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Silence Is the Cost of Freezing a Yakuza Group's U.S. Assets
The U.S. Department of Treasury on Wednesday announced sanctions against Japan’s third-largest crime syndicate the Inagawa-kai and its leaders.
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What Michael Woodford Saw at Olympus
As arrests mount in the Olympus accounting fraud scandal — the FBI took a Singaporean banker into custody today — Michael Woodford, the former CEO of the Japanese optics giant who blew the whistle discusses with The Atlantic Wire how nearly a billion dollars disappeared and the true hero who brought the scheme to light.
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Kim Jong-Il's Former Sushi Chef Reveals Former Supreme Leader's Favorite Fish
The world knows so little about the inner workings of the North Korean regime that the appearance of Kim Jong-Il's former sushi chef at a press conference held here at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan — well, it was bound to get scrutinized for shreds of new information.
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When the Yakuza Come Calling, One in Five Japanese Companies Admit to Paying Them Off
Roughly one in five Japanese companies shaken down by the yakuza ended up paying them off, according to a study released by Japan’s National Police Agency.
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Yakuza 'Employer Liability' Murder Suit Ends with a Settlement
Tadamasa Goto, former boss of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi crime group, has agreed to pay ¥110 million, or $1.4 million, to settle the lawsuit filed by the family of Kazuoki Nozaki, who was murdered by members of the organization in 2006.
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It's Not Easy Being a Yakuza Boss
These days the price of a standard civilian hit-job can run as high as $2 million. That’s not the price to get the job done―that’s the price if one of your underlings gets caught. The whole inflationary spiral started with one dumb yakuza stiffing McDonald’s on the price of a cheeseburger in Kyoto a few years ago.
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Japan's Finance Minister Commits Suicide on Suicide Prevention Day
Tadahiro Matsushita, the Minister of Financial Services, was found dead at his home today, on World Suicide Prevention Day in what police are investigating as a suicide.
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Prosecutors Have Opened a Criminal Investigation of the Fukushima Disaster
Japan’s prosecutors officially began investigating Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and its former top executives on criminal charges today in relation to the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima following last year's March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
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Japan's Newest Anti-Yakuza Laws Allow Instant Arrests
Japan's national Diet approved the revisions of the Organized Crime Group Countermeasures Law (改正暴力団対策法) last Thursday which allows police to designate organized crime groups as “extremely dangerous” and then arrest any member of that group, without issuing a cease and desist order, if he (or she), makes unreasonable or illegal demands towards ordinary citizens.
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Inept and Ill-Prepared: A Closer Look at the Fukushima Report
An independent Japanese commission that investigated last year's nuclear disaster at Fukushima released its findings on Thursday, putting the blame for the disaster squarely on the shoulders of the Japanese government and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
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Forbidden Beef: Japan Takes Liver Sashimi Off the Menu
Japan is a country of exotic cuisine, much of it consumed raw—up to now. Raw beef liver, human flesh, and foie gras—have all been served to Nippon’s gourmands in the last three months, but as of July 1, one of these three is no longer on the menu, and it's not the canapés for cannibals.
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How the Yakuza and Japan's Nuclear Industry Learned to Love Each Other
After the arrest of a yakuza boss for his alleged role in supplying workers to TEPCO’s Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant, we are learning the details of how Japan’s nuclear industry relied on organized crime.
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First Arrest Made Linking Yakuza with Fukushima Nuclear Clean-Up Crews
In the first arrest in relation to the yakuza's role in Japan's nuclear industry since last March's devastating earthquake and tsunami, police in Fukushima charged a senior yakuza leader for illegally dispatching workers to the reconstruction at the TEPCO-run Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant.
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TEPCO to Get Protective Custody in Nationalization Plan
TOKYO -- The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which had been a bastion of cronyism and corruption even before the triple meltdown at its Fukushima Daichii nuclear power following the March 11 earthquake, has today begun the process of being nationalized by the Japanese government.
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Olympus Shareholder Meeting Turns Into Surprise Party
Today’s extraordinary shareholding meeting for Olympus, which is under investigation for $1.7 billion of fraudulent accounting, lasting just under three hours, was punctuated with angry shouting, protests, a motion to fire the chairman of the meeting, and one surprise.
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Handouts for Hand Grenades: Yakuza Gang War Leads to an Explosive Bounty
Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture Police have become the first in Japan to offer cash rewards to anyone who reports finding a hand grenade (or "pineapples" in yakuza slang) starting today, April 2. -
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Pole Dance, Me, and the One-Armed Champion
The first place winner of this year’s International Pole Championship, was Australian pole dancer Deborah “Deb” Roach, age 29, who gave the top performance with only one arm.
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Seven Arrested in Olympus Scandal, Vindicating Ousted CEO
The investigation into corporate malfeasance and fraud at Japan’s troubled optical equipment maker Olympus, took a new turn on Thursday with the arrest of three former Olympus officials and four others on charges of violating financial filing regulations.
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Kitten-Sized Controversy: Is Hello Kitty from London or Japan?
A controversy is brewing among Japan’s fanatical followers of Hello Kitty: Is the character who has been plastered on everything from stickers to face massagers to toasters to panties to deodorant sprays and long officially described as an English citizen actually a Japanese national?
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The Yakuza and the Nuclear Mafia: Nationalization Looms for TEPCO
"TEPCO's involvement with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security issue," a Japanese Senator with the Liberal Democratic Party said on background.
