Pitchfork: Have you ever witnessed a club shut down yourself or been taken to jail for any of your involvement?

TT: No. I have had police enter rooms I was playing. It was more common a few years ago. But not lately. Generally, the club staff keep an eye on police patrols, and if the cops come they quickly rush to turn down the volume of the sound system, which quickly breaks the mood and generally stops people from dancing. This is a quicker and more discreet way of stopping the dancing than making an announcement—although they usually also move through the crowd personally asking people to stop dancing momentarily until the cops are gone. Sometimes the audience doesn't understand what is happening, and can start to shout or complain—especially foreigners with little understanding of the context—but things usually stay pretty calm, which is good.

Pitchfork: Is there any meaningful opposition within Japan to the 2020 Olympics? It seems like some countries have slowly started to wake up to the fact that large-scale games like this can break local economies.

TT: Yes, absolutely! But as in most countries, it makes no difference. The Olympics are too fucking powerful. I fucking hate sports—they generate so much fucking nationalism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, economic exploitation, displacement of communities to build fucking worthless bankrupt stadiums.

Here in Japan, one of the big crimes of Olympic preparations is the fact that all of the nation's construction workers are being preoccupied with building things in Tokyo, and as a direct result of this, the country has still been unable to build housing for those dislocated from Fukushima after the 2011 nuclear disaster because there are not enough people to do the work! The Olympics take priority. It's fucking heartless. Not so different from the stories of Chinese farmers going without water for crops in order to make the river prettier during the Beijing games. What the fuck. How can anyone watch the Olympics? I can't understand it. Really. Boycott that shit, people!

Pitchfork: What keeps you in Japan? Do you ever plan on leaving or do you ever flirt with that idea?

TT: I hope to remain in Japan for the rest of my life—although who knows how things can change here, with Prime Minister Abe and his league of doom at the helm. I keep my U.S. passport as an escape route. I am always very clear that my ability to live here is based on my past experiences in the U.S. It is not about Japan being so fucking amazing. As far as I am concerned, humans are a shit species, so there's nowhere in this world to get overly excited about. It's more about safety in daily life, the absence of guns and class-A drugs, the way people in the street ignore those they dislike rather than lash out verbally or physically. Like, if I'm in drag on the subway, I might get one or two silent looks, but nobody shoving me or shouting "Faggot!" At the same time, if I was born in Japan, I am sure I would not want to live here—just as I cannot imagine myself being emotionally able to return to the U.S. now.

Pitchfork: What are concrete steps to meaningfully revise these laws in a way that allows more freedom to use one's body? How can these coalitions of DJs and club-related people—or anyone, really—express any power in this system?

TT: The lawyer involved in the fueihō revisions describe it as a baby step process. They expect further revisions, bit by bit, that will eventually allow small clubs to be legally licensed, etc. I am skeptical about the types of concessions that will be given to the police in that process. I mean, the police have way too much political power here. Actually, the fueihō revisions were supposed to be put to a vote many months ago—the date was set. I don't remember exactly, but I think it was supposed to be in June 2014? Or maybe after that. Anyway, this was after a couple of years of hard negotiating between lawyers and politicians, and everyone was really glad to have finally reached a consensus. But literally the day before the vote, the police entered and told the politicians the revisions were unacceptable and they would rewrite the proposal themselves to submit for the formal vote. And the politicians immediately conceded. And months later, the revisions as rewritten by the police were put to a vote, and approved. It's pretty scary to think that kind of thing happens in relation to national legislation. As part of those changes, the police now have more direct control over what is defined as legal and moral entertainment. One of my lawyer friends thinks it's not a big deal, but for me it's super scary to think about how that can be abused, and what restrictions it places on the public—not only in terms of who can get arrested for doing what today, but how it limits future possibilities of public 'perversity.'