• Tue. Mar 19th, 2024

Japan Subculture Research Center

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

Pop Culture

 

In Ichigatsuno Koeni Yorokobiwo Kizame (International title: Voice), a young woman named Reiko (Atsuko Maeda) professes to her boyfriend-for-hire that she had been sexually abused as a child. Reiko had been six years…

Creators behind The Walking Dead launch Japanese content division

Skybound Japan's inaugural project, in collaboration with Fuji TV, is Heart Attack, an electrifying sci-fi television series based on the Skybound original graphic novel series by Shawn Kittelsen (Injustice 2,…

The Subculturist: The man behind Tokyo’s most infamous city guidebook

For a decade, Steven Schultz was the world’s window into the most extreme and intriguing corners of Tokyo. Until one day, suddenly, he wasn’t.

The Johnny & Associates Scandal: A Silent Japanese Media Was An Accomplice Says Expert Panel

On August 29, Japan witnessed the unfolding of one of its most controversial entertainment revelations. The scandal surrounding the late Johnny Kitagawa, former president of Johnny & Associates, who passed…

From the pioneer of J-Pop to serial predator: Johnny Kitagawa’s legacy of exploitation and control

East Asian popular culture is on the rise, spearheaded by the global phenomenon of the Hallyu wave. K-pop idol music has played a critical part in this: it’s experienced a…

What This Means (a short-story about love and marriage in Japan during the pandemic)

And then she would pretend to pout which was another cue for me to massage the back of her feet, and then we'd head off to the bedroom or just…

Masks are off at Tokyo’s best fetish party, Department H (unless you’re into that)

Following that was a lively wrestling match between two people in lizard masks which supposedly turned into a softcore sex show. Unfortunately I just barely missed the plot twist while…

An Honest Portrait of a Japanese B*tch

Japanese women are angry. If you didn't already know this you probably shouldn't be reading a review of The Ripple because you won't be interested in a film about older,…

Tokyo Private Eye (東京探偵) the sequel to Tokyo Vice was published on March 28th 2023, with Marchialy (France). English version next year!

Clients say they want to know, but they don't They want you to tell them what they want to hear But that's not the job My job is to deliver…

Johnny Be Bad: A rare interview with Japan’s boy Idol-maker and pederast

Having decided that “Are you or have you ever been a pederast?” might be somewhat too direct a question to put to the dear old chap, I lobbed a series…