The world of Yakuza fan magazines (2009) | Hacker News Reader

The world of Yakuza fan magazines (2009)

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146 pointsjollofricepeas63 comments

This is tangentially related but fascinating. A terrific movie called Minbo came out in Japan thirty or so years ago. It's about the Yakuza and not very flattering. The director was stabbed at the premier. Then, later, died of suicide in very suspicious circumstances.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minbo

All his movies were terrific.

A former member of the Goto-gumi recounted the murder as follows: "We set it up to stage his murder as a suicide. We dragged him up to the rooftop and put a gun in his face. We gave him a choice: jump and you might live or stay and we'll blow your face off. He jumped. He didn't live."

Looks like it’s available on justwatch which I’ve never heard of . 20-30+ year old movies are hard to find. https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/minbo-the-gentle-art-of-j...

It's really good. Good find.

The Criterion Channel is a treasure trove for old and obscure movies. It's the only streaming service I'll never cancel.

As a European, I weep everytime Criterion channel is mentioned :-(

Use a VPN to set up an account. Then you can use EU wide without a VPN. Doesn't require US credit card. You're welcome :)

That actually works? They don't detect and counter common VPN providers? What about the bandwidth, can you stream hd over it?

JustWatch isn't a streaming service to be clear. It's a directory of where you can stream any given movie/series in your region, if available at all.

Someone uploaded it to archive.org: https://archive.org/search?query=minbo&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3...

It’s available on Archive.org https://archive.org/details/MinboOrTheGentleArtOfJapaneseExt...

Wow, he directed Tampopo. That's hard to mentally reconcile for me. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion!

I know. That movie is kinda wholesome in comparison.

> It satirizes the yakuza, who retaliated for their portrayal in the film by killing the director.

They did kill him, and even admitted that later.

You can watch a fictional(ized?) series (Tokyo Vice) about and produced by the author Jake Adelstein on HBO. I’ve watched the first season, season 2 recently released.

I have that book, it's interesting but it isn't a particularly enjoyable read.

That's not really an endorsement: to a first approximation, Adelstein is full of shit when it comes to all things Yakuza. He's made a career out of claiming they're super powerful and pulling strings across Japanese society, when all actual evidence indicates that they're weaker than ever and declining.

I'd be interested in reading more about the evidence.

I just watched the show and though I'm sure it's got quite a bit of embellishment, anything I've read in the past made the yakuza out to be about the level they're shown in the show (have some power within their local communities, but not much in government unless they can blackmail someone via prostitution or otherwise).

The Hollywood Reporter ran an article about it:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/toky...

Though he's disputed it.

His problems with National Geographic are telling... the same year he's unable to produce any connections for their show, he's got close enough connections to "high-ranking gangster bosses" to write an article where he purportedly has them play and discuss the video game Yakuza 3:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110214054056/https://boingboin...

(side note: this article describes him playing this game with these guys "one Thursday afternoon," having a teenager teach them to play a video game, having three separate people play this single-player game while discussing it, one of whom finishes it despite an average main story playtime of over 16 hours)

The Yakuza, weirdly, operate semi-publicly so their headquarters, hierarchies, and membership numbers are well known. In the early 90s there were close to 100,000 members, now there's probably under 20k.

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01383/

Come on man, they're baked into the alliance that was chosen by the American occupation to rule post-War Japan. They're far from irrelevant to anyone who wants to understand modern Japan. If you don't like Adelstein's brand the Kaplan/Dubro book is good but at this point dated. Either way, they're endemic in construction, entertainment, and lending and still have meaningful political links.

Ah when USA invaded sicily they put mafia in power, to avoid the farmers getting any ideas of land redistribution.

USA bringing "democracy" as usual.

edit: Ah I forgot to mention the elections held with the USA navy ready to invade and bomb, should the people decide to vote too left wing.

I mean they said it's fictionalized. It's an enjoyable show even if it isn't very accurate.

Not watched the show but the book it’s based is a memoir https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Vice

I'm aware of that. I'm not sure that memoirs have ever been known as only being 100% truthful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoir

> A memoir (/ˈmɛm.wɑːr/; from French mémoire [me.mwaʁ], from Latin memoria 'memory, remembrance') is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual.

Any work of nonfiction will end up with some inaccuracies and a form based on one person's memories may be especially prone to this. But if he's outright deliberately fictionalizing events (not saying he is, necessarily), that's a big mark against the work. I mean that's exactly what got James Frey castigated on TV and made persona non grata.

There is a subplot about these magazines in the show. It’s unclear how accurate the show itself is, but the basic concept of yakuza mags is covered accurately.

As Lord Vetinari remarked so succinctly:

> If you're going to have crime, it may as well be organised.

The real world version: Meyer Lansky.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_Lansky

Not the same I think. In your example mobsters organized themself for more power.

Terry Pretchets fictional Lord Vetinari formaly and officially organized the crime to tame them and have them under state control.

As mentioned in several other comments, the numbers of yakuza members have reduced significantly in the 25 years since this article was published.

An often unmentioned aspect of these gangs is that many people end up in them due to the ongoing discrimination against Japanese people of buraku descent:

https://www.kcpinternational.com/2021/09/the-burakumin-of-ja...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza#Burakumin

The buraku are not genetically distinct from other yamato Japanese, they were just stigmatized due to buddhist concepts of "impurity", and an effort to replicate the "untouchable" practices of India while importing buddhism.

As such, in the modern world, they often had little other opportunity in life outside of yakuza membership.

Many yakuza practices are violent and abusive, and I don't want to offer any apologetics for those practices. But like a lot of discussion of crime, the root cause (mostly poverty) is often overlooked, and the elimination of poverty and lack of opportunity downplayed as a possible solution.

FEDS magazine is probably the closest US equivalent

https://youtu.be/-KYMn8Pwygw

The article seems to glorify Yakuza. However, most sources indicate Yakuza are in decline. "but by 2022 it had only 11,400 members and 11,000 quasi-members." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza and https://web.archive.org/web/20230329161113/https://www.npa.g...

Can find plenty of other articles on internet showing the same trend. By way of comparison, https://www.insideprison.com/regional_gang_activity_county.a... indicates about 20k gang members in NYC alone.

Related, "Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan" by by Jake Adelstein is absolutely fascinating. So too is the drama produced by HBO based on the book, but I am partial to the book. Adelstein becomes friendly with the Yakuza and comes to understand them. Very eye opening.

Just recognize that it's highly fictionalized.

> A tasteful photo spread features Yamaguchi-gumi members making their first annual visit to a hatsumode, a Shinto shrine, and pounding rice cakes

A hatsumode is not a Shinto shrine, but the first visit to a shrine on New Years. Getting this wrong makes me doubt the rest of this article.

Jake Adelstein, the author, just released his best book to date in my opinion:

the last Yakuza

https://a.co/d/gsAFYw8

Yakuza are disappearing, the government drowned them in forms, fines, imprisonment and attacked their supporters

We now know that mafias are endorsed by the (deep) state.

This is after the situation in Salvador where the government has apparently jailed every single gang member and murder rates fell to average Latin American rates.

If Japan wanted Yakuza to go they would just put all of them behind bars.

Japan does want the yakuza to go and has plenty better ways to do it than imprisoning people.

>Myway Publishing is ceasing publication of Gekkan Jitsuwa Document, a monthly tabloid that covers (and caters to) Japan’s organized crime members. The last issue (May) will hit newsstands on March 29. (2017)

So ya. I would have subscribed tho.

(2009)

Added. Thanks!

Tokyo vice is awesome!

Ichi the killer :-)

I really hate that people glorificate ilegal activity. I'm from Mexico and now we've a big problem with Cartels, people can't work because cartels extortion them, and now they commit terrorist acts to civilian towns with dronebombs. That's not cool, but in Mexico there are also Narco corridos, that glorificates narcotrafic. It sucks, there are no place for criminal in a civilized country. They have to be hated not loved.

Also

>evil foreign criminals

Like who?

While I can see your frustration, what if the government suddenly made something you do illegal. Ever considered that one?

Maybe legalization would be better for society, though who's going to reap the profits appears to be the main driving factor.

Japan is just about the least likely country to glorify illegal activity there is. I'm not sure they'd even understand the concept half the time.

It's a problem for their soft power because it means they can't do any of the cool music genres. How can you have metal bands or rappers if none of them are allowed to do drugs or commit any crimes?

(If there's a hint any musician knows what a marijuana leaf might look like they and all their work get instantly deleted entirely from society. Although they do let music producers sexually abuse all the talents they can get their hands on.)

> How can you have metal bands or rappers if none of them are allowed to do drugs or commit any crimes?

Drugs and crime aren't really in the metal imagery, I'm not convinced it's the explanation (also I don't think metal culture has ever really been significant soft power, always been too niche)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Norwegian_black_metal_sc...

I am not really a fan of either rap or metal, but Japan has a very healthy scene of musicians in both genres. You don't have to commit crimes to do music.

>How can you have metal bands or rappers if none of them are allowed to do drugs or commit any crimes?

Oh no I had a list of good Japanese rock, metal and rap music right here but I seem to have dropped it...

Hanabie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFbQ-Mewfw

Mad Capsule Markets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al1ihLf_e18

Maximum the Hormone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beN5ep5MrdY

Jiluka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psEMRalCPFQ

Deviloof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWDENni6Pbc

Nemophila: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26aMuahxz8c

Unlucky Morpheus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8i_QhOgsKw

Ningen Isu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbI79e5iZKs

Band Maid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZIJ2vFxu9Y

Stereopony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYV-XJdzupY

Gallhammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDiWv276t78

Chanmina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efcyoenRdnE

Wednesday Campanella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1oxh8Z-2ko

Tokyo Gegegay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9W6rvoqIME

Notice I didn't say anything about rock. They are good at that.

Can't have sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, but you can still have two of three.

Don't double down on your own ignorance.

Japan has rock. The have punk. They have metal. They have rap. They have deathcore. Go through the list. Look up fucking Hanatarash. Take ten minutes to Google. They have everything.

You don't need "sex drugs and rock and roll," you just need an appreciation for the culture and a sense of alienation and rage against an oppressive system. Which, despite your belief that Japanese people cannot even comprehend the concept of illegal activity or rebellion, they do have. You need to stop looking at people and cultures in terms of reductionist stereotypes.

Interesting timing.

Just watching 'Tokyo Vice'[1] on Amazon Prime now.

There was an episode or two where Jake is chasing down a Yakusa Fan Magazine author to get intel on Tozawa.

Amazing Show! Reminds me a bit of 'The Wire'.

1. https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Vice-Season-1/dp/B0B73QR4TM

If you haven't finished the show yet then it's still enjoyable.

Personally, I was extremely frustrated by how much they stretched the episodes and for it to have ended with the possibility of another season.

If they cut 2 episodes and concluded it as a single mini series then it could have been great.

Season 2 already started (episode 3 aired this week). I'm with you, though, thinking it's getting stretched out.

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