Some two dozen unsatisfied men marched in Japan’s capital holding banners that read “Smash Christmas.” The action was staged in a popular shopping district, where couples and families do the obsessive Christmas holiday buying.
The protesters, primarily single men with nothing better to do, told journalists who asked, that they are marching because capitalism is unhealthful and the commercialization of the most important winter holiday is, in particular, the ideology of the “race to the bottom.”
“In this world, money is extracted from people in love, and happy people support capitalism,” said the head of the organization, dubbed Kakumeiteki Hi-mote Domei, or Revolutionary Losers’ League, according to AFP. “Christmas is the most symbolic event for this,” he observed.
The rally was not just aimed at ideological beliefs, but at social mores as well.
“Unpopular men, who don’t have a girlfriend or are not married, are overly discriminated. We want to break this barrier,” a participant who identified himself as MarkWater said to AFP.
Christmas is not an official religious or administrative holiday in Japan. The period serves as a romantic evening for couples, while New Year’s eve is the opportunity for a family reunion, according to AFP.
Earlier, the Revolutionary Losers’ League protested against Valentine’s Day, arguably one of the most absurd of the manufactured corporate buy-something-you-don’t-need-because-we-told-you-to holidays.
