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Update: Tigran Gambaryan, American Hero and Good Guy is Free!
UPDATE: The Nigerian Government dropped the charges against Tigran circa October 23rd and he is now home.
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Telepathy (以心伝心) and Other Coincidences (奇遇)
I was writing to a former intern at Japan Subculture Research Center, Fresca, and asked her to send me her thesis to read—just as she mailed me. I think I was two seconds ahead of her. It was a remarkable coincidence or maybe telepathy. Which got me interested in the many words for the complementary…
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The Race To Run Tokyo: Who’s going to be the next governor of the megapolis?
Will The Empress Continue To Reign? Probably.
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How a sumo tournament led to the downfall of the yakuza
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 tournament in 2009.
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Bring Them Home: Ongoing Battle for Japanese Hostages in North Korea
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 by North Korea.
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Tokyo Vice Vice-O-Pedia: Why Do Yakuza Chop Off Their Fingers or The Art of ENKOZUME (エンコ詰め)
Ever spotted something odd about someone’s hands nearby? Everything seems ordinary until you notice it: one finger joint missing, maybe a whole finger, maybe several. lt leaves a noticeable gap. One reason gifting the yakuza in your life a pair of gloves is a terrible idea. It’s a constant reminder, always in plain sight, of…
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Cybercrime Fighting Heroes Held Hostage In Nigeria; Free Tigran and Nadeem
Tigran Gambaryan’s career is anchored by one constant: an unwavering dedication to justice He put child pornographers and crypto-criminals out of business. Now he’s being held hostage in Nigeria, a scapegoat in the country’s currency collapse. He and Nadeem must be set free
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In Ichigatsuno Koeni Yorokobiwo Kizame (International title: Voice), a young woman named Reiko (Atsuko Maeda) professes to her boyfriend-for-hire that she had been sexually abused as a child. Reiko had been six years old when it happened and she still finds it hard to talk about the incident. “Because of what happened to me…I thought I could never…
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Emperor Nabetsune Has Passed Away: The Yomiuri Shogun is gone
by Robert Whiting I read with sadness of the passing of Tsuneo Watnabe, the long time shogun of the Yomiuri group, which publishes the Yomiuri Shinbun–(editor note: and also owns the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, Yomiuriland–an amusement park and more) . He died recently at the age of 98 after a bout with pneumonia. He…
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Is there space on shelves for foreign authors? Book industry professionals give tentative encouragement
Japan is the second largest market for publishing books in the world — a fact that probably comes as no surprise to people living in Japan who only need to throw a stone to hit a bookshop. Foreign authors looking to publish in Japan may look at this and think they have a great chance…
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Japanese Spies, Hollywood Stars and Pearl Harbor
By Ronald Drabkin It’s been a long and unexpected journey—from the moment I discovered my father had been a spy, to seeing my nonfiction book, Rutland, Omae wa Dare Da, prominently displayed in the history section of Kinokuniya and other major Japanese bookstores. (The English version, published by HarperCollins, is called Beverly Hills Spy.) The…