Fuzoku lite: "Aquarium of girls" offers thrills for herbivore men

Girls in uniform, some as young as 15, sit sprawled out on the floor of a small room, chatting or reading books. Skirts are rolled high, some have their legs folded up against their chest, and none the girls give much notice to the fact that their colorful panties are on display–to the paying customers in the next room. Welcome to a joshi-kousei kengaku club. As an evolution of the deai cafe and other fuzoku phenomenon, “high school girl viewing clubs” began... Read More

Evacuees forced to pay rent at Miyagi yakuza home

Straight out of a suspense film: A yakuza couple have been arrested for abuse after they coerced a pair of tsunami evacuees to stay at their home, demanded rent and wouldn’t let them leave. The details are sketchy but according to reports, Daiju Omura, believed to be a high-ranking member of a group related to the Yamaguchi-gumi, and his ex-wife visited a Miyagi evacuation center at the end of March and persuaded a husband and wife to stay at their home in Natori City.... Read More

Yakuza looking to get a piece of the reconstruction pie

Sankei News is  reporting that suspect groups from west Japan have rolled into the Tohoku area, eyeing a piece of the estimated 15 trillion yen that will be spent on reconstruction efforts, including cleanup, rebuilding of neighborhoods and new urban developments. Police say they’ve found proof of activities in the disaster area by a group believed to be associated with the Yamaguchi-gumi. (memo from Jake: The National Police Agency has also issued a directive to all police... Read More

Tokyo Prosecutor Special Investigation Unit Takes Lead on TEPCO case, as new evidence contradicts TEPCO claims.

As reported on April 4th here, Japanese law-enforcement continues their investigation into TEPCO, the managing entity of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury, but now the Tokyo Prosecutor Special Investigation Unit has begun their own independent investigation. Update: The investigations may extend to public officials as well.  In addition to this TEPCO is now under investigation by the Labor Standards Bureau for multiple... Read More

Child pornography, government corruption color 2010 US Report On Human Rights in Japan

One that totally flew under our radar: On April 11, the US State Department released their 2010 Human Rights Report for Japan, detailing human rights conditions on everything from the right to collective bargaining to institutionalized hazing. While Japan is hardly a major violator like, say, friendly neighbours China and North Korea, it is surprising (and in some cases, unfortunately, not so surprising) to see some of the areas where the country falls short of ideal. As brought... Read More

Mind your f**ks and s**ts: Localizing Yakuza 1 龍が如く翻訳物語

By Demian ‘Ryu Ichinose’ Smith Ryu ga Gotoku, or Yakuza, as it was unfortunately titled for international distribution, was the first major localization project I was assigned to as a young proofreader and translator. As one could imagine, I was tremendously excited to work on a SEGA title, especially one about the seedy underbelly of Japan. Five months earlier, I was hired to work as a re-writer, proofreader and translator at a mid-sized (now small time) translation... Read More