Coming-of-Age Day Bash

[Taro Toporific]

Coming-of-age ceremony disrupted by melee
Jan 11, 2005
Sunday's Coming-of-Age Day ceremony held by the Aomori city government was thrown into tumult when some men who come of age this year suddenly began to dance and wrestle on stage....during the third part of the ceremony, a man in a black suit ran up on the stage and began dancing.
He was brought down by a committee volunteer at once, but some of his friends and some other men in white hakama, traditional men's formal garb, totaling about five men, began to wrestle on the stage. ....more...

[FG Lurker]

Yep, the best and brightest. The leaders of tomorrow.

Japan's future looks dimmer every day.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Yep, the best and brightest. The leaders of tomorrow.

Japan's future looks dimmer every day.

Oh Please. A 20 year old got tackled for dancing on stage. Hardly a sign of the end.

[FG Lurker]

Yep, the best and brightest. The leaders of tomorrow.

Japan's future looks dimmer every day.

Oh Please. A 20 year old got tackled for dancing on stage. Hardly a sign of the end.

Didn't say it was the end. Just getting dimmer.

Well, more lazy idiots in the population makes it easier to suceed... That's always a bright point.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I suppose you and your friends never would have done anything as out of control as dance on a stage when you were 20.

[Taro Toporific]

[FG Lurker]

I suppose you and your friends never would have done anything as out of control as dance on a stage when you were 20.

Not during the middle of a ceremony like that.

Either I would not have gone at all (reasonably likely as it seems a complete waste of time) or I would have sat and listened. If it was that boring I might have got up and left in the middle. But no, I wouldn't have ended up wrestling on the stage or fighting with the presenters at a coming-of-age / graduation type ceremony.

Would you?

[Naniwan Kid]

I saw this on the news...

They were there for one purpose, and one purpose only: to ruin the ceremony.

That's what is so dumb. So why show up at all? They so this every year, that's why. It's a tradition of a tradition.

The real question is "Why don't they have 30 or 40 cops in riot gear there to protect the stage, and not embarrass the city officials?" They could take all these morons down to the police station and while all their friends are getting loaded and partying, they could be filling out forms and sitting in a cell for this day of celebration. Seems like the tradition would lose it's luster if they did it like this.

I saw in Hokkaido there is a toll booth that the bosozoku always crash at midnight on New Year's. They bust through with their bikes and cars and dance around like monkeys making the cops look like bigger monkeys. Of course there are more news cameras than cops there...

This would last one time in the U.S. We have these little things called Spike Strips they lay down to prevent high speed chases. Hell, they know the time, place and date they are going to show up...it's too easy!

[Charles]

I know this story isn't exactly unusual, but didn't the same thing happen in Aomori last year too? You'd think they'd know it was coming and take precautions, either more bouncers, or shorter speeches.

[RAMOS]

[Mulboyne]

I caught the news last night on this. Interesting to see the different coverage by the networks. TBS focused on trouble in Okinawa while NHK featured a very peaceful party in Tokyo Disneyland and didn't mention any punch-ups.
Samurai Jerk is right. There have been drunks causing trouble at coming of age parties for decades so yesterday's trouble is no harbinger of doom for Japan.
What has changed is the media's willingness to cover it whereas before it was discreetly ignored. The new coverage seemed to start around the same time that Japan started to worry about the nation's youth following the enjo kosai "boom" in the mid-90s and the rash of violent crimes by 17-year olds (bus hijacking etc)

[Taro Toporific]

.... NHK featured a very peaceful party in Tokyo Disneyland and didn't mention any punch-ups....)

Yeah, that NHK video of the new "adults" having Coming-of-Age Day with Mickey Mouse was a scream.

[dimwit]

I'm with Taro on this one. The politicians get the audience they deserve. The average politician on the stage is about 60, his primary interests are in Viagara and Gate Ball. He has no oratory skills other than his ability to sing 'My Way' off-key. He, in fact, owes his election to a collusions special interests, none of which have anything to do with young people. He gets up on stage and in a long-winded droning way that they are the future, all the while, everyone knows that the only people with a rosy future are the politcian's grandchildren.

The entire exercise is all about politcians showing young people how unimportant there are.