- Sun. May 19th, 2024
Latest Post
Battle for Venus: Kamakura’s 68-Year-Old Cafe Faces Forced Eviction
The Silent Fraud: How A Brunei Group of Conmen Swindled Japanese Nationals for Years
How a sumo tournament led to the downfall of the yakuza
Japan’s Finest: The Top 3 Condoms for Your Pleasure
Bring Them Home: Ongoing Battle for Japanese Hostages in North Korea
Playing the yakuza puppet master in "The Yakuza Diaries"
For all those who spent hours as a child delightfully flipping to page 28, back to page 11, then on to page 19 to discover their fate in the popular…
Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From the Yakuza or the Cops That Arrest Them #3: If you love your family, don't shoot yourself to death
A few weeks ago, a yakuza boss who I only knew vaguely shot himself to death. He was badly in debt and facing charges of extortion. I’m sure he was…
"Mister Vice Guy" (if you can guess who that is) interviewed in Australian Penthouse
In one of his classiest interviews yet, Jake lets loose in Australian Penthouse magazine to inquiries on regrets, working as a hostess, sumo, and just how hard it was to…
Eikaiwa Underworld: Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned
By Jason Gray Early 2004. When teaching conversational English, at least in Japan, fascinating students are a rarity. This isn’t necessarily because there aren’t interesting people who want to learn…
Upcoming Event: Polaris Project seminar
Jake will be giving a talk about the law-enforcement side of fighting human trafficking at Polaris Project’s monthly seminar series, “You Know Human Trafficking?” Date: Saturday, September 25 from 7-9pm…
Police suspect suicide in yakuza death
An high-ranking member of an organized crime group was discovered collapsed and bleeding by his son in theirAdachi-ku home on Sept 4. The 64-year-old yakuza, who is said to have…
Kyoto priest arrested for paying young girl for services
A Buddhist priest in Kyoto was arrested September 1 for paying an underage girl for sexual services, prefectural police reported. The 39-year-old souri reportedly met a 12-year-old girl online and…
The latest limelight and upcoming events info
A new interview with Jake Adelstein is up on World Policy Institute focusing on the recent yakuza crackdown, but also touching on some interesting recent topics like their popularity in…
Habakarinagara: An interview with Tadamasa Goto
Perhaps to promote his new book, Habakarinagara (憚りながら）, Tadamasa Goto has been looking for some time in the limelight, apparently granting this interview on Yomiuri TV’s Takashin no Sokomade Itte…
NPA statistics looking good for Kodo-kai crackdown efforts
If numbers mean anything, then the National Police Agency’s crackdown on the Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai led by director Takaharu Ando has been something of a success. The NPA released arrest figures…