S’il y a une maxime de connue chez les yakuza, c’est bien « Dès que tu arriveras au sommet, quelqu'un essaiera de t'en faire tomber. » L'univers du journalisme est, malheureusement, très comparable au leur. Pas que je sois l'une des meilleures plumes du monde, mais j'ai un succès suffisant pour attiser la jalousie et...
| 1y 1m ago
In the yakuza world they say, “As soon as you get to the top, someone will try to kick you down.” The world of journalism is, sadly, surprisingly “If you’re going to be an investigative journalist here, you have to make up your mind and be ready [for what comes]. You must endure unreasonable criticism, and continue to fight. In Japan, reporters who reveal their sources are scorned and cannot continue to do proper and decent reporting. That’s why you must keep your important sources anonymous. This often leads to investigative journalists having to go it alone, feeling isolated. You just have to believe in yourself and your friends and hang in there.”
| 1y 1m ago
Having decided that “Are you or have you ever been a pederast?” might be somewhat too direct a question to put to the dear old chap, I lobbed a series of softball queries with the aim of establishing a friendly rapport.
| 1y 2m ago
In a move considered well overdue, Japan is raising the national age of consent from 13 years old to 16. Japan has the lowest national age of consent among G7 countries, and has faced criticism for years, even being subject to a UN recommendation in 2008 that the penal codes should be revised. It is...
| 1y 2m ago
Reylia Slaby, born in Japan and well-known for the mysterious and otherworldly vistas that dominate her photography, is having her first solo exhibition from March 25th. A perfect chance to see the art and meet the artist.
| 1y 2m ago
I hail from a family of smokers. My parents, their siblings, my cousins, my grandparents. New Years' family get-togethers were marked by cramped living rooms dense with smoke, full ashtrays waiting to be emptied and rows of beer and sake bottles on low tables. In high school I would come home to find my mother...
| 1y 3m ago
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be hidden by the gods. Even now, every year over 80,000 people are reported missing. And that may be the tip of the iceberg--because only family members can make those reports. If your girlfriend, high-school buddy, co-worker just evaporates one day--you can go to the police but unless you can prove foul play, they may not even open a file on the case.
| 1y 3m ago
In the early naughts an older co-worker sidled up to me one afternoon in the company corridor and told me with a mix of swagger and sincerity that if I played my cards right, ie., slept with him–he was willing to take me to a J-league game. We could watch Kazuyoshi Miura who at the time, was playing for Vissel Kobe. I recall taking a full 2 minutes before coming to my senses and declining politely. What can I say, tickets for a J-League game were impossible to get and prohibitively expensive. Two minutes mulling it over was allowed, right?
| 1y 3m ago
Once they get married, Japanese women will do pretty much everything they want, because age - looming on the horizon like Godzilla lurching closer with each passing year - justifies every misdemeanor and betrayal. Infidelity is fine because, as Rinko put it, "I need something to look back on in my old age when no one wants me anymore." That pretty much sums up the morals of the Japanese woman for you.
| 1y 6m ago
