TOKYO (TR) – On one of Tokyo’s crisper mornings, ride the elevator up to the lounge on the 41st floor of the Shinjuku Park Tower building in Shinjuku and gaze in the direction of Mt. Fuji. The view will be of a nearly uninterrupted blanket of concrete and infrastructural morass that is likely unmatched anywhere in the world for its enormity and unsightliness. Blending to fill much of this scene are massive apartment buildings and smaller, block-like “mansions,” their bland concrete facades and uninspired designs resembling hospitals or penitentiaries.

Some architects, however, are in the process of adding small bits of color to this picture, both literally and figuratively. Small slivers of land that in days past may have been used for an industrial or commercial purpose are now the location of unique housing structures — a trend dubbed kyosho jutaku (micro living).

Watch the video (above) for a CBS news Sunday Morning program (May 23) that includes an interview with a Tokyo Reporter writer or read more about this topic here.

Enter reporter Jake Adelstein, a 40-year-old Jewish-American and the author of the recently released memoir “Tokyo Vice,” an account of his 12-year stint of working the crime beat for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper.

Following the successful completion of the paper’s entry exam in 1993, Adelstein began covering Japan’s seamier side. Written in a fast-paced, acerbic and sometimes humorous style, “Tokyo Vice” recounts his investigations into serial rape, child pornography, murder and his greatest scoop: providing details on how four gangsters were able to travel to the U.S. between 2000 and 2004 to receive liver transplants. “Either erase the story, or we’ll erase you,” was the subsequent threat from the particulars involved. “And maybe your family.” Substantial repercussions linger to this day.

Indeed, many of the characters filling out the book’s 352 pages are, as expected, tattooed and pinkie-less hoods, but more crucially readers will be given an insight into understanding the way the Japanese police operate, what the press is willing to report upon and how a foreigner is able to blend into this bizarre and chaotic world.

The Tokyo Reporter sat down with Adelstein, who splits his time between Tokyo and the U.S., to discuss his compelling new book and the world of crime in Japan today.

Could you describe your beat when you were a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun? What types of stories did you cover?

I started by covering two local police stations in Saitama Prefecture: Urawa-Nishi and Omiya. After that I graduated to the police headquarters press club, where I covered the organized crime control divisions, theft, and public security.

I wrote up your typical sporadic murders, robberies and as well stories about busts of complicated organized crime enterprises. I did spend some time covering local politics and environmental issues. One of the pieces of journalism I was most proud of was uncovering how Saitama Prefecture systematically altered data from a study on dioxin contamination in mother’s milk to make it appear that there was no real significant pollution in the areas where waste disposal plants were in abundance. But most of the time at the Yomiuri, in one way or another, I was covering crime.

When I got put into the IT news section, I ended up writing about Internet fraud, hacking and yakuza providing venture capital for these new types of hi-tech firms. After I was transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, on a typical day, I might write an article about a robbery, a yakuza loan-sharking operation or maybe a drug bust. Of course, one of the things I liked about the job was that there was usually a good degree of variation in the types of crimes, scams and schemes that I got to cover.

There are articles saying that the challenges in getting “Tokyo Vice” published were numerous. Can you provide a summary?

The international branch of the Japanese publisher that had originally planned to publish it last year decided to pull out after doing a risk analysis. That was in September of 2008, when Tadamasa Goto was still very much in power. He is the yakuza Godfather who I reported as being one of four gang members to receive a visa to travel to the U.S. for a liver transplant at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center after he brokered a deal with the FBI by providing information on money laundering, yakuza member names and dates of birth. He was one of the most powerful and wealthy bosses in the Yamaguchi-gumi with over 950 people under his command within his own affiliated gang, the Goto-gumi. In 1992, when director Juzo Itami made a film (“Mimbo no Onna”) parodying the yakuza and urging citizens not to give in to extortion, Goto’s goons attacked the man in front of his home and slashed him up. Goto was never proven to have ordered the attack. Itami later committed “suicide,” but I have my doubts about that.

So the risk then to the publisher was that if they published my book their offices may be bombed, employees may be kidnapped and generally that violent retaliation was likely. So I can understand why they backed out. I don’t hold it against them. However, on October 14th, Goto was kicked out of the Yamaguchi-gumi, primarily because I had exposed his deal with the FBI, but that’s not the official reason. It’s still considered a taboo to discuss that in the yakuza fan magazines, of which there are quite a few released monthly. After I wrote up the nitty-gritty details of the yakuza liver transplants in a Japanese book, “日本タブー大全 2008 (Japan Taboo Encyclopedia),” I was kind of honored that one yakuza magazine actually touched upon it and accused me of being a pawn of the CIA, an actual CIA clandestine operative or part of the international Jewish conspiracy.

What then was the official reason for Goto getting kicked out of the Yamaguchi-gumi?

Goto had called unwanted attention to the organization by having celebrities attend his birthday party in September. This was written up by the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho, which named the celebrities, mostly famous enka singers, but did not have the guts to name Goto in the article. This was then picked up by NHK, which banned the singers from their programs. I was, frankly, a little disappointed with Shukan Shincho for not writing Goto’s name — especially since I still write for them now and then under a pen name. You might think that I passed on the information about Goto’s birthday party to them but that wouldn’t be true — I certainly didn’t directly tell them. I did play a part in making sure that they got that information. If I had written the story, I would have made sure they printed Goto’s name as well. It took some guts for Shukan Shincho to write it, and it was a nice pretext for the Yamaguchi-gumi top members to essentially fire him.

The Los Angeles Times followed up on the Goto story after you wrote it up for the Washingon Post, largely by wondering how a medical institution could give priority to such dubious individuals. How did this come about? Did the Japanese media touch it at all?

After being put under police protection in March of 2008, a cop I trusted told me that it was essentially “publish or perish.” He told me that the primary reason the Goto-gumi had a grudge against me was that I had information that would embarrass the leader and if they killed me they could easily suppress that information. However, if I wrote up everything I knew, well then there was a lot less incentive to whack me. So I did what he said to do. In many ways, it’s better to be a very public target because people pay attention when you die or vanish. It’s a better deterrent than being unknown and easily disposed of.

But the Japanese press didn’t want to touch the story. I wanted it printed somewhere, anywhere. I took everything I had — my notes, my tape recordings, contact numbers — and gave it to a few reporters and told them that they were welcome to write the story and that I didn’t need to be credited. No one wanted to do it. I thought a weekly magazine might, but the one I contacted kept stalling and then refused. Only this year did the editor working there tell me that the story got buried because the magazine’s boss feared violent retaliation by the Goto-gumi if they published it.

After realizing the story would never get published in Japan, I wrote it up for the Washington Post in May. Even after that article ran, I got calls from Japanese reporters who wanted to know essentially, “Is it safe to ignore your story or do we have more to worry about?” When I said that I didn’t know whether there would be more news, they all happily dropped the story.

I ended up working with the Times so that the article would get on their front page, which it did at the end of that same month. This made it so that the Japanese media couldn’t really ignore it. What they did was write stories that read, “According to the Times…” and then summarized that article and didn’t follow up on it at all. Probably this was the easiest way to write about it but not really write about it.

Could you explain how your reporting has resulted in ongoing repercussions with the Goto-gumi?

When the contents of my book were leaked out on the Internet in November, due to human error, I quickly realized that I might be in trouble. Even though the materials were written in English, apparently yakuza also are able to use Google Alerts.

The Goto-gumi has since been split into two groups, and Goto has been studying to be a Buddhist priest in Kanagawa Prefecture since April 8th of this year. Hopefully, he doesn’t hold a grudge. This summer I visited Goto’s priest and teacher, Tsukagoshi-san, who told me that he, Tsukagoshi, would take responsibility for the actions of his disciple. Tsukagoshi even said that he would kill himself by disembowelment if Goto was ever to do anything violent now that Goto had found the way. I said to him, “I think you mean well and I will cry at your funeral because I don’t think the man has changed.”

I still see cars belonging to his organization in my neighborhood now and then. They usually have the license number 5-10 or 510 which can be read as go to. I’m not sure what that’s about. Obviously he didn’t appreciate having it written up that he snitched on his comrades to the FBI in order to get an S non-immigrant visa for entry to the U.S.

You mentioned yakuza fan magazines. There are also three tabloids (Shukan Asahi Geino, Shukan Jitsuwa and Jitsuwa Taishu) that each week print a rather lengthy article about the Yamaguchi-gumi or its affiliates. Considering that all of these magazines are available at nearly every convenience and book store across Japan, to what do you attribute the indifference by the general public to what amounts free advertising by gangster groups?

The general public still actually kind of likes and/or admires the yakuza. And thus those magazines sell. It’s fantasy fodder for a lot of Japanese men who would like to imagine a life outside the bounds of being a white-collar worker and logging in hours of unpaid overtime.

In quite a few articles you have described the modern incarnation of the gangster organization as increasingly something like “Goldman Sachs with guns” — implying that they have ties if not outright employment inside respectable financial institutions. Why the shift from the streets to the office now? What has changed since the enactment of the Anti-Criminal Organization Law of 1993?

Actually, you can trace the beginnings of the keizai yakuza (economic mafia) back to the laws in 1993 which made it difficult for yakuza to display their organization symbols and names. Many set up front companies to circumvent these laws and then began using the companies for criminal activities. The relaxation of Japan’s financial regulations under Prime Minister Koizumi, was also a huge boon to yakuza groups, who saw a chance to turn the stock market into a giant gambling casino — which is what they did. Basically, Koizumi’s financial deregulation — partially based on the advice of some businessmen with underworld connections — had the effect of removing the security cameras, background checks on the employees, and the plain-clothes detectives from the “casino” and left the doors open for the yakuza.

Revisions to that same law over the past year or so have resulted in interesting reports in the press — everything from gangsters taking tests on proper protocol to adopting codes of conduct. Are you able to describe the training gangsters undergo? Do you have any first-hand observations?

I have a copy of the notes of one organized crime group’s study meetings. The person lecturing them is a former prosecutor. Ex-prosecutors often end up in the big pockets of the yakuza. One interesting thing in the documents was that since the new laws forbid rewarding a felon for going to jail on behalf of the organization it is suggested that the yakuza set up fake companies and then put the ex-convict on salary and give him a bonus as part of a legitimate-appearing salary. The new revisions will probably further encourage yakuza to set up front companies and businesses.

Since the end of World War II, construction companies have been known to be connected to criminal organizations. In “Tokyo Vice” you linked entertainment agencies to such organizations. Why is the Japanese media reluctant to report on these kinds of connections?

Because reporting on that would cost them advertising dollars and access to Japanese tarento. In 2007, secret files on organized crime and the Yamaguchi-gumi were leaked onto the Internet by a Tokyo Metropolitan Police detective who had been using the file-sharing software Winny to download porn. Amongst those documents was a list of Goto-gumi front companies and on that list was the name of Japan’s biggest talent agency and their boss. (Ed.: Click thumbnail of screen shot at left.) No one reported this. They did report that Goto had a famous actress-mistress who was also listed. Apparently, corporate privacy trumps individual privacy. Or it could just be that they were too scared to write about it. I’d say they were just too scared.

For foreign readers not familiar with the Japanese press and police, what kind of insight do you think “Tokyo Vice” can provide?

The book is not about Japanese society in general; it’s about the dark side of Japan. I think people will get a better understanding of criminal investigation procedure in Japan and how the press works there. I also think that in some ways, the book tells the reader about traditional values in Japan and what kind of behavior is respected in this country.

Can you describe what security measures you are taking to protect yourself now? Are the Goto-gumi and their affiliates your only concern?

I contact the police when I come to Japan and when I leave. I hired an ex-yakuza boss as a bodyguard. He follows me around like a shadow when I’m in Japan. I don’t take trains because yakuza know that pushing people in front of one from the platform is a crime often hard to prove — especially in a crowded station. I watch my back on rainy days. I think my family is relatively safe. I won’t explain how I have achieved it, but I think there is an understanding among all parties that family members on both sides are off limits.

Unfortunately, the old Goto-gumi is not my only concern. In a Japanese book that was printed last year, I named Yoshiro Ogino, the current head of the Matsuba-kai, with a membership of 2,400, as one of the four yakuza who got liver transplants at UCLA. Some people took that to mean that I was also implying that Ogino made a deal with the FBI — which he did not do, in fact. He got into the U.S. by being “adopted” into another family and coming in under their name.

The police officer indicated that it was a matter of “publish or perish” but he didn’t say anything about “promote.” You must realize that people view you as a publicity hound. What is your reaction?

They are correct. I have become a publicity hound. But I didn’t start that way. As I said, I gave everything I had to several newspapers I knew so they could write the story about Goto.

I feel now that it’s in my best interests to be a second-rate Juzo Itami, the director I mentioned earlier; it’s also in the best interests of the people who stuck their necks out for me. The yakuza don’t want a martyr, a symbol or an excuse for the U.S. government to pressure Japan into doing something about their yakuza problem. The investigative journalist Atsushi Mizoguchi, who is much more versed in the underworld than me, took the same approach after his son was attacked and that’s let him operate with some degree of impunity. Though I believe he’s very cautious even now.

I like Japan, and I’m proud of the work I’ve done as a journalist. I may not be a great person, but I think I can do some good things. It feels like my second home. Publicity is my bullet-proof vest and I’d rather have it than not have it. I’m not anxious to be one of the vanished or the departed. I just hope that I’m calculating all of this correctly and that I’m playing yakuza politics the right way instead of the wrong way. There is a time to work in the shadows and there is a time to work in plain sight.

I think it’ll be difficult to continue working as a journalist in Japan but not impossible, and I hope that as long as I continue reporting on organized crime with some degree of fairness, acknowledging that not all yakuza are bad people and that they may serve some kind of useful function in Japan, though probably not substantially, that my existence will be tolerated.

What project will you be working on next?

I’m working a book about a former crime boss, a traditional yakuza, who has a very interesting story to tell, and calling it “The Last Yakuza.” I also plan to do a “McMafia” style book about the economic yakuza to be called “The Nine-Fingered Economy — Yakuza in Japan’s Business Sector and the World.” And I’m trying to turn my blog, Japan Subculture Research Center, into both a fun site on Japan’s darker subculture and a valuable reference source for those who are interested in Japan’s underground economy.

Note: “Tokyo Vice” (Pantheon) was released on October 13. Update: Metropolis magazine includes an excerpt from “Tokyo Vice” in this week’s issue (October 29).

From that auspicious beginning, Maeda’s work blossomed over next two decades, one tentacle at a time. Subsequent work included the six-volume “Trap of Blood” and the very successful tentacle-rape opus “La Blue Girl.” Though a recent traffic accident has left him with limited drawing abilities, next year – fresh on the heels of the worldwide success of his recent “La Blue Girl” animation series – he plans on releasing a new anime feature and contributing to the women’s hentai manga magazine Amour. In preparation for the latter, he is being forced to change gears; much to his chagrin, he is poring over scripts for such TV shows as Ally McBeal to “understand women’s feelings.” This is in the hopes of creating a hentai piece that will satisfy the demands of females.

Interview

Tokyo Reporter: When we spoke before, you said that your influences were not Japanese comics like Mighty Atom. Instead, you read Mighty Mouse, Spiderman, and Batman when you were young. Can you talk about your influences?

Toshio Maeda: Also Disney, typical style, such as “Fantasia,” which is a little bit too sophisticated – it has class. So when I was young, I couldn’t understand the quality. Of course, now I do. To a kid, it is a little bit too difficult to understand how great it was.

I was influenced and fascinated by the American style. Bernie Wrightson – Swamp Thing. Neil Adams, Joe Kubert, and Gil Kane. ‘Genius’ is what I call them. They are all living inside of my work.

TR: When you were 16 years old you came to Tokyo from Osaka to be an assistant to a professional cartoonist. What were those days like?

TM: At that time, I already knew all about manga. I was self-taught. I learned a lot just through reading manga. Since I was 5 or 6 I had been reading a lot of manga. I was crazy about manga – a manga geek or a manga buff, I was.

At that time, we Japanese people were all poor. There was a certain system, a rental system, like a rental video shop nowadays. We went to a rental bookstore. It was cheap, nothing like today. The size [of the book] was much smaller. Not so many stories and I believe 20 yen for a day, or a couple of days…sometimes 10 yen for a day. That is why I could read that style of manga. We called it kashihon (book lending).

TR: In Western comics, like Spiderman or Batman, there is a hero, but in manga it is different – there are no heroes or bad guys. Can you explain that?

TM: People [in Japan] got fed up reading the same style of manga. In the U.S., I think it should be kept, in a way, because kids of a certain age read it, right? So it should be a simple, a plain story – good guy fighting bad guy – is quite understandable.

In Japan, we are living in a so-called homogeneous society, and compared to American society it is a mixed culture. In a homogeneous society – to a certain level, if we read a difficult story, we can understand it because we have a lot of things in common; we are on the same wave. But in America, or another Western country, the culture is so mixed. The people are coming from other countries. They don’t have just one culture, they are diverse.

They [Americans] are capable of creating a complicated story. I know that. But if they did it, a kid would not like it. So in a way, we have to educate the reader, the audience, to a certain degree. In doing so, we can educate ourselves as to what type of manga we should create in the future.

Instead of reading literature, we [Japanese] simply read manga for grownups. I strongly recommend to youngsters: read literature. But manga is an art book, ‘art literature’ we call it. It is easier to read, and it is cheaper.

Before I was age 20, I had read more than 10,000 books of literature. All sorts of books, so many genres and fields of books. I was really interested in reading and watching movies. That is what made me a professional cartoonist.

TR: What kinds of literature?

TM: Any classics…any kind of genre, including obscene books. I believe reading books makes you different. But reading only manga will get you nowhere (laughs)…Even though I am a professional cartoonist and it is my meal ticket to sell manga.

But reading manga is just fun. That’s all. It doesn’t make you a better person. So I strongly recommend to youngsters to not just read manga, but also to read books and listen to music.

TR: Can you talk about how the tentacle came to be used in your work?

TM: At that time [pre-"Urotsuki Doji"], it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a normal sensual scene. So I just created a creature. His tentacle is not a penis as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, this is not a penis, this is just a part of the creature. You know, the creatures, they don’t have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene, and not illegal.

Drawing intercourse was, and is, illegal in Japan. That is our big headache: to create such a sensual scene. We are always using any trick imaginable.

TR: The high school girl seems to be a common victim. Why is that?

TM: Personally I don’t like it. In Japan, there are so many maniac people who like the innocent type of young girl. It is their taste. It is almost criminal.

I don’t want some young girl to be kidnapped or raped. I don’t like that style. More to my liking is a style based on a Japanese samurai or ninja falling in love with a regular girl.

TR: What was behind the creation of the landmark “Urotsuki Doji?”

TM: At that time, I was dealing with manga for an adult magazine. I really wanted to create something different, but the editor wanted me to create some regular manga for adults – like a typical type of salaryman falling in love with an office lady…or such a boring story like that. But I just wanted to make something different. The chief editor was against my idea, but I insisted.

TR: What were your early days as a cartoonist like?

TM: Before I became independent cartoonist, I was wondering which way to go: manga for kids or manga for grownups. I chose manga for grownups because there are so many taboo in kids’ manga…not only about sensual scenes, but also religion and political themes.

I did some work as a kids’ manga cartoonist actually, but as soon as I began to do my work I was fed up with the rules and codes. For an example of what I mean, there was an incident with Green Lantern. Neil Adams drew a scene in which a man or boy was going to give a shot into his arm and he had to rewrite it because that type of scene was a sensitive issue. That is what I am talking about.

TR: Do you ever have young kids that wish to be apprentices under you?

TR: (grimaces) So many kids. They want to be a professional cartoonist through my firm. But I am quite happy to make an amateur a professional.

In the beginning, they have nothing; some are good, but I like to choose the bad students. I like to take them from to nothing to the level of professional cartoonists. I just emphasize: guts and perspective. If they have enough balls, you know, or are smart enough, or have a unique enough outlook, I think they can make it as a professional. It has nothing to do with their skills in doing art.

Being an assistant or professional cartoonist is hard work. Do you have the guts to work 8 days a week? No time for R&R – just working and working, nothing else.

TR: What do you think of the success of “Spirited Away?”

TM: I really admire that [Hayao] Miyazaki is keeping with his style. It is, you know, really quite tough to keep your own style. In the beginning his work was not selling a lot. They were struggling with great difficulty to make something new with a small budget. I really admire that.

Myself, I am not a man who prepares for a rainy day. I have an easy money policy. A cartoonist has to be on the edge – standing against the strong wind. That is why I am always trying to seek something dangerous.

TR: Can you discuss your upcoming contribution to the women’s hentai manga magazine?

TM: Women’s hentai is totally different. It is from a woman’s point of view. It looks similar but the concept is totally different.

No one in Western countries can imagine that this type of magazine is quite popular among Japanese ladies because Japanese ladies are considered conservative. But actually, they are maniacs sometimes.

When they learn that I am a cartoonist for x-rated manga, they openly talk about sex with me. They don’t hesitate to talk about themselves – how they are horny, how they are lonely, or about using a dildo. But I don’t believe it. Well, actually I don’t like to believe it. Personally, I like a conservative lady – the innocent, old-fashioned type.

Note: All drawing images courtesy of Toshio Maeda. This article originally appeared in January 2003 on the Sake-Drenched Postcards Web page.

Large stacks of dusty manga comic books are on the edge of each step. Upon reaching the basement, more multi-colored volumes can be seen running half-way to the ceiling. A cluttered desk holds five mugs of pens and an inkwell. Just below are a drawing board and color pictures of bikini-clad young girls beneath heavy see-through plastic shields. These ladies are used as drawing guides for Oshima, who is a manga artist specializing in adult comics.

Oshima does not consider his comics to be pure hentai manga, whose focus is on the molestation of women through the use of elongated tongues, tentacles, or other long, thin probes. Though he has dabbled in the hentai genre, his 25-year career has mainly featured women simply enjoying sex.

His “Kanji Sasete Baby” series from 15 years ago was his breakthrough. It appeared in Young Magazine with a translation into Italian appearing 10 years later. Today, Bazooka, Shuman Special, Geino Nippon, and the women’s monthly Amour regularly feature his comics.

Like most artists, Oshima has a trademark easily identifiable by his devotees: women with extremely large, round breasts. To be more specific, Oshima’s rendering of the female mammary carriage takes the form of a pair of gravity-defying Christmas tree bulbs on steroids.

His start in the business was not conventional. While he was enrolled at Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University as a business student, Oshima was coaxed by hentai manga legend Toshio Maeda to drop his textbooks in favor of an ink pen. He’s been drawing balloon-breasted females in various compromising positions of ecstasy ever since. “I ruined his life,” Maeda jokes about his influence on Oshima’s move from business to busts.

Interview

Captain Japan: For a Western reader, your sort of manga might be seen as surprising, maybe sort of shocking, especially considering that some of your work is directed at women. It sort of goes against traditional Japanese stereotypes. What do you think about that?

Takeshi Oshima: Recently, a French journalist wrote an article wondering why Japanese ladies are reading this type of trash. He wondered, are Japanese ladies sluts? I do feel strange that some women like rape and molestation stories. But, you know, I believe this sort of magazine is a way to unleash their carnal desires.

CJ: A few years ago, a journalist from the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, touched upon some similar themes in his articles. He received a lot of pressure from the Japanese community in the U.S. because they felt his portrayal of Japanese women was not quite accurate. Do you think Japanese women are really demure and conservative, as the stereotype goes?

TO: Yes, that’s true. But, you know, you have several feelings inside of you. Sometimes you are innocent; sometimes you are indecent – it is part of being a human being.

(He holds up a copy of Amour – Captain.) This magazine sort of puts a light on the dark side of these ladies because even a sophisticated lady likes to be a slut in certain situations. But I must emphasize that these types of magazines are read by regular office ladies – they are single and lonely. You know, about 15 years ago this magazine wouldn’t have been possible. It shows that women’s interests have been changing.

CJ: When I spoke with Toshio Maeda, he said that he was reading scripts for television shows and movies directed at women to understand their feelings. What do you do?

TO: I access the internet and chat with women. The girls are always amazed with my technique for hitting on them. I can understand their fantasy completely. I sort of have a special way of whispering to them through typing. It is only typing, but don’t tell my wife! (laughs) In fact, this morning I did it. It is sort of like fishing.

He moves over to his computer monitor to the left of his drawing board where he brings up a dialogue which has a log of a conversation with a married 31-year-old whose husband is sleeping. He asks what she wants and she responds. The statements are brief and to the point – the neck is kissed, nipples are touched, the hair is stroked – and culminate with her exclamations of cyber, or maybe real, ecstasy.

CJ: I am a little interested in your family. When we were upstairs I saw your wife and son. Are you worried about the influence your work might have on your son?

TO: Right now he is in junior high school. So far he hasn’t seen any of my work. But, you know, when he gets older, it will be okay for him to see what I am doing. It is nothing harmful, and at around the age of 14 or 15, it might be acceptable for him.

CJ: And your wife?

TO: She doesn’t care at all. Before we were married she knew what I was doing. In Japan, work has nothing to do with one’s personality. Work is work. Work is the way you feed your family. The bottom line is how much money you make.

CJ: Do you have fans writing to you with their reactions to your work?

TO: (Again, he holds up a copy of Amour – Captain.) In this magazine, there is a survey section and I am able to read some of the responses. Girls write in and confess their fantasy.

After digging through his files, he finds one example from a 31-year old office lady: “I would like to see lesbian comics. Please teach me the appropriate techniques. I really admire these stories because it could never happen with me. But I hope it could one day.”

CJ: Why did you choose adult comics instead of kids’ comics?

TO: It is more difficult to make stories for kids – you must maintain a level of popularity. If you fail, you’ll be fired quickly. It is a severe situation with the competition because new artists are always entering the field.

Adult comics are easier – there is no hard competition. For kids’ magazines, you have to be edgy. The feeling, how do I say, you have to know what’s in, what’s out – the trends of the day.

CJ: How is business these days versus, say, 10 years ago? Is it tough to get these writing jobs?

TO: Very…tough. And it is energy-consuming work. It might take 3 or 4 days to draw one comic. But after that, you are exhausted completely.

And business is getting worse – it’s the recession. Before the salaryman could buy at least a couple of books each week. But now, maybe just one. And discount shops and manga kissa (A store where one pays to read comics for an hourly rate – Captain.) are taking away sales. It’s tough all around.

CJ: I asked Toshio Maeda about his influences and he said he was heavily influenced by American comics when he was young. How about you?

TO: Well, very old Japanese cartoonists influenced me. Maybe a little bit by Tezuka Osamu and “Mighty Atom,” but I really liked Shirato Sanpei and his ninja stories. He was a legend. It wasn’t just a funny story; he also included communist themes, as he was a known communist, with stories about one such character, Sasuke, who was struggling to survive in a particular society.

Also, when I was in elementary school, I was very heavily influenced by Akatsuka Fujio – the gag manga genius. In Japan, you can find cynical or sarcastic stories in gag manga. It is really totally different from simple gags seen in Western comedy. Reading between the lines in gag manga is very funny. It is nothing like “The Three Stooges.”

Note: All drawing images provided by Takeshi Oshima. This article originally appeared in January 2003 on the Sake-Drenched Postcards Web page.