Japan Subculture Research Center

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

In 2008 revisions were made to the Organized Crime Countermeasures Law (暴力団対策法) which made it possible to hold organized crime bosses responsible for the actions of their underlings in civil…

These days the price of a standard civilian hit-job can run as high as $2 million. That’s not the price to get the job done―that’s the price if one of…

I wanted to share with the students the things in life I wish I'd learned when I was younger. 継続は力 (Keizoku wa Chikara). Persistence is power. Sometimes, the only difference…

As Japan gets ready to restart nuclear reactors across the country, perhaps it’s time to take a look back at past nuclear mishaps to see if anything has been learned.…

This week Kazuo aka Kazuya Uchibori, the de facto head of the Inagawa-kai, Japan’s 3rd largest organized crime group, turned himself into the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. He was wanted on…