9 ms·

A Dangerous and Costly Photo in Japan

308 points by curiously 12y ago

mistercow 12y ago
> A police source said they will not specify the location of the injury "because it's something only the assailant would know, and we wish to weed out possible false confessions." Whoa, Japan has cops who recognize that false confessions are a thing? Wish we had those in the US.
- zht 12y ago
  "Many Western human rights organizations alleged that the high conviction rate is due to rampant use of conviction solely based on confession. Confessions are often obtained after long periods of questioning by police as those arrested may be held for up to 23 days. This can, at times, take weeks during which time the suspect is in detention and can be prevented from contacting a lawyer or family.[3]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice_system_of_Japan#Confession_in_Japanese_criminal_investigation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice_system_of_Japa...
- downwell 12y ago
  In Japan, sacrifice for your family and organization are what bring you respect. The police take that into consideration. In the States, meeting the bust quota so you earn your promotion for ridding the streets of scumbags is what brings you respect. The police take that into consideration.
- veidr 12y ago
  Don't get too excited. Japanese cops are infamous for coercing and even creating false confessions when they can't solve, e.g., a high-profile murder. And for every Iwao Hakamada[1], you have to think there are many more innocent people convicted, who didn't become big media stories and are still serving time. [1]: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/japanese-man-freed-death-row-retrial http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/japanese-man-fr...
- danso 12y ago
  Your snark is unjustified...Withholding public information about the particulars of a crime is common practice in the United States. The problem is not just false confessions, but false witnesses who claim to have seen something, but in retrospect, are only repeating second-hand information...this can hinder an investigation.
- mixmax 12y ago
  I think this is reasonable normal in most civilised societies.
- venomsnake 12y ago
  From all I have read the problem with US is not the quality of investigative work of the police, but the size of the mallets DA have at their disposal and their discretion of using them.
Fizzadar 12y ago
After reading the article I spent the last half hour looking deeper into the Yakuza. It's quite amazing just how integrated they are into Japanese society, that they have a strong, highly respected morale code and the way they are semi-legal entities that the government/police (mostly) ignore.
- nhebb 12y ago
  > morale code The yubitsume(†) will continue until morale improves. † finger cutting
- droidist2 12y ago
  True. I've been meaning to read the book Yakuza Moon for a while.
- mahranch 12y ago
  > It's quite amazing just how integrated they are into Japanese society Only, they're not. I don't know why people keep repeating this. The Yakuza has been on the decline since the early 90s. The only place they're still integrated are in the shady areas of society (mainly, industries for vices. Porn, Pachinko Parlors, Soaplands, etc...) You're not going to find the Yakuza operating a franchise Burger King, clothing store or find them shaking down a mom & pop aquarium store. Again, the Yakuza has been dying. All of the "real" powerful bosses went completely legit, only dabbling in white collar crimes (if at all). What's left are the scraps. Scraps without much power, pull or sway. They're basically just thugs who couldn't, wouldn't or didn't want to go legit. They're no longer the Yakuza we once knew.
forrestthewoods 12y ago
The fact that organized crime in Japan is so open and blatant blows my mind. This type of behavior has no place in a modern society. So crazy.
- SG- 12y ago
  And what about biker gangs (Hells Angels) and Italian mafia in the US/Canada?
  - jedrek 12y ago
    What about the Italian mafia in the US/Canada?
  - cheeze 12y ago
    You mean the Mafia that has been heavily targeted by the FBI in the papst 20 years? I can't speak on biker gangs, but the mafia is under a very watchful eye.
  - roel_v 12y ago
    In most jurisdictions they lost the vast majority of the power they once had, so what about them?
- ekezi 12y ago
  In the Philippines we also have this, we call it the "Government"
  - tgbrfv 12y ago
    Nope, globalisation, its the same everywhere*, the variables here are methods and "marketing"/pr - there is a smooth transition between banks and big-co's, intelligence communities, governments and organised crime .. like terrorism and ngo's, oc is just another tool in the toolbox(there were even papers published on this topic - read the non-revised versions - but I'm not here for this kind of work sooo no links)
  - unreal37 12y ago
sdoering 12y ago
Why is it, that whenever there is a FIFA WC or Olympics, that there seems to be ties to organized crime, poor working conditions, bribery and so on, but nothing ever happens, the games go through (every time) and everybody is watching, what is just a show of "panem et circenses". Why do "modern" societies accept these kinds of festivities, with all what is surrounding them?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- baddox 12y ago
  It's a fairly vague question, but an interesting one from an economic or game theoretical perspective. I suppose the concept of "a modern society accepting" something is nothing more than the aggregate of millions of individuals' choices, and very few individuals are capable of significantly changing anything about the way governments or very large organizations operate. Making matters worse, the benefit of any small change an individual can make is shared among millions of other individuals. Thus "good society" is a public good (at least when the society is governed by a democratic state), and like any public good, it is prone to being underproduced.
- drinchev 12y ago
  That's a question I've been asking myself a lot while I talk with my family. I think there are two possible reasons : 1. There is big conspiracy between organized crime and governments on a worldwide level, which conclude in mutual help ( government <-> organized crime ) 2. The rate of bribes and illegal business deals are overrated by media and actually there isn't such a thing as "massive corruption practices". Those both reasons are part of what I figured out as the "conspiracy paradox", which ( ironically ) is again based on two statements : 1. There isn't any large conspiracy theory existing, because there is a statistically significant change of a whistleblower to come out and speak about that. 2. Statement 1 is equally true ( Edward Snowden ) and false ( Other unrevealed whistleblowers ).
  - tgbrfv 12y ago
    You should really research & pick your "world axioms" wisely, if done so you wouldn't see paradoxes where there are none. There is currently no way for a whistleblower to publish any information that powers on different levels don't want him to publish. That naive "hollywoody" view that you just send some information to all major news outlets/police/your representative(s) and things somehow change for the best .. how many dead whistleblowers because of this 24/7 reinforced naive world view will it take, so much fakery and people are still in the dark(would expect more from this community - although I understand the temptation to fall for every false hero/honeypot organistation our powers throw at you in this medieval society)
throwaway---- 12y ago
Jake "The Fake" Adelstein has been outed several times, and has a long-running feud going with real journalist Christopher Johnson. eg https://globalitewatchdog.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/jake-adelstein-nathalie-stucky-plagiarism-defamation-japan/ https://globalitewatchdog.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/jake-adel... http://pastebin.com/XBtNgf1P http://pastebin.com/XBtNgf1P (sorry I can't find the original) btw that top photo in the Vice article is a fake, trying to find the original now....
- jpatokal 12y ago
  Jake does indeed see yakuza lurking behind every pillar... but he's far more a "real" journalist than Christopher "Gaijin Gulag" Johnson (who also has a habit of posting anonymously: CJ, is that you?). http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/20/christopher-johnson-under-fire-for-gaijin-gulag-article/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/20/christopher-johnson-und...
- a_bonobo 12y ago
  Are you Christopher Johnson? This is an obvious throwaway account. I've sometimes stumbled over this weird feud, and it seems that Christoper Johnson is not a "real journalist", but someone who may need psychological help.
  - throwaway---- 12y ago
    lol nope, I'd hope the real Christopher Johnson would paint himself in a better light than saying he was involved in a childish feud with a self-styled reporter of the underworld. You could say I'm just someone who is shocked at how badly everyone here wants to suspend reality and believe the yakuza story. Anyone who has met Adelstein knows within about 20 minutes of talking to him that he is just another Japan-weirdo with a big imagination.
- snlacks 12y ago
  That first article is hilarious.
igonvalue 12y ago
> In addition to serving as the vice chairman of Japan's Olympic Committee, Tanaka is also the chief director of Japan's largest college, Japan University, and the president of the International Sumo Association I was curious to learn more about Japan University, but it seems that there doesn't actually exist an institution that goes by that name! The Wikipedia page for "Japan University" does not exist, and a Google search for "Japan University" in quotes doesn't turn up any results for a Japan University on the first page. It seems that he's actually referring to Nihon University; Nihon means "Japan" in Japanese.
- maaku 12y ago
  The word "Japan" doesn't exist in Japanese, so I'm not sure what your point is...
  - nandemo 12y ago
    The point is that "Japan University" is a mistranslation. The official English name of 日本大学 is Nihon University. A fairly reasonable mistranslation since 日本 is usually rendered as "Japan", e.g. 日本航空 is Japan Airlines.
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      > The point is that "Japan University" is a mistranslation. The official English name of 日本大学 is Nihon University. Its an accurate translation; though the existence of an official English name would generally eliminate the need for any translation, as using the existing official English name of the institution would generally be considered more proper than translating at all.
      - tanderson92 12y ago
        Only if you assume that English should be the default language when it comes to higher education institutions' names. And we all know Japan has a bit of a reputation for xenophobia. I wouldn't expect this to change any time soon.
jpatokal 12y ago
So a dash of soy sauce for anybody reading this article without some familiarity with the background: Jake Adelstein is a reporter who shot to fame with his book "Tokyo Vice", which is about being the first Western reporter to cover the crime beat at a Japanese newspaper, not a small achievement. However, in the five years since, Jake's articles have been basically all yakuza all the time, and tend to imply that the yakuza are everywhere in Japanese society, pulling strings all the time. However, in actuality, the yakuza are slowly fading away. The police started clamping down pretty hard in 1992 and have kept up the pressure ever since, with many traditional yakuza businesses like protection money, extortion becoming more and more difficult, and increasing societal pressure on yakuza members themselves. Consequently, yakuza revenues and membership have plummeted, and infighting between groups fighting for slices of the remaining cake (drugs, gambling, illegal prostitution, etc) isn't helping. Here's a summary, cowritten oddly enough by Jake himself, although he does somewhat unconvincingly claim that the yakuza are just going underground in response: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/09/where-have-japan-s-yakuza-gone.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/09/where-have-...
- nodata 12y ago
  But leaded fuel was banned in Japan in 1986.
chris_wot 12y ago
How do we know these photos weren't photoshopped?
- eru 12y ago
  As a layman, I don't. But there are certain forensics you can do to be more certain. (Or at least be certain that it's a good `shop.) See eg https://superuser.com/questions/442352/detect-if-a-photo-has-been-manipulated-or-faked https://superuser.com/questions/442352/detect-if-a-photo-has...
gtirloni 12y ago
More than 1bn for a single photo? I say bubble.
jmnicolas 12y ago
When I see a Yakuza with only one finger cut, I know it's a good one : he made a mistake only once. I would not mess with this guy. Btw I believe that like death and taxes organized crime is something no human society can go without. I'd rather have the Yakuzas than say MS13.
bgun 12y ago
How does "Streisand effect" translate?
aidenn0 12y ago
One of the names mentioned as a higher-up in the yakuza was clearly Korean; in general ethinc Koreans are at a disadvantage in Japan, so it surprises me that they can rise to high position in the yakuza.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

308 points by curiously 12y ago

> A police source said they will not specify the location of the injury "because it's something only the assailant would know, and we wish to weed out possible false confessions." Whoa, Japan has cops who recognize that false confessions are a thing? Wish we had those in the US.

zht 12y ago
"Many Western human rights organizations alleged that the high conviction rate is due to rampant use of conviction solely based on confession. Confessions are often obtained after long periods of questioning by police as those arrested may be held for up to 23 days. This can, at times, take weeks during which time the suspect is in detention and can be prevented from contacting a lawyer or family.[3]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice_system_of_Japan#Confession_in_Japanese_criminal_investigation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice_system_of_Japa...
downwell 12y ago
In Japan, sacrifice for your family and organization are what bring you respect. The police take that into consideration. In the States, meeting the bust quota so you earn your promotion for ridding the streets of scumbags is what brings you respect. The police take that into consideration.
veidr 12y ago
Don't get too excited. Japanese cops are infamous for coercing and even creating false confessions when they can't solve, e.g., a high-profile murder. And for every Iwao Hakamada[1], you have to think there are many more innocent people convicted, who didn't become big media stories and are still serving time. [1]: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/japanese-man-freed-death-row-retrial http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/japanese-man-fr...
danso 12y ago
Your snark is unjustified...Withholding public information about the particulars of a crime is common practice in the United States. The problem is not just false confessions, but false witnesses who claim to have seen something, but in retrospect, are only repeating second-hand information...this can hinder an investigation.
mixmax 12y ago
I think this is reasonable normal in most civilised societies.
venomsnake 12y ago
From all I have read the problem with US is not the quality of investigative work of the police, but the size of the mallets DA have at their disposal and their discretion of using them.

Fizzadar 12y ago

After reading the article I spent the last half hour looking deeper into the Yakuza. It's quite amazing just how integrated they are into Japanese society, that they have a strong, highly respected morale code and the way they are semi-legal entities that the government/police (mostly) ignore.

nhebb 12y ago
> morale code The yubitsume(†) will continue until morale improves. † finger cutting
droidist2 12y ago
True. I've been meaning to read the book Yakuza Moon for a while.
mahranch 12y ago
> It's quite amazing just how integrated they are into Japanese society Only, they're not. I don't know why people keep repeating this. The Yakuza has been on the decline since the early 90s. The only place they're still integrated are in the shady areas of society (mainly, industries for vices. Porn, Pachinko Parlors, Soaplands, etc...) You're not going to find the Yakuza operating a franchise Burger King, clothing store or find them shaking down a mom & pop aquarium store. Again, the Yakuza has been dying. All of the "real" powerful bosses went completely legit, only dabbling in white collar crimes (if at all). What's left are the scraps. Scraps without much power, pull or sway. They're basically just thugs who couldn't, wouldn't or didn't want to go legit. They're no longer the Yakuza we once knew.

forrestthewoods 12y ago

The fact that organized crime in Japan is so open and blatant blows my mind. This type of behavior has no place in a modern society. So crazy.

SG- 12y ago
And what about biker gangs (Hells Angels) and Italian mafia in the US/Canada?
- jedrek 12y ago
  What about the Italian mafia in the US/Canada?
- cheeze 12y ago
  You mean the Mafia that has been heavily targeted by the FBI in the papst 20 years? I can't speak on biker gangs, but the mafia is under a very watchful eye.
- roel_v 12y ago
  In most jurisdictions they lost the vast majority of the power they once had, so what about them?
ekezi 12y ago
In the Philippines we also have this, we call it the "Government"
- tgbrfv 12y ago
  Nope, globalisation, its the same everywhere*, the variables here are methods and "marketing"/pr - there is a smooth transition between banks and big-co's, intelligence communities, governments and organised crime .. like terrorism and ngo's, oc is just another tool in the toolbox(there were even papers published on this topic - read the non-revised versions - but I'm not here for this kind of work sooo no links)
- unreal37 12y ago

sdoering 12y ago

Why is it, that whenever there is a FIFA WC or Olympics, that there seems to be ties to organized crime, poor working conditions, bribery and so on, but nothing ever happens, the games go through (every time) and everybody is watching, what is just a show of "panem et circenses". Why do "modern" societies accept these kinds of festivities, with all what is surrounding them?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
baddox 12y ago
It's a fairly vague question, but an interesting one from an economic or game theoretical perspective. I suppose the concept of "a modern society accepting" something is nothing more than the aggregate of millions of individuals' choices, and very few individuals are capable of significantly changing anything about the way governments or very large organizations operate. Making matters worse, the benefit of any small change an individual can make is shared among millions of other individuals. Thus "good society" is a public good (at least when the society is governed by a democratic state), and like any public good, it is prone to being underproduced.
drinchev 12y ago
That's a question I've been asking myself a lot while I talk with my family. I think there are two possible reasons : 1. There is big conspiracy between organized crime and governments on a worldwide level, which conclude in mutual help ( government <-> organized crime ) 2. The rate of bribes and illegal business deals are overrated by media and actually there isn't such a thing as "massive corruption practices". Those both reasons are part of what I figured out as the "conspiracy paradox", which ( ironically ) is again based on two statements : 1. There isn't any large conspiracy theory existing, because there is a statistically significant change of a whistleblower to come out and speak about that. 2. Statement 1 is equally true ( Edward Snowden ) and false ( Other unrevealed whistleblowers ).
- tgbrfv 12y ago
  You should really research & pick your "world axioms" wisely, if done so you wouldn't see paradoxes where there are none. There is currently no way for a whistleblower to publish any information that powers on different levels don't want him to publish. That naive "hollywoody" view that you just send some information to all major news outlets/police/your representative(s) and things somehow change for the best .. how many dead whistleblowers because of this 24/7 reinforced naive world view will it take, so much fakery and people are still in the dark(would expect more from this community - although I understand the temptation to fall for every false hero/honeypot organistation our powers throw at you in this medieval society)

throwaway---- 12y ago

Jake "The Fake" Adelstein has been outed several times, and has a long-running feud going with real journalist Christopher Johnson. eg https://globalitewatchdog.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/jake-adelstein-nathalie-stucky-plagiarism-defamation-japan/ https://globalitewatchdog.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/jake-adel... http://pastebin.com/XBtNgf1P http://pastebin.com/XBtNgf1P (sorry I can't find the original) btw that top photo in the Vice article is a fake, trying to find the original now....

jpatokal 12y ago
Jake does indeed see yakuza lurking behind every pillar... but he's far more a "real" journalist than Christopher "Gaijin Gulag" Johnson (who also has a habit of posting anonymously: CJ, is that you?). http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/20/christopher-johnson-under-fire-for-gaijin-gulag-article/ http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/20/christopher-johnson-und...
a_bonobo 12y ago
Are you Christopher Johnson? This is an obvious throwaway account. I've sometimes stumbled over this weird feud, and it seems that Christoper Johnson is not a "real journalist", but someone who may need psychological help.
- throwaway---- 12y ago
  lol nope, I'd hope the real Christopher Johnson would paint himself in a better light than saying he was involved in a childish feud with a self-styled reporter of the underworld. You could say I'm just someone who is shocked at how badly everyone here wants to suspend reality and believe the yakuza story. Anyone who has met Adelstein knows within about 20 minutes of talking to him that he is just another Japan-weirdo with a big imagination.
snlacks 12y ago
That first article is hilarious.

igonvalue 12y ago

> In addition to serving as the vice chairman of Japan's Olympic Committee, Tanaka is also the chief director of Japan's largest college, Japan University, and the president of the International Sumo Association I was curious to learn more about Japan University, but it seems that there doesn't actually exist an institution that goes by that name! The Wikipedia page for "Japan University" does not exist, and a Google search for "Japan University" in quotes doesn't turn up any results for a Japan University on the first page. It seems that he's actually referring to Nihon University; Nihon means "Japan" in Japanese.

maaku 12y ago
The word "Japan" doesn't exist in Japanese, so I'm not sure what your point is...
- nandemo 12y ago
  The point is that "Japan University" is a mistranslation. The official English name of 日本大学 is Nihon University. A fairly reasonable mistranslation since 日本 is usually rendered as "Japan", e.g. 日本航空 is Japan Airlines.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > The point is that "Japan University" is a mistranslation. The official English name of 日本大学 is Nihon University. Its an accurate translation; though the existence of an official English name would generally eliminate the need for any translation, as using the existing official English name of the institution would generally be considered more proper than translating at all.
    - tanderson92 12y ago
      Only if you assume that English should be the default language when it comes to higher education institutions' names. And we all know Japan has a bit of a reputation for xenophobia. I wouldn't expect this to change any time soon.

jpatokal 12y ago

So a dash of soy sauce for anybody reading this article without some familiarity with the background: Jake Adelstein is a reporter who shot to fame with his book "Tokyo Vice", which is about being the first Western reporter to cover the crime beat at a Japanese newspaper, not a small achievement. However, in the five years since, Jake's articles have been basically all yakuza all the time, and tend to imply that the yakuza are everywhere in Japanese society, pulling strings all the time. However, in actuality, the yakuza are slowly fading away. The police started clamping down pretty hard in 1992 and have kept up the pressure ever since, with many traditional yakuza businesses like protection money, extortion becoming more and more difficult, and increasing societal pressure on yakuza members themselves. Consequently, yakuza revenues and membership have plummeted, and infighting between groups fighting for slices of the remaining cake (drugs, gambling, illegal prostitution, etc) isn't helping. Here's a summary, cowritten oddly enough by Jake himself, although he does somewhat unconvincingly claim that the yakuza are just going underground in response: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/09/where-have-japan-s-yakuza-gone.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/09/where-have-...

nodata 12y ago
But leaded fuel was banned in Japan in 1986.

chris_wot 12y ago

How do we know these photos weren't photoshopped?

eru 12y ago
As a layman, I don't. But there are certain forensics you can do to be more certain. (Or at least be certain that it's a good `shop.) See eg https://superuser.com/questions/442352/detect-if-a-photo-has-been-manipulated-or-faked https://superuser.com/questions/442352/detect-if-a-photo-has...

gtirloni 12y ago

More than 1bn for a single photo? I say bubble.

jmnicolas 12y ago

When I see a Yakuza with only one finger cut, I know it's a good one : he made a mistake only once. I would not mess with this guy. Btw I believe that like death and taxes organized crime is something no human society can go without. I'd rather have the Yakuzas than say MS13.

bgun 12y ago

How does "Streisand effect" translate?

aidenn0 12y ago

One of the names mentioned as a higher-up in the yakuza was clearly Korean; in general ethinc Koreans are at a disadvantage in Japan, so it surprises me that they can rise to high position in the yakuza.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]