Mr. Sato experiences a classic of Japanese hairstyling from the Showa Era to get in touch with… Eh, okay. He lost a bet.
yakuza (Page 4)
After living in Tokyo for ten years, our Osaka-born writer Seiji Nakazawa shares some experiences from his hometown he thought were normal but actually weren’t.
Who beats out religious proponents and yakuza for the most feared customer to encounter at a mobile phone counter?
One of the gangsters reportedly admitted, “I have never met anyone as tough as those deliverymen.”
A handful of golf courses in Fukuoka Prefecture have refused to add a certain checkbox to their applications for fear of their lives.
You can take a doll out of the store, but the staff will have to cut off one of its fingers first…
Anyone who’s been to Japan knows that the convenience store is the prefect place to get snacks, pay your bills, buy adult material, and get into a fight. Wait, what?
Hello Kitty loves to cosplay and this time she’s dressing up as a badass schoolgirl with a machine gun.
Police were luckily able to return all the fighters to Adventure Mode before any serious injuries were sustained.
Ah Halloween. After Christmas, it’s easily the best time of the year to be a kid. You get to dress up, scare people with your friends, and then best of all… go to your local organized crime branch to get a giant bag of candy.
Such has been the annual tradition on Halloween for children who visit the headquarters of the Japanese yakuza group Yamaguchi-gumi in Kobe. But this year, Halloween has had an “unfortunate accident” and been cancelled, meaning the mob will be handing out no candy.
Wait… what? Japanese mafia? Halloween candy? What do these things have in common? Read on to find out!
Japanese actor and director “Beat” Takeshi Kitano is an instantly recognisable face over here in Japan, but westerners might be more familiar with him in his role as sadistic homeroom teacher Kitano in Battle Royale, or perhaps as the host of the madcap 1980s Japanese game show Takeshi’s Castle.
But it turns out that ol’ Beat is no longer just the face of Japanese TV and gritty movies, as he has recently joined a long line of celebrities lending their voices and images to video games. Check out Beat Takeshi’s appearance in the upcoming Sega game, Yakuza 6, in the following trailer.
When one of our Japanese-language reporters stepped into a taxi the other day, the driver suddenly turned to him and asked, “Sir, do you know what you should say if you have a run in with some yakuza?”
Our man was a bit taken aback by the sudden question out of nowhere, but he answered, “Shouldn’t you say you’ll call the police?”
“That’s the usual response, but there’s an even better one,” the driver replied. He then proceeded to share a bit of advice which an actual yakuza whom he had once driven had secretly shared with him.
One of the many interesting sights in Japan is the myriad fashion styles that exist. Although trends come and go, there are certain characteristics in each fashion faction that distinguish them from the others. For example, gyaru are often associated with heavy fake eyelashes, colored contacts and dramatic hairstyles, lolitas are usually decked out in doll-like dresses with poofy skirts accentuated with lace and frills, and obasan (middle-aged women) from Osaka are known for their fondness of leopard prints.
As one would expect, since there are people who dress in a specific style, there have to be retailers who sell clothes and accessories that cater to their unique fashion needs. In the case of Japanese gangster fashion, we came across this incredible online retailer that claims to transform common people into gangsters in a matter of seconds with their fashion pieces. Check out this fashion badass after the break!
Many foreign visitors to Japan are curious about taking a dip in one of Japan’s many hot springs or sento public baths, but are deterred by two factors: the embarrassment of being naked in public, and the worry that even having a small tattoo – very much taboo in Japan – might result in being ejected from the premises. While the first issue is something that can be overcome with a little bravery, the second issue is undoubtedly a problem.
However, a resort inn in Nagano has now publicly stated that they will allow foreigners with small tattoos to enter, providing they cover up the offending ink with a patch.
Since it first began on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, the violent action-adventure series Yakuza (Ryu ga Gotoku in Japan) has sold 6.5 million copies around the world. With a new edition of the series in the works, Sega is holding auditions for men who would like to appear in it.
Thinking this would be a great way to promote our humble website, we assembled a team of our manliest men to try out. It’s undoubtedly going to be tough, but to help increase our chances we sent each reporter to audition for a different character.
A Tokyo office worker says former champion boxer Christian Eugenio-Gomez threatened him, saying “pay up or cut off your finger.” More details after the break!
As Google Maps expands its reach across the globe, netizens are finding more and more hidden treasures amongst the usual images of street signs and roadways. Sure, we catch a flock of human pigeons every now and then, but this next photo gallery is a little subtler than mobs of masked people purposely trying to live on forever in Google Maps. No, this is a different kind of mob…the mob. The yakuza, rumored to number in the hundred-thousands in Japan, have landed themselves on Google Maps more than a few times and we’re not quite sure they appreciate being photographed.
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