Fūzoku Eigyō Torishimari Hō (風俗営業取締法) [FUEIHO] (English Version)
Read the Japanese Version Here
Fueiho is short for ‘fueiho eigyo-to no kisei oyobi gyomu no tekiseika-to ni kansuru horitsu’. In English it’s called “Law on Control and Improvement of Amusement Business ”. Superficially, it regulates the dancing in entertainment establishments ( from restaurants to mahjong parlours) in Japan but was directed to police the prevalent “fuzoku”/sex industry within the country. While the fueiho laws have been enforced with unflinching consistency in Osaka in the past few years (with a predictably dire effect on the city's club scene), in Tokyo they're wielded far more selectively.
The first police crackdown on Japanese dancers had actually occurred in 1925
the law was first enacted in 1948
Prostitution & Dancehalls weren’t mutually exclusive. Men could go dance with women and “often negotiat[e] the terms of the transaction while on the dancefloor. ”
the law on prostitution at the time only regulating organised brothels, so these dancehalls were in a grey area
1982, Kabukicho Disco Murder, a pair of junior high school girls went for a drive with a man they'd met while partying in Shinjuku, only for him to murder one of them and leave the other for dead.
Over 200,000 signatures were collected for a petition demanding changes to the fueiho law, and the resulting revisions included the first nationwide stipulations on opening hours. Sekkaku (219)
The law was changed: 1984, partly in response to concerns about Japanese youngsters running riot in the nation's discos and late-night video arcades.
many of the new venues on Japan's emerging club scene chose to be classified as food and drink establishments instead.
it meant that people couldn't actually dance there. However, the enforcement died down.
CURRENT ENFORCEMENT 現在の励行（げんざいのれいこう）
size – the main room must have at least 710 ft2 (66 m2)of unobstructed floor space
a club must close by either midnight or 1am.
Since 2010, the police have been taking the fueiho law at face value
In January 2010, a 22-year-old student from Kyoto Sangyo University died from a street brawl that had began in an Osaka club in the Amemura area.
After brutal police crackdowns, many bars in Osaka have not been able to reopen or have faltered dramatically from the early closings and strict rules.
Noon, a club that had been operating without incident in Osaka's Umeda district for 18 years, was raided at 9:43pm on a Wednesday night in April. There was 45 police officers outnumbering the customers more than two to one.
Studio Partita in Suminoe-ku, Osaka's equivalent to Ageha in Tokyo, was raided by police in mid-November of 2011. (RA)
Noon Nightclub was raided on April 4, 2012 and Masatoshi Kanemitsu, the owner, was taken into custody along with seven of his staff, and held for 22 days before being formally charge and released on ¥2 million bail. During interrogations, he was forced to surrender his bank details and questioned about specific transactions – a telltale sign that his questioners weren't particularly interested in dancing but possibly looking for club connections to other businesses such as gangs and prostitution.
At around 3.40am on September 2, [2012] a group of masked men armed with steel pipes burst into the VIP room at Flower, a club in central Roppongi, and beat 31-year-old restaurant owner Ryosuke Fujimoto to death.
After reopening Flower, on October 1, [2012] Mikito Baba and seven of his employees were arrested for not applying for the appropriate club license. (http://www.japantoday.com/smartphone/view/crime/3-more-arrested-in-connection-with-unlicensed-roppongi-club-where-man-was-beaten-to-death)
No arrests were made for the murder of Ryosuke Fujimoto.
April 15 2012, DJ Takkyu Ishino had just begun his morning DJ set at club Fukuoka’s O/D when it was raided by police. He took to Twitter to express his frustration.
Roppongi's Vanity, a 500-capacity luxury entertainment space’, was raided by a group of police officers 2am on May 26 2013 and three male staff were arrested on suspicion of allowing unlicensed dancing.
Comparisons 世界の比較（せかいのひかく）
In England, the infamous 1994 Criminal Justice Act outlawed unlicensed open-air raves at which music "characterized by…a succession of repetitive beats" is played, causing an uproar from the UK dance music community.
In New York, The cabaret law was enacted in 1926 with racist undertones: it was designed to "crack down on multiracial Harlem jazz clubs." (http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-11-26/news/a-crash-course-in-cabarets/). Then, in the 1990’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani used this outdated law to ban dancing in clubs around NYC in order to clean up the 90’s grungy NYC. (https://www.indie-music.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=733) He created a ‘Dance Police’ task force to “visit venues who have not obtained their cabaret license, and if anyone is caught dancing, the club is fined, and can even be shut down and padlocked by authority of the Department of Consumer Affairs.”
Odotte wa ikenai kuni, Nihon (Japan, the country where you mustn't dance), a collection of essays and interviews edited by music writer Ryo Isobe.
In February 2012, Let's Dance, a consortium of high-profile club owners, music journalists and DJs and nationwide campaign to have regulations on dancing removed from the fueiho laws was created in Kyoto. The organisation focuses on creating positive PR and awareness for the club and nightlife culture in Japan. Also, collecting signatures (155,879 via THUMP) at clubs and major music festivals for a petition submitted to the Diet, Japan’s national parliament, in May 2013.
Another group, that came from Let’s Dance, called Dance Lawyers has been created. They provide legal expertise is crucial to the cause, especially when smaller battles are continually cropping up between frustrated club owners and the courts.
After the closing of Club Noon in 2012, a four-day festival called Save the Club Noon was thrown in retaliation, and a documentary under the same name was successfully funded last month, reaching 4 million yen - 3 million more than the targeted amount. (THUMP)
Let’s Dance & the Dance Lawyers are also studying the Berlin Club Commission, a coalition of clubs and event organisers that acts as a lobbying group for the industry, with hopes to set up a similar organisation in Japan. The Ashahi Shimbun last year also cites Berlin as positive inspiration for Japanese club culture. (https://ajw.asahi.com/article/globe/feature/germany/AJ201302240019)
Red Bull Music Academy has chosen Tokyo, Japan as it’s 2014 location for the program. Doing so, will bring attention towards the state of Japan’s music scene and create ambassadors for the country from this year’s participants.
DJ Shine "The most important thing is to have less complaints from the residents. If we can have the scene without the complaints, then the police wouldn't close the clubs. If you want to change something, you have to change too. The cops won't listen to you unless you're obeying the law. People already have a bad mentality towards clubs, so you have to work really hard to change the situation." (THUMP)
World Night Club Survey http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/8389/World-nightclub-survey
Resident Advisor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paR21Qi6848
Save The Club Noon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqwcfLvFIbg
