Stay punk!! Stay free!! Subcultural identity, resistance and Covid-19 in northern Japan

Abstract

Punks have been a feature of subcultural scenes in Japan since as early as 1977. One of the main hubs of punk and hardcore activity outside of Tokyo is Sapporo, where an eclectic mix of both domestic and international influences has informed the growth and maintenance of a broad and inclusive community. Here, ‘punk’ and ‘hardcore’, rather than being seen as different, are considered to be just two points on a wide spectrum of ‘punkness’. In a country often described as culturally conservative, northern Japan’s punk and hardcore subculturalists provide an opportunity to reassess ideas of subcultural resistance. Through their everyday practice of resistance, which is simultaneously spectacular, yet unrecognized as resistance, the punk community in Sapporo reject the ‘salaryman’, as a symbol of Japanese ‘national character’. This article comprises an ethnographic study of the punk and hardcore community in Sapporo, looks at what holds this eclectic community together and suggests the concept of ‘everyday resistance’ as a framework for further study. The current Covid-19 global crisis has brought unprecedented challenges ‐ as it has to communities all over the world ‐ but has provided an opportunity to see how a community’s everyday practice inform and shape responses to emergency situations.