Old Skool Yakuza Gangster Assassination - New Skool Government Fear Mongering

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." - Rahm Emanuel

Well, as it has been said, never to let a good crisis go to waste, a gangland killing in Japan has gotten the police and the mass media in a huff to show the population of Japan just how much serious danger they, and their children, are in. What ever will we do? Well, obviously, we need to rely on the police to protect us from these senseless gangster killers who are out to kill us all and eat our children. Read on.

Yakuza are going the way of the samurai... The ones I see never dress nice like this anymore.... They only dress nicely like this in the movies...

It looks like the Yakuza gangsters in Japan have really fallen on tough times. It seems that things are so bad that they've started eating out at crummy family restaurants. What ever happened to the classy joints these guys used to hang at at? You know, guys like Don Corleone who would only go to those ritzy members-only clubs that were filled with those classy hot dames like you see in the movies?

Yeah. Like this. High class women... Gentlemanly attitude

Gangsters hanging out at family restaurants!? I mean, has business gotten that bad? My business is bad too but I never go to family restaurants like Denny's. I hate that place. Family restaurants are over-priced and the food isn't good at all (excepting the salad bar at Sizzler's). And trust folks, even though I don't go, I do know that Denny's in Japan is MUCH better than Denny's in the USA. Denny's in Japan is actually kept very clean and the service is good (well, this is Japan, after all).


But, that's not the point. Never mind.


It seems that in Chiba, a Yakuza guy walked into a Denny's restaurant, pulled out a gun and blew away another Yakuza guy who was sitting there. I think it was a planned "hit" because there was no big scene or fight before the shooting.   


The Japan Times Reports in "Mobster Dead in Eatery Shooting":

CHIBA — An apparently underworld member gunned down another yakuza in a crowded Denny's eatery in Togane, Chiba Prefecture, and then fled, police said.

The shooter, thought to be a gangster in his 60s, remains at large. The victim, Yoshiaki Furukawa, 62, from Kujyukuri, also apparently a yakuza, was shot in the chest. The gunman fled by car from the Denny's Togane Bypass outlet at around 10:05 a.m.

Police, who suspect the killing stemmed from money troubles, set up checkpoints on key routes.

Furukawa entered the Denny's with four others at 8:45 a.m. He started talking with the gunman, who came in shortly before 10 a.m., at another table near the door before he was shot.

"I heard a loud bang real close, just a few meters away from me," said one customer. "When I looked over my shoulder, a man was lying on the floor, bleeding."

So, the Yakuza are out shooting each other in what looks to be a planned event and what to the police do? They scare the entire eastern half of Japan by telling people to take their little children home from school and setting up roadblocks for someone who they don't even know what he looks like.

The female news reporter on the left at the start of the video is amusing in how much she tries her best to look serious and that she actually cares. Also notice the dozens of police and intentionally high visibility at the crime scene. They must have sent every single policeman available to make for great news video!

From the description of the Japan Times quote above the only thing that this news report adds is that the shooting was near a Denny's that is near two schools. I hate to sound like a Negative Nelly, but, well, yeah. The Denny's is near a train station, like probably every Denny's in Japan. Nobody in their right mind puts a family restaurant - or a school - too awfully far from a train station, especially when we're talking about big Japanese cities. Nevertheless, this gives the broadcasting station enough "gunpowder" to be able to scare everyone that the Yakuza are coming for your children! The underlying message being that we need the police to protect us from these out-of-control demons.


Once again, the police will use this incident as some sort of proof that we need more police protection and more laws clamping down on the Yakuza (which has been ongoing for this last year). I think that sort of notion is complete and absolute nonsense. Let me explain and add some perspective to this.


From the Associated Press:

Japan, where very few people own guns, averages 124 gun-related attacks a year, and less than 1 percent end in death. Police often raid the homes of those suspected of having weapons. 

And may I add this from the Asia-Pacific Law Review: 

Gun crime does exist, but in very low numbers. There were only 30 crimes committed in 1989 with shotguns or air rifles. With no legal civilian handgun possession, Japan experiences in an average year less than 200 violent crimes perpetrated with a handgun, of which almost all are perpetrated by Boryokudan, organised crime groups. Most gun crimes involve only unlicensed possession, and not the commission of another crime. 

Anyone can see that the hype doesn't reflect the reality. We don't need more laws curtailing whatever it is that the Yakuza are doing, especially ridiculous things like scalping tickets and we certainly do not need to increase police or government budgets.


We need to cut government spending. With our public debt at 229% of GDP, we certainly do not need to use these sorts of excuses to increase police budgets for crimes that kill 127 people a year (and nearly all of them perpetrated against gangster by gangsters - not regular people) in a country of 127 million people. Heck, in 2010 over 350,000 people died of cancer... 


But laying in a hospital bed with tubes in ones nose doesn't make for good or exciting TV news, now does it? Shootouts and panic are much better for increasing budgets and asking for more taxation. 




Thanks to Japan Times and News on Japan

Hello Kitty Ticket Scalper Arrested! Anal Retentive Police Completely Out of Hand

Here we go again. Just after I complained about the Japanese police for busting a bar in Roppongi for allowing, of all things, dancing after midnight, now the cops have gone off and have arrested a guy for selling tickets to Sanrio Puroland (Hello Kitty Fun Park). 


This just pisses me off to no end that the cops waste our tax money with idiocy like this. Don't they have any real criminals to chase?


Once again, the Super-publication of truth, justice and the Japanese way, the Tokyo Reporter has the story:

Yamaguchi-gumi gangster arrested for scalping Hello Kitty fun park tickets

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Kao Iwata, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi criminal organization, for attempting to resell complimentary tickets to the Sanrio Puroland theme park in Tokyo’s Tama City, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 6).

Here we go again with the "Yakuza crackdown on ticket sellers." And, once agin, my complaints of "Don't we have other, more important problems to deal with?"

At approximately 11:10 a.m. on Sunday, an undercover officer from the TMD heard the 46-year-old suspect soliciting customers for tickets to enter the park, which offers attractions and rides featuring popular characters from the Sanrio brand, such as Hello Kitty.

Oh! He went "Undercover"!? Wow! (cue: Mission Impossible music) 

Iwata was attempting to sell individual tickets for 2,500 yen each. He was arrested for violating anti-nuisance ordinances.

What nuisance? If it's a family of three, he tried to save them about $60! I would have bought them!

According to the Community Safety Department of the TMD, Iwata had 12 complimentary tickets in his possession. “I received the tickets from an acquaintance,” the suspect is quoted by police. “I have no income, and I thought this would be a way to support myself.”

How in the world does selling tickets to Hello Kitty World involve "Community Safety?" The guy didn't have a job. He had no income. Hell, for all we know he has a kid... You do what you have to do, right?

Here's the story on the Japanese evening news no less!

I've stated it before that the police are obstructing business. Jeez! Confirmed by  the news story this desperado had a grand total of 12 tickets that he was trying to pedal off for ¥2,500 each (about $32 each). 12 tickets x $32.00 comes to a whopping grand total of $384. 

Sanrio Puroland entry tickets sell for ¥4,400 each (about $56 each)... Hell, the guy hasn't a job and he's out to try to make a buck. So what? 

I'm sure the good folks at Sanrio Puroland don't like it, but I really wonder if this is worth it to us all to have to pay taxes and arrest this guy for doing what he has to do to make some cash so he can live and eat.

I wonder how much money it cost us to arrest him?

Of course, as usual, people will blast me and say that the Yakuza have to be cracked down on because of "Human Trafficking." I say, "Bullshit!" When we have a story about the police actually arresting Yaks for human trafficking, then I might not complain. But this after-hours dancing and scalping tickets as well as prostitution busts are nothing more than a waste of tax dollars.

Aressting people for victimless crimes is BS.

I say death penalty!


NOTE: Anecdotal evidence. My wife tells me that the scalper was selling free entry tickets. These tickets are passed out in huge volumes to shareholders of Sario stock at shareholder's meetings. According to her, the vast majority of people entering Sanrio Puroland on weekends enter with free tickets. Many of the people visiting on weekends get in with free tickets from the shareholders and the other huge block of people who are admitted for free get their tickets from renewing newspaper subscriptions. My wife claims that "there isn't a family in our neighborhood who hasn't gone to Sanrio Puroland for free, except us." She, nor I, have any intention of going there for free or not. If you consider that most people get in for free and this guy was trying to sell entry tickets for ¥2,500 maybe that explains why he doesn't have a job.

The Tokyo Reporter is, in my opinion, one of the best English language publications in Japan as they translate into English stories that appear in the standard Japanese weeklies. With Tokyo Reporter, you get the news that the Japanese people get and not some twisted (and often confused) foreign outlook.