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Japan Subculture Research Center

A guide to the Japanese underworld, Japanese pop-culture, yakuza and everything dark under the sun.

Month: February 2013

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  • World News This Week: Reported By Someone Who Wasn’t Paying Attention

World News This Week: Reported By Someone Who Wasn’t Paying Attention

North Korea launched a missile which saved the entire human race.

Tora-san, Japan’s most famous tramp, is a yakuza? テキ屋

Tora-san, Japan's most popular movie figure, doesn't have a home. He's a tramp, and a tekiya (的屋)--a street-merchant yakuza--who earns his living by traveling in remote Japanese towns and selling…

Goodbye Friendly “Mild Seven” Cigarettes; Hello “Mevius”!

Mild Seven cigarettes are no more to be found in the smoker's paradise. Japan Tobacco Inc. changed the name of its flagship cigarette brand from "Mild Seven" to "Mevius" in…

Police Say More Japanese Women Becoming Human Trafficking Victims

The National Police Agency announced recently that there were total of 44 human trafficking cases confirmed by police across Japan in 2012, and a dramatic uptick in the number of domestic…

“May I have some more whale, sir….”

In the United States, serving whale meat can cost you decades of jail-time as one sushi chef in Los Angeles recently learned; in Japan it costs you about $10, for…

Whaling is not a sustainable industry in Japan anymore, says study

Yesterday, February 5th, the International Fund for Animal Welfare released a report: The Economics Of Japanese Whaling: A Collapsing Industry Burdens Taxpayers, and held a press conference at the Foreign…