Written and produced by Elizabeth Chamberlin. 2003. 25 minutes.
This documentary explores the recent boom in salsa dancing and salsa clubs in Japan, which have become venues for the cultural mingling of Japanese people and Japanese-descent South American immigrants to Japan. It introduces us to two types of salsa clubs in Japan, one attracting more Japanese and the other drawing more of the Japanese-Latino immigrants and workers. Each group has a different way of dancing and different reasons for going to the dance clubs. The clubs that are predominantly Japanese focus on dancing well and on looking stylish. Most of the clientele take salsa lessons seriously and even enter competitions (a la “Shall We Dance?”). The clubs that draw a largely Latino crowd are much more places for parties and having a good time. Some of the immigrants are accomplished dancers, but others not. Some are even learning to dance salsa in Japan, because it’s not in fact a universally “Latin” dance. The main attraction of these club parties is the chance to get together and relax with other Latinos. The parties are times to forget the difficulties of working and living in a country to which they are connected by descent but often alienated by everyday experience.
“Salsa in Japan” briefly recounts the history of salsa and examines the many connections between Latin America and Japan through interviews with people involved in the salsa world. To me, the key (and unresolved) tension in the documentary is between the obvious differences in atmosphere and attitudes at the two salsa scenes and the equally apparent fact that nonetheless salsa does provide a very popular means for interaction between Japanese and Latinos and for mutual cultural appreciation.
The filmmaker, Elizabeth Chamberlin, received her MA in Social and Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1995. The following year she came to Japan and has spent much of her free time in the Latin American community. As of 2003, she was teaching Intercultural Communication and English at Ritsumeikan University and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.