Stanisland Magazine

Exploring Japan’s hidden art: beyond Nintendo and neon lights, the hidden backstreet political graffiti is often overlooked.

Having been drip-fed a visual narrative of robots, Nintendo and Kill Bill, I intended my forward journey into Japan be something of the opposite deciding that my traditional way of working might be a better method to understand the culture. So that’s what I did, and my first foot forward was to divert from the touristy suffocating walkways of Shibuya (although I must admit it was a spectacle) and Akihabara into the backstreets of Tokyo’s close-knit communities and alleyways. Once there, I saw a cluster of revealing attitudes and idiosyncrasies that I would otherwise not have seen.

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People sat down outside concrete buildings with their children chattering amongst themselves. Small wood-laden cafes whose identity strayed far from the cement-mixed constructions of the city belonged, and my favourite and unique detail – political posters. Yes, that’s right. Amongst the cartoon faces of Japan’s Nintendo-inspired (or is it the other way around?) imagery lay hand-mounted posters of Shinzo Abe and rivals evenly placed on the walls of shops, windows and mostly residential buildings. As a foreigner or ‘gaijin’, the mere sight of these posters stood out to me. Or could it be I am noticing these as a foreigner?

Neatly and symmetrically placed, these posters stood out from a torrent of anime-inspired advertisements and roadblocks (it’s true, even some roadblocks were pasted with cartoon faces). Cartoon imagery is so dense throughout Japan, that even rural areas are fond of them. From medical products to humidifiers, sushi restaurants and animated figures they populate the vast majority of advertisements in the country. Seeing propaganda posters was almost a breath of fresh air. And interestingly, their presence can be found tucked away in the backstreets of each prefecture.

It is an interesting observation; seeing them plastered on walls amongst the back streets of the city shows a strategic intent to galvanise the population, whilst obscuring it from outsiders. Of course, this could be a subconscious placement or I am overthinking? But they exist. Having encountered an immensity of neon flashing lights, coming into contact with these posters showed another side of Japan. The overloaded side of politics within the country.