[Special Feature: How to Perceive a "Migrant Society"] Multicultural Coexistence in Kawasaki: What Do the Youth Dream Of?

2019/07/05

In 2015, the murder of a first-year junior high school boy in Kawasaki Ward, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture—a suburban bedroom community and industrial zone near Tokyo—and its subsequent impact served as a stark reminder that the district stands at the forefront of multicultural coexistence in Japan.

At the time, media coverage of the incident reached a fever pitch due to the brutal nature of the crime. Scratches were found on the victim's knees, suggesting he had been forced to kneel before his throat was slit from behind. This led to speculation that the perpetrators had mimicked the execution methods of the extremist group "Islamic State," which was then causing global alarm. Furthermore, the catchphrase "Kawasaki State" (Kawasaki-koku) began appearing in weekly magazines, and the public's prurient interest grew, fueled by the impact of that term.

The fact that two of the three perpetrators had foreign roots further fueled the controversy. Kawasaki Ward developed as an industrial zone and is home to many foreign workers. While the atrocities of the "Islamic State" were linked to Islamophobia, the phrase "Kawasaki State" was similarly exploited by racism, and the internet was flooded with discriminatory comments. Graffiti saying "Go back to XXXX!" was sprayed on the wall of the perpetrator's home, and the so-called "hate demos" that had been occurring in Kawasaki Ward since 2013 grew more extreme. Placards using the phrase "Kawasaki State" were displayed, and the demonstration routes blatantly targeted districts with high populations of foreign residents.

On the other hand, movements to resist this also emerged. For example, "C.R.A.C. Kawasaki." Formed by activists living in Kawasaki City, this "C.R.A.C. = Counter-Racist Action Collective" conducted thorough counter-protests against the hate demos. They utilized various methods, from direct action like sit-ins to block the path of demonstrators to steady lobbying of the city council, eventually creating a situation where hate demos could no longer be held in Kawasaki. Additionally, BAD HOP, a rap group formed mainly by young men born in Kawasaki Ward in 1995, began confronting the problems facing their hometown through music.

"The horrific incident that has been causing a stir did indeed happen in our hometown of Kawasaki. It has absolutely nothing to do with BAD HOP, but in our new song 'Stay,' we sang about when we were still at the bottom of Kawasaki's worst environment. In such a place, we are now active, finding potential in hip-hop." BAD HOP posted this message on Twitter shortly after the murder of the junior high school boy. Their new song at the time, "Stay," mentioned in the text, describes their harsh upbringing and past involvement in crime before concluding with the line, "Now I'm a dealer selling dreams instead of drugs."

After the war, businesses catering to workers' desires for drinking, gambling, and sex flourished in the entertainment districts of Kawasaki Ward, and the power of the outlaws who controlled them grew strong. A pyramid-shaped power structure existed in the district with these figures at the top, and local delinquent youths were integrated into the lower tiers. Both BAD HOP and the group responsible for the murder of the junior high school boy lived in such an oppressive society. To be precise, the latter were outcasts from the pyramid—delinquent dropouts, so to speak—who ended up committing the crime after creating their own even smaller vertical hierarchy. In contrast, BAD HOP, who were the "elite" of the delinquents, were trapped by strong ties for that very reason, but they chose to live through music.

BAD HOP became role models in their hometown, and around 2015, many young people could be seen practicing rap in parks, looking up to them. Their popularity soon spread nationwide. At the end of 2018, they successfully held a solo performance at the Nippon Budokan. On that grand stage, the leader T-Pablow shouted, "If you want to be famous in Kawasaki Ward, you either kill someone or become a rapper." In other words, the Kawasaki junior high school murder and the success of BAD HOP are symbols of the crossroads faced by delinquent youth in the district.

Alternatively, one could say that what C.R.A.C. Kawasaki and BAD HOP initiated was a new social movement in a broad sense, one that inherited and developed the history of multicultural coexistence in Kawasaki Ward. In 1912, Kawasaki Town (now Kawasaki Ward), which was then a rural area, began inviting factories. Among the workers gathered from various places were Korean immigrants, who formed a community by building shacks in marshlands where Japanese people did not live, as if huddling together for support. Eventually, while Kawasaki Ward developed as an industrial zone, social issues such as pollution and discrimination came to the fore, and movements arose accordingly.

Lee In-ha, the pastor of Kawasaki Church in Sakuramoto—an area in Kawasaki Ward with a high concentration of Zainichi Koreans—opened Sakuramoto Nursery School in 1969, starting from the painful experience of his own child being refused entry to a local kindergarten because they were Zainichi Korean. However, the facility did not only accept Zainichi Koreans; it opened its doors to all local dual-income families. This was the starting point for multicultural coexistence in Kawasaki Ward. Of course, even before that, in districts like Ikegami-cho, there was mutual aid between Zainichi Koreans and Japanese people amidst poverty. However, there is no doubt that the social welfare corporation "Seikyusha," which Lee established in 1973, led the movement, put it into practice, and influenced city administration. They were the first to respond to the problems faced by immigrants from the Philippines and South America, who increased after the 1980s, and the first to protest the hate demos that occurred after the 2010s.

One of the achievements of the aforementioned C.R.A.C. Kawasaki was likely connecting traditional anti-discrimination movements, like those conducted by Seikyusha, with the new anti-discrimination movements of the 2010s and beyond. If the former had a challenge, it was the aging of activists and the insularity of the movement itself due to its long history. In contrast, the new anti-discrimination movement included not only so-called activists but also people involved in social movements for the first time and people involved in culture. By bringing in a fresh breeze while utilizing the knowledge and methods accumulated by traditional movements, the anti-discrimination movement in Kawasaki Ward was able to achieve certain results. However, even after the hate demos ceased, hate speech continues in the form of street propaganda and election campaigning, and the struggle continues.

In terms of music, Carol was a presence that symbolized Kawasaki Ward in the past. This band, known as the starting point for Eikichi Yazawa—a singer representing Japan who needs no introduction—was formed in 1972 after Johnny Ohkura contacted Yazawa in response to a member recruitment flyer Yazawa had posted in a musical instrument store near Kawasaki Station. Yazawa is a second-generation atomic bomb survivor from Hiroshima. He reportedly lost his parents early, was moved between relatives, and had an impoverished childhood. After graduating high school, he moved to Tokyo dreaming of making it big in music. He lived in Kawasaki Ward and pursued his musical activities while working.

On the other hand, Johnny Ohkura was a second-generation Zainichi Korean from Kawasaki Ward. He also lost his father at a young age, and his mother worked at a cabaret in Kawasaki to support three children. Ohkura also worked delivering newspapers from early elementary school and reportedly bought a guitar with money he saved in junior high. Yazawa and Ohkura met precisely because Kawasaki Ward was a town of workers and immigrants. Carol played rock and roll, the star of youth culture at the time, but if they were the youth of today, they might have been rapping. In that sense, BAD HOP is the 2010s version of Carol.

The members of BAD HOP also come from various backgrounds: some grew up in poor families, some have fathers who were former outlaws, and some have roots in the Korean Peninsula. Their 2015 song "Chain Gang" contains lyrics like, "You can tell just by looking at our eyes, we're kids of this town" and "More than anything, we're just guys who hate being alone / If they were friends I had when I was growing up, it doesn't matter if they're multinational." A "chain gang" refers to prisoners chained together at the feet. BAD HOP likens this to themselves, being trapped by local ties, rapping, "Korean, Chinese, South American, we're all linked / We are Chain Gang of Kawasaki." They embody multicultural coexistence, not as a mere slogan.

However, if we view rap music as a social movement in a broad sense, we must also consider its negative aspects. For example, past criminal acts sung about in the genre are meant to explain how harsh an environment one grew up in, but they can also give the impression that one is not "authentic" without such experiences, potentially reproducing crime.

Furthermore, when a random killing spree occurred in Noborito, Tama Ward, Kawasaki City in May 2019, the aforementioned lyrics by T-Pablow—"If you want to be famous in Kawasaki Ward, you either kill someone or become a rapper"—were frequently cited on Twitter. To begin with, the scene of the incident was not in Kawasaki "Ward," but as the expression spread, it could be said to have created a stigma against the land. What makes it even more complicated is that such a stigma can become a badge of honor for local delinquent youth. They might think, "Because we live in a dangerous place, we are also dangerous (cool)." The term "Kawasaki State" was also originally used to mock Kawasaki's uniqueness or discriminate against its multiculturalism, but local delinquent youth later began to use it to refer to themselves with a mix of self-deprecation and pride.

Many young people living in Sakuramoto, a multicultural district in Kawasaki Ward, did not have identities as Kawasaki residents or Sakuramoto residents because they had moved from other places. However, after hate demos targeted the area in 2015 and counters occurred, a sense of local pride began to emerge. Naturally, discrimination should not exist. Yet, it is also true that harsh experiences can push coexistence forward. Including these issues, Kawasaki Ward likely shows us the future of a Japanese society that has no choice but to move toward multicultural coexistence.