Japan Subculture Research Center

At end of 2010, the number of yakuza members in Japan, including full-members and associate members was an estimated 78,600 members, 2300 less than the year before, the lowest number…

As electricity conservation remains a grudgingly important fact of life in post-disaster Japan, many urbanites dread what this eco-friendly movement will inevitably lead to: a summer with no air conditioning. With Tokyo’s concrete…

Over the past few weeks, foreign models working in Japan have been gracing a different runway– the one that leads directly out of the country. According to a recent article…

When the earthquake struck Japan on March 11th and knocked out TEPCO’s Fukushima nuclear reactor, setting off a chain reaction of disasters–TEPCO’s chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata was nowhere to be found.…

2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake aka #Quakebook, which is a compilation of art, stories, and essays to raise money for Japan earthquake survivors, went on sale today. All…

UPDATE: Thanks to contributions from readers, and some hours of research, I found the answer to the question originally posed here (see original article below). The current governor of Fukushima…

by Orlando Camargo Those of us living far away from our parents dread the thought. A call in the middle of the night asking you to book a flight –…

Today April 9th, around 6am, the head of Japan’s largest organized crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi (山口組), Shinobu Tsukasa-kumicho (司忍組長), will leave Fuchu Prison after serving his time for violations of…

For those of you who don’t follow the Ryu ga Gotoku: Of the End Twitter feed through their nifty application we previously reviewed, it was announced today that the game’s…

Report wacky news about Japan on TV based on spurious information Develop your investigative skills but never get to use them because you're overworked and have no budget for research