The artful dodger: Japanese street artist 281 Anti Nuke is risking his freedom to be heard
Street artist 281 Anti Nuke, the 'Japanese Banksy', faces a barrage of death threats in his mission to shake a nation out of its inertia, writes Julian Ryall
The man who only wants to be known as 281 Anti Nuke is taking no chances. As I turn my collar up against the bitter January wind, he is watching me at our appointed meeting place from a distance. I am unaware of his presence, but I know Japan's most famous street artist is careful. He has to be; his work regularly provokes death threats.
Only when he is completely sure that I am alone and that police or, worse still, a gang of right-wing thugs are not waiting to pounce does he approach.
Slender to the point of being gaunt, he is wearing a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses - and will still be at midnight, when we finally leave the dingy bar in the backstreets of Tokyo's Shibuya district that is the venue for our meeting. Clad in a black parka with the zips done up, he looks as if he might leave at any moment. Long hair helps to obscure his face.
There are streaks of grey in the mop and I estimate that he is in his early 40s. But he won't confirm that.
"I get threats through my website or Twitter page saying, 'Die' or, 'We're going to get you'," he says. "I just have to be careful. I can't let anyone take a photo of my face and I don't tell reporters my name."
The "Japanese Banksy" admits to being "frightened" of a government that he says is becoming more right-wing by the day.
"There have been huge changes in Japan in the past couple of years," 281 says. "The government and the police have become much more aggressive. It's more of a dictatorship."
