• Thu. Jan 9th, 2025

Japan Subculture Research Center

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

Politicians and yakuza, not so different

News of Ichiro Ozawa’s questioning by prosecutors in relation to the Rikuzan-kai campaign fund scandal has flooded the dailies and the news for much of the past few days as…

Failed pick-up line: "I'm a yakuza boss"

Sankei News reported that a 34-year-old man was charged with rape after a rather dodgy incident where he told a woman that he was a yakuza member and forced her…

From historic tales to the morning news: Manga for everyone

There’s likely very few students who haven’t at least paged through one of the manga versions of the classics, like Essays in Idleness or the great Genji Monogatari, to prepare…

Homes and hotels during the recession

The talented Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times published an article recently focusing on a group of Japanese people who have been forced out of their homes and into…

Less on livers, more on livelihoods

The Japan Times published in last Sunday’s paper a mammoth of an interview with Jake by Mark Schreiber, stretching almost two entire pages across the Time Out section. While the…

Better late than never: Yakuza play Santa for kids in Kobe

Not the actual Yamaguchi-gumi event. (Taken by nori_n, who is not affiliated with JSRC) As posted on Japan Probe earlier this week, the Yamaguchi-gumi decided to add a little extra…

A Maudlin Merry X-mas From Jake, Sarah and Everyone At Japan Subculture Research Center

I wish I could be a little more cheerful around this time of year. I can remember a time when the Christmas season didn’t depress me much but it seems…

Local areas to beef up anti-organized crime legislature

There was news this week of four prefectures working on additional legislative measures to stop organized crime organizations from working their way into the operations and offices of legitimate businesses.…

Fuzoku Friday: The Alibi

On an Internet message board, a concerned mother writes: Hello. My child has been attending kindergarten from March, and since then I’ve been working as a delivery health girl. I…

Police and government fighting back against junior idols?

An article posted a few weeks ago but recently brought to my attention through Japan Probe: Tokyo Metro Police create dedicated anti-child porn unit A special Tokyo police unit to…