All Black (Japan, Osaka)

In Japan, the figure of the “street vigilante” is not anecdotal: it embodies a gentle but effective strategy of social control in public spaces. These semi-official patrols, often financed by the shopkeepers themselves, are particularly active in entertainment districts such as Dōtonbori in Osaka . They combine paramilitary aesthetics and codified gestures to produce a form of dissuasive presence without real legal authority .

Inspired by the codes of cosplay, SWAT units, and tokusatsu pop culture, their attire becomes performative: dark glasses, head-mounted cameras, ballistic vests bearing warning signs. This staging of surveillance refers to a very Japanese interpretation of “meiwaku” (social nuisance): it is not the act that disturbs, but its visibility or its deviation from the collective consensus.

Their unclear legal status is protected by a legal trick: displaying warnings like "撮影中" ("recording in progress") allows the use of captured images without explicit consent, within the limits of image rights in Japan—tolerant in public places, as long as the use is announced.