• Sat. Apr 26th, 2025

Japan Subculture Research Center

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

TEPCO executives under investigation for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury. UPDATE(業務上過失致死傷容疑)

The Japanese police continue their investigation into TEPCO, the managing entity of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury. TEPCO announced on April…

Japanese Government Outlaws (Yakuza) Organized Crime Groups; Bans Possession of Child Pornography With Passage Of Criminal Conspiracy Laws

April 1st 2011 (Tokyo, Japan) The National Police Agency announced today an immediate ban on designated organized crime groups and their activities in conjunction with the establishment of Japan’s version…

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…

The manga that predicted nuclear meltdown

There’s been a number of postponements and cancellations in the Japanese entertainment world since the March 11 Tohoku Earthquake. Many are out of a sense of respect, some are due…

Years of Disaster Drills Prevents Tsunami Deaths At Iwate Prefecture Junior High and Elementary Schools

Despite the fact that Unosumai Elementary School in Iwate-ken was engulfed by a tsunami (津波・tidal-wave), every one of the 350 students who were in the building at the time managed…

Yakuza 4: Fact or Fiction? My review and discussion with IGN

The popular 龍が如く (Yakuza) video game series by Sega was released this March (2011). My kohai (後輩) and friend from my days at Sophia, Peer Schneider at IGN asked me…

Get ready to roll….and stop hoarding toilet paper, gas, etc. Let's all share!

Graphic designer Takamasa Matsumoto created a very colorful poster to discourage Tokyoites and people across Japan from hoarding toilet paper, gas, rice and the other essentials of daily life, urging…

Japan's Darker Days: The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Rumors ruined lives and they're starting again.

The people of Japan have impressed the world with their generally orderly and peaceful response to the earthquake, the tidal waves, and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. While there…

Portraits of devastation–uprooted lives in Miyagi

After the earthquake, documentary photographer Max Hodges felt that it was important to document the event to raise awareness of the devastation and needs of thousands of displaced people. He headed…

Ryu ga Gotoku for Twitter

Release of the much-awaited next instalment in the Yakuza series, Yakuza: Of the End (龍が如く Of the End) may have been postponed because of the Tohoku earthquake, but impatient fans…