Although Japan has no historical connection to the American (actually Scottish) tradition of Halloween, there’s been more and more attention paid to the holiday over the past decade or so. While a lot of this comes from companies using Halloween to market products, such as the events Tokyo Disneyland puts on during the month of October, it also flows from Japan’s natural love of cosplay. There’s no custom of trick-or-treating in Japan, but many schools put on costume events which allow children to get into the spirit of things, and there are parties and parades in Japanese cities that allow folks to show off their costuming skills. Raising bilingual and “bi-cultural” kids has been a challenge for my wife and I, since even more important than mastering both languages is having the proper cultural and emotional connections to each country. Happily, I’ve been able to use Halloween as a bridge to the U.S. for my kids, and we still watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on TV together every October 31st. You never know how the complex world of anime memes will work, and for some reason Japanese artists have really embraced Halloween as an excuse to make incredible cute moe art. If you want to see some of these pictures, I’ll be posting some to the J-List Facebook Page and Twitter feed.
Another Halloween is upon us all.
