Jimi Halloween (地味ハロウィン), also known as “Mundane Halloween” was started in 2014. Its main idea is that people dress up in simple, everyday clothes instead of a usually self-explanatory costume. Their “costume” should also have a very boring story from everyday life such as going to take the trash out, spilling coffee all over yourself, standing in line in a shop, etc. This trend started in Japan but soon was picked up by people in other countries too.

This trend was created by people who work at an online site called Daily Portal Z that provides people with entertainment content. Their main goal was to have fun and celebrate Halloween without going through the difficulties of having to wear uncomfortable and embarrassing costumes. And it seems that no matter how much some people love to come up with intricate and extraordinary costumes, the simplicity and charm of this idea is taking over. 

Bored Panda contacted Daily Portal Z to find out more about “Mundane Halloween” and Yuji Hayashi, the webmaster of the site, revealed some more details about this phenomenon. 

Hayashi shared that it was surprising to see so many people who didn’t want to miss an opportunity to do something humorous. He also admitted: “I thought it was just a Japanese domestic joke, so I was surprised that people in the US and UK were talking about it on Twitter.”

Even though it might seem that there is nothing too hard or complicated when your costumes are that simple, the creator stated otherwise: “All the participants struggle with ideas for costumes every year. But I think they enjoy thinking about it. Stores, train stations, and people working in the city all become role models for the costumes.” Hayashi also revealed that it takes about a week for participants to make their costumes but some of them disclosed that they start to think about the next year’s costume right after the Halloween festivities.

Hayashi was the one who came up with the idea to organize the event in 2014 with a bunch of his friends. A year after, they invited other people to join and in 2018, the event grew to 700 participants. This sudden interest made them limit the number of participants in 2019. And in 2020, the pandemic made them make some changes, so the event was minimized and a new condition was introduced—they started accepting online submissions. 

The creator also shared that they would love this phenomenon to become as wide as possible: “We don't have any claim to any rights regarding Jimi Halloween. We want people to hold it at work or school or with their neighbors. It is also held in Taiwan. We'd love to have it in the US too!”