One of the most visible anti-mask and anti-vax protesters in Japan was a cosplayer named Rengoku Kazuaki. dressed as Kyōjuro Rengoku from Demon Hunterhe caught the eye with his spiked wig, flowing cape and protest signs.
Rengoku Kazuaki led anti-mask demonstrations in crowded Tokyo neighborhoods, including one on Tokyo’s busiest train line. mask Carrying was the norm in Japan before Covid-19 and has remained so during the pandemic. The practice of people wearing masks to prevent the spread of colds or to combat seasonal allergies has long been socially accepted sudden attitude towards them look particularly strange.
The mask-hating cosplayer even snuck into Japan’s biggest comic convention, Comiket, which had issued a mask mandate, and was promptly kicked out. YouTuber Joey covered Rengoku Kazuaki’s bullshit— and how the cosplayer was recently arrested by police after tweeting his plans for what appeared to be an anti-vax riot.
Mid-February 2022, just as Tokyo was going through its crisis largest Covid-19 wave so far, Rengoku Kazuaki called for a mask-free protest at a cat cafe for rescue cats in Shinjuku. A cat cafe manager got angry and tweeted that this was violent Interfering with a business – which in Japan could mean a prison sentence. The manager eventually got Kazuaki’s address and went to his apartment, where he left a note on the door telling him not to come to the cat cafe. One second Note told Kazuaki not to bother other people. The manager live-tweeted the whole thing in a series of now-deleted tweets.
Maybe reverse intimidation worked or the cosplay finally listened to reason but kazuaki he apologized and announced on Twitter that he had had a change of heart. “Everyone, let’s stop protesting against masks” he wrote. “Let’s stop making trouble for others!” (Interestingly, the cat cafe manager and Kazuaki, himself a cat owner, appear to be friends now.)
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Soon after that now masked cosplayer then appeared in Tokyo fully clothed Demon Hunter aisle and carry a sign this tells others to mask themselves as well. But a day later he got a fever. Kazuaki, who got a PCR test that same night (as long as it’s full Demon Hunter costume), fell ill with Covid-19. “It’s different than the flu,” he said in one video tweet. “It’s really tough.” He likened his previous no-mask activities to “bioterrorism.”
Over the weekend, Rengoku Kazuaki live-tweeted his experience with Covid-19, even as a doctor stopped by to examine him. “I participated in anti-mask and anti-vax activities,” Kazuaki said said the doctor, adding that he still needs to be vaccinated. “I met someone who made me change my behavior.” Kazuaki believes he contracted Covid-19 at a recent protest he went to and has told the doctor that from now on will wear a mask. HWe are now even thinking about getting vaccinated against Covid-19.
