic study of
the punk and hardcore community in Sapporo, looks at what holds this eclectic
community together and suggests the concept of ‘everyday resistance’ as a frame-
work for further study. The current Covid-19 global crisis has brought unprec-
edented challenges – as it has to communities all over the world – but has provided
an opportunity to see how a community’s everyday practice inform and shape
responses to emergency situations.

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James D. Letson

Figure 1: The Drunk Boi!s play at Studio 1989, 26 April 2019.1

1. All images PUNK GOES ON: INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH

photographed by
the author unless Nani mo shinai omae ni nani ga wakaru, nani mo shinai omae
otherwise stated.
no nani ga kawaru2: You can’t know what you’ve never done,
2. 何もしないお前に何 you can’t change what you don’t do
がわかる、何もしな
いお前の何が変わる. The punk and hardcore community in Sapporo – the largest city on Japan’s
northernmost island, Hokkaido – has been a small, yet active, part of the city’s
social make-up since the 1980s. Unbeknownst to many of the city’s 1.9 million
inhabitants, the members of this community come together at live shows and
other associated events, not only to socialize and have fun, but also to affirm
and negotiate their identities as part of a subcultural group. To do so, they
build, create and maintain relational networks of art, music and community
(Richards 2017). As part of these activities, they also regularly articulate feel-
ings of marginalization from, and resistance to, an imagined ‘mainstream’
(Haenfler 2014a; Pearson 2019).
In this article, I explore the ways in which subcultural identity and resist-
ance are expressed and performed within the fluid boundaries of Sapporo’s
punk and hardcore community. First, I give a brief overview of the research
and the ethnographic process. Then, I look at the characteristics of the
community itself and define what exactly makes it ‘punk’, ‘hardcore’ and/or
‘subcultural’. Next, I examine how performances of this subcultural identity
intertwine with practices of resistance that are spectacular, yet simultane-
ously hidden from popular view. Furthermore, I show how these practices
work to reject certain commonly held notions of ‘Japaneseness’; namely, the
idea of the ‘salaryman’ as a desirable social position. I also consider how the
ethnographic data presented in this article adds to the debate on how best to
understand subcultural community and resistance in a scholarly context. In

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 Stay punk!! Stay free!!

addition, I explore the ways in which these ideas and practices of subcultural
identity, resistance and community impact how punk and hardcore practition-
ers in Sapporo have responded to the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019
(Covid-19) viral outbreak.

NOISE ONSLAUGHT: ETHNOGRAPHY IN A SUBCULTURAL MUSIC

COMMUNITY
Using data from fieldwork carried out in Sapporo from December 2018 to April
2020, this ethnographic study of the (sub)cultural practices of the commu-
nity included participant observation, conversation and socializing with
community members, as well as more in-depth, semi-structured interviews.
Interviews were carried out with 32 people in total: 25 men and 7 women,
aged from late 20s to mid-50s. Interviews were carried out either individu-
ally, or in groups of two to four people. Throughout this article, interviewees’
anonymity is maintained through pseudonyms.
The difficulties of turning ethnographic data into a coherent and accurate
account have been discussed by numerous scholars over the years (Clifford and
Marcus 1986; Fox 1991; Ghodsee 2016). A critical discussion of these notions
is beyond the scope of this article, it being sufficient to note that anthropo-
logical study requires careful self-reflection. Such reflection must consider
the ethnographer’s embodied experiences (de Antoni and Dumouchel 2017;
Ingold 2011), as well as the place of the researcher, physically, politically and
socially (Gupta and Ferguson 1997; Faier 2009).
The ethnographer as ‘professional other’ (Agar [1980] 1996) – simulta-
neously inside and outside the social networks in which they participate
– is a key foundation for such reflection. As a musician who was active in
a local heavy metal scene in the United Kingdom for many years, I found
that my experiences playing live music in a small, ‘underground’ scene
(cf. Matsue 2008), as well as having been an active participant in related
subcultural activities, gave me sufficient ‘(sub)cultural capital’ (Bourdieu
1973; Thornton 1996) to be accepted in the community. At the same time,
the subcultural differences between heavy metal and punk, and my rela-
tive lack of knowledge concerning the details and nuances of the latter,
allowed me to enter the scene without preconceptions or the inadvertent
essentialisms of comparative study that often plague area studies in Japan
(Ryang 2004).
To mitigate some of the issues mentioned above, the fieldwork for this
research has involved an ongoing process of feedback and reciprocity. As well
as informal discussions and debates with my interlocutors, this has included
more formal opportunities to gather direct feedback, such as public presen-
tations and onstage Q&A sessions at live events. In this way, community
members are not only aware of the research, but are also actively participating
and contributing through the creation of a ‘dialogic space’ (Kuwayama 2004),
in which all participants are given an equal opportunity to voice their opin-
ions throughout the process. In addition to the interview excerpts featured
throughout this article, I have also tried to allow my interlocutors’ voices to
come through in another way through my choice of song titles and other
phrases from around the scene as the section and subsection titles for this
article.

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James D. Letson

FUCK YOU WE’RE FROM SAPPORO: PUNK AND HARDCORE IN

HOKKAIDO
I’m a punk and I do hardcore.
(Sasaki, male musician and mental health nurse, mid-40s;
personal conversation, 24 September 2019)

Punk’s about showing, hardcore’s about living.

(Bunzo, male musician and business owner, late 30s;
interview 9 September 2019)

‘Punk’ is a magic word. It means whatever people want it to!

(Shūhei, male musician and construction worker, late 20s;
interview 25 June 2019)

Figure 2: A sticker made by the band, Cosmos, Klub Counteraction.

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 Stay punk!! Stay free!!

Figure 3: A display of SCHC-related albums at Tower Records, Sapporo, 19 February 2019.

HUMANISTIC DISORDER: WHAT ARE PUNK AND HARDCORE?

While punk’s musical origins arguably go back to the early 1970s in the
United States (Laing 1985), the styles and attitudes most associated with
the term emerged in the UK punk boom of 1976–77 (Laing 1985; Hebdige
1979). The subversive fashion, anarchic sentiments and aggressive perfor-
mances are well known enough that they need no introduction here.
Despite the notion that punk died with the fizzling out of the British punk
explosion, it nevertheless spread quickly to many countries throughout the
world (Bestley et al. 2019; Dunn 2016; Haenfler 2014b), with the first punk
bands appearing in Japan as early as 1977 (Moriwaki 2002). It continues to
be listened to as a genre of popular music and practiced as a subcultural
lifestyle throughout the world to this day (Bestley et al. 2019; Dunn 2016;
Haenfler 2014b).
‘Hardcore’, or ‘hardcore punk’, is a musical genre and subculture that grew
out of the original punk scene in the United States as a response to its inabil-
ity to bring about tangible change (Blush [2001] 2010). Hardcore adherents
eschew the outlandish styles of punk, playing down visual fashion while play-
ing up political activism, seeking to enact positive social change (Haenfler
2004). Simultaneously, in Europe, this sentiment was taken up by the anar-
cho-punk movement, who combined punk style with politically charged,
artistic activism (Dines and Worley 2016; McKay 1996, 2019).
In Japan, the chaotic eclecticism of early punk, and the more politically
aware attitudes of hardcore and anarcho-punk merged to create an eclectic
musical community with no coherent boundaries or practices, referred to by
its members as ‘hardcore’ (Yasuda 1983). While similar, the sounds, sights
and practices of Japanese hardcore punks are not necessarily the same as
communities elsewhere in the world referred to by the same name. This
seemingly ‘Japanese’ take on punk/hardcore culture is affectionately known
by international aficionados as ‘Japacore’ (Yasuda 1983; see also Slang
[2010]).

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James D. Letson

3. ‘Kakkōii’ is often OPERATION OF CROSSROADS: SCHC AND THE MIXING OF PUNK

translated into English
as an equivalent of AND HARDCORE SUBCULTURE IN SAPPORO
the epithet, ‘cool’, to
denote something
While I plan a more in-depth study of the punk/hardcore community in
fashionable or Hokkaido for future publication, it is beyond the scope of this article. It shall
desirable. However, the suffice to note that, in Sapporo, many of the punk bands and musicians who
word also connotes
masculinity, male first appeared in the city during the 1980s continue to play an active role in
beauty and notions the community to this day. Early punk and hardcore artists in Sapporo took
of modern, western- their expressive cues from other bands active in Japan at the time (see the
style performance
arts (Hirano 2019) that early works of the Stalin, Gauze, Lip Cream and the Star Club for reference).
are not adequately However, during the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the scene split into ‘punk’
conveyed by the
English term. Therefore,
and ‘hardcore’ groups, as a surge of US-hardcore-influenced bands prompted
I have chosen to use the more serious hardcore followers to distance themselves from the politi-
the Japanese word cally disengaged punks. Despite this, the classic Japacore style had already
throughout this text.
shown that it was possible to combine outrageous punk aesthetics with polit-
4. カッコよければ、大 ical engagement. This, along with older Sapporo bands’ insistence on play-
丈夫．
ing with any artists they considered kakkōii,3 regardless of genre, enabled the
scene to gradually morph into an eclectic, anything-goes mix. Today, politically
oriented hardcore bands play alongside punk artists, and even bands from
other musical genres and backgrounds. During my fieldwork, I have seen hip
hop artists, heavy metal bands, rockabilly acts and many more at gigs that
were, ostensibly, punk shows. I have also seen punk and hardcore acts appear
at rock, heavy metal and even pop shows. As one scene veteran put it, ‘as long
as it’s kakkōii, it’s ok’4 (Takahashi, male music fan, late 40s; personal conversa-
tion, 17 February 2019).
This combination of styles and attitudes is seen by many punk and hard-
core subculturalists from elsewhere in Japan as something inimitably Sapporo-
esque. This local uniqueness is a great source of pride for the city’s musicians,
as reflected in the widespread adoption of the label SCHC (Sapporo City Hard
Core) for event posters, band merchandise and other promotional material
(see Figure 3).

WHAT’S YOUR COLOUR? KAKKŌII AND THE SPECTRUM OF

PUNKNESS
Sapporo’s punk and hardcore subculturalists socialize through identity-affirm-
ing activities based around, but not limited to, the making and appreciation of
live music (cf. Gordon 2014). Like the music, the subcultural practices and
attitudes of the community members vary, with individuals negotiating their
identity along a loose spectrum of ‘punkness’ – from devil-may-care nihilism
to socially aware political activism – loosely bounded by the collective and
constantly (re)negotiated notion of kakkōii. Those at the more ‘punk’ end of
the spectrum often express their identity through the outlandish fashions
commonly associated with punk, using style as punks have done for decades
(Hebdige 1979). Those who are more ‘hardcore’ see themselves as being part
of a wider international subculture, with their political ideals and social activ-
ism being an expression of their personal take on punkness.
However, there are no rules to these styles and practices, and community
members incorporate different aspects of punk and hardcore together in their
own respective ways. Indeed, as the quotes above reveal, it is common among
the Sapporo community to identify and practice as both. As long as a member
is seen as genuine (and kakkōii) in their punkness – something that was invari-
ably described to me as a ‘feeling’ – then, however they choose to practice or

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‘perform’ (Goffman 1956; cf. Matsue 2008), that identity is accepted by the group.
Thus, Sapporo’s punk and hardcore community can be seen as an example of a
subculture being a diffuse social network in which actors share in the (re)creation
and (re)interpretation of the ideas, practices and material meanings attached to a
historically specific and communal subcultural identity (Haenfler 2014a).
This group then forms part of wider networks of solidarity and connection
with a global ‘imagined community’ (Anderson [1983] 1991; Mueller 2011), as
well as with other communities active in the local area. The inclusion of bands
from outside the punk and hardcore musical scene is one example of this,
as are Sapporo punks’ burgeoning ties with the local LGBTQ+ community
(see below). Beyond the local, the city’s punks actively foster ties with other
punk and hardcore communities within Japan and beyond. In 2019 alone,
many Sapporo bands – in addition to playing throughout Japan and occasion-
ally abroad – hosted shows that featured artists from Tokyo, Okinawa, South
Korea, Norway, Finland and Canada.

LIVE WITH ALL MY MIGHT: SPECTACULAR SUBCULTURE, HIDDEN

RESISTANCE?

JL: Do you guys get involved with any of the protests that some people
[in the punk/hardcore scene] go to?
N: I don’t, no. Some people really care about politics. Like Sasaki.
O: Oh, he talks too much!
N: I know. Whenever you’re on stage with him and he starts talking you
always look like this. (*exaggerates looking bored*)
O: Yeah. He talks too much. I just want to play but he won’t shut up!
(Noriko, female musician and masseuse, mid-40s, and
Osamu, male musician and demolition worker, mid-30s;
band interview 25 September 2019)

Figure 4: O.U.T play at Studio 1989 for their event, ALIVE!, 31 August 2019.

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James D. Letson

Figure 5: A hand-written sign indicating that all proceeds from the sale of merchandise by the band,
Crustnome, will be donated to help the victims of a typhoon in Chiba Prefecture, 22 September 2019.
Klub Counteraction.

5. 反差別． OUT TO OUT: RESISTANCE, ADVOCACY AND PREACHING TO THE

CHOIR
It is 31 August 2019, and three of the five rehearsal rooms at Studio 1989
have been hired for the event, ALIVE!, organized by the band O.U.T to raise
funds for Sapporo Rainbow Pride, an annual LGBTQ+ event. Comprising four
members, one woman and three men ranging in age from early 30s to mid-
40s, O.U.T formed about three years ago with the express mission of support-
ing the Japanese LGBTQ+ community. This is the second year O.U.T has
organized this fund-raising show and two members of the band also volun-
teer on the Rainbow Pride organizational committee.
O.U.T’s form of advocacy-based activism is typical of the more politically
oriented resistance practices performed at the hardcore end of the Sapporo
punk spectrum, and is similar to that observed in hardcore scenes elsewhere
in the world (Haenfler 2004; Martin-Iverson 2007). Bands and individuals
express resistance towards the current government and what they see as insti-
tutional tolerance towards right-wing groups and the acts of intimidation and
hate speech associated with them (Yamaguchi 2013). While this resistance
occasionally inspires action such as demonstrations (see Smith 2014), those
who participate in such overtly political events usually do so as individuals,
rather than as a community.
Communal feelings of resistance mostly circulate through song lyrics, gig
posters (see Figures 6 and 8) and so on as a kind of ‘affective economy’ (Ahmed
2004) under a loose umbrella ethos of ‘anti-discrimination’.5 Members of the
community who channel this resistive affect into concrete action often do so

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through forms of advocacy. Support for marginal communities (LGBTQ+,

victims of hate speech and so on) and raising funds for disaster victims are
the two most common manifestations in Sapporo (see Figure 5). Those at the
more punk end of the scene play a role in these practices through attendance
and monetary contributions, but do so mostly because they feel these resistive
performances are kakkōii, rather than through any belief or urge to bring about
social change, as indicated by the exchanges above. Furthermore, the perfor-
mance of kakkōii can extend to the very object of resistance. O.U.T, for exam-
ple, was inspired to support LGBTQ+ rights after being impressed by YouTube
videos of the American ‘queercore’ band, G.L.O.S.S.
Soon after I arrive, the members of O.U.T file into the performance room and
start the evening’s entertainment. Despite the serious message, tonight is still
about having fun (Haenfler 2014a). The music is loud, fast and aggressive, with
the vocals screamed at the audience. In between songs, the vocalist breathlessly
explains their mission to support the Sapporo LGBTQ+ community in their fight
for equal rights. The room is cramped, dark and hot; the smell of alcohol and
tobacco on the audience members’ breath mixing with the steadily increasing
aromas of physical exertion as the musicians pound their way through the set
and the audience of 36 (sixteen women and twenty men, a gender ratio fairly
typical of the Sapporo punk shows I have attended) that have squeezed into the
small room move in appreciation, occasionally pumping their fists, headbang-
ing or shouting inarticulate noises as the ‘affective intensity’ of the experience
builds, ebbs and flows between the different people in the room (Overell 2014).
The usually bare room has been decorated for the occasion with paper baubles,
sparkly bunting and a large rainbow flag, all of which are now pulsing and shak-
ing with the vibrations of music and movement saturating the air (Figure 4).
While, through this evening’s activities, O.U.T and other participants have
manifested in concrete action their feeling of resistance towards intolerance
toward LGBTQ+ issues/communities in mainstream Japanese society, this act
of resistance still lacks any political weight beyond the boundaries of the punk
and hardcore community. Other than some visitors from the Rainbow Pride
committee, there was no one there who would not be at any other punk show
in Sapporo. In short, O.U.T is ‘preaching to the choir’, their message remaining
hidden within the relative safety of community members who have heard it
before (Scott 1985; cf. Pearson 2019). Those outside the group will never hear
these messages if they do not go to live shows and, even within the commu-
nity, those who are not overtly political in their expressions of punkness often
choose not to pay attention.

THIS IS LIFE: IDENTITY, RESISTANCE AND EVERYDAY

SPECTACULARISM
In her study of underground ‘hardcore’ in Tokyo, Matsue (2008) observes a lack
of active participation in identity-based social activity that could be described
as subcultural. She concludes that scene members use music-centred social
‘performance’ as a way of ‘playing at resistance’ (Matsue 2008: 49, emphasis
added). Additionally, in Sapporo, Klien notes that younger participants in the
local hip hop scene often lead a double life of ‘pretending to be “corporate
slaves” […] during the day and performing as drop-outs by night’ (2020: 3),
thus balancing multiple identities with the practicalities of ‘[living] in a day-to-
day world that is distinctly Japanese’ (Condry 2001: 374).
Participants in Sapporo punk and hardcore share many similarities with
these groups; from their underground performance of resistive behaviour that

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James D. Letson

6. ちょっとの雨ならが fails to reach beyond its community boundaries, to the fact that almost all of
まん.
them maintain roles and identities within their family and working lives with
no direct connection to their practices of punk. However, there are also signif-
icant differences. The particular milieu within the community has produced
a mixing of ideologies and practices that incorporates aspects of the two
connected-but-separate subcultural identities of punk and hardcore (them-
selves already nebulous categorizations), along with influences from individ-
ual participant’s interactions with other communities, both ‘real’ and ‘imagined’
(cf. Haenfler 2004). This is all brought together under the ‘anything goes’ ethos
of Japacore, policed by the constantly (re)negotiated notion of kakkōii.
As Yasuda’s 1984 documentary Chotto no ame nara gaman shows, this ethos
of chaotic eclecticism that first found expression in 1970s UK punk (Hebdige
1979) has been a particularly strong feature of punk and hardcore in Japan for
many decades.6 In contemporary Sapporo, it penetrates different aspects of
subculturalists’ lives to varying degrees. Many punks take jobs that not only
allow them to be flexible in terms of the time needed for punk-related activi-
ties, but also enable those that choose to adopt punk fashions to do so even
at work. As discussed below, while I have met punk and hardcore participants
in Sapporo who work in a wide range of professions, construction and caring
for the elderly or disabled are the two principal fields in which they tend to be
engaged. This may be because the former provides a space where wild hair-
styles and distinctive fashion choices are no barrier to job opportunities, while
the latter provides a chance to put the hardcore-related philosophy of positive
social action into practice in their everyday lives.
This blurring of the subcultural and the everyday challenges boundaries
between the mundane and the spectacular within the performative practice of
resistance. Subcultural resistance has a long history of scholarly attention, begin-
ning with the work of Birmingham University’s Centre for Contemporary Cultural
Studies (hereon, CCCS). These researchers explained subcultures as class-based
collectives who responded to their marginal status within a wider ‘parent’ culture
by co-opting and subverting various material items to create a distinctive style,
articulating an effort at resistance that proved ultimately futile as the forces of
mainstream cultural hegemony and commodification ‘channelled and recuper-
ated […] rebellion’ (McKay 1996: 73; see also Hall and Jefferson [1975]).
The apparent failure of subcultures to maintain their resistive momentum
has led some scholars to advocate the complete abandonment of the term as
a useful definition (Bennett 1999). However, the ways in which punk and hard-
core-related practices permeate beyond activities that could be defined as specifi-
cally ‘subcultural’ reflects Hodkinson’s (2015) assertion that an approach that
goes beyond a dichotomous CCCS/anti-CCCS theoretical framework is needed.
Scholarship on the straight edge community (a form of hardcore punk
identity that espouses strict adherence to an ethos of clean living, positivity
and advocacy for social change) shows that subcultural activity and resistance
can be merged into a multilayered way of life, which is nevertheless flexible
enough to be adapted to meet the individual needs and contexts of different
community members (Haenfler 2004). While I have encountered no straight
edge adherents in Sapporo, subcultural participation clearly encompasses
a broader way of living and being for many members. This form of activity
is exemplary of Giddens’ ‘life politics’ (1991: 214), where micro-level acts of
resistance enacted in everyday life ripple outward into wider political effects.
These micro-actions challenge the CCCS notion of subcultural resistance
as something to be measured by its effectiveness and/or longevity (cf. Hall and

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 Stay punk!! Stay free!!

Jefferson 1975). By contrast, Vinthagen and Johansson argue that ‘resistance is a

particular kind of act, not an intent or effect’ (2013: 18, emphasis added). Building
on the works of Scott (1985) on ‘peasant resistance’, as well as the philosophies
of Foucault ([1976] 1978) and others, they assert that ‘everyday resistance’ is
hidden from view and/or deliberately disguised, intersects with the practitioner’s
other social contexts and exists in a complex entanglement with the power(s) to
which it is oppositional. Although the spectacular nature of subcultural activity
may seem to exclude it from the notion of ‘non-dramatic, non-confrontational
or non-recognized’ (Vinthagen and Johansson 2013: 37, original emphasis) resist-
ance, this – as I will argue below – may not necessarily be the case.
While subcultural participation may be seen by non-participants as some-
thing ‘spectacular’ and, thus, something beyond the ‘everyday’, for subcultural-
ists in the Sapporo punk scene, this spectacularism is, in fact, a part of their
day-to-day (cf. Dunn 2016). Subcultural practice and its associated ways of
thinking and being intersect with every aspect of participants’ lives. Usually,
punk and hardcore shows are performed at various venues throughout the
city almost every night of the week, providing daily opportunities for subcul-
tural practice. For those at the more punk end of the spectrum, their personal
style choices mean that their resistive identity is constantly on display. For
the more hardcore-oriented community members, their political views and
personal ideologies inform their daily lives in the same way as the straight
edge participants mentioned above.
Furthermore, this practice of punk resistance is usually something that is
‘hidden or disguised’ (Vinthagen and Johansson 2013: 2), that is, acts that are
either not articulated as resistance or not recognized as such. Those in Sapporo
who lean more towards punk enact spectacular displays of style and attitude
that are not articulated as resistive but are rather seen as a part of their everyday
practice of identity expression. Those on the hardcore side publicly articulate
their ideologies of resistance; however, this is often hidden within the bounda-
ries of community membership, not reaching beyond the safety of gig attendees
who have already heard the message (cf. Scott 1985, see also Pearson [2018]).
The hidden nature of hardcore resistance is further apparent in their eschew-
ing of the outlandish fashions commonly associated with punk. Hence, the
hardcore members of the Sapporo community perform resistance as a way of
affirming their identity, while the punks perform an identity that affirms a resis-
tive way of life. Both are part of everyday thought and practice and both mutu-
ally inform each other (cf. Dunn 2016). Furthermore, as they are ‘hidden’ and/
or ‘disguised’, these forms of subcultural practice – while resistive – clearly do
not fit into the frameworks that have coloured much of the scholarly output on
subcultural resistance since the original studies of the CCCS (Hodkinson 2015).

PSYCHO SOCIETY: SAPPORO PUNKS AND THE JAPANESE

‘MAINSTREAM’
I work so much harder than you! I’m working so all of you can enjoy
yourselves!
(Kenji, male musician and corporate worker; said onstage 1 April 2019)

If I wasn’t a punk, I wouldn’t play in bands, and if I didn’t play in bands,

I wouldn’t bother to get a job. I’d probably just stay home all day.
(Osamu, male musician and demolition worker; band interview 25
September 2019)

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James D. Letson

7. Figures 6 and 8
appear with the kind
permission of the band,
O.U.T.

Figure 6: A poster for a punk and hardcore matinee show at Klub Counteraction.7

DEATH OF DEMOCRACY: POLITICALLY MOTIVATED RESISTANCE

Resistance is, by its very nature, always in opposition to some greater, hegem-
onic influence (Foucault [1976] 1978). As such, there is little point in analysing
modes of resistance without an exploration of what subculturalists are resist-
ing (Haenfler 2014a). While there is no space in this article for an exhaus-
tive account of contemporary Japanese society, it is worth exploring, to some
extent, those aspects of it to which Sapporo’s punks are in opposition. Thus, a
clearer picture may be drawn of why this community’s members do what they
do, and why it is significant. However, it is crucial to note that Japanese people
(as people anywhere in the world) do not all interpret or replicate societal
norms in a uniform fashion (Befu 2001).
The most visible target of punk and hardcore resistance in Sapporo, and
indeed throughout Japan, is the current government of Abe Shinzō. To any
outsider, the sentiments expressed in many gig posters and other promo-
tional materials (Figures 6 and 8, for example) are starkly obvious. While
this kind of imagery would barely raise an eyebrow in some parts of the
world – and indeed, borrows much from early US hardcore and European
anarcho-punk (Blush [2001] 2010; Dines and Worley 2016) – in Japan, such
open displays of disrespect towards figures of authority are rare (Miller and
Kanazawa 2000).
While it is important to remember that not all Sapporo’s punks are
concerned with such things, many subculturalists in the city express a deep
dissatisfaction with the Japanese government, particularly its apparent lack
of progress on equal rights. This includes issues of racism and hate speech,
particularly towards ‘zainichi’ Koreans (Japanese residents of Korean descent),
sociocultural attitudes towards disabled people, and more recently, legal rights
for Japan’s LGBTQ+ community.

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FUCK THE SYSTEM: EVERYDAY OPPOSITION TO ‘SALARYMAN’ 8. 日本の国民性を抵抗し

ている.
CULTURE
Despite the apparent prominence of these politically motivated resistive
expressions, it is the other, less obvious, target of subcultural resistance in
Sapporo that truly defines the shape and colour of its ‘everyday’ nature. The
figure of the Japanese ‘salaryman’ – the educated, besuited, middle-class (and
more often than not male) corporate office worker – who is as ubiquitous
in images of Japan (both internationally and domestically) as kimonos and
sushi. In popular culture, the image of the salaryman has been a firm fixture of
manga, animations and advertisements since the industrial expansion of the
post-war years, and remains so to this day (Tipton [2002] 2016).
Despite the fact that less and less of Japan’s workforce are employed as
‘regular’ salaried workers, the image of the salaryman has arguably main-
tained its place as a self-imposed national stereotype and the idealized,
male-oriented societal norm to which the majority of people strive (Hidaka
2010). Moreover, although the situation for women in the Japanese work-
place is improving (albeit at glacial speeds), research suggests that it is still the
salaried, corporate worker who is most desired by heterosexual women as a
potential marriage partner (Endo 2019).
Punk and hardcore’s opposition to the staid, obedient, hardworking salary-
man is so obvious as to need little in the way of explication, here. Nevertheless,
beyond the anarchic fashion and forthright symbols of anti-normativity, there
is also a deeper – yet less immediately visible – expression of resistance that
displays the thorough and pervasive nature of its ‘everydayness’ in subcultural-
ists’ lives: employment. While there are some in the community who work in
middle-class, salaried positions, the majority are employed in far more precar-
ious occupations. Osamu’s statement above implies that their choice of such a
job is often a confluence of necessity (everyone needs an income, after all) and
a desire to continue their subcultural practice (cf. Condry 2001). This is often
done either by seeking work that allows them the freedom to pursue their
subcultural activities with as little restriction as possible (such as construction),
or by choosing employment that allows them to make a positive difference in
society (such as care work).
In this way, the very foundation of Japan’s stereotypical-yet-widely
accepted societal norm – the salaryman – has been thoroughly and completely
rejected by the majority of the city’s punk and hardcore subculturalists.
One newcomer to the scene even went so far as to suggest that Sapporo’s
punks ‘are resisting Japanese national character’8 (Narumi, female musician
and part-time call centre employee; personal interview, 27 November 2019).
Nonetheless, the rule of kakkōii allows those who do choose this life path
(such as Kenji, above) to be accepted by and play a role in the community.
Sapporo’s punks continue this low-level, lived divergence from mainstream
Japanese society even in times of universal emergency, as outlined below.

CATASTROPHE: SCHC VS. COVID-19

One of our members works in healthcare, and I work with disabled
people. Both of us need to keep things stable for people. To prevent the
risk [of infection], it’s frustrating, but we can’t participate in any live
shows.
(Kenichi, male musician and care worker, mid-40s;
personal correspondence, 7 April 2020)

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James D. Letson

9. Shouted onstage We organized this tour, yeah? But bands are cancelling, venues are
by a musician in
the band, Roguery,
cancelling. I understand, but it’s like hardcore is losing [to Covid-19].
mid-performance, 28 That’s painful, you know? I don’t want to lose!
February 2020. (Osamu, male musician and demolition worker, mid-30s;
personal conversation, 7 March 2020)

‘NOVEL CORONAVIRUS? WE’VE GOT NOVEL HARDCORE VIRUS!’:9

SUBCULTURAL RESISTANCE IN THE FACE OF GLOBAL CRISIS
This diverse assemblage of everyday practices and attitudes that are simulta-
neously hidden and spectacular, resistive and politically distant, along with the
community that encompasses them, has recently come under severe pressure.
Like countless communities all around the world, punk and hardcore subcul-
turalists in Sapporo have found their lives and activities severely impacted by
the outbreak and spread of Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2).
The arrival of Covid-19 in Japan – still known to most people here by its
original moniker, ‘novel coronavirus’ – was officially confirmed in mid-Janu-
ary 2020 (World Health Organization 2020). In February, schools were shut
(Kyodo News 2020) and some businesses in and around Sapporo shortened
their business hours or shut for several weeks during March. Actions that were
later repeated in mid-April. However, despite infection rates continuing to
rise, as of early April, the Japanese government was yet to declare a nation-
wide state of emergency or demand a ‘lockdown’ similar to other countries
dealing with the viral pandemic (The Japan Times 2020).
In this situation, members of the punk and hardcore community in
Sapporo were left with a dilemma. Many high-street businesses closed or
operated under restricted conditions, and most corporate offices banned

Figure 7: A crowded Klub Counteraction during the initial stages of the Covid-19 outbreak, 29 February
2020.

132  Punk & Post-Punk

 Stay punk!! Stay free!!

Figure 8: A poster attached to a charity single released by O.U.T to raise funds for
local live venues.

visitors and made arrangements for their employees to work from home. Yet,
given that neither the national nor the local government had officially banned
public gatherings, there was nothing to stop live music and other subcultural
activities from continuing more or less as normal, although many members of
the community expressed concern over the risks involved. As the statement
above shows, those who work in the care sector were particularly worried over
the possibility of infection, as this would not only cause potential job loss, but
also put the vulnerable people (the elderly and the disabled) under their care
at significant risk to their health and even their lives.
On the other hand, there were those who understood that a cessation
of events and activities would risk the permanent closure of the live houses,
rehearsal studios and other businesses that comprise the subcultural infra-
structure on which they rely for the physical practice of community, as these
businesses typically run on very small profit margins (Matsue 2008). Not to
mention that these business owners are themselves friends and fellow subcul-
turalists, whose livelihoods (and by extension their and their families’ health
and well-being) could be irrevocably damaged by such a move.
During this unprecedented time, it is the Sapporo community’s ideological
looseness that has held it together. The acceptance of a broad array of ideas
and practices gathered under the kakkōii umbrella of punk allows participants
the leeway to respond to the situation as they personally see fit, with little
or no judgement from other members. Those who have decided to cease or
postpone their subcultural activities in order to safeguard jobs and health (of
themselves and others) are respected for their decision. At the same time,
those who choose to continue putting on shows and events are appreciated

www.intellectbooks.com  133
James D. Letson

for maintaining the physical and financial structures vital to the community’s
continued existence, as well as for not letting punk/hardcore ‘lose’ to Covid-19.
This desire not to let punk and hardcore be beaten by something that
has been described by some as an ‘existential threat’ to humanity (Ord 2020)
shows just how much the notion, practice and performance of resistance
has permeated the everyday lives of Sapporo’s punks. Osamu, the musician
quoted above, is a married father of one and is much in demand in his job
as one of the area’s go-to-people for structural demolition. Despite appar-
ently having much to lose should he fall victim to Covid-19, he refused to give
up his punk lifestyle and continued to play live and attend shows. His main
reason for doing so, as can be seen above, was to prevent the ‘pain’ of expe-
riencing the subculture in which so much of his identity is invested ‘losing’
to the virus. While at first glance, his actions may not seem so different from
those who have ignored or challenged ‘lockdown’ measures in a number of
different countries, in a nation often noted for the cohesion and conformity
of its society (Miller and Kanazawa 2000), such defiance of official directions
cannot be dismissed as simple contrariness.

STRUGGLE THROUGH THE PAIN: ONGOING COMMUNITY

RESPONSES TO COVID-19
Throughout the initial stages of the outbreak – despite Prime Minister Abe
Shinzō’s eventual declaration of emergency on 6 April (BBC 2020) – while
attendance numbers were often lower than usual, and some bands began
going on hiatus, punk and hardcore events in Sapporo continued with almost
the same frequency as they had before the pandemic. Up until mid-April, it
was still possible to find live shows somewhere in the city most nights of the
week (see Figures 7 and 9). Other than the prevalence of hand sanitizer, it was
almost possible to imagine that nothing had changed.
However, with the state of emergency being extended to Hokkaido on 12
April (Hokkaido Shinbun 2020), and infection numbers continuing to rise, it
eventually became clear that Sapporo’s live houses would have to close for
the foreseeable future. With little to no financial support forthcoming from
the government, rather than cease their support of local venues and busi-
nesses, activities have moved online. Calling on the politically active hard-
core members’ networks and experience, which are usually employed for more
subversive forms of social activism, subculturalists from across the city’s punk
spectrum have begun making t-shirts (Let’s Rock Again! n.d.), selling and
promoting music compilations (Save the Venue Sapporo n.d.; GBN n.d.) and
starting crowdfunding campaigns (Campfire n.d.); all with a view to support-
ing the local community and the live houses and other venues where they
meet, play, resist and perform. In doing so, the city’s subculturalists have been
forced to look beyond the boundaries of local scene membership for aid: both
to ask for and to offer it.
These now exclusively online activities have extended to include not only
punk-related venues and activities in Sapporo, but different walks of life all
over the city, as well as further afield. Sapporo’s punks are forging networks
of mutual aid and support between different communities, businesses and
venues (subcultural or otherwise), and between different regions of Japan
and even other countries, particularly neighbouring South Korea. The resis-
tive energy of Osamu and others has been refocused towards creating means
by which aid can be requested and provided to those who are currently being

134  Punk & Post-Punk

 Stay punk!! Stay free!!

failed by the perceived inadequacies of national governments (see Figure 8). 10. 心は行動.
Thus, here in Sapporo, it is clear that, despite everything, ‘Punk Goes On’ (Fret
2017a), and may even come out of its current difficulties stronger and more
connected than ever before. In the process, they could also provide themselves
with the means to get their message out beyond the choirstalls of local scene
membership.

PUNK ROCK WILL NEVER DIE: CONCLUSIONS

Kokoro ha kōdō10: Action comes from the heart
In this article, I have examined the current practices and values within the
punk and hardcore community in contemporary Sapporo. In doing so, I have
shown the eclectic but nonetheless shared ideas and activities of this locally
based, but globally connected, subcultural group. Their shifting and collec-
tively negotiated performances of identity (re)formation and resistance to a
perceived Japanese mainstream along a broad and nebulously bounded spec-
trum of punkness are spectacular, yet hidden; dramatic, yet mundane, and
suggest that a framework that goes beyond the long-running CCCS/anti-
CCCS debate can provide a more useful foundation for subcultural study.
Affirming Vinthagen and Johansson’s definition of ‘everyday resistance’ as an
act that is independent of its practical effect or even its actor’s original inten-
tion, subcultural resistance as practised by the Sapporo punk and hardcore
community also adds to the debate on the very nature of resistance, ‘everyday’,
or otherwise.
During the global Covid-19 crisis, we see a direct example of how these
practices of everyday subcultural resistance-as-identity impact the opinions,
decisions and actions of punk and hardcore community members in Sapporo,
even at a time of international emergency. This provides a timely reminder that

Figure 9: Osamu and his fellow subculturalists determined not to lose to Covid-19, 6 March 2020. Revolver
909.

www.intellectbooks.com  135
James D. Letson

people’s responses to calamity are influenced not only by the urge to protect
and provide for family members and material possessions, but also by their
everyday modes of being and doing. Hence, despite punk being declared dead
many times over, its adherents continue to turn the everyday into something
spectacular, no matter what is going on around them, and whether people
notice them doing so or not.

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SUGGESTED CITATION
Letson, James D. (2021), ‘Stay punk!! Stay free!! Subcultural identity, resistance
and Covid-19 in northern Japan’, Punk & Post-Punk, 10:1, pp. 119–140, doi:
https://doi.org/10.1386/punk_00056_1

CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Having spent most of his twenties as a piano teacher and itinerant heavy
metal musician in South Wales, United Kingdom, James Letson came to
academia a little later in life. After relocating to Sapporo in northern Japan to
study on Hokkaido University’s modern Japanese studies programme (MJSP),
he became increasingly interested in the theory and practice of anthropol-
ogy and ethnography. Despite this switch in focus, his musical and subcultural

www.intellectbooks.com  139
James D. Letson

background still informs and influences his scholarship to a great degree.

Currently operating as an independent researcher based in Sapporo, Letson
maintains strong links with Hokkaido University and the MJSP, from whom
he still receives invaluable advice and support.
Contact: 406 Kanzai Building, 1-2 North 2 West 25, Chuo Ward, Sapporo City,
Hokkaido, 064-0822, Japan.
E-mail: jletsonteach@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9514-1524

James D. Letson has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that
was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

140  Punk & Post-Punk