Notes On The Yakuza Lobby: How The Underworld Asserts Itself In The Political Sphere
Because of Japan's personal privacy protection laws, created by the LDP to discourage magazine reporters for writing about their scandals and organized crime ties, I'm limited in what I can…
Graduations and Goodbyes.
Over the three years that I knew her, not once did I hear her complain about her own issues. Instead, she helped others with compassion and love. The numerous posts…
Kim Jong-Il’s Former Sushi Chef Reveals Former Supreme Leader’s Favorite Fish
Kim Jong-Il's Former Sushi Chef Reveals Former Supreme Leader's Favorite Fish
Coffee & Cigarettes Together At Last : Speak Lark, Drink up
Any hard-boiled journalist or cop will tell you that coffee and cigarettes go well together. So I guess it was a stroke of marketing genius for Philip Morris to team…
Police Officer Punished For Raising A False Alarm With The Police
(November 23rd, Japan) The Shizuoka Police Department announced yesterday that they had punished a low-ranking police officer (巡査) for making a fake 110 call, in which he reported an imaginary…
Japan’s Media, Mega-Ad Agencies, & Nuclear Industry: A Lethal Combination?
It is generally considered that the media is the Fourth Estate. Their primary function is to monitor and observe the activities of the other great powers in society, however some…
The Ghosts of Sony
In contrast to the Nakayama store, which is almost a Sony graveyard, at the Sony Building, located in Ginza--once the most expensive and luxurious area in Tokyo-- the Sony Show…
The Town of Living Buddha Statues (仏像のまち) High School, Buddhist Iconography, Magic &Teen Love
It's the story of Sorato, a high school student who's deceased father was a sculptor of Buddhist images (仏師/busshi）and seems to have passed his unusual talent on to poor Sorato-kun.…
Everything I Ever Needed To Know In Life I Learned From the Yakuza or The Cops That Kick Their Ass in 7 Lessons
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You can tell more about a man by his enemies than you can by his friends. A man with no enemies is…
Little Mermaids & Little Fingers: An illustrated yakuza tale
The next time I ran into Shira she told me I shouldn't expect to see Shin again. He probably wasn't coming back. "Not coming back?" I asked puzzled. "You don't…