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I've always found it mildly amusing that Gibson picked Chiba, of all places, for his "Night City". In reality it's a rather dull suburban, mostly residential ex
by thematrixturtle 4y ago
I've always found it mildly amusing that Gibson picked Chiba, of all places, for his "Night City". In reality it's a rather dull suburban, mostly residential extension of Tokyo (in Japanese, a "bed town") primarily known as the location of Narita Airport, with both criminal organizations and zaibatsu HQs in distinctly short supply.
That said, I'm not quite sure where I'd locate it. Akihabara would have been a shoo-in but that's been taken over by the anime crowd. Kawasaki, perhaps?
- saberdancer 4y agoI would wager that he chose it due to the name being simple and "unused". Kawasaki is a motorcycle brand so it would be slightly confusing, Akihabara is quite long and harder to pronounce.
- duskwuff 4y agoDid Chiba and Akihabara have their respective reputations in the early 1980s, though? It's a little silly to compare the modern state of a city with a 40-year-old projection.
- thematrixturtle 4y agoYes, nothing about Chiba has fundamentally changed since the 1980s. Akihabara has shifted from electronics to anime/gaming, but that's a fairly natural progression and it's still very geeky/otaku, just in a different way.
- rasz 4y agohttps://sabukaru.online/articles/ghosts-of-1980s-japan-by-johny-pitts https://sabukaru.online/articles/ghosts-of-1980s-japan-by-jo... http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/1983-akihabara-japan-cassette2go-aka-james-pierce-took-pics-of-stuff-he-could-not-afford.7106/ http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/1983-akihabara-japan-cas... 昭和６１年の秋葉原（※別に高画質版あります） Akihabara 1986 (240p Low quality version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6zmIe0tJxE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6zmIe0tJxE Fun To See What Was For Sale In 1993 Tokyo Electronics District https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNoVD-ljVBM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNoVD-ljVBM Gibson made stuff up as any sf writer does. He never used a computer before writing Neuromancer, and he visited Japan for the first time in 1988, 4 years after first novel release.
- staplung 4y agoYeah, the first time I went to Tokyo I was excited to see that the train to/from the airport would be passing through Chiba. When we got there I thought: "Huh. Not what I was expecting." There is a passage in the book with a potential explanation: “There were countless theories explaining why Chiba City tolerated the Ninsei enclave, but Case tended toward the idea that the Yakuza might be preserving the place as a kind of historical park, a reminder of humble origins.” But I've never been able to find a corroborated connection between Chiba and the Yakuza, though the extent of my looking has been nothing more than some desultory google searches.
- thematrixturtle 4y agoThe yakuza are more active in southern Japan, particularly Kobe and Kyushu, than in Tokyo, although they can certainly still be found in the nightlife districts. In general, they're also far less powerful than breathless Western reporting (including Gibson's portrayal) tends to make them out to be, in part thanks to a persistent multi-decade police crackdown.
- afiori 4y agoif it is anything to go by (probably not), most Yakuza stories in mangas are about collapsed clans surviving or waning organizations trying to rebuild a mafia rule
- jinto36 4y agoThey mostly run construction companies now, an industry where there's been a wild amount of corruption for a long time- in part why most rivers have completely unnecessary concrete banks, ostensibly for "flood control". See "Dogs and Demons" by Alex Kerr (http://alex-kerr.com/html/dogs___demons__english_.html http://alex-kerr.com/html/dogs___demons__english_.html). Anecdotally, I know someone who owned a house in Okazaki (a city outside of Nagoya). Someone decided they wanted the land for a construction project, so they resorted to threats to get him to move- such as smashing his car windows. No way that was a random punk smashing windows- when I lived in Okazaki, a defaced public bathroom would make the local news. Classic Yakuza tactic, and unfortunately he ended up moving because of it.
- gimmeThaBeet 4y agoI think Kawasaki def works as a more proper "city between cities" vibe. Prob not a weighty opinion, but I would probably look around Osaka, the idea of Nishinari mainly. But in general, the mercantile legacy of Osaka just feels more fitting to paint a "anything for a price" kind of dystopia. And admittedly, I would say a big part of why I think that is that I think the real correct answer is just Ghost in the Shell's Niihama: Borrow heavily from Hong Kong, except it's in Osaka Bay or Tokushima (not sure exactly which, I always thought it was Osaka, but google has turned up both).
- simonebrunozzi 4y agoI always love to read HN comments from people that live in Japan (I have a special interest in Japan, for many small reasons). I visited Japan a few times, and during the pandemic I spent 3 months in Kyoto. It was an absolutely incredible experience that I will never forget. I even started to learn some basic Japanese - ten times, maybe? And of course gave up every time :( One day I'll visit again, and I hope I'll meet tens of people like you, and listen to stories and details like the one in your comment.
- nikanj 4y agoWan San Jose very interesting before it turned into Silicon Valley?
- Apocryphon 4y agoSan José is still not very interesting now, in terms of urban experience- it can actually be described as “dull suburban“. And its size is mostly attributable to an imperiously expansionist city manager in the 50s and 60s, not only because of tech.
- Tade0 4y agoApparently this went on to live a life of its own in Grand Theft Auto 2, where the district controlled by the Yakuza is named Funabashi.