Japan Subculture Research Center

He also contributes to the JSRC[0], a blog about crime in Japan. It seems to me like this photographer had very limited exposure to the activities of the yakuza. They are most definitely violent. Adelstein's family was at risk as well because of his reporting on the yakuza, so anything about "honor" is definitely not true. People need to stop romanticizing criminals. 0: http://www.japansubculture.com/

Another good resource is the Japan Subculture Research Center by Jake Adelstein (American journalist who spent 12 years in Japan on the crime beat for the Yomiuri Shinbun). Sample post: the yakuza's role in relief efforts -- http://www.japansubculture.com/2011/03/the-worst-of-times-can-bring-ou… PS. Off-topic, but calling Stross a "pop-sci-fi author" is an injustice! Kevin Anderson and Orson Scott Card are pop-sci-fi authors. Stross writes hard science fiction.

The article cites Jake Adelstein and his book "Tokyo Vice", which is a good review of the Yakuza from a western perspective. He also contributes regularly at http://www.japansubculture.com/, which also features a lot of insight.

Action in and of itself is not a virtue, especially when many of his iniatives take square aim at dismantling democratic freedoms. This is akin to the fetishization of "speed" by Italian futurists that paved the way for fascism's rise in Italy. And his coalition has long-standing ties to the yakuza and the CIA, so I guess it is "powerful" to the extent that it's aligned itself with malevolent actors whom his opponents would rather not consort with out of baseline morality. Again, I see nothing worthy of respect here or with the other corrupt regimes backed up with similar means. Everyone involved with Japan's imperialist past may be dead, but some of its victims are not - for example surviving comfort women in Korea. Abe has on many occasions pandered to the extreme right by denying that anything was perpetrated against these people. I can't imagine being a victim of state-sponsored rape and having your experience further denied everytime a prime minister needs to curry favor. But I guess if "stuff needs to get done," that's just the cost of doing business. http://www.japansubculture.com/how-the-cia-helped-put-the-yakuza-and-t…

> Of course, it's also baffling that they built the airport so far away in the first place, but that's another story. The Kanto plain suffers from a dearth of available flat land, even more so enough available flat land to build a major international airport (this being worsened by Japan's weak eminent domain and history of resistance to relocation, half a century later there are still families living on the site and farming in the middle of the runways: http://www.japansubculture.com/the-phantoms-of-narita-airport-the-forg…

Also of interest is this: The Ghosts of Sony http://www.japansubculture.com/the-ghosts-of-sony/ And if you want to see some past glory: This Was Sony http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/this-was-sony/

Here is more on this story: "According to the Japanese media and other sources, a group of ten men wearing ski-masks burst into the Roppongi Club Flower today at approximately 3:40 am and assaulted four men and women sitting together in the VIP room, clubbing one to death and injuring the others. The men used a backdoor entrance which led directly to the VIP room." http://www.japansubculture.com/10-men-beat-one-guy-to-death-in-front-o…

I find that I, as a worker, overlap quadrant numbers 2 and 1. This is from the post entitled "Shafuu 101–Choosing a company for the new generation". "Learning Japanese business culture is always a hot topic for those looking to deal on this side of the Pacific, but little do many know that Japanese young adults are almost just as confused by the the traditions and hype surrounding the complex world of Japanese shafuu."[1] [1] http://www.japansubculture.com/2010/05/shafuu-101-choosing-a-company-f…

According to the source material, this attack was not believed to be from an established Yakuza gang, but from a gang that has filled the void of gang violence, apparently: The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Investigation Division One 警視庁捜査一課 (Homicide and Violent Crimes) is investigating the case as a homicide. On December 14th, 2011, a group of twenty men burst into a Roppongi Cabaret club and assaulted four members affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi Kokusui-kai (山口組国粋会), with beer bottles and blunt weapons, injuring one of them severely. The police suspect there may be a possible link to the two cases. The assault in December was believed to have been carried out by members of the Kanto Rengo (関東連合) a loosely networked gang different from the traditional yakuza, and not a designated organized crime group. Kanto Rengo is known for extremely violent assaults and because they are not a designated organized crime group, they are subject to less restrictions than the Yamaguchi-gumi and other crime groups. http://www.japansubculture.com/10-men-beat-one-guy-to-death-in-front-o…