• Sun. May 11th, 2025

Japan Subculture Research Center

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

Japan Dispatches Ninja Squad To Syria; “Jihadi John, you defile sacred ninja tradition. Watch your shadow. We coming.”

"We cannot abide the cold-blooded murder of a Japanese person but we will never ever forgive the mockery of our Ninja tradition by the ISIS spokesman wearing our most traditional…

Reporters Without Borders urges Japanese government to rescue journalist

“It is vital that the Japanese government should seek the help of all the ‘strategic’ states in the region and their diplomatic networks. Efforts must be pooled to end Islamic…

Japan Fights ISIS with a barrage of Charlie Hebdo-like parody

Terrorism works because of fear and intimidation. One of their greatest enemies is sarcasm and ridicule. The Islamic State is holding two Japanese citizens for ransom and is most likely…

Japan’s MOFA threatens ISIS with “strong indignation” if (hypothetical) hostages executed

What makes Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcement particulary surreal and disingenuous is that MOFA and the Japanese government have known that Kenji Goto was being held for a ransom…

What’s really obscene in Japan? It shouldn’t be the vagina.

A vagina shaped boat. A blueprint for printing a vagina on 3D printer you have to download to see. Is it more obscene than these replicas of porn star vaginas…

From 98-Pound Weakling to Black Belt

  By Benjamin Boas Mou ikkai! Do it again! Punching someone properly is an incredibly difficult thing to do. It was not enough to simply drive my fist forward and…

Yakuza Rapper Releases Spoken Word Album: Yamazin/Collected Short Stories

Japanese rap has a bad rap.  It doesn’t rhyme, not really, it’s almost impossible to follow if you don’t understand Japanese, and most of it is crap.  Most of the…

Reposted: The high price of writing about anti-social forces–and those who pay. 猪狩先生を弔う日々

Igari-san wasn’t an investigative journalist and he wasn’t a saint. But he fought for justice and for truth, and as an investigative journalist, I’ve always believed that’s what our job…

Happy New Year 2015! Beware of the Wolves, Don’t be a Sheep, and Take Care of Your Flock :D

May we all: Overcome anger with peace. Overcome evil with good. Overcome greed with generosity. Overcome liars with truth. Happy New Year

The Year of Dokufu: Poisonous Women in Japan

by Kaori Shoji       Wow. What a year THAT was, on a whole lot of levels. The unofficial diagnosis is that things will get worse in the year…