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.
National Sep 30, 2013
Mizuho to punish yakuza loan officials
Mizuho Bank will punish officials swept up in a scandal involving loans to anti-social groups including yakuza crime syndicates, President Yasuhiro Sato said Monday. “We need to take very stern action. We will discuss what the punishment would be appropriate retroactively,” Sato told reporters. ...
National Sep 27, 2013
Loans to yakuza must stop, FSA warns Mizuho<
The Financial Services Agency orders Mizuho Bank to stop lending to yakuza and criticizes it for making little progress since the problem was revealed in 2011.
How-tos | LIFELINES Jul 22, 2013
Think before you ink if you work with kids
by Louise George Kittaka
I am very interested in getting an irezumi (traditional tattoo) in Japan. Are there any artists that will tattoo a foreigner? If so, who and where? My interviewer for the teaching position tried to warn me that tattoos are a 'no-no.
Digital | On: Games Jul 22, 2013
Bizarre merchandising, tabletop Nintendo and new releases for Wii U
by Brian Ashcraft
Gangsters. Hostesses. And lots and lots of street fighting. No, this isn't a night in Shinjuku's Kabukicho red-light district. It's an evening with "Yakuza," Sega's crime opus on the Wii U.
Crime & Legal Jul 17, 2013
Restaurateur sues top mob don over protection payoffs
A former Nagoya restaurant operator sues the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest underworld group, seeking reimbursement for protection money she said she was forced to pay to an affiliate gang.
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 ...
Politics & Diplomacy Apr 9, 2013
Hashimoto to sue Asahi for story on family past
by Eric Johnston
Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) chief Toru Hashimoto plans to sue the weekly Shukan Asahi and daily Asahi Shimbun, claiming they violated his human rights when the magazine ran an article six months ago touching on his family background. ...
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 ...
Crime & Legal Mar 14, 2013
Prosecutor's aide caught leaking info
A young assistant at a branch of the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office admits to leaking information about a sex crime probe to her yakuza-linked boyfriend.
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 ...
Social Issues Mar 1, 2013
Prosthetics maker helps former yakuza go straight
A man in his 30s, a former yakuza, dropped by to see Yukako Fukushima, 41, a prosthetics maker, to tell her some good news. “I got a job thanks to you,” said the man, who was wearing a pinkie Fukushima had made for him. ...
Crime & Legal Jan 29, 2013
12-year term urged in Somalis' piracy trial
by Masami Ito
Prosecutors on Monday demanded 12-year prison terms for two Somalis being tried on charges of boarding and attempting to hijack a Bahama-registered oil tanker operated by a Japanese company in the Indian Ocean in 2011. This is the first case being prosecuted under the ...