Rare footage of Beatles' 1966 visit to Japan to be screened in censored form

Japanese officialdom riddled with insecurities and fear of the people have never been able to get fully on board with democratic values and summon up the self-confidence required to wean themselves off their dependence on censorship to maintain face and their peculiar sense of self-importance. When the Beatles showed up at the Nippon Budokan they went into panic mode fearing they would be upstaged and lose control to the sensational foreign fab four and their teenage fans.

The footage of the band's first visit to Japan will finally be seen, but with the faces of fans and police officers obscured, after a Nagoya-based nonprofit organization lost a lawsuit seeking the release of the uncensored footage.

So it is not only the CCP in China that engages in a little historical revisionism and censorship of pop culture history.

Why did the police film the performance? Did they hope to spot subversives in the crowd?

A police film of what is supposed to be a fun event with all the public faces obscured and with no sound sounds creepy to me. The product of a paranoid and repressive society.

This is the best "Japan is crazy" story I've read in a while, but it is crazy in a depressing way, not in a funny or interesting one.

Only fascists censor history. The blurring out of faces has caught on in the West and is ruining television as a viewable experience and a documentary record of history.

The Beatles were already pretty blurry by that point.

In 1976 I attended the British F1 race at Silverstone with a lady I shouldn't have been there with. I was caught on TV cameras and this was seen by the lady I should have been with, kinda put me on the spot you might say.

Japanese officialdom riddled with insecurities and fear of the people have never been able to get fully on board with democratic values and summon up the self-confidence required to wean themselves off their dependence on censorship to maintain face and their peculiar sense of self-importance. When the Beatles showed up at the Nippon Budokan they went into panic mode fearing they would be upstaged and lose control to the sensational foreign fab four and their teenage fans.

exactly

So it is not only the CCP in China that engages in a little historical revisionism and censorship of pop culture history.

not at all. But then again, the LDP is really no different from the CCP, except that the former panders to the US and its global interest which is why they get a free pass when they are virtually every bit as oppressive as the CCP.

This is the best "Japan is crazy" story I've read in a while, but it is crazy in a depressing way, not in a funny or interesting one.

Read alot about their visit to japan and from what I can gather this was the impression the beatles had of the country. They all didn't like it and they never came back.

A police film of what is supposed to be a fun event with all the public faces obscured and with no sound sounds creepy to me. The product of a paranoid and repressive society.

Which is EXACTLY what Japan is- a paranoid and repressive society.

Read alot about their visit to japan and from what I can gather this was the impression the beatles had of the country. They all didn't like it and they never came back.

Sheesh... they never played another concert anywhere in the world after August of that year. Then they broke up. Individually, they came back frequently, with John Lennon especially spending free time here.

Maybe you have Japan confused with another country.

John Lennon lived for periods in Japan, in Karuizawa. He loved being here.

Paul McCartney also likes Japan.

McCartney returned to Japan on his own in 1990, 1993, 2002, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2018.

Some good footage of one of the concerts. Looks like they are enjoying themselves: https://youtu.be/k5UhSSdRwAk

This was 56 years ago, and they're blurring out faces of citizens'? I can't believe what I've just read.

Lord DartmouthSep. 24  12:19 pm JST

This was 56 years ago, and they're blurring out faces of citizens'? I can't believe what I've just read.

They didn't have such a problem when Cheap Trick had their legendary Budokan shows in April 1978.

You might be confusing Japan with the Philippines. 

They disliked both places. In Japan, a typhoon, death threats from the locals and orders to be confined to their hotel rooms the whole time contributed to their decision never to play big concerts again.