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Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular Men protest against Christmas on streets of Tokyo

Oona McGee Dec 22, 2021
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“Building a brighter future for those who aren’t popular”.

It’s been 15 years since the Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular Men formed in Japan, and every year they’ve been faithfully bringing their special brand of anti-love sentiment to the streets of Tokyo.

This year, the group got together to protest Christmas, a time of year that’s synonymous with romance in Japan. Over here, Christmas Eve is traditionally viewed as a date night, where loved-up couples go out for dinner, or stay in for romance, and singletons scramble to find themselves a date so they’re not alone on the most romantic night of the year.

▼ In Japan, Christmas = Romance

The Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular Men think all the love-related fanfare surrounding Christmas is nonsense, and their mission is to “crush Christmas” and other related romantic holidays. These modern-day Grinches say they’re fighting for those who find themselves disillusioned by the holidays, like the broken-hearted, those who have to work during Christmas, and people who aren’t popular, especially when it comes to love.

The organisation claims to provide “a mental safety net for people all over the world who aren’t popular“, with their goal being to “overthrow love capitalism” and “build a brighter future for the unpopular“. This was their aim when they took to the streets of Shibuya — a popular date hangout for young people — on 19 December, and although they invited other like-minded people to join them in their protest before the event took place, only a dozen or so people ended up protesting, with the members looking similar to those from previous years.

Despite being called an Alliance of Unpopular Men, anyone is able to join the group’s protests, regardless of gender, and some of the calls they use during their marches include:

“Crush Christmas!”
“We oppose love capitalism!”
“Freedom not to love! Freedom not to get married!”
“Don’t get caught up in the love market!”

People online had a few words of their own to say about the protest:

“I wonder what would happen if geniuses, the rich and good-looking people staged a counter-protest?”
“Using the police for this kind of boring objective is a waste of taxpayers money.”
“This group just repeats the same thing forever.”
“In theory this is good, but I’m single and I don’t mind Christmas traditions.”
“There are many ways to enjoy Christmas in Japan, and this is one of them.”

Despite the critics, the Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular Men believe their counterargument to the romance-fuelled holidays is an important one, and they’re showing no signs of stopping their activities.

That means we’ll probably see them out in force again in February, when they’ll have a few things to say about crushing Valentine’s Day.

Source: Kakuhidou via Hachima Kikou
Featured image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso
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