• Mon. Feb 17th, 2025

Japan Subculture Research Center

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

Featured

Use this tag for posts that will appear in the featured articles slider

  • Home
  • OLYMPUS: Bringing It Into Focus–A Special Breach Of Trust? UPDATE

OLYMPUS: Bringing It Into Focus–A Special Breach Of Trust? UPDATE

In the last week, the New York Times, the Financial Times(article in Japanese)  and Reuters have reported heavily on suspicious transactions at Olympus Corporation, one of Japan’s oldest and most distinguished…

TEPCO Ties To The Yakuza: Gone? Police Sources Still Skeptical.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the monolithic corporation that controls all electric power in Greater Tokyo, and was responsible for a triple meltdown at their nuclear power plant in Fukushima…

Occupy Tokyo: Another Good Excuse to Come Out and Hate on TEPCO

Saturday, October 15th, Occupy Wall Street went global. Around 300 people around Tokyo came out to march in 2 separate locations. Japan Subculture went to check out what was happening…

The Yakuza Code Of Ethics: Compliance In the Underworld

The yakuza, Japan’s organized crime groups, have close to 79,000 members. It’s very hard to understand why they are tolerated in Japanese society and not simply banned. Part of the…

"No one is safe from the new yakuza." ABC's stellar documentary.

Child pornography, along with prostitution and drugs, allows the Yakuza - Japans 80 000 strong mafia - to rake in 50 billion dollars a year.

Japan's First Food Bank: Applying Japanese Efficiency to the Problem of Hunger

the non-profit organization that pioneered a whole new field in Japan

October 1st: Nationwide in Japan Anti-Yakuza Laws Go Into Effect: "Do Tell, We Won't Ask."

The new laws criminalize profit-sharing with the yakuza or paying them off. Both the yakuza and those who use them face severe punishment for illegal activity. The autumn of the…

Cops To Close Curtains on Yakuza Hollywood: The Timeline

1957: The 3rd Generation Yamaguchi Leader, Kazuo Taoka, sets up and registers Kobe Geinosha (Kobe Performing Arts Promotion) under his own name. (The Yamaguchi-gumi is currently Japan’s larges organized crime…

20msv/yr: What Does The Rest Of The World Think?

July 19th, 2011 Fukushima City “It is correct, is it not, that Fukushima citizens have the same and equal right as other Japanese citizens to spend their life without receiving…

Protesters Come Out in Record Numbers Against Nuclear Power

prior to the event, estimates were around 50,000; approximately 60,000 participated