• Sat. Apr 26th, 2025

Japan Subculture Research Center

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

Film: Cold Fish (冷たい熱帯魚)

A film based on the Saitama Dog Lovers serial killings

MAFF staff, teacher, doctor show that pervs come from all professions

One usually inane but occasionally fun thing about the Japanese media is that they almost always list the professions of those who appear in news articles. This really made the…

9 Day Warning: On March 2nd, NISA disciplined TEPCO on lax equipment checks before meltdown

On March 2nd, approximately nine days before the TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Reactor One melted down, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) formally disciplined…

Moe Yamaguchi's high-rolling husband arrested for running illegal hostess club

Actress and talento Moe Yamaguchi was “really stunned” when she learned her husband, web entrepreneur Shigeo Ozeki, has been illegally running a posh hostess club without a license. Ozeki and…

Japanese study finds correlation between exhaust fumes and asthma

According to an NHK online article published on May 25th, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment announced last week its findings that children who were exposed to higher amounts of…

Hidden love hotels come out of the closet thanks to law revisions; It's a love fest in post-quake Japan

It seems business is booming for the love hotel industry. The number of registered businesses has jumped by a whopping 2,700 hotels since the beginning of the year, a hefty…

Fuzoku lite: "Aquarium of girls" offers thrills for herbivore men

Girls in uniform, some as young as 15, sit sprawled out on the floor of a small room, chatting or reading books. Skirts are rolled high, some have their legs…

Evacuees forced to pay rent at Miyagi yakuza home

Straight out of a suspense film: A yakuza couple have been arrested for abuse after they coerced a pair of tsunami evacuees to stay at their home, demanded rent and…

Yakuza looking to get a piece of the reconstruction pie

Sankei News is  reporting that suspect groups from west Japan have rolled into the Tohoku area, eyeing a piece of the estimated 15 trillion yen that will be spent on…

Tokyo Prosecutor Special Investigation Unit Takes Lead on TEPCO case, as new evidence contradicts TEPCO claims.

As reported on April 4th here, Japanese law-enforcement continues their investigation into TEPCO, the managing entity of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury,…