Why Japan's 'Beatles moment' still matters, 50 years on
It was 50 years ago today -- more or less. In late June 1966, the Beatles landed in Tokyo to play five concerts at the Budokan, the home of Japanese martial arts. Two months later, they stopped touring entirely. That November, they recorded the groundbreaking "Strawberry Fields Forever."
If the Beatles were moving fast, so was Japan. Like China today, it was at the tail end of a turbocharged period of economic growth that had generated massive urbanization and a vibrant consumer culture. The population was young and thirsty for the latest overseas trends, while the student movement was becoming increasingly militant.
Into this maelstrom came the Beatles, a symbol of youthful hedonism and the crumbling of traditional values. Prime Minister Eisaku Sato objected to their presence on the hallowed ground of the Budokan. On TV talk shows, the kimono-clad Ryugen Hosokawa, a former Asahi Shimbun journalist, dismissed the Fab Four as "beggarly entertainers."
At the time, terrorist threats from the extreme right were still a reality. Six years earlier, the head of the Japan Socialist Party had been murdered by a fanatical rightist. In 1970, famed novelist Yukio Mishima was to commit seppuku during a theatrical attempted coup d'etat. So it was no laughing matter when threats were made to assassinate the Beatles.
By: Peter Tasker
Source: Asian Review
