Entries Tagged 'General' ↓
December 11th, 2008 — General
by Jake Adelstein
JSRC has been in hibernation for most of November, while I’ve been re-evaluating my place in the world after Goto Tadamasa’s fall from power, making a living, and working on the Japanese draft of TOKYO VICE. The book may end up coming out in Japanese before it comes out in English.
Many interesting things have happening in Japan’s underworld while we were away and we hope to share them with you by the end of December. By the way, if anyone has questions about the yakuza, crime in Japan, the latest strange trends in the country, or suggestions for something you’d like to see on this site–feel free to write in.
October 31st, 2008 — General
In the first chapters of Hanayagi Genshu’s book Nigetara Akan!, she outlines the problem of suicide in Japan shockingly clearly — one person every fifteen minutes dies by their own hand in Japan. This article? Just more proof of the problem.
From the New York Time Website
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 31, 2008 TOKYO (AP) — More than 870 people have killed themselves in Japan by inhaling toxic fumes from household chemicals this year, 30 times more than the total for all of last year, the government said Friday. Continue reading →
October 22nd, 2008 — Dark Side of the Sun, General, Organized Crime
· English will follow the Japanese.
· この数日間、後藤忠政組長の除籍騒動及びその経緯を客観的に報道するよう頑張りました。除籍の理由は派手な誕生日会だけでないことも昭々であります。警察や裏社会などの情報源から集めた情報を組み合わせて考えると、除籍の理由は大さっぱに次の通りです。（１）2001年、FBIとの取引及び山口組内部情報漏洩疑惑（２）2006年 菱和ライフクリエイト事件での監督不行届。同事件の報道が起爆剤で、金融庁等が暴力団フロント企業の資金獲得活動を厳しく取り締まるようになった（３）2007年警視庁情報漏洩で芸能界との腐れ縁、または愛人問題が判明し、世間騒がせ。本人の不注意が問われた（４）仮病を使って幹部会を慢性的欠席（５）派手な誕生日会で仮病使いの欠席もばれたうえ、また世間騒がせ、マスコミと当局の注視を誘った（６）堅気や一般市民を繰り返して脅かして山口組の任侠団体とのイメージに泥を塗った（７）改正暴対法の施行で、山口組全の存続を危うくし、さらに厳しい改正を誘発する危険分子とみなされたーー誕生日会はあくまでも口実でした。
Continue reading →
September 24th, 2008 — Dark Side of the Sun, General
by Katie Preston
edited by Jake Adelstein
On June 8 near Akihabara station, seven people were killed and ten others injured in a random act of violence committed by a troubled young man. The suspect had rented a van, purchased a knife, and driven to Tokyo in order to kill strangers indiscriminately, perhaps to express his unhappiness and desperation.
TMPD at a crime scene from long ago.
Continue reading →
September 21st, 2008 — General
By Justin McCurry in Tokyo
From the guardian.co.uk
Tuesday August 26 2008
Residents of a city in western Japan this week became the first to turn to the courts for help in ridding their neighbourhood of organised crime, amid fears that they will become the next victims of a violent power struggle.
Around 600 residents of Kurume, in Fukuoka prefecture, have asked a local court to order members of the Dojinkai yakuza gang to vacate an office building in the middle of a busy shopping district.
Continue reading →
September 11th, 2008 — General
Grassroots anti-mafia organization?
It hardly seems possible, but that’s Japan for you.
Read The Independent Article on The Town that Took on the Yakuza from the September 9th online issue.
Japan’s mafia seemed untouchable – until a group of residents risked everything to launch a court fight to drive the gangsters out. By David McNeill in Kurume City
Continue reading →
September 6th, 2008 — General
From The Times
August 28, 2008
By Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent
Japan’s powerful yakuza organised crime syndicates are mounting a widespread assault on the country’s financial markets that may have left hundreds of listed companies riddled with mob connections.
In a surprisingly stark admission, the National Police Agency (NPA) says that it is locked in a battle for the economic soul and international reputation of Japan. Continue reading →
August 26th, 2008 — General, Organized Crime
I was knocking back drinks with a former bodyguard in the Yamaguchigumi, and it was raining outside.
He is about fifty years old, six feet five, and has arms that are bigger than my legs.
I was sitting on the tatami listening to the rain outside, and while he lit up his twentieth cigarette of the day I said,
“I love rainy days.”
He didn’t agree. Continue reading →
August 18th, 2008 — General
The stories Jake Adelstein wrote as a crime reporter for a Japanese newspaper have earned him and his family a death threat from one of the country’s most notorious and influential yakuza. Writing a book about crime and criminal culture in Japan is likely to have further enraged the Tokyo uderworld. Adelstein never planned it this way.
Continue reading →
July 19th, 2008 — General
The BBC’s International Radio Station did a story on Wednesday’s program on Jake Adelstein becoming an “accidentally intrepid” crime reporter.
The information on the July 16th Program can be found here.
