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Update: Tigran Gambaryan, American Hero and Good Guy is Free!
UPDATE: The Nigerian Government dropped the charges against Tigran circa October 23rd and he is now home.
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Telepathy (以心伝心) and Other Coincidences (奇遇)
I was writing to a former intern at Japan Subculture Research Center, Fresca, and asked her to send me her thesis to read—just as she mailed me. I think I was two seconds ahead of her. It was a remarkable coincidence or maybe telepathy. Which got me interested in the many words for the complementary…
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The Race To Run Tokyo: Who’s going to be the next governor of the megapolis?
Will The Empress Continue To Reign? Probably.
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How a sumo tournament led to the downfall of the yakuza
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 tournament in 2009.
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Bring Them Home: Ongoing Battle for Japanese Hostages in North Korea
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 by North Korea.
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Tokyo Vice Vice-O-Pedia: Why Do Yakuza Chop Off Their Fingers or The Art of ENKOZUME (エンコ詰め)
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. One reason gifting the yakuza in your life a pair of gloves is a terrible idea. It’s a constant reminder, always in plain sight, of…
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Cybercrime Fighting Heroes Held Hostage In Nigeria; Free Tigran and Nadeem
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 scapegoat in the country’s currency collapse. He and Nadeem must be set free
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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 old when it happened and she still finds it hard to talk about the incident. “Because of what happened to me…I thought I could never…
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Going Gently Into That Good Night May Not Be So Bad
‘Teki’ means enemy. The 77-year old protagonist Gisuke Watanabe in Teki Cometh (Japanese title: Teki) can’t quite figure out the exact identity of that enemy but he’s aware it’s coming to destroy him. Will the enemy be upon him today or next week? Does he still have time to do something, anything? And then, mercifully, Gisuke dies. That’s…
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90 Million Yen Settlement for “Women’s Trouble” continues with Nakai Masahiro Losing His Shows
By Tori H. Tale In the December 19th edition of Josei Seven, it was reported that 90 million yen was paid by Nakai Masahiro in a settlement awarded to a woman in connection with the notorious and ambiguous event known as “women’s trouble.” The incident began in 2023, when Nakai, the woman, and a third…
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Emperor Nabetsune Has Passed Away: The Yomiuri Shogun is gone
by Robert Whiting I read with sadness of the passing of Tsuneo Watnabe, the long time shogun of the Yomiuri group, which publishes the Yomiuri Shinbun–(editor note: and also owns the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, Yomiuriland–an amusement park and more) . He died recently at the age of 98 after a bout with pneumonia. He…