My experience DJing in Japan rant inside
Hello all,
A quick intro for those who don’t know me, I am a lawyer working/living in Tokyo who speaks fluent Japanese, and has lived on and off in Japan for 4+ years. I am also a DJ, and have been playing for a bit over two years. I wrote an article/blog post the other day about my experiences in Japan that I thought some of you might find interesting. Here it is:
I’ve decided to make a DJ-related announcement―and for the first time, it isn’t going to be accompanied by crazy pictures, as I’m sure most of you are thoroughly sick of them.
I’ve been DJing in Japan on and off for over a year, and I’ve had about 20-30 gigs in total at venues ranging from dive bars, to big clubs, to fancy hotel lounges. For the most part, these events have been a blast, and I’m thankful to have been given all these great opportunities to play. The downside is that 90% of these gigs have been unpaid (save free entry and a drink ticket or two); and by the end of the night I often find myself in the red due to purchasing drinks for friends who have come out to see me, taxis back and forth (when I choose not to go early/stay until 5 AM), etc.
Though I have had a few gigs in North America that didn’t provide financial compensation, those situations were far from the norm, and I typically would do them as a favor for friends. In most cases, however, event organizers back home compensate DJs for their services. In fact, there have been situations where the venues were so empty that I’m certain the owners of the establishments were losing money―but they nonetheless paid me. The concept seems quite simple: You request a service; you pay for that service.
In Japan, however, I’ve come to realize that this is not typically the norm (with the exception of non-Japanese organizers, who, in my experience, compensate DJs). In Japan, actually, there’s an air of “I’m letting you play at ____, so just be thankful for the opportunity.” At the beginning, I was extremely thankful. After all, how many DJs get to play at WOMB after only 6 months of playing (I came to learn later that this is all to common)? Playing at famous clubs can be great, even though you will almost never be guaranteed a slot on the main stage. You also don’t always get to play at an ideal time; and 4AM sets can really wear you down (not to mention, it’s nearly impossible to get friends to come out and see you when you’re playing the DJ equivalent of the graveyard shift).
On top of not being compensated, though, there is another unique aspect about DJing in Japan which really irks me: You are constantly pressured to bring as many people to an event as possible in order to line the pockets of the club owners and promoters. I realize that promoters probably need to satisfy a certain quota, but the constant badgering of DJs to report the number of guests, and guilting DJs into bringing more people out if they don’t report a high enough number, is absolutely ridiculous. To put this in more simple terms―if you’re not going to compensate someone for doing work for you, don’t ask them to bust their ass to do your job for you. Now, occasionally, you will be compensated per person you bring; but these “kickback” systems are rarely announced, often requiring DJs to go out of their way to get some kind of clarification. Even when you do get clarification, the terms are typically silly (e.g. $5 bucks per person after the first 20 people you bring). Once again, you only get paid once the promoter profits substantially off your hard work.
And then there’s the problem of promoters shortening slots for sets in order fit as many DJs in as possible, because they know that the more people they have DJing for them, the more money they can make based on each DJ’s shuukyaku (essentially translating to “rounding up customers”) abilities. All this leads to is too much variety in the type of music played, and an influx of inexperienced DJs.
There is another underlying issue with the whole shuukyaku system, and that is that you feel like you’re taking advantage of your friends when you ask them to come. The reality is that DJs want nothing more than to hang out with their friends, and they naturally want to invite their friends, help them get discounts, etc.; however, I’ve stopped inviting friends to clubs when the promoter has informed me that there is a kickback system in place, because I don’t want to profit off my hard-earned relationships.
This post has gotten way too long for its own good, so without further ado, here is my announcement: I will no longer be taking unpaid gigs as a DJ―and I urge other DJs to do the same. I have spent way too much money (in addition to transportation and party-related expenses, purchasing music and DJ equipment gets expensive) and time on this passion; and like anyone else who provides services, I would like to be compensated for them. I’m tired of not being able to answer people who come up to tell me that they loved my set, and ask me why I’m not playing on the main stage. The best I can typically muster is that I agree the vast majority of DJs playing on Tokyo club main stages are absolute garbage, yet they somehow have a following (though I’ve checked some of these DJs’ social media pages, and the truth is that many of them really don’t!) which gives them that extra push.
I’m fortunate to have a real career to fall back on; and I feel terrible for all the young people who desire nothing more than to make a name for themselves in DJing, because many of them are probably scraping by to do so. I really hope this situation changes soon. Thanks to all who have supported me; and thanks to all who have fairly compensated me for DJing.
I’m out!
