Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Aug 31, 2013
Japan's nuclear comedy just goes on and on
by Jake Adelstein
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. — Ecclesiastes 1:9 These words are said to have been penned by King Solomon around 3,000 years ago. Perhaps they were an augury ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Aug 3, 2013
Is new yakuza journal good news for Japan?
by Jake Adelstein
If you’re a well-connected Japanese gangster, you now have your own newspaper to keep you abreast of underworld life. Another perk of the job. Japan’s yakuza are a different lot. They have office buildings, business cards, fanzines, tight control over the entertainment industry — ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Jul 6, 2013
Equal-opportunity infidelity comes to Japan
by Jake Adelstein
As a Japanese saying puts it: Suezen kuwanu wa otoko no haji (It is shame for a man not to eat a feast placed before him). In other words, any real Japanese man would never turn down a sexual offer from an attractive female ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Jun 2, 2013
Sex gaffes and the voluble Osaka shyster
by Jake Adelstein
If the Japan Restoration Party — headed by Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka, and former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara — needs a new political slogan, the proverb Kuchi ga wazawai no moto (The mouth is the source of great trouble) would do nicely.
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN May 5, 2013
Yakuza links put nation at added nuclear risk
by Jake Adelstein
On April 15, two alleged terrorists in Boston killed three people, injured more than 170 others and terrified a nation — for about $100 it cost them to modify pressure cookers into bombs. We should be glad they didn’t come to Japan, where they ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Apr 7, 2013
What's with the police purge on dance clubs?
by Jake Adelstein
If you’re ever minded to dance the night away to trance music, or even old-fashioned rock, you may have a tough time finding a venue in Japan these days. In fact, you may end up waltzing away hours inside a police station, peeing into ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Mar 3, 2013
Say goodbye to the Buddha of the yakuza
by Jake Adelstein
Takahiko Inoue, yakuza boss and Buddhist priest, died Feb. 10 at age 65. The police determined that he fell from the seventh story of the building where his office was located. When the ambulance arrived, Inoue told the crew: “I’m fine. Just take me ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Feb 3, 2013
Japan's suicide statistics don't tell the real story
by Jake Adelstein
According to the National Police Agency (NPA), Japan’s annual total of suicides dipped below 30,000 people for the first time in 15 years in 2012 — to 27,766. While the fall is great news, part of me wonders: Has there really been a drop ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Jan 6, 2013
Even gangsters live in fear of Japan's gun laws
by Jake Adelstein
It’s almost impossible to get to a gun in Japan, and selling one or owning one is a serious crime. Fire the gun? Possibly life imprisonment. Gun-control laws are taken so seriously that police will pursue a violator all the way to the grave ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Dec 2, 2012
Japan's 'life-less' anti-stalking laws are costing lives to be lost
by Jake Adelstein
“To build a Buddha image but not to put in the soul (仏作って魂入れず/ Hotoke tsukutte tamashii irezu)” is a well-known saying stemming from a folk belief that statues of Buddhist deities are meant to have a spiritual presence. In other words, it’s a metaphor ...
Media | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN Nov 4, 2012
Angry mobster looms large over politicians
by Jake Adelstein
In Japan these days, the political world seems to be mirroring “Beat” Takeshi Kitano’s latest yakuza film, “Outrage Beyond,” which depicts Japan’s ruling party as being well and truly in bed with the mob. If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, that ...