Tag - yakuza

 
 

YAKUZA

JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Oct 5, 2013
Has business blackballed the yakuza? Don't bank on it
The Financial Services Agency (FSA) publicly spanked Mizuho Bank last month by slapping it with a "business improvement order" for letting Japan's organized crime groups use its facilities. At least $2 million in illegal transactions were cited.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2013
Mizuho admits four execs knew of yakuza loans
Mizuho Bank has admitted that at least four of its executives, including two former deputy presidents, knew that it was lending money to underworld and other "antisocial" groups and that it neither stopped nor sought to hold management responsible.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013
'The Wolverine' draws from other Hollywood hits set in Japan
Director James Mangold has claimed Japanese film influences on his Marvel comic adaptation "The Wolverine," including Akira Kurosawa's 1957 film "Kumonosu-jo (The Throne of Blood)." But the film, in which Hugh Jackman's immortal Wolverine character comes to Japan, falls in love with a local beauty and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 22, 2013
Think before you ink if you work with kids
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.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jul 22, 2013
Bizarre merchandising, tabletop Nintendo and new releases for Wii U
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.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 14, 2013
New thugs on block sidestep the usual suspects
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JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
May 5, 2013
Yakuza links put nation at added nuclear risk
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 may have been able to explode a ready-made nuclear dirty...
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 9, 2013
Hashimoto to sue Asahi for story on family past
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.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Apr 7, 2013
What's with the police purge on dance clubs?
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 a cup after being rounded up in a raid. Yes, indeed, a War on Dance...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Mar 3, 2013
Say goodbye to the Buddha of the yakuza
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 to the hospital. I'll walk to the car myself." Those...
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 29, 2013
12-year term urged in Somalis' piracy trial
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.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 22, 2012
Can showbiz really sever yakuza ties?
Last August, comedian and TV emcee Shinsuke Shimada retired from show business following allegations that he'd been palling around with an underworld figure. His withdrawal came on the eve of the implementation of a well-publicized police crackdown on organizations that work with antisocial elements,...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2009
Classic tales of newsprint noir
While a senior at Tokyo's Sophia University, 23-year-old Missouri native Jake Adelstein was heading home from a Shinjuku cinema when, on a whim, he dropped into a game arcade and popped u00a5100 into the slot of a fortunetelling robot for some mystical career advice.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’