B-old and bootyful: ‘Ojiqun’ dancing in neckties and coloured belly warmers in Wake town, western Okayama prefecture. — AFP
Tokyo: Showing off their awkward moves in shirts, ties and brightly coloured belly warmers, four men in their 50s and 60s have become Japan’s latest TikTok sensation.
The group’s mission? To promote their small countryside town, whose population is in decline, through dance routines to pop tunes that fans call “adorable”.
Since their first post in February, the videos have been viewed more than 16 million times.
The four call themselves “ojiqun” – a slang word used by young people that mixes ojisan, which means “old men” in Japanese, and “kyun”, meaning “heart-throb”.
They wear suit trousers, smart shoes and belly-warmer bands and keep a straight face even when they struggle to stay in time.
One of the members, 52-year-old Takumi Shirase, runs an IT firm and a gardening company when not on TikTok.
He said he had created ojiqun with his friends to try and put the rural town of Wake, in western Japan’s Okayama region, back on the map.
Wake currently has around 14,000 residents, and Shirase said his old primary school has closed due to lack of demand.
But with more than 34,000 TikTok followers, “we hope to encourage people to come to Wake, either as tourists or as new residents,” Shirase said. — AFP
