‘The root of all evil’: Japanese girl band wants the government toppled
After making waves with their criticism of the government last month, a Japanese all-girls political pop group is back in the public limelight, delivering its no-holds-barred message.
The teenage idol group Seifuku Kojo Iinkai, better known as SKi, upset the powers that be in the municipal government of Yamato, near Tokyo, with their blunt lyrics, criticising Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party at an event held at the Yamato city health and welfare centre on June 13.
Watch: Japanese pop group calls for an end to nuclear power
Now a YouTube sensation in a nation where outspokenness is often frowned upon, SKi took centre stage performing its best-known song “Da! Da! Datsugenpatsu!” (”Get! Get! Get rid of Nuclear Energy!”) at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Tuesday before sitting down to explain why they continue to kick up a fuss.
“The movers of politics are those who butt their noses into other people’s fights,” 18-year-old Yuria Saito said, referring to the LDP’s controversial legislation to expand the role of the Self-Defence Forces abroad.
“If something is bad then it’s bad, doesn’t matter if you’re an adult, a child or an idol,” she said in defending the group’s outspokenness.
SKi has been purposely breaking the mould with its distinctly political messages in a music industry that has long refrained from politicising its artists, unlike overseas where political rappers or hardcore punks thrive.
Formed in 1992, the group, whose name translates as “Uniform Improvement Committee,” has performed songs on a wide range of political and social issues.
From anti-stalking legislation to their stance against the use of nuclear energy, they have continued to raise awareness on matters they see as affecting society. Their aim: to encourage the younger generation to pay greater attention to the deeper concerns influencing the Japanese people.
With their schoolgirl outfits and innocent smiles, they can even rankle politicians, as they apparently did when they performed their newest antigovernment track, calling the LDP “the root of all evil” and urging that the government be toppled.
Full of the usual synthesisers and animated dance moves typical of idol groups, it is their stinging lyrics that had the Yamato municipal government up in arms when it decided – after the fact – to retract its support of the local event organised by a citizens group formed to protect the integrity of the pacifist Constitution.
Kana Kinashi, 17, said it is only natural that people her age speak out, even if they are criticised.
“It’s strange to tell someone in a position about to enter society, ’Don’t do that cause you’re a child.’”
Articulate and poised, the young women spoke of their rights to express themselves as citizens – notably pointing out that lessons should be learned from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and their opposition to changing the war-renouncing Constitution.
“Since I became a member I have watched the news and studied (the issues). People of my generation who haven’t experienced war also have to actively speak out,” said 15-year-old Noa Saito.
