When Darth Vader showed up in Osaka to march about and promote the 3D Star Wars flicks, it was glorious. When he did the same in Tokyo, it was glorious, too. That is, until the cops showed up.
This past weekend, Darth Vader and his Imperial Stormtropper, the Japanese Garrison of the 501st Legion, strutted their stuff through Akihabara. The second time, the police showed up and started saying things like, "Performances are prohibited here!" and "Follow Akihabara's rules!"
In years past, street performance was widespread in Akihabara. Things started getting out of hand and going bonkers, with a young woman flashing her panties as part of her "performance". This chaos was followed by a mass murder later that summer in which a man drove a rent truck into a group of pedestrians and began wildly stabbing innocent bystanders.
In the wake of these events, the area has since clamped down on performances and only recently started closing the maindrag to allow only foot traffic.
Cops apparently gave the man leading the PR stunt a stern talking to. The Japanese police, however, avoided going off on Vader—no doubt, fearing a Force Choke.