Japanese Halloween is in fact nothing but a festival for cosplayers, without reference to stories behind Halloween

 Oct. 30, 2022  12:12 pm JST

Posted in: Tokyo trains ask people to refrain from wearing Halloween costumes that may scare other passengers  See in context

Eastmann:

here in Japan so called halloween is not related to religion/shinto or buddhism/and also to japanese culture as well.

let me ask-what is reason to "celebrate" halloween here and-why?

Japanese Halloween is a kind of Wakon-Yosai (和魂洋才), adopting a Western culture but in uniquely Japanese way. It's like breathing a Japanese life into a Western body, so to speak.

Before Halloween became popular in Japan, there was a such thing in Japan called Cosplay (コスプレ), or Costume Play, "an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character". (Wikipedia)

Here is a sample of cosplay by the current Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike, for a Halloween party some a few years ago:

https://www.sankei.com/photo/story/news/161029/sty1610290008-n1.html

Japanese Halloween is in fact nothing but a festival for cosplayers, without reference to stories behind Halloween, a peculiar Japanese practice in which its meaning is dropped and only its form is adopted.

You can see this, for example, in some Japanese weddings that are performed in Christian forms, but without any Christian faith.

Now, Japan has a long history of cosplay in traditional performing arts:

Kabuki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki

kagura - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagura

Noh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh

etc.