About 1 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 1, 2001, a fire of undetermined origin swept through the No. 56 Myojo Building in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district, resulting in the deaths of 44 people on the upper two floors. While investigators say they have ruled out arson, stories in the tabloid press continue to advance the notion that the blaze was set by an unidentified Chinese gangster.

This suspicion may be unfounded, but there's no question that soaring crimes by Chinese -- and Iranians, Colombians and other sojourners in Tokyo's largest entertainment district -- have created a headache for the authorities.

For the public, though, it's not even necessary to venture into Kabukicho to obtain vicarious thrills: the area figures prominently in numerous vernacular books, including Arimasa Osawa's hardboiled fiction series featuring a world-weary police detective named Samejima, and Hirokatsu Azuma's 1994 nonfiction work, "Shinjuku: Where the Mafia Lives." Then there's "Fuyajo (Nightless Town)," director Shusei Hase's bloody hit film that evidently drew inspiration from the homicidal theatrics of the Corleone family.