National Foundation Day (建国記念日)

Today is a public holiday in Japan.  Yay!  We get a total of 18 public holidays, and many of the fall on really nice days like a Thursday, so it takes the sting out of the weekend.

Except I am at work.  How did this happen?  Japanese lesson this morning (learnt to read food wrappers, now I remember why I never ate pot noodles. 450 calories and 21 grams of fat, my god...)  So I also had to go for a run.

Now I'm in the office.  Anyway, not the point, at all.  This will be quick.

Video - Japanese Right Wing Nationalists at Work

Filmed these guys on my iPhone on the way in, they are a typical sight, but today it seems, being National Foundation Day, they are all over the place!  I thought it was just because it was a holiday and they are out having fun making noise but it's also the significance of the day.  They are Japan's answer to the BNP.

Tokyo Rasu's Unscientific Guide to Right Wing Nationalists in Japan:

• Are called in Uyoku dantai
• Get money from some dodgy politicians, who may also be affiliated with the Yakuza
• NB- Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) have been in the social and politcal fabric since the end of the war. Construction is where they get a lot of their money from. One reason why there are so many contruction projects all the time!
• Go around the streets in these noisy vans with skinny undernourished looking guys yelling into megaphones
• Promote a return to pre-war values, e.g. pretend we didnt lose
• Support Japan's conduct in WW2
• Dont like foreigners (oops!!) especially Koreans (bad Koreans!) and Chinese etc
• Are very right wing and anti-left

There are around 1,000 of these groups in Japan.  Crazy

Have a nice day... I hear another one coming past the office now, and we're on the 20th floor.

Here's the video again....