Japan’s ‘Jailhouse Rockers’ play to a captive audience
TOCHIGI, Japan: Playing to a captive audience is all in night’s work for Japan’s jailhouse rockers.
Armed with acoustic instruments and prison-worthy lyrics — “cheer up, don’t give up” and “it’s okay to make mistakes” — the female duo Paix2 has been rocking cell blocks for 15 years, and show no signs of stopping.
“The pair — Manami Kitao, 37, and Megumi Ikatsu, 39 — recently played at Kurobane Prison near Tokyo to an audience of convicts decked out in identical yellow prison uniforms and with close-cropped hair.
Guards at the show dispensed with a few of Japan’s notoriously strict prison rules by letting the 500 concert-goers sing along and pump their firsts — for two numbers.
“But the officers will take you out in the hall if you get too excited!” Kitao warned, sparking a roar of laughter from the crowd. The gig marked the duo’s 362nd prison concert, and their unlikely niche could put them into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most toured prison band.
The two women were discovered by their current manager at a competition years ago in rural western Tottori prefecture where they grew up. While at a local event, a police officer suggested they perform to inmates.
But Ikatsu remembers the first time she stood in front of an audience filled with menacing male prisoners. Her hands shook as she held the microphone.
“It was intimidating because they had this intense gaze and no one smiled,” she said.
Kitao has similarly grim memories: “I was terrified because there was no reaction. My mind went blank and I hardly remember anything about the first concert.”
“Their concert made me really think about the meaning of life,” a prisoner in his 40s, who was jailed for drug use, told AFP after the show.
“I thought I should do my best here until the day I leave,” added the man who said one song brought him close to tears. — AFP