Underground Economy

In a not-so-surprising twist that has Japan’s ruling party licking its wounds, the 2024 lower house election results show the ruling coalition crumbling to pieces. After decades of near-uninterrupted dominance…

UPDATE: The Nigerian Government dropped the charges against Tigran circa October 23rd and he is now home.

The yakuza, Japan’s infamous organised crime syndicates, have gone into a death spiral in recent years and Jake Adelstein says it is partly due to an incident at a sumo…

It's been 46 years since Takumi Yokota last saw his sister Megumi. Their family was just like any other, until Megumi became one of the many Japanese hostages held captive…

The Japanese underworld thrives beneath the surface, weaving a subterranean society that infiltrates every corner of Japanese life. The Yakuza, Japan’s infamous mafia, proudly upholds age-old structures and rituals tracing…

People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be hidden by…

For a decade, Steven Schultz was the world’s window into the most extreme and intriguing corners of Tokyo. Until one day, suddenly, he wasn’t.

As you read this, you may be asking yourself why I am so fascinated by these cars with three cylinders and a two-cycle engine. Because the earth itself may be…

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…

Life seems to be going incredibly well for them until Daisuke is killed in an accident. At the one-year memorial, his estranged older brother turns up from Gunma prefecture, clear…