• Wed. Dec 18th, 2024

Japan Subculture Research Center

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

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  • Election Update: Japan’s Ruling Party Looks Likely to Lose Majority and finds out karma is a bitch.

Election Update: Japan’s Ruling Party Looks Likely to Lose Majority and finds out karma is a bitch.

As the ballots trickle in from Japan’s general election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) —which is infamously neither liberal nor democratic–is having the kind of night you wouldn’t wish…

The Real-Life Kamurochō: A Yakuza History Lesson with Tokyo Noir’s Jake Adelstein

The Real-Life Kamurochō: A Yakuza History Lesson with Tokyo Vice’s Jake Adelstein We explore Tokyo’s Kabukicho, the inspiration behind the central setting of the series formerly known as Yakuza. (originally…

The Race To Run Tokyo: Who’s going to be the next governor of the megapolis?

Will The Empress Continue To Reign? Probably.

Boy Idols And Dostoevsky Come Together in Bad Lands

Neri has a room in one of the labyrinthine apartments in the notorious Nishinari district of Osaka. This is where homeless and day laborers co-exist in precarious harmony and where…

Upcoming “Tree Hugging” Event In Tokyo Will Protest Controversial (and Wildly Unpopular) Meiji Jingu Redevelopment

On April 9, 2023, protestors convened outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to oppose the planned redevelopment of the culturally and historically significant Jingu Gaien area in central Tokyo. It…

UN International Symposium on the North Korean Abduction Issue: For Families, Far From Resolved

This month, the governments of Japan, Australia, South Korea, the United States, and the EU are jointly holding a symposium hosted by the United Nations (UN) on the North Korean…

A different kind of Tokyo film festival

A 2-day international film festival is taking place this weekend in Tokyo, featuring short films from Japan, Norway, Kyrgyzstan, and more. Damah International Film Festival moved to Tokyo in 2019…

Tokyo Private Eye (東京探偵) the sequel to Tokyo Vice was published on March 28th 2023, with Marchialy (France). English version next year!

Clients say they want to know, but they don't They want you to tell them what they want to hear But that's not the job My job is to deliver…

Recent threats against FOreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) and the history of media intimidation

by Robert Whiting (reprinted with permission) TOKYO — Over a recent early weekend, there were a series of threatening calls made in English and Japanese to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club…

outstanding tokyo English Standup comedy This Friday!

ince then, the show has grown to offer an inclusive venue to comedians of all kinds, but especially to those who know what it's like to be treated as "the…