Manabu Miyazaki among those opposing anti-yakuza legislation

TOKYO (TR) – On October 5, the National Police Agency announced a revision to the Anti-Organized Crime Law to be submitted to the ordinary session of the Diet. The initiative follows anti-gang ordinances adopted by all prefectures and administrative divisions last October.

In spite of attempting to reduce criminal activities, the moves are not without their critics, reports Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 28). Read more

Court finds ex-JR West chief not guilty over 2005 train accident that killed 107, Kyodo says

TOKYO (TR) – A former president of West Japan Railway was found not guilty by a Kobe district court of professional negligence Wednesday in regard to the 2005 train accident in Hyogo Prefecture that killed 107 people, Kyodo reported.

That accident occurred on April 25, 2005, when a speeding train derailed on a curved section of JR West’s Fukuchiyama Line. The train crashed into an apartment building and is the deadliest train accident in Japan since the nation’s major rail networks were privatized in 1987. Read more

Printers in Hyogo break off relations with gangsters, refuse to print business cards

KOBE (TR) – A printers union in Hyogo Prefecture said at a meeting on Wednesday that its members will refuse to fill orders placed by gangsters, reports the Nikkei Shimbun (Oct. 26). Read more

Tohoku tremors send sex-service gals scampering southward

While the general mood of consumer self restraint that has followed the Great East Japan Earthquake has extended to Kansai, that area’s fuzoku industry — the commercial sex trade, to be clear — is showing signs of stimulation, reports Shukan Jitsuwa (May 5).

The tabloid says that fuzoku girls from Tohoku are moving to Tokyo, which in turn is seeing its gals go to Kansai, a development that has guys licking their chops, or rather, getting their chops licked.

“A week after the earthquake we started to see this shift,” says a writer covering the fuzoku trade. “In terms of types of services, most of them are working in health clubs” — which have nothing to do with fitness but everything do with blow-jobs — “and soaplands in Kobe’s Fukuhara red-light district. One can even hear Tokyo accents in quickie joints located in Osaka brothel areas like Tobita Shinchi and Kujo.”

One 24-year-old female health employee, who used to work in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro area, tells the tabloid why she moved: “Tokyo still has aftershocks and supplies in general are insufficient. I cannot focus well. While some may say they don’t like Osaka, I am fine with it.” Read more

Japan’s first SM-themed soapland comes to Kobe

TOKYO (TR) – As a keen observer of perversions, fetishes and assorted erotica, evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (June 29) believes it has uncovered Japan’s first club that combines soapland and SM services. Read more

Eye in the park on Flower Road in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, May 2, 2010)

Yamaguchi-gumi gangsters give gifts in the name of goodwill in Kobe

With the year winding down, the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza group entertained 1,200 members of the Kobe community with food and gifts in an effort to convey a sense of civic goodwill, reports Shukan Shincho (Jan. 14).

The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest mob, boasting an estimated membership of 40,000, is generally feared by the public but its upper echelon and underlings spent the morning of December 28 preparing mochi (rice cakes) — in a ritual where the rice is pounded with a wood mallet — and distributing toys, candies and cash gifts to children. Read more

Yakuza group succumbs to revised law, encourages ‘code of conduct’

While it might have been somewhat humorous to read that gangsters have been found to be giving exams to their members, it would appear that this sort of activity is part of trend in which the criminal underworld is increasingly moving towards limiting risk in its operations, reports entertainment Web site Zakzak (Sep. 11).

The Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest criminal organization, has requested that affiliated gangs not use its symbols and refrain from engaging in typical gang-like conduct.

With its main office in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture and a membership of 21,000, the gang has specifically requested that associated gangs not imprint their business cards with the Yamaguchi-gumi crest.

The article says that such a move is rooted in revisions last year to the Anti-Organized Crime Law, which was enacted in 1992. The changes increased the liability of top bosses for the actions of subordinates, and the new meishi order is a defense measure, the story indicates. Read more

MSDF sailor stages predawn assault on Kobe soapland

“The ships engage in training exercises at sea for a month at a time, with no breaks during the weekend, and he took an extended leave,” says a spokesman for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force headquarters for the Maizuru District, who added, “he had been commended in reports for taking a serious attitude toward his job.”

Despite his sterling military record, at approximately 5:15 a.m. on the morning of June 21, MSDF leading seaman Takashi Kaneguchi, age 26, allegedly broke into a deluxe erotic bathhouse in the Fukuhara district of Kobe City and raped two female employees.

As reported in Shukan Asahi Geino (July 9), Kaneguchi is suspected of having smashed the lock on the door to the establishment and, during a 25-minute rampage, stripped himself to the buff and raped a 33-year-old masseuse, at which time he also left behind bites on her breasts requiring three days of treatment. He then raped a second employee, age 31. Read more

Kansai sex businesses taking flu scare in stride

With the swine influenza infections threatening to run rampant in Kansai, the Fukuhara soapland district in Kobe has taken on the appearance of a ghost town over the past couple of weeks.

The manager of one establishment tells Shukan Post (June 5) his business is down by around 70 percent.

“Our girls all wear surgical masks on their commute to work, and we’ve installed air purifiers in all the massage rooms,” he says. “But the customers seem a bit anxious about catching a bug. We’ve had a case where a masseuse coughed once and the customer immediately demanded he be assigned a different girl.”

Other customers, however, have found the slack period has its advantages.

“If you go now, it’s easier to reserve more popular girls who are usually harder to get,” the regular patron at one shop grins. Read more