On the Record

The yakuza, Japan’s infamous organised crime syndicates, have gone into a death spiral in recent years and Jake Adelstein says it is partly due to an incident at a sumo…

It's been 46 years since Takumi Yokota last saw his sister Megumi. Their family was just like any other, until Megumi became one of the many Japanese hostages held captive…

Ever spotted something odd about someone’s hands nearby? Everything seems ordinary until you notice it: one finger joint missing, maybe a whole finger, maybe several. lt leaves a noticeable gap.…

Tigran Gambaryan's career is anchored by one constant: an unwavering dedication to justice He put child pornographers and crypto-criminals out of business. Now he's being held hostage in Nigeria, a…

だから、真実を語れない日本政府が存在するのだ。嘘は報われ、真実を語ることは罰せられる。政府は都合の良い事実をでっち上げ、都合の悪い事実を隠し、信じてもらえることを望み続けるだろう。それが安倍元首相のレガシーである

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…

In the yakuza world they say, “As soon as you get to the top, someone will try to kick you down.” The world of journalism is, sadly, surprisingly “If you’re…

Share your data. The internet is a vast and endless storage hub. If you’ve written something the world should know--put up supporting data and documents on the web, maybe in…

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…

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…