Western Tourists targeted by Orz Movement

Yesterday afternoon, a tour bus packed full of American tourists was pelted with buckets of red paint and eggs when it pulled into the parking lot of the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. The perpetrators fled before police arrived, but were heard shouting, ‘This is for Orz,’ as they left the scene. No one was injured in the attack, although several of the elderly tourists were reportedly deeply shaken.

There are also unconfirmed reports of several American language students being harassed in an electronics store yesterday evening in Akihabara and another unconfirmed verbal assault on a British tourist in Inokashira Park.

It is believed that these incidents were perpetrated by the Orz Movement, a group protesting the murder of Hiro Yanagida, which is responsible for defacing several Western outlets and religious institutions with graffiti. On 24 June, two days after the murder of Hiro Yanagida, cleaning staff arrived at the Tokyo Union Church in Ometsando, located next to the iconic Louis Vuitton store, to discover a painting of a blood-soaked handbag daubed next to the entrance. That evening, a stencil of a man spewing vomit appeared on the walls of Toyko’s two Wendy’s outlets and a McDonald’s in Shinjuku, causing both disgust and hilarity. A week later, a masked man was caught on CCTV de facing the sign outside the American Embassy.

The tag signature ORZ is left at every scene. ORZ–an emoticon or emoji–which resembles a figure bashing its head on the ground, signifies depression or despair and was popularised on chat-forums such as 2-channel.

So far, police have been frustrated in their efforts to curb the increasingly radical behaviour, and with copycat ORZ stencils beginning to pop up in cities all over Japan–including as far away as Osaka–all indications are that it spreading fast.

A spokesperson from the Japanese National Tourism Organisation has stressed that Japan is not a nation known for ‘violent protests’, and that it should not be judged on the actions of a ‘misguided minority’.

The Orz Movement has now attracted a vocal and high-profile supporter. Aikao Uri, the head of the rapidly growing and controversial Cult of Hiro, issued the following statement: ‘Hiro’s unforgivable murder, and the fact that the US government is unconcerned about bringing those behind it to justice, is a clear sign that we need to break ties immediately. Japan is not a child who needs its American nanny watching over it. I applaud what the Orz Movement is doing. It is a shame that our government is too afraid to follow their example.’ Unlike many hardline Nationalists, Aikao Uri has called for ties to be strengthened with Korea and the People’s Republic of China, going so far as to insist that reparations be made for Japanese World War II war crimes against these nations. She is at the forefront of the campaign for the historic Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan to be overthrown, and all US troops based on Okinawa Island to be removed. She is married to politician Masamara Uri, who is widely tipped to be the next prime minister.