Underwear designer by day, Underworld yakuza boss by night: The Quiet Don

Nitta Tatsuo’s Shizukanaru Don (静かなるドン), translated into English as The Quiet Don, began publication in November 1988 in the men’s manga magazine Shukan Manga Sunday (Weekly Manga Sunday) and ran until the January 2013 issue when it concluded with a 50 page chapter. Lingerie designer by day, yakuza by night. It’s the ultimate double-life.

DJ Police, Save Me Mama Fraud, Big Data: The Words of 2013 Japan

母さん助けて詐欺 — Kāsan tasukete sagi. “Mom, I need help!” frauds are the latest version of scams to target mainly elderly Japanese people. The perpetrator calls the victim claiming to be her child, asking for an urgent transfer of funds to pay for a traffic accident or other emergency.

Book Review: Tokyo Underworld–a classic on the dark side of Japan

There are very few gaijin (foreigners) who know what happens on the dark side of the rising sun like Robert Whiting. Whiting is an American author and journalist living in Japan, one of the rare ones who has written great books published in both English and Japanese language after he first set foot in Japan [...]

Reconstructing 3/11: Sometimes The Yakuza Live Up To Their Ideals　

There was a brief time after the earthquake when Japan welcomed the yakuza and they welcomed the victims with whatever aid they could provide. As time passes most of them (the yakuza) go back to doing what they really do to make a living: blackmailing, extorting, threatening and defrauding the general populace of their money and engaging in whatever crime they can get away with.

In Japan, Tattoos Are Not Just For Yakuza Anymore

It is difficult to say whether the wabori Japanese traditional tattoo (入れ墨） hurts more or less than the electric needle tattoo. Pain is like tickle, it is not a feeling that you can measure. You can measure the weight of a person, for example, but you cannot measure pain. Some people say they are afraid of the electric sound of the needle.

The Best Articles About Japan 2012 (on our blog) :D

Hello Kitty, yakuza working in the nuclear industry, coffee and cigarettes, 2012 was a year chock full of news. Here are some of our favorite stories we ran in 2012.

Notes On The Yakuza Lobby: How The Underworld Asserts Itself In The Political Sphere

Because of Japan’s personal privacy protection laws, created by the LDP to discourage magazine reporters for writing about their scandals and organized crime ties, I’m limited in what I can post here for readers who would like to know more about the Japanese ruling coalition and its ties to the underworld–but here are some useful items.

UPDATE: Japan’s 3rd Most Powerful Yakuza Boss Arrested On Money Laundering Charges

This week Kazuo aka Kazuya Uchibori, the de facto head of the Inagawa-kai, Japan’s 3rd largest organized crime group, turned himself into the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. He was wanted on charges of fraud and money laundering charges.  This may be the first case in which the payment of association dues (上納金/jonokin) is prosecuted successfully as [...]

Yakuza Comix: An Illustrated Guide To The Front Company フロント企業図解

To give you an idea of the scale of organized crime front companies in Japan, in Tokyo alone, there were over 1,000 at the end of 2010. And those are simply the ones that the police were able to identify. If you include new venture companies that were bankrolled by the yakuza behind the scenes, the numbers go even higher. A noted economist once called the yakuza Japan’s second largest private equity group. It makes sense.

Killing Yourself To Make A Living: In Japan Financial Incentives Reward “Suicide”

In post-war Japan, people would sign a life insurance contract. And go straight out, and kill themselves under the nearest train. Eventually, the life insurance companies started putting in one-year exemption clauses in their policies, so people would sign a contract and they must wait one year before killing themselves to get the money. It was still a very good deal for desperate people, so the suicide rate spiked on the thirteenth month. The insurance companies extended the exemption period to two years. The result was that suicides spiked on the twenty-fifth month of the contract.