- Sat. Apr 26th, 2025
A tale of two kidneys: Sumiyoshi-kai head plays dealer in domestic organ trafficking case
Two kidneys, two doctors, two yakuza and one missing victim. Police are currently investigating the case of Toshinobu Horiuchi, a doctor who received a kidney transplant last July at Uwajima Tokushukai Hospital in…
"Hey kids, it's going to be really f**king hot tomorrow!" Japan Meteorological Agency institutes "Hot Weather Warning System"
The Japan Meteorological Agency, (JMA/気象庁) which is Japan’s weather bureau, began issuing “Extreme High Temperature Forecasts and Warnings”(高温注意情報) this week, starting on the 13th and posting in English from the…
Death by Pufferfish: A short story by Mayumi Shimose Poe
Jake’s note: In a departure from our usual hard-boiled news about Japan, we’re honored to be republishing a fascinating short story that illustrates many cultural aspects of Japanese society and…
Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future that Works
What is the future of Japan? Can the country get back on its feet? It’s a question that the world and the people of Japan are asking themselves. McKinsey &…
US report: human trafficking inside government’s foreign trainee program
Just two months after Japan got burned in the US State Department’s 2010 Human Rights Report, a new paper pins the country’s foreign trainee program as being almost as close…
Police close in on former mob boss Goto Tadamasa; Inagawa-kai splits
Tokyo Metropolitan Police tightening up investigation of Goto Tadamasa, former yakuza boss, on suspicion of murder; shots fired into his building The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is tightening up their…
Einstein, Insanity, Nuclear Meltdowns and Tokyo Electric Power Company
“Would there have been a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant even without the tidal wave?” 福島原発事故の記録：津波が来なくてもメルトダウンは起きた？ The July 11 edition of the 週間エコノミスト (The Weekly Economist, a…
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…
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO): Is it time to turn off the lights?
“Jump in a nuclear reactor and die!’ Those were the words directed at the chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) by one angry man at the tense stockholders meeting…
Missing Organs, Missing Donors, & Yakuza Involvement in Organ Transplants: This time in Japan! (Not UCLA)
On June 24th, 2011, A doctor, a Sumiyoshi-kai gangster, a former mobster and two others were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to illegally trade a kidney and faking an adoption…