---
title: '''Zeitaku wa teki da!'' (Luxury Is the Enemy!) street sign, Tokyo'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/luxury-is-the-enemy-sign-1940/
description: A street-side standing sign reading 'ぜいたくは敵だ!' ('Luxury is the enemy!'), with a 'Kōa Hōkō' ('serve the rise of Asia') banner beside it.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!['Zeitaku wa teki da!' (Luxury Is the Enemy!) street sign, Tokyo](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/luxury-is-the-enemy-sign-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/luxury-is-the-enemy-sign-1940.jpg)

# 'Zeitaku wa teki da!' (Luxury Is the Enemy!) street sign, Tokyo

A street-side standing sign reading 'ぜいたくは敵だ!' ('Luxury is the enemy!'), with a 'Kōa Hōkō' ('serve the rise of Asia') banner beside it. The word 'enemy', normally kept for the opposing army, is stretched to cover silk, jewellery and restaurant meals, so a shopping choice becomes a side taken in the war. The campaign followed the 7 July 1940 ban on making and selling luxury goods.

- **Date:** August 1, 1940
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** National Spiritual Mobilization Movement headquarters (Kokumin Seishin Sōdōin Honbu), Tokyo
- **Region:** [East Asia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=east-asia)
- **Country:** [Empire of Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=empire-of-japan)
- **Medium:** [Signs and banners](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=sign-banner)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **Regime:** [Showa Japan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=showa-japan)
- **Leader:** [Fumimaro Konoe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=fumimaro-konoe)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Themes:** [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front), [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [Second Sino Japanese War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=second-sino-japanese-war)
- **Techniques:** [Semantic hijacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/semantic-hijack/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luxury_is_our_enemy.JPG), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (PD-Japan-oldphoto; also PD in the U.S.) Unknown photographer, 1940; scan uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Abasaa.

## Text on the object

Original (Japanese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
ぜいたくは敵だ!

興亞奉公
[illegible — additional small text below the main sign and on the banner, cropped by the photograph's edge or too low-resolution to read]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Luxury is the enemy!

Serve the Rise of Asia
[illegible]
```

The banner reading '興亞奉公' (Kōa Hōkō) is a separate sign to the left of the main 'Luxury is the enemy!' standing sign; both are visible in the same street-corner photograph. Small print beneath the main sign is cut off by the bottom of the frame.

[← Wolkiger Beobachter, Luftpost-Ausgabe, 1. Jahrgang Nr. 7 (Cloudy Observer, air-mail edition, front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/wolkiger-beobachter-luftpost-1940/) ['Allons-y... Canadiens!' (Canadian Department of National War Services) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/allons-y-canadiens-1941/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Mr. John Dillon, M.P., on recruiting in Ireland. Join an Irish regiment to-day](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/john-dillon-on-recruiting-in-ireland-1915/) (1915 · Testimonial, Semantic hijacking)
- [Auch die Geduld hat ein Ende (Even Patience Has an End), German-language leaflet for German soldiers](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/allied-leaflet-auch-die-geduld-hat-ein-ende-1918/) (1918 · Scapegoating, Semantic hijacking)
- [V = Duitschland wint voor Europa op alle fronten (V = Germany wins for Europe on all fronts)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/v-duitschland-wint-voor-europa-1941/) (1941 · Semantic hijacking)
- [Crowd at the Arkansas State Capitol protesting school integration, with signs reading "Race mixing is Communism," Little Rock, Arkansas](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/race-mixing-is-communism-1959/) (Aug 20, 1959 · Semantic hijacking, Transfer)
- ["Frontul Democrației și Unității Socialiste - cel mai larg organism politic": Romanian wall chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/romanian-front-of-democracy-and-socialist-unity-1985/) (1985 · Semantic hijacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Address announcing a 'special military operation'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/special-military-operation-address-2022/) (Feb 24, 2022 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Semantic hijacking)
- [Salzburg 20-Kronen "Anschluss" voucher (1921)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/salzburg-anschluss-voucher-20-kronen-1921/) (1921 · Identity fusion)
- [The Bombay Chronicle reports a foreign-cloth bonfire (1921)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bombay-chronicle-cloth-bonfire-1921/) (Jul 30, 1921 · Identity fusion, Glittering generalities)