Showing posts with label Tokyo Reporter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tokyo Reporter. Show all posts

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Major Japanese Magazines and Writers Come Out Agreeing With You-Know-Who on Yakuza Legislation

Well, look at what we have here! It's not often that I get to blow my own horn so allow me the indulgence: 


Tokyo Reporter has the story that Nikkan Gendai as well as some very famous Japanese writers have come out publicly against proposed legislation that is supposed designed to curtail Yakuza activities:

Since its institution in October, the prefectural legislation has been called “overkill,” with critics calling it a violation of basic human rights since gang members and their families are first and foremost people.

“Laws should be enforced based on deeds and not on a person’s social status,” Sataka said.

Nikkan Gendai believes that police are aware that an opposition movement may spread, which would render the legislation to be ineffective.

I wrote at length about this in Legislating Morality. I also complained that carte blanche laws and rules that hurt people and their families due to guilt by association could not possibly be legal and is not up to standard in a so-called democratic nation that respects human rights. I also wrote that I was extremely suspicious of this sort of legislation. Refer to: Japanese Insurance Companies Stop Payments for Jews, Catholics, Cross-dressers, Left-Handed People, Club Members, Punks and Yakuza


The recent crackdown on the Yakuza in Japan is not motivated by any recent domestic developments or problems on the home front. I submit to you, dear reader, that this crack down is motivated partly by US government pressure and is just another of many scams being perpetrated by our government to steal money to help pay for the financial disaster that the western governments (Japan included) have engineered that is about to befall on all of us regular people in the working class. On top of that, it is just another boondoogle for a government agency (the Japanese police) to try to justify massive public tax expenditures and to try to avoid budget cutbacks next year... 


Well now we have the Nikkan Gendai and these writers agreeing with me but, as was expected, they have a bit more inside information that I do and accuse the government of hijinks on a different level. They accuse the government of creating these new laws to protect the Good Old Boys network in Japan whereby retired government workers (read retired police fat cats) get high paying jobs at private firms after retirement. They call it Amakudari here.


More from Tokyo Reporter:


According to Miyazaki, the real point of the legislation is the preservation of amakudari, or the process by which government officials assume positions at corporations upon retirement.

“At the time of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in 1970, many policemen were recruited,” Miyazaki said. “This is a big problem in guaranteeing them an amakudari positions upon retirement. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and, Tourism and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry are different. Retired police officials do not have any special skills that can be carried forward into the business world. However, if laws (related to organized crime) become more strict, companies would need former officers for consulting purposes.”

The article notes that the January 28 issue of Toyo Keizai magazine says that there are 83 listed firms, including Sharp Corporation, NYK Group, and the Chugoku Electric Power Company, that have former police officials on staff.
Therefore, the strengthening anti-gang laws at the prefectural and national levels would require more former police officials “to descend” into positions within corporations for compliance reasons, Nikkan Gendai says. 


Here, once again, as I have repeatedly stated; the government always has some sort of motivation (not the public good) for what it does. It is the goal of all governments, be they Democratic, Communist, Fascist, Socialist to use whatever crisis exists to expand upon themselves and increase the size of government. History shows us this to be true.  


This nonsense is a waste of our tax monies. Japan is up deep serious economic problems. We have debt at 229% of GDP. Total debt at 492% of GDP. A declining population which is destroying the savings rate and our productivity and these idiots in government and the police are concerned about ticket scalpers, hot young actresses, mutually consented sex between adults, and members only clubs... And they are concerned that the Yakuza are involved with all of the above and, heaven forbid, making TV shows?!


Obviously with criminal intent


Don't want to get off the point too much, but, as an example; what people need to realize is that the mafia are and have always been involved with entertainment business in the west too! In Japan the Yakuza have been involved in the entertainment business in Japan for easily over 400 years. Here's two choice tidbits from Wikipedia:

"They are very prevalent in the Japanese media..."

"Despite uncertainty about the single origin of yakuza organizations, most modern yakuza derive from two classifications which emerged in the mid-Edo Period (1603 – 1868): tekiya, those who primarily peddled illicit, stolen or shoddy goods; and bakuto, those who were involved in or participated in gambling."

If you want to see just how much more absurdist this entire thing gets. Here is the original Tokyo Reporter story that the - surprise! - Yakuza are involved in TV! Heavens! What will we ever do?  
Hot Young Female Japanese Actresses, Yakuza Gangsters, Sex and Japanese TV and Mass Media - This Post Has it All!!! 


... In the meantime, drip drip drip... nuclear waste leaks at Tepco, our debt grows by the minute, idiots want to double sales taxes so that we can pay for government expenditures (such as chasing skirts on TV sets) the economy stumbles... And the Keystone Cops want to chase ticket scalpers and skirts?... Doomed, I tell you!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Police in Japan Crack Down on After-Hours.... Dancing!

This idiocy is just getting out of control. I told you that the recent crackdowns on the Yakuza are actually motivated by recent lower government revenues from taxes leading to a fear amongst the Metropolitan Police Department that they are going to have to face budget cuts (so they create a straw man like Yakuza crimes) to justify massive over expenditures, but now they went in a busted a bar because of unruly foreigners (isn't it the bar owner's right to refuse service to anyone they please?) and because, heavens, people were dancing after-hours!!! Dancing! In a night club? What's the world coming to?


The Tokyo Reporter has the story:



TOKYO (TR) – The weekend bust of two popular nightclubs within the Gas Panic chain was due to the presence of undesirable foreigners, reports Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 30).
Well, hell, if you ask me, anyone who frequents Roppongi, foreign or Japanese, if "undesirable." I hate that place. Give me the neighborhood Moe's or local yakitori (chicken BBQ on sticks) anyday!
Moe's bar. That's me on the left in the red shirt.

Early Sunday morning, Tokyo Metropolitan Police entered clubs Gas Panic Bar and Club 99 in the Roppongi entertainment district and arrested managers Hidenori Wakita, 36, and Fumiki Nishihata, 35, for allowing dancing after 1 a.m. — a violation of the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses.
Dancing!? After 1 am? In a bar in Roppongi!? Never heard of such a thing. Weird, eh? People want to go to Roppongi to drink and dance on a Saturday night? Go figure, eh? 
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you to find dancing going on at this establishment!
A journalist who covers the adult entertainment industry says the chain of foreigner-frequented bars is popular for those on low budgets, but in recent times police have been taking notice of trouble. “Recently, poorly behaving foreigners from the Middle East and South-East Asia have started showing up,” says the source. “They make others not want to come around, and maybe some neighbors complained.”
“They make others not want to come around.." Well, maybe, maybe not. But they can't possibly be more misbehavin' than the US military who are now confined to bases for being naughty, raising hell and committing serious crimes.
"...and maybe some neighbors complained"? What do you mean, "maybe"? Anyone who lives in Roppongi near these types of establishments cannot possible complain about drunks, foreigners or loud noises (or even, perish the thought, dancing!) 
The tabloid says that the raid of Gas Panic Bar occurred just before 2 a.m. “There were close to 200 customers in the place,” says a salaryman present at the time. “As the name says, it was a panic. At first, I thought they were targeting drugs or gangs. I was stunned that it was due to licensing problems since this sort of thing has been going on for 20 years.
The salaryman is quoted, “As the name says, it was a panic." What!? An establishment does what they advertise that they are going to do and this is a problem, officer? And this has been going on for 20 years? Gee, who'd a thunk it? Just one more piece of evidence that this, like clamping down on the Yakuza for the horrendous crimes of ticket scalping, gambling, prostitution and, Mercy! Wining and dining TV producers!? What are we going to do? If I were prime minister, I think I'd declare martial law and do something stupid like bomb another country....Say? Isn't Pearl Harbor day right around the corner? Just asking.
Obviously vicious, dangerous and drunk. 
Writer's rendition of drunk salarymen who may have been dancing!

The issue concerns the type of license. Establishments within the Gas Panic chain are licensed as bars, which under the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses are not allowed to provide entertainment, such as dancing, after 1 a.m. without special authorization. Only drinking, however, is permissible.
Oh? I see. I own a bar or club or whatever. And I need a license to serve drinks. I cannot provide entertainment without another license. So what is "entertainment"? pray tell. Isn't the BGM music that I hear when I walk into Denny's, for example, considered "entertainment"? Well, it sure is as the establishment owner must pay music publishing royalties to play music. And, I need a license for dancing? G*ddamn! This place is starting to sound like the United States! Now, if two people hear some music and start dancing, as a bar owner, is it my duty to stop them? What constitutes "dancing" may I ask?
Dirty Dancing? Footloose? Any Ho's in da house?
Not in this establishment you don't ladies. Not without a license!!!

As an aside, there's far too many stupid people, foreigners included, who are trying to make money off this "Yakuza criminal underworld" nonsense by writing and selling books about non-issues. Once again, let me state, I'm sure the Yakuza and the dirty dancing certainly doesn't kill nearly as many people as the USA and NATO do annually (sometimes with Japan's support).
This was the second arrest in two years for Wakita. In 2009, police found similar violations at Club 99 and GP Bar, which is also within the Gas Panic chain, and took the manager into custody. After that, Gas Panic Bar installed a security camera at the door to alert management to turn the music down if police appeared.
Smart guys. I'd set up a camera too. But this is the only place that I think the Gas Panic people screwed up big time. Head should roll. Better security against police raids, guys! Your customer base deserves to be able to have fun in the security of your establishment and NOT be hassled by a bunch of criminals or SS officers or gestapo who wish to eradicate things like dancing! 
This nonsense is outrageous! The police are obstructing business. If it is too loud or people are dancing, the rational thing to do would be to go visit and ask them to turn it down. The last time this guy was hassled was 2009? Disgusting. (Oh, and by the way, notice the timing? In 2009, after the Lehman Brothers crisis, the economy was tanking and the government and police stepped up this kind of nonsense.)
"I won't dance! I won't! You can't make me!"

If there had been any recent problems at any establishment such as Gas Panic, the proper thing to do would be to contact the manager in a business-like manner and discuss the matter. Busting in and arresting the guy and causing a scene during business hours is Nazi State BS and a clear-obstruction of business issue.
And what of the customers dancing? They are having fun. Are they supposed to know the business license arrangements with the establishment? Is the establishment owner to post signs that say, "No Dancing" on premises? And, even if they did, would anyone think that a "No Dancing" sign was anything but a joke?   
Wakita was eventually convicted.
Oh, what was I saying about the government and police needing money? So, the guy was convicted... For what? Not having a proper dancing license?
This latest bust sends a message, continues the adult-entertainment journalist. “The crackdown will expand,” the writer says. “There are tens of thousands of improperly licensed clubs. Gas Panic is a big name, and they have continued to ignore warnings. Perhaps the police are taking a step forward to show the serious consequences to everyone else.”
The true message this sends is that the licensing business is a farce. It also shows us that the powers that be are completely and totally arbitrary in enforcing the law. When government coiffures run low, you can bet they will find some boogie man for which to try to gain revenues or, at least, makes sure certain department's within the government are not forced to take budget cuts. That they make a big scene and use the media to force the issue shows that they want to instill fear in other establishment owners in order to get them to pay up and buy or renew licenses.
Business is bad enough as it is for establishment owners. Increasing their costs will not help. Using fear to get them to cooperate is proof that this is coercion and a taxation problem. 
Recently, I have been seeing many road stops whereby the police are arbitrarily stopping drivers without due cause to look for some reason to fine them. The escalation against the Yakuza and the media BS is another indicator of this absurdness... Now, Gas Panic gets hit. For what?
For not having a license to allow dancing?*

If this is how things are going then, I say we bring back the 憲兵隊 (kenpeitai) thought police. Who knows what sorts of evil things people who dance are thinking about. They are dangerous...
Or maybe we can make money for requiring a license for any sort of body movement or even thinking about going to the toilet in a bar!
The possibility for new revenues are endless... Just thinking could be taxed.

NOTE: Oh, but I know what you are thinking: Taxing sex won't work as Japanese don't have sex.*
One-quarter of married couples in Japan have had no sex in the past year, a survey showed.
Sex is particularly elusive as people grow older, with the study finding that 37.3 percent of Japanese married couples in their 50s were not having sex.
There was no comparable data for other countries but earlier surveys by condom manufacturer Durex has put Japan among the world’s least sexually active nations.
See? Maybe they don't have sex, but they think about it. So that's where the revenue comes from. 

* I know that the license is not specifically for dancing. It is the difference between a bar and dining establishment. But the point remains that this is a taxation issue. If the government were sincere, they wouldn't make these huge scenes and public mass media showcases. Proper business manners would call for mutually respectful discussions (not that I think the licensing is anything but coercion).
Thanks to Tokyo Reporter!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Sexy Japanese Girls Like Men's White Briefs! Who Could Have Known? I Did!

All riiiiight! Japanese women get turned on by men wearing white briefs? After 50+ some years of doing so, it shows just want a trend-setting virile "sex god" I am! May I brag? I've been wearing short white men's briefs for years! (Not the same ones either!) Since my mom first bought me a pair when I stopped pooping in my pants I've been wearing briefs... I think I was in 4th or 5th grade in elementary school!


Yes! I am a sex god!!!!


I love the Tokyo Reporter. They have the funniest and wildest stories over there that are taken and translated from typical Japanese gossipy and weekly magazines. It's the kind of stuff that titillates (am I allowed to use that word?) the average Japanese husband or housewife.


I think the Tokyo Reporter gives me a perfect bird's eye view of what's really going on with the average Japanese Joe and Jane in this country.


Today's cool story is about how white brief underwear are now back in vogue!


Tokyo Reporter: "Women Going Wild Over Men's Briefs"



Several decades ago, most Japanese men wore white briefs (a.k.a. Jockey Shorts). But for various they began falling out of favor with women and their sales plummeted, to about half of what they were at the peak.

Shukan Post (Sep. 16-23), however, reports that since last summer white men’s briefs appear to have made something of a comeback....

...lovelorn advice columnist Mikako Kikuchi writes that “The times have changed.” To wit, while an overwhelming majority of females say they don’t particularly like to see men wearing white briefs, the number who now prefer them has increased.

“Women seek ‘security,’” says Kikuchi. Since the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami on March 11, they realized that a man’s income or job position didn’t count for much. Instead, they sought men who had the vitality to survive, even in the wild. And to these women, claims Kikuchi, men wearing white briefs come across as masculine hunks.

“White briefs are easy to become begrimed and spotted, so some guys who wear them are showing confidence in their ability to keep them clean. On the other hand if the guy isn’t concerned about them showing stains, it heightens his masculinity, as a wild, uncivilized type.

“When I meet up with guys in white briefs, I really get turned on!” Kikuchi confesses. 

Read the rest at Tokyo Reporter!

Isn't this great news guys? She writes: “White briefs are easy to become begrimed and spotted, so some guys who wear them are showing confidence in their ability to keep them clean." She's right! We do how to keep them clean! (Hint: when dirty after a few days, just turn them inside out!) And I do absolutely agree  that wearing white briefs shows confidence... Or, at least, it shows you don't give a sh*t about your underwear. 

I certainly don't.

Wow! Women get turned on when seeing guys in white briefs?! Women seek security? Yes! I am vindicated! 

Take that Susan Peck!!!!

Oh? "Who is Susan Peck, you ask?" She is the girl who gave me my BTSD (Brief Traumatic Stress Disorder)... Susan was an awesomely hot and sexy Japanese smokin' babe! (Well, she was half-Japanese!) She was my girlfriend for a short while when I was 19 or 20 or so... I've never forgotten, nor forgiven, her for how she ruined my life because she didn't like my underwear... 

It was 1979, I was the lead singer of a punk band (there were few of those in Los Angeles at that time). It was a great time for me and my gift to punk rock! 

In Santa Barbara for a gig in 1979

It was also the time when all the guys started wearing boxer shorts. Not me. I hated boxer shorts as they would bunch up in my butt crack and make me quite uncomfortable. Being a guy brought up as a cog in a consumer society, I wasn't into discomfort.

I liked the briefs mom bought for me at K-Mart. 

At that time, for a very short while, Susan was my girlfriend. Susan was a very beautiful girl and the former class queen at her high school. I was in lust with her (all the other guys were too! She was hot!) I would take her to my band's concerts and then I would try to get her to make out with me in my car.

I liked her because she was so pretty. I think she liked me because I was the singer for a so-so famous punk band (those being trendy and all at that time).

Artist's rendition of Susan

Since Susan was so babelicious, she had a lot of boyfriends who were lots older and more experienced than me, I'm sure, and since they had more experience and brains they took her to nice places like expensive restaurants, fashionable clubs and five-star hotels, etc. 

Since I was stoopid and a cheap skate, I took her to local concerts, cheap assed cinemas and preferred the back seat of my car for sex (cheaper, more exciting and quite "Randy" in the backseat of a car!)

Anyway, one of the few times we did stay in a hotel, I took off my jeans and there she saw that I was wearing white briefs and not boxers. She didn't like that. I think it turned her off totally. She asked why I didn't wear boxers. I told her that I didn't like them at all. I also was very conceited, had massive confidence about myself, and couldn't give a sh*t about underwear anyway... 

How could I have known girls like men's underwear so much? I thought it was just the guys who had underwear fetishisms!

I got irritated at her and growled, "What!? Are you dating me or are you dating my underwear?!" 

Susan 
..and I... 
...didn't...
......date....
...for long....
...after...
that.

Anyhow, girls getting turned on by white briefs is great news , eh guys? It shows that we do not need to wear sexy boxers that bunch up our butt cracks and make us uncomfortable and it saves us from having to shop!

How does this news save us from having to shop? Well, if you are like me then you've probably never bought underwear in your life.

When I was a kid, mom always bought it. Then, when you get a bit older, grandma buys them for you... (Thanks grandma for ruining my future marriage to Susan!!!) 

Then after getting married, your wife always buys it for you. (Hint: Guys! Never, but never allow your secretary to buy your underwear!)

The only people now who ever get see my underwear are my wife and kids (and grandma). No outsiders ever get that privilege... Oh, excepting my doctor and my acupuncturist and they are men... 

Hopefully, those two guys don't get turned on by my underwear...
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