Halloween in Japan: Through English Sources

I was inspired to undertake a new research project studying the history of Halloween in Japan and its current status as an imported holiday. Below, I present my findings, which I gleaned from a broad survey of readily available online resources. I will trace Halloween in Japan from its gentle introduction during the United States’ post-World War II occupation of Japan through the first notable public events in the 1980s, the underground Halloween culture in the 1990s, the mainstreaming of Halloween in the 2000s, and its dramatic increase in popularity in the 2010s and current decade.

Note on Structure and Style

This article is based on my studying freely available English-language sources relevant to the development of Halloween in Japan. I used various search engines and tools to find sources, which I studied and evaluated , and I then worked on presenting the most well-sourced, on-point information from my selected sources as a cohesive whole. Readers will find that I carefully cite to my sources using a format closely approximating the Chicago author-date style, and the post concludes with a full bibliography. I invite readers to consult the cited materials for more information on specific points. While this article has some hallmarks of a research paper, it is still a New Leaf Journal article at heart, so it will include some of my own perspective – most prominently in the next section.

I note as a disclaimer that I do not speak Japanese and have never been to Japan – so this is less an original research project than an effort to create a comprehensive primer based on freely available English-language source materials

The Anime and Current Events Inspirations For This Project

One blogger attributed Halloween not being widely observed, if at all, in Japan to there being a lack of Halloween episodes in anime. (Irina 2019) Limiting ourselves to Western holidays in anime, I too have noticed that Halloween is seen far less often than Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Valentine’s Day, and I would be hard pressed to remember many Halloween cameos in anime. Anime Planet user AnnaSartin compiled a good list of episodes with descriptions of the role Halloween played in each. (AnnaSartin, n.d.) In Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, a more recent anime not included in her list, the two principal main characters meet and become friends in their Halloween costumes on Halloween night in Shibuya. That episode is interesting in part because it not only depicts characters in costumes on Halloween, but also the process of purchasing costumes and police crowd control efforts.

Despite having watched anime for nearly two decades, I had never thought too much about the lack of Halloween in anime or Halloween in Japan as a general matter. I only thought about that dearth when I came across a recent article about excessive Halloween revelry in Tokyo’s Shibuya, which we will cover later in this article. That article made me curious about what the status of Halloween is in Japan.

Before we leave anime behind and focus on the 3D history of Halloween in Japan, I will single out one humorous 2009 original net animation episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya, an original net animation spun off from the popular The Menalcholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series. I had watched Haruhi-chan a long time ago and the excellent AnnaSartin list reminded me of this particular episode. Episode 13 of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya aired in Japan on April 3, 2009, and is titled That’s right! Let’s celebrate Halloween! (“List of The Melancholy of Haruhi-Chan Suzumiya Episodes” 2023) The mercurial protagonist, Haruhi Suzumiya, decides on a whim that she wants to celebrate Halloween. However, she has a problem – neither she nor any of her fellow club members, who are at her beck and call, know anything about Halloween. The best they can come up with is that it involves pumpkins and bats, which they gleaned from a Halloween poster that Haruhi had pulled up on her computer. A friend eventually enters and teaches Haruhi and the main group about the trick-or-treating and the importance of candy to proper Halloween celebrations.In addition to indirectly highlighting why Halloween was not a common topic in anime, the episode is interesting in part because of when it aired – in 2009. While Halloween was becoming more mainstream in 2009, we will see as we work through the research that its mainstream popularity dramatically increased during the following decade. In this sense, the episode, which runs for just over four minutes, serves as a neat little time capsule of a moment in time when Halloween was beginning to gain real mainstream traction in Japan but had not yet become the major event that it is today. I recommend watching the episode on YouTube, where it is available in Japanese with English subtitles and as an English dub.

We now leave anime behind and turn to the real world. Halloween has been part of the American consciousness for well over 100 years. (Ferrell 2021) However, our study of Halloween in Japan will begin, unsurprisingly, with the American military occupation of Japan in the wake of World War II.

The Early Days of Halloween in Japan

Halloween was slow to achieve recognition in Japan as something worth celebrating compared to Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Valentine’s Day – despite its similarly being an American export. (Baseel 2015; Tomizawa 2015) As we will see below, Halloween was initially introduced to Japan through businesses catering to American customers. Its acceptance by the Japanese accelerated when Japanese branches of American amusement parks began to try to make it the sort of commercial success that had long been established in the United States and some other Western countries.

“The first official introduction of Halloween in Japan was as a promotional event for Kiddy Land, a shop in Harajuku.” (Suzuki 2020) Kiddy Land is described in one article as being similar to FAO Schwartz, a famous toy store in New York City. (Tomizawa 2015) Kiddy Land’s predecessor, Hashidate Shoten, opened in 1950 and focused in part on selling foreign books to meet demand from U.S. military personnel. (Kyodo News 2018) It began stocking Halloween goods due to specific requests from American and other foreign customers. (Id.) Store staff members even traveled to the United States to study how Halloween was celebrated. (Id.) Kiddy Land held its first public Hello Halloween Pumpkin Parade in Omotesando in 1983. (Suzuki 2020; Tomizawa 2015) The 1983 parade “saw about 100 participants.” (Kyodo News 2018) The Kiddy Land Halloween festivities “became an annual thing throughout the 80s.” (Tomizawa 2015) Their events “attracted more and more people each year” and specifically began attracting more Japanese participants as time went on. (Kyodo News 2018)

Kiddy Land was of course not the only way people in Japan may have been introduced to Halloween. Takagi and Groot noted that some Japanese people were introduced to Halloween by Ray Bradbury’s 1967 story The Halloween Tree, which was translated into Japanese in 1973. (Takagi and Groot 2017, 7) They also suggested that the popularity of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in Japan “may have stimulated interest in fashionable western-style thriller and mild horror among a young Japanese audience.” (Id.) Moreover, they opined that 1990s western horror films such as Edward Scissorhands and The Addams Family (Part 1) may have also laid the groundwork for “establishing the western mild horror and gothic genre” in Japan in advance of Halloween gaining mainstream popularity in the following decade. (Id.)

Kiddy Land’s Halloween parades did not make Halloween an instant hit in Japan. Reporting on his experience teaching at a rural Japanese elementary school in Takahashi city in 1990, Lynn Grigsby reported that while “[s]ome of the commercialism [of Halloween] has reached Japan … the students knew little about the custom.” (Grigsby 1992, 26) Unsurprisingly, the children Grigsby was working with were wholly unfamiliar with the concept of trick-or-treating. (Id.) Another source opined that “[u]p until about the year 2000, Halloween was something people [in Japan] would only hear of by learning English or watching TV programs from other countries.” (Moon, 2013) “Halloween has become increasingly popular as a commercial event in Japan since around 2000.” (Fujiwara 2019, 129) Many of the sources focus on the year 2000 – but what happened in that year? We will first have to look at what happened in 1997.

Tokyo Disneyland held its first major Halloween event, “Disney Happy Halloween,” on Halloween in 1997. (Moon 2013) Kawasaki City held its first Halloween Parade that same year. (Suzuki, 2020) One source notes with a clear citation that Tokyo Disneyland also held a Halloween parade in 1998 (Takagi and Groot 2017, 10) The sources seem to generally agree that the Tokyo Disneyland’s “Happy Halloween Twilight Parade” in 2000 was a significant event in the mainstreaming of Halloween in Japan. (Moon 2013; Nihongo Master 2022) Another major theme part, Universal Studios Japan, held its first “Hollywood Halloween” event in 2002, not long after the Park opened in 2001, and that, combined with Tokyo Disneyland, was credited with bringing Halloween “more and more into the public consciousness.” (Moon 2013) “Both Tokyo Disneyland and USJ provided an easy way for Japanese people to enjoy Halloween and laid the groundwork for Halloween to expand to other businesses hoping to cash in.” (Ashcraft 2021) “Already enamored of Disneyland, the people of Japan were enchanted by this new idea of Halloween.” (Moon 2013)“[O]nce the theme parks got involved, the general Japanese population really caught on [to Halloween].” (Suzuki 2020) The Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan Halloween events continue to this day. (Nihongo Master 2022) The Universal Studios Japan Halloween festivities features some popular characters from Japanese media, for example characters from Pokemon and the Chainsaw Man series. (Mainichi 2024a)

(Takagi and Groot made a reference to Tokyo Disneyland holding a Halloween street parades beginning in 1983. (Takagi and Groot 2017, 8) However, that specific assertion does not come with its own citation and I found no references to Tokyo Disneyland events prior to 1997 in other sources. Moreover, Takagi and Groot later wrote on page 9 of their paper that “Disneyland Tokyo began to organize its own Halloween event in 1997”, so I will leave the reference to possible Tokyo Disneyland Halloween events prior to 1997 as an aside.)

According to Ashcraft, “Halloween in Japan used to only mean foreigners wearing funny costumes in bars and drinking on public transportation.” (Ashcraft 2021) Regarding drinking on public transportation, he was referring to “[t]he infamous ‘Halloween trains’ in both Tokyo and Osaka … with foreigners in costumes taking over trains and turning them into wild parties, disrupting people’s commutes.” (Id.) The “Halloween trains” come up in several sources and, while I doubt that they were significant in the grand scheme of Halloween eventually becoming a significant commercial event in Japan, their history is worth discussing briefly – which I will do in the next subsection.

As we will discuss further in the article, Shibuya in Tokyo has become Halloween party-central in Japan. (Suzuki 2020) Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe opined that Shibuya gained this status due to what an article described as “footage of youngsters exchanging high-fives and having fun at the scramble crossing in Shibuya during the 2002 FIFA World Cup…” (Kyodo News 2018)

The Halloween Trains

The most famous, or infamous, Halloween train parties took place on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line, which Mark Pendleton describes as “perhaps the most iconic [train line in Tokyo], functioning as it does as a very regular looping of the downtown that connects the historical heart of old Edo – the shitamachi of the East – with the more upscale yamanote and the expansion suburbs of the West.” (Pendleton 2018, 259) The tradition of the Yamanote Halloween party “anecdotally began in the 1990s…” (Id. 264) Pendleton noted that there was a similar Halloween train tradition on Osaka’s Loop Line – but almost all of the accounts I put together pertain to the Yamanote Line parties. (Id.) The earliest parties, as they were, involved “a group of gaijins and Japanese … [taking] over a Yamanote train – at least a car or two – and part[ying] on it as it looped around Tokyo.” (Weber 2005) Note for reference that “gaijin” is a Japanese term for foreigners. (Mori 2023) Pendleton explained that participants usually gathered at a station on the Western half of the Yamanote line and rode the train for a single loop or until police or security intervened. (Pendleton 2018, 264) According to Weber, the Yamanote Halloween parties were not widely known in the 1990s and “[s]ome people thought it was only a myth or just a one-time occurrence.” (Weber 2005) Weber reported being aware of anecdotes that the early 1990s Yamanote Halloween parties “would be announced surreptitiously through the free weekly magazine Metropolis then known as the Tokyo Classified.” (Id.) “The Tokyo event declined in popularity in the late 1990s before being reborn in a post-internet age through online invitations.” (Pendleton 2018, 264) According to Weber, a German individual revived the party by sending a mass email calling on upon to gather. (Weber 2005)

Thanks to the research of Pendleton, I was able to refer to several original accounts of mid-2000s Yamanote Halloween parties. Weber attended the 2005 party as a participant and reported having a good time, with many participants bringing their own alcohol. Some regular commuters joined in the fun while others either looked on in amusement or ignored the mostly, but not entirely, non-Japanese participants. (Weber 2005) Weber’s positive experience and perspective was not shared by everyone, however. The Yamanote parties became a hot subject of debate on some Japanese online fora, most notably 2channel. (Japan Probe 2007) Japan Probe reported that in the lead-up to the 2007 Yamanote Party, some internet users, many of whom had pre-existing sentiments against foreigners, referred to the revelers as “rioters” and “terrorists” and a few threatened violence. (Id.) Some Japanese posters who witnessed the event reported seeing about 200-250 mostly-white foreigners, drunkenness, and harassment of ordinary commuters. (Id.) Japan Probe also referenced at least one video of an individual who relieved himself of his clothing on the train. (Id.) One participant disagreed with the negative account, noting that there were more Japanese participants than 2channel let on, and that he or she did not see hostility from commuters. (Id.) However, another participant agreed that the party-goers behaved “shamefully.” (Id.) Regarding the 2008 Yamanote party, Samuel Dave, a participant who noted he had been a part of three previous Yamanote Parties, said that party-goers were nervous because of online threats and a mass-casualty stabbing attack on the Yamanote Line in June. (Dave 2008) However, Dave reported similarly positive impressions of the party to those noted by Weber in 2005, and he also praised police for being on hand to ensure that no one attacked the party-goers. (Id.) Things went less swimmingly in 2009 when a large number of protesters were present with signs such as: “Stupid Gaijin, get out of Japan!”, “We Japanese don’t need Halloween”, and several more obscene signs that are not amenable to publication on a family website such as this one. (Ashcraft 2021; Pendleton 2018, 265) More than 200 police officers were present to prevent the party-goers from interfering with passengers and to prevent violence. (Pendleton 2018, 265) Reportedly, no more than 15 dressed-up foreigners entered the train in the face of the threatening protests. (France 24, 2009) One eyewitness stated that he saw no more than 10 individuals in costumes who appeared to be at the train station for the Halloween party. (Arudou 2009)

The Halloween train parties are an interesting curiosity, but I see no compelling evidence for the assertion that they had much to do with Halloween’s growth in Japan. The 1990s parties are poorly documented in my sources and appear to have been promoted to English-speaking foreigners. The 2000s parties gained negative attention in certain online fora, culminating in anti-Halloween train party protests in 2009. However, when Halloween took off in the 2010s, none of the sources describing Halloween’s recent surge in popularity tied it to the train parties of yore. The most significant effect of the Halloween train parties may have come in the form of Japanese transit authorities making additional efforts to ensure civil behavior on trains following the incidents of October 2009.

Aside: My Train Party Two Cents

Lest anyone misconstrue my neutral review of the extant Yamanote Halloween party sources as condoning the behavior described, I submit for the record that, as someone who has spent countless hours on New York City Subways, I would not only find a large group of people in costumes climbing onto my train car, drinking, and being loud to be obnoxious, I would also welcome, if not insist upon, expeditious police intervention. My home state has dealt with its own version of drunken train revelry with the annual SantaCon in New York. (Lazar 2023)

Halloween Takes Hold in the 2010s

The sources seem generally to concur that Halloween assumed its place as a well-recognized occasion in Japan and as a major commercial event in the 2010s. A blogger who goes by LM specifically opined that “[a]n increasingly large shift toward Halloween as popular (children’s) holiday began somewhere around 2010.” (LM 2014a) LM further suggested that, “[w]hile some of the shift was motivated by consumer demand, the ramped up marketing has increased awareness [of Halloween] and consumer demand, leading other businesses to make their own Halloween specials to keep up…” (Id.) In 2012, Japan Today opined that “[a]lthough Halloween in Japan is not as major an event as it is in the U.S., more and more people have begun to ‘celebrate’ in recent years, albeit mainly in the form of pumpkin shaped cookies or Halloween-themed decorations in shops.” (Japan Today 2012)

One reported in 2013 described Halloween as “fast becoming one of the most popular imported holidays in Japan…” (Mike 2013) In 2014, the CEO of iFlyer, a Tokyo event booking company, stated that Halloween had eclipsed the New Years Eve countdown and other end-of-year events as the biggest season for his company. (Richards 2014) In 2015, the Japan Anniversary Association estimated that the market for Halloween-related goods and events in Japan would be 122 billion yen in size after having been just 56 billion yen in 2011. (nippon.com 2015) The same association reported that Halloween had surpassed Valentine’s Day for the first time in 2014. (Id.) As of 2017, Halloween had the second biggest market value of any western holiday in Japan after only Christmas. (Takagi and Groot 2017, 1) The market for Halloween goods in Japan was estimated to be a hardy 115.5 billion Japanese Yen in 2020, albeit a 7% decrease from 2019. (Ward 2020)

The Halloween events which helped establish Halloween in Japan at the turn of the new century continued. Writing in 2016, Ann Larabee described Tokyo Disney’s robust and carefully planned Halloween parade, wherein it allowed spectators to enter in costumes, but only dressed as Disney characters. (Larabee 2016, 45) Takagi and Groot clarified that Tokyo Disneyland began allowing visitors to dress up as Disney characters for its Halloween celebration in 2002. (Takagi and Groot 2017, 8) In 2017, Takagi and Groot reported that the Kawasaki Parade was attracting 100,000 participants. (Id.) About 70,000 individuals visited Shibuya for Halloween on 2015, and one outlet reported that the number was even higher in some subsequent years. (Suzuki 2020) The largest Halloween parade in 2013 was held in Kanagawa Prefecture on October 17, a location absent from our discussion thus far. (Kendall 2013)

In 2015, The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s five major newspapers, featured Halloween costumes on the front page of its evening edition a few days before October 31, 2015. (Takagi and Groot 2017, 1) Writing in 2016, Ann Larabee stated that “[i]n the last decade, Tokyo has enthusiastically embraced Halloween, perhaps of Disney’s influence. Tokyo Disney imports the myths, icons, and commercialism of American culture, including Halloween.” (Larabee 2016, 45) Casey Baseel observed in 2015 that his local Daiso, a national 100-yen chain, began selling Halloween-themed merchandise in August. (Baseel 2015) He added that “this two month head start on getting ready for Halloween is now no shorter than the period spent gearing up for Christmas.” (Id.)

Before we address the why question – it is important to note that, while Halloween in Japan is popular, it is not necessarily as popular in Japan as it is in the United States or any other country where Halloween is a significant event. For example, in 2023, an online survey of 500 Japanese university, junior college, and vocational school students found that 36% of respondents had participated in Halloween events or dressed up in a Halloween costume in the previous five years. (Mainichi 2023a) That same year, the National Retail Foundation reported that 73% of Americans planned to celebrate Halloween – albeit its definition of “celebrate” included “handing out candy and decorating their home and yard” in addition to actually dressing up and going to Halloween parties. (Wolf 2023)

We can see that Halloween has grown dramatically in Japan. But why has it grown? Its growth can no longer be attributed to individual events at amusement parks in Tokyo. The sources suggest different reasons for Halloween’s newfound popularity.

I will venture that many readers will consider relevant to this issue the significance of Japan having a significant cosplay subculture which predates Halloween becoming a major event. The connection is hard to overlook in light of the observation by Takagi and Groot that “[w]earing costumes and dressing up more than anything else characterize Japanese Halloween.” (Takagi and Groot 2017, 5) Anthony Blick attributed some of the increase in popularity of Halloween to Japan’s already having a robust cosplay culture. (Richards 2014) Moreover, there are many cases of cosplay culture intermingling with Halloween costume culture. For example, Oona McGee reported that two of Japan’s most prominent cosplayers, Enako and Misato Ugaki, appeared at the Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Fest on October 26 and 27, 2019. (McGee 2019) One outlet reported in 2022 that the Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Festival had attracted more than 20,000 visitors over two days in its most recent iterations. (Nihongo Master 2022) However, Halloween costume culture is by no means coextensive with the cosplay subculture in Japan, and caution is thus warranted in tying the mainstream success of Halloween to the smaller cosplay subculture. According to Takagi and Groot, “while Halloween dressing up is for showing on the street, Cosplay is not intended to be shown to the wider public and is not a once a year event.” (Takagi and Groot 2017, 12) They continued: “Cosplay remains within closed-member communities sharing specific values…” and focuses on “work[ing] to imitate the original, impersonate an ideal character in their own bodies and even their minds, and leave visual photo-documents of their play.” (Id.) As an additional less academic point, I note that Halloween has become popular in many places that lack a comparable cosplay subculture to what exists in Japan. While it would be rash to discount the significance of cosplay culture, we should not rely on it too heavily because many Japanese people with no interest in cosplay culture began dressing up for Halloween.

Casey Baseel speculated that Halloween found a niche in Japan in part because “[a]fter cherry blossom season in the spring and summer festivals, there aren’t a lot of fun events in the fall…” (Baseel 2015) In 2013, Rosa Moon also attributed some of Halloween’s success in Japan to it fitting in the paradigm of seasonal holidays, with Halloween having an autumnal theme. (Moon 2013) Matt Alt, a Japan-based game designer and localizer, describes Halloween in Japan as an extension of the Obon holidays, which take place in August. (Ashcraft 2021) These suggestions seem over the target. There was a gap in the Japanese holiday calendar for Halloween to slip into, and Halloween’s seasonal themes are in line with many traditional, distinctly Japanese holidays. In September 2024, an Asahi Shimbum writer opined (with a hint of melancholy) that Halloween had replaced tsukimi as the preeminent autumn event in Japan. (The Asahi Shimbun 2024) A somewhat more favorable Asahi Shimbun writer made a favorable reference to persimmons being displayed as a Halloween decoration – speculating that the trend may be due to their coloration. (The Asahi Shimbun 2019) Taken together, these reasons offer insight as to how Halloween was able to “quickly adapt[] to its new cultural context” in Japan. (Takagi and Groot 2017, 6)

One author attributed some of the increase of popularity in Japan to English instruction being a compulsory subject for year 5 and 6 primary school students beginning in 2011. (Moon 2013) However, this point was not noted by any of the other sources I put together, and I subjectively doubt its significance to Halloween’s explosive growth in Japan from 2013-on without evidence that Halloween became part of the curriculum.

I came across a couple of surveys in which Japanese people explained why they celebrated or were looking forward to Halloween. First, let us return to the survey of 500 college students wherein 36% of respondents reported having celebrated Halloween within the previous five years. (Mainichi 2023a) Of the total pool, 65% of respondents reported that they were either “somewhat” or “really” looking forward to Halloween. (Id.) Of the respondents who were looking forward to Halloween, 57% stated it was because it was a seasonal event, and 23% stated that it was because one could experience something out of the ordinary. (Id.) The “seasonal event” response seems to be in line with some of the theories regarding Halloween’s popularity in Japan which I cited to in the previous paragraph. In 2016, a firm called NTT Advertising, Inc. conducted an internet poll of young attendees of the Shibuya Halloween Party inquiring why they were attending. The top five reasons were “It looked like fun” (81.2%), “To make good memories” (39.7%), “To have an exciting time with friends” (35.7%), “To see what it was like” (22.1%), and “To deepen friendship with my friends” (19.7%). (Fujiwara 2019, 143) This survey is necessarily limited to people who self-selected as being interested in Halloween by attending Halloween festivities. The majority stated that they attended because it looked fun – which to me suggests a sort of snowball effect following a critical mass of people joining in celebrating Halloween.

Characteristics of Halloween Celebrations in Japan

In the following sub-sections, I will examine how Halloween is celebrated in Japan and some similarities and differences when compared to how it is celebrated in the United States and other Western countries.

Timing of Parades and Events

In 2019, Oona McGee of SoraNews24 reported that there were Halloween celebrations on weekends to accommodate people who wanted to party late into the night without having to wake up early for work or school the next day. (McGee 2019) A 2014 report noted that the Halloween parties in Japan “peak on the Fridays and Saturdays before Halloween.” (Richards 2014) Many of the old Yamanote Line parties had also occurred before Halloween. (Dave 2008; Japan Probe 2007; Weber 2005)

Costumes

Ready-made costumes and zombie makeup are now for sale on a grand scale during the week before October 31 in discount chain stores such as DonQuixote in Tokyo” (Takagi and Groot 2017, 5)

Ann Larabee opined in 2016 that, while Western theme parks played a leading role in popularizing Halloween in Japan, their events were not the best representation of a distinctly Japanese Halloween. She instead pointed to the Halloween parade in Kawasaki in 2012, which she described as having “a distinctly Japanese flavor” (Larabee 2016, 45) Recall we noted previously that the Kawasaki Parade was first held in 1997. (Suzuki 2020) Ms. Larabee described the costumes as being “associated with group identity,” citing as examples young people dressed as telecom company logos, regional mascots, and a particular group of women cooperatively dressed as different components of a complete sandwich. (Larabee 2016, 45) She contrasted the sorts of costumes she saw at the parade with what she perceived as more individualistic costume trends in the United States. (Id.) The 2013 edition of the Halloween parade in Kawasaki reportedly included “plenty of kids dressing up and enjoying candy…” (Mike 2013) I will note separately that while our sources credit Tokyo Disneyland with popularizing Halloween in Japan, some distinctly Japanese theme parks also hold popular events. For example, Sairono Puroland holds its own kawaii Halloween events. (Nihongo Master 2022)

Takagi and Groot reached some similar conclusions to Ms. Larabee after surveying many Japanese Halloween parades. They found “Japan has developed its own Halloween forms and designs in the midst of the varieties of characters and costumes” (Takagi and Groot 2017, 9) They further noted that “partygoers emphasize their camaraderie and sociability by showing off in duos or groups with similar costumes” (Id. 10) Regarding differences from the United States in popular costumes, Takagi and Groot noted the popularity of the “high-school girl zombie” and “beautiful zombie” costume archetypes among Japanese young women, describing these as sometimes “hav[ing] horror features such as bloody eyes, black lips, a sewn mouth, or a serious face injury, while retaining an aestheticized unworldly aura, at the saw time kawaii connotes cuteness and submissiveness.” (Id.) As a general matter, they found that “Japanese costumes appeared to leave out the excessive horror features that came to characterize Halloween celebrations in the United States after the 1970s…” (Id. 13) With that being said, they did find reports of the increasing popularity of the school horror theme in Japan, for example “blood-covered Japanese schoolgirl uniforms with zombie makeup…” (Id. 18) Moreover, Takagi and Groot did not find Japanese costumes “overtly expressing political irony…” (Id. 13) They concluded broadly that while Japan had adopted the American Halloween format and many of the broadly popular costume archetypes, “any Japanese authentication of Halloween seems to happen through adaptation of ‘poplore’ costumes … and new costumes that reflect contemporary society and continue to represent changing values.” (Id. 14) However, some costume types are common between the United States and Japan, including for example among young women, “the extremely popular ‘fairy’ and ‘sexy girl’ outfits and the pink bunny…” as well as “[s]exy policewomen and sexy nurses…” (Id.14 and 15)

Ashcraft suggested that purple is a popular color in Japanese Halloween costumes – citing to a photograph from the Tokyo Disneyland Halloween festivities – because of its association with sweet potatoes, a distinctly autumnal and winter food item in Japan. (Ashcraft 2021) However, our other sources on costumes had nothing to say regarding the prominence of purple.

Trick-or-Treating

We previously noted that a group of rural Japanese elementary school students in 1992 were wholly unfamiliar with the concept of trick-or-treating. (Grigsby 1992, 26) In 2011, Etan Clement Robinson described explaining the concept of trick-or-treating to Japanese five-year olds who were not previously familiar with it. (ELAN.CLEMENT.ROBINSON 2011)

I found an interesting source discussing a 2013 “Trick or Tea” Halloween promotion by Lupicia, a Japanese team brand. (LM 2013a) Blogger LM noted that “[t]he [promotion] description suggests the intended audience is supposed to now understand the phrase ‘trick or treat’ enough that the pun makes sense, thus indicating cultural permeation of [Halloween] and its (admittedly recent) traditions?” (Id.) To be sure, that Lupicia was referencing trick-or-treating (note that “Trick or Tea” is written in English while the rest of the ad is in Japanese) in a marketing promotion strongly suggests that their intended audience would understand the reference.

There appears to be no tradition of knocking on strangers doors and asking for candy in Japan – something one writer described as a “no-no.” (Suzuki 2020) With that being said, I can state anecdotally that it is not acceptable in chunks Brooklyn, New York City either.

While door-knocking trick-or-treating does not seem to be a thing in Japan, there does appear to be some events which feature trick-or-treating within set confines. A blogger who went by Mike reported for SoraNews24 in 2013 that Minato Ward in Tokyo had been sponsoring “a kid-centric ‘Halloween Street’ with music and trick-or-treating for a few years now.” (Mike 2013) Casey Baseel of SoraNews24 noted that “[s]ome neighborhood shopping arcades have started inviting trick-or-treaters and passing out candy…” (Baseel 2015)

Organized Crime

There have been controversies involving the Yakuza, organized crime groups in Japan, handing out Halloween candy. For example, in 2017, the largest Yakuza group, Yamaguchi-gumi, handed out Halloween candy in front of its headquarters in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, while calling out “Happy Halloween” to passers-by. (Baseel 2017) This caught the attention of Japanese authorities, and in October 2020, the Prefectural Assembly of Hyogo made it illegal for criminal organizations to give gifts to minors, invite minors to their facilities, or otherwise correspond with them.” (Baseel 2020)

Problems and Controversies

Writing in 2020, Krys Suzuki described Shibuya as “Halloween central” in Japan. (Suzuki 2020) I noted previously that the Mayor of Shibuya believes that his ward of Tokyo became Halloween-central in 2002. (Kyodo News 2018) However, while Shibuya is popular with many Halloween party-goers, it is not popular with everyone in Shibuya. For example, in 2019, a pop star who goes by Kany Pamyu Pamyu complained about general chaos in the streets of Shibuya on Halloween – suggesting that the party-goers should have taken their party to a club. (Suzuki 2020) One of our Yamanote Halloween party accounts came from an individual who stated that he only followed friends to the train party because they were going to a club afterward. (Japan Probe 2007) Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe complained in 2018 that beginning in about 2014, Halloween party-goers began partying in the streets of Shibuya instead of in clubs or bars. (Kyodo News 2018) About 70,000 individuals visited Shibuya for Halloween on 2015, and one outlet reported that the number was even higher in some subsequent years. (Id.) The local government reported collecting 7.8 tons of garbage after Halloween in 2017. (Id.)

There were reports of unruly behavior on Halloween night in 2018 including “a toppled truck, groping, and upskirt photography.” (McGee 2018) A man dressed as the Joker from Batman went on a stabbing rampage on a Tokyo train on Halloween in 2021. (The Asahi Shimbun 2021) Note that while the assailant stated that he chose Halloween because he thought there would be more people to kill, he did not target one of the Halloween train parties we discussed earlier in the essay.

In 2020, Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe urged people to not celebrate Halloween in Shibuya, both due to disorder in prior years and the ongoing pandemic situation (McGee 2020) While there were reports of reduced numbers of Halloween revelers, Shibuya still saw relatively high turnout and several minor incidents. (Id.)

In 2023, a popular YouTube channel called Japan ON described Halloween in Shibuya as “the craziest Halloween in the world.” (SoraNews24 2023) Mayor Ken Hasebe of Shibuya had more than enough and called for Halloween party-goers to stay away, stating that “Shibuya is not a venue for Halloween events.” (AP 2023) The city instituted a drinking ban for Halloween from 6 P.M. to 5 A.M. on October 27-31. (McGee 2023a) One Burger King location in Shibuya opted to close on Halloween. (Id.) The Shibuya Ward government reported that 15,000 people had gathered for Halloween at 10:00 P.M. on October 31, 2023, a 35% decrease from 2022. (The Asahi Shimbun 2023) The Mainichi reported that Tokyo’s Shinjuku and Ikebukuro areas saw a sharp increase in Halloween revelers in 2023, likely corresponding to the decrease in Shibuya. (Mainichi 2023b) Similarly, Shinjuku saw an increase of several thousand Halloween revelers and significant littering. (AP 2023)

In 2024, Shibuya attempted to build on its relative success in limiting public Halloween celebrations the previous year, with the Mayor stating that the local government would be “totally fine” if Halloween revelers opted to stay away. (Baseel 2024b) In a subsequent press conference, the Mayor declared that “Shibuya is closed for Halloween.” (Baseel 2024a) Effective October 1, 2024, Shibuya banned public drinking around Shibuya Station, the sight of the most raucous Halloween festivities, year-round. (Id.) Shibuya also implemented additional civilian and police patrols as well as surveillance towers for October 25, 26, 30, and 31. (Id.) Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward is considering its own Halloween drinking ban in 2024 in response to the increase in party-goers in 2023. (Mainichi 2024b) However, while considering the ban, Shinjuku Mayor Kenichi Yoshizumi stated that Shinjuku wanted people “to behave freely while maintaining good manners” and did not follow Shibuya in openly discouraging people from public Halloween celebrations. (Id.)

Halloween Promotions

I conclude with a little look at Halloween food and merchandise promotions in Japan. Now that Halloween is a major commercial event in Japan, promotions are not uncommon – so I will focus primarily on ones from 2013-15 with a few more recent ones sprinkled in. According to my favorite mid-2010s Japanese Halloween food source, blogger LM, Baskin Robbins had been at the forefront of promoting Halloween specials in Japan in the mid-2000s, well before it became common for other major retailers. (LM 2014b) You may follow the citation links to find links to the original articles with images and further discussion of the promotions.

• Various Baskin Robbins specials in Japan in 2012. (Japan Today 2012) The article noted that shops had begun making available pumpkin shaped cookies and Halloween decorations in the years leading up to 2012. (Id.)
• Pumpkin Pudding Kit-Kats with jack-o-lantern on the packaging in 2013. Our source reports that they were also offered around Halloween in 2012. (LM 2013b)
• Hello-Kitty jack-o-lantern-shaped donuts from Mister Donut, a Japan-only donut chain, in 2013. (LM 2013c)
• 2013 Lupicia Tea promotion with “Trick or Tea” pub, discussed in the trick-or-treat subsection of this article. (LM 2013a)
• KFC Halloween bucket with pumpkin biscuits in 2014. (LM 2014a) KFC notably had developed a very successful Christmas promotion beginning in the 1970s. (Id.)
• Krispy Kreme’s Krispy Skreems in 2014. (LM 2014b)
• Special Halloween-themed desserts at the Family Mart convenience store chain in 2014. (LM 2015a)
• Collection of 2015 Halloween goods from various bakeries. (LM 2015b)
• Various clothing, food, social media, and merchandise campaigns from 2019. (Ward 2020)
• Starbucks spooky cute drink-ware in 2023. (McGee 2023b)
• Dominos Halloween volcano pizza in 2024. (Rogers 2024)

This is just a small sample of the countless Halloween promotions in Japan, with an emphasis on some of the promotions before Halloween was fully established as the second most commercially important Western import holiday after Christmas.

Conclusion

For one reason or another, Halloween had a late start in Japan when compared to Christmas and Valentine’s Day. However, it became a major party and commercial event in the 2011-2020 decade. Japan, like the United States, has Halloween events specifically for children and adults. While it has been a boon to retailers, Halloween has inspired some rowdy, unwelcome behavior, seen most prominently in Shibuya’s ongoing battle against excessive public revelry. While our sources seem to generally agree that Halloween began to take off thanks to Western theme parks in Japan, it was only when major Japanese retailers began promoting that it established its place in the public consciousness and Japanese society. Halloween in Japan has some distinctly Japanese characteristics – for example, see our sources on its being viewed to some extent or another as a distinctly autumnal holiday and appropriating some Japanese fall-based imagery. But on the other hand, much of Halloween in Japan, from the emphasis on costumes and parties to the decorations and myriad promotions, should be readily recognizable to Americans.

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