Yakuza Friendly Hotels–on the way out. Goodbye Nine-Fingered Discount!
As a part of broader initiatives to expel organized crime from business, new “yakuza exclusion” provisions by the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) go into effect today. The JTA maintains a…
NISA Needs To Take Evil Lessons
Sneaky attempts to manipulate public opinion meltdown
People Who Eat Darkness (闇を食う人々）An amazing book and a tissue sample of Japan's social pathological elements
People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman* By Richard Lloyd Parry (Jonathan Cape 404pp £17.99) When the disappearance of Lucie Blackman made the news, I was covering it…
Why Japan's Mainstream Media Can't Be Trusted To Report Objectively On TEPCO (東京電力）
When the earthquake struck Japan on March 11th and knocked out TEPCO’s Fukushima nuclear reactor, setting off a chain reaction of disasters–TEPCO’s chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata was nowhere to be found.…
Nuclear Ginza: Japan's secret at-risk labor force and the Fukushima disaster
Back in 1995, the UK’s Channel 4 produced a 30-minute documentary on Japan’s nuclear industry and how they use disadvantaged people, including burakumin and other day laborers, to do manual…
Sumo Wrestlers Fixed Matches, But Who Gave The Orders?
Japanese police sources are saying that there is evidence sumo wrestlers contacted each other via cell-phone to fix sumo matches in advance. AFP has an excellent piece on the recent…
Yakuza Not Leaving The Construction Industry With A Whimper But A Bang
Yakuza are not happy being forced out of the construction industry in Japan and are responding with destructive criticism. The Tokyo City Government is expected to pass an organized crime…
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…
Reports of Nagoya tournament suffering due to sumo scandal
Amongst much controversy, the Grand Sumo Nagoya Tournament has gone on (mostly) as planned, despite NHK’s refusal to broadcast the event and a boycott by a number of sponsors (but…
Fuzoku Friday: In the news this week
A couple things going on in the fuzoku world this week: In a move to put a stop to illegal deai-kei cafes, the National Police Agency announced they will tighten…