10 yakuza members arrested for stealing sea cucumbers from ocean

More wayward souls caught up in the glitz and glamour of the illegal sea cucumber trade.

A few years ago we reported on the growing problem of yakuza crews catching large amounts of sea cucumbers without a license. As odd as it may seem, sea cucumbers fetch a high price in some countries such as China where they’re used in cuisine and sometimes as a folk remedy.

▼ They’re also used in questionable ASMR videos.

Sea cucumbers also aren’t as strictly regulated by Japan as other seafoods, making them easier to ship abroad in large quantities without drawing attention. According to some reports, the sea cucumber black market can be as lucrative as drugs for organized crime groups in Japan.

▼ This news report from early last February suggests that the yakuza even have informants from within the coast guard feeding them info

In response, the government said they would tighten the rules surrounding sea cucumber exports, but it looks as if little has improved with the arrest of 10 scuba-diving gangsters as recently as 1 March.

The incident occurred on 25 August of last year. A Hokkaido Prefectural Police patrol car spotted a car parked on the shore in the town of Omu, and questioned the driver. At that same time a rubber boat loaded with oxygen tanks, radios, and other equipment came ashore.

There were no sea cucumbers on the tiny craft, but that’s in keeping with past incidents. In some cases the poached echinoderms are loaded onto a high-performance speed boat capable of outrunning the coast guard, and whisked away. When the literal coast is clear, they are then loaded on to trucks and prepared for export.

▼ In this incident in Kagawa last June, 12 men were caught on tape and arrested trying to move 100 keys of mucusy contraband

So, knowing that something was clearly going on, the police investigated the incident further and connected 10 members of the Asahikawa branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza family, including one 57-year-old boss.

As of 2018, the maximum penalty for poaching sea cucumbers was six months in prison, which isn’t a huge stretch for mobsters. Still, it’ll be a hard six months of having to awkwardly answer the question: “What are you in for?”

Jokes aside, this is a serious problem that may be doing irreparable harm to the ecosystem of the ocean, and it’s been going on for too long. However, it is often said that problems are just opportunities in disguise. Combine that with the old adage which states “if you can’t beat them, join them,” and there might be a way we can all work together here.

It seems all someone would have to do is start a good old fashioned fake news campaign, declaring that ground-up cockroaches cure erectile dysfunction. Then, slip in a few YouTube videos with that Matrix red-pill music in the background and a #WhyDoYouThinkTheyreCalledCockroaches hashtag, and before you know it demand will be so big you’ll have yakuza goons going from building to building, “robbing” homes and businesses of their roaches.

Everyone’s a winner!

Source: Jiji.com
Top image: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!



Credit:

Shinkansen ice cream sales suspended on board bullet train, sell out online

These Shinkansen-exclusive ice creams are so famous they even have their own hashtag.

When you take a trip on a Japanese bullet train, there are a lot of things to look forward to on the journey, including the onboard trolley service, where you can purchase Sujata ice cream, a treat so rare it can’t be purchased anywhere else.

Now, with passenger numbers down during the pandemic, one Shinkansen line has sadly suspended sales of the ice cream onboard from February. However, they’ve decided to make everyone’s dreams come true by offering the Shinkansen-exclusive ice cream for sale online, and it’s so popular it sells out within minutes every time there’s a restock.

▼ Our Japanese-language reporter K. Masami failed to get an order in for the new ice creams until she got lucky on the third restock.

The Sanyo Shinkansen, which connects Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, is selling the ice creams online in 12-piece boxes, containing either all vanilla, all matcha or six of each variety. Masami got the mixed set and immediately went to open one of the matcha ice creams first, as it’s the one she always chooses when riding the Shinkansen.

Peeling off the foil lid, Masami was curious to see if the home-delivered ice creams would have the same hardness as the ones served on the train. Sujata ice creams are so famous for their hardness they even have their own hashtag on social media–“Shinkansen sugoi katai aisu” (“super hard Shinkansen ice cream“)–with photos and videos showing people unable to insert the spoon into the super-stiff ice cream.

▼ Masami took hold of the attached spoon and went to stab it into the dessert, but no matter how hard she tried, it just wouldn’t penetrate through the surface.

▼ No doubt about it, this was the genuine super hard Shinkansen ice cream!

Letting go of the spoon leaves it standing upright on its own in the tub, a sight so familiar to Sujata ice cream fans it should really become the logo for the brand. As fans will know, it takes about ten minutes for the ice cream to soften up just enough to allow the spoon to slide into the still-hard ice cream–which means you should order it way in advance of reaching your stop–so Masami left the tub for a while and came back to it once she was able to pick up a good spoonful.

As soon as she managed to tease the dessert out onto the spoon, Masami dropped a dollop onto her tongue and closed her eyes. The delicious taste of the rich, high quality matcha ice cream melted ever so slowly over her taste buds, immediately whisking her off to a seat on a bullet train, where the only destination that mattered was the bottom of the tub inside her hand.

Currently, the end-date for online sales of the ice cream is yet to be announced, although the company has said they’ll be available online until the day before onboard sales resume. So if you’d like to try the famously hard ice creams in the comfort of your own home, the time to purchase them is now, and at 4,800 yen (US$44.97) for a box of 12, including tax and shipping, it’s a lot cheaper than having to buy a ticket on the bullet train to try one.

Related: West Japan Railway Food Service Net Company
 Photos © SoraNews24
 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!



Credit:

Who actually writes Japan’s Letters from Little Sister and schoolgirl love letter capsule toys?

It turns out there’s a division of labor between who comes up with the words and who writes them on the papers.

The bar for strangeness is set pretty high in the world of Japan’s capsule toys. After all, right now you can find machines selling such oddities as figures of gorillas wearing randoseru backpacks or Shiba dogs with their heads bursting out of ukiyo-e woodblock artwork.

But even by gacha toy standards, manufacturer Capsule Corporation’s Imoto Kara no Tegami line is pretty out there, since the name translates to “Letters from Little Sister,” and each capsule includes a letter filled with deep sibling devotion to and/or frightening possessiveness of Big Brother, like in the letter than says “Who was that girl I saw you with? Onii-chan KILL Onii-chan…What did the two of you do together? I won’t forgive you.”

The letters come on pieces of paper folded up and nestled inside the capsules, and while some are printed with a hand-written font, others actually are written by hand.

But who’s actually putting pen to paper? That was the question put to Capsule Corporation CEO Hideaki Eto by magazine Nikkan Spa, and at the risk of shattering the illusion, he revealed that the letters are not, in fact, written by teenage girls. “They’re generally written by women in their 20s, 30s, or 40s” Eto explained. Most of the time, it’s one or two women writing the expressive, brightly colored characters, but when things get busy, they bring in five or six part-timers to help with the extra workload.

In addition to Letter from Little Sister, Capsule Corporation has a second line of hand-written letter capsule toys called Letters from Kiki, which contain love letters from a schoolgirl. For these, the handwriting is done by maids who work at a maid cafe the company manages.

▼ A Letter from Kiki

But while that answers the question of who’s writing the letters in a physical sense, it’s someone else who’s writing them in the sense of thinking up the words that go into the letters in the first place. So Eto also revealed the identity of the person composing the Letters from Kiki, and it turns out it’s…Eto himself! “I’m the one who composes them. I get really fired up writing love letters in the middle of the night.”

However, Eto isn’t ready to pull back the curtain on all of his company’s secrets, and so he declined to say who’s composing the Letters from Little Sisters series. If we had to put money on it, we’d bet that he’s handling that duty too.

Source: Nikkan Spa via Livedoor News via Jin
Photos © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!



Credit:

Naomi Watanabe is moving to the U.S., switching base of operations to outside Japan

Multi-faceted entertainer says she’s been preparing for the transition for years.

In Japan, when a celebrity steps away from intensive activity in the entertainment industry, they’re often described as “graduating.” So it came as a surprise for fans on Monday when Naomi Watanabe, one of Japan’s most popular entertainers, announced that she’ll be graduating from regular Japanese TV work at the end of this month.

However, Watanabe isn’t fleeing the spotlight, but crossing the ocean, as she’ll be moving to the U.S. and switching her focus to the American/English international media sphere.

Watanabe broke the news bilingually, in Japanese and English, through her Instagram account. “I wanted to let you all know that I will be based out of the U.S. starting April!” she excitedly announced, saying that she’s been working towards the transition especially hard for the last two years. She’s also already signed with not one, but two talent agencies, Los Angeles-based ICM Partners, which operates in the movie, TV, music, and new media sectors, and New York modeling agencies IMG Models, suggesting that she intends to continue her multi-faceted career that spans comedy, acting, music, and fashion.

One day prior to her Instagram announcement Watanabe appeared on Japanese variety program Hayashi-sensei no Hatsumimigaku where she talked about her international ambitions, with the 33-year-old saying she wants to play the lead role in an American comedy movie by the time she’s 40.

▼ Watanabe was in New York for work in October of last year.

Watanabe, who spent time studying abroad in the U.S. in 2014, hasn’t said what part of the States she’ll be making her home, though she’s been the owner of a home in New York since 2019. Previously, she’d been considering trying to split her time evenly between Japan and the U.S., but the current coronavirus situation makes such frequent international travel a health risk and logistics nightmare, and so with her representation contracts set with ICM and IMG, the timing was right to pounce across the Pacific, though she says she still hopes to be able to work on occasional Japanese projects. “I’m going to go study to become a super entertainer that you guys can have a lot of fun watching,” Watanabe promises, and her many fans will surely have their eyes on her, no matter where in the world she is.

Sources: Instagram/watanabenaomi703, Oricon News via Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Instagram/watanabenaomi703
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!



Credit:

A parade of Sanrio characters celebrate Cat Day over Twitter with cat ears and more

Gudetama, My Melody, and even Hello Kitty herself don disguises to celebrate the Internet’s love for all-things-cat.

Japan’s annual Cat Day (Neko no Hi) on February 22 provides a fun excuse to celebrate a variety of furry feline friends (not that they ever need a special reason to be worshipped, though!) From cute doughnuts to cat makeovers, our team also enjoys getting in on the fun–and it seems like other companies do as well.

This year on February 22, various Sanrio Twitter accounts were taken over by feline transformations of some beloved characters themselves. Enjoy the following collection of those pawsitively adorable posts.

Gudetama better watch out before it’s devoured on top of a bowl of nekomanma, or cat rice! The cat-eared eggshell hat is a nice touch.

Flour dough sprites Cogimyun and Cogimyon are looking cute in their kitty onesies complete with tails. And we thought it wasn’t possible for them to get any fluffier looking…

Despite being a golden retriever, Pompompurin has no qualms about dressing up like a cat. He and his pals are looking sharp with their celebratory cat hats and neon lights.

White bunny My Melody sends everyone wishes for happiness and some meows to boot. She’s pretty good at making the beckoning cat pose, too.

This one’s a little unexpected–Kirimi-chan, a piece of sliced salmon, has traded in her usually simple smile for a slightly more realistic cat face. I guess we have metaphysics to thank for that transformation…?

Finally, you didn’t think the biggest star of Sanrio would miss out on the fun, did you? The Gundam and Hello Kitty Project duo proudly showed off their kitty outfits–and just for the record, it’s not weird at all since Hello Kitty isn’t actually a cat.

Hopefully these accounts have given you some ideas about how to celebrate your very own Cat Day next year. Before that though, we have Dog Day on November 1 [in Japan] to celebrate–and we’ll be keeping an eye on our Sanrio friends to see if they do something similar.

Featured image: Twitter/@gudetama_sanrio 
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!



Credit:

Haruki Murakami, Uniqlo team up for T-shirt line saluting Japan’s most celebrated modern author

1Q84, jazz, and cats are all part of the collection.

Haruki Murakami’s continuing lack of a Nobel Prize for Literature is an ongoing sore spot for his global fanbase, but the author himself doesn’t seem too upset over it. Having the literary clout to write only what and when you feel like it, and with finances so secure that there’s no pressure to deviate from that self-determined output flow, is pretty much every professional writer’s dream come true, after all.

And even if a Nobel Prize eludes Murakami, he can now boast something no other recipient of the award can: his own line of Uniqlo T-shirts.

The Japanese clothing chain has just unveiled its Haruki Murakami x UT collection, featuring eight men’s T-shirt designs inspired by Murakami’s works, aesthetic sensibilities, and philosophical musings, such as the Murakami Radio design that proclaims “Books, music, and cats have been my friends from way back” across its back.

And of course, jazz is what Murakami is talking about when he talks about music, as demonstrated by the back of this one.

Moving on to specific book references, the Kafka on the Shore design features a perched crow in silhouette on both the front and back, with the front’s overlaid with lines from the novel.

▼ “You will be the toughest 15-year-old boy on the planet” reads the beige text.

1Q84 is represented with the advice “Don’t let appearances fool you” rendered in backwards text, a fitting motif for a novel which plays with the concepts of alternate realities.

▼ The book’s title and author’s name appear written across the back of the shirt.

Rounding out the lineup are shirts featuring the cover artwork of Pinball, 1973, which reminds us “Just about anything looks better from a distance”…

…Sputnik Sweetheart, which has the spacecraft on its back along with the proclamation “Understanding is but the sum of our misunderstandings”…

…and Dance Dance Dance, with dancers on both the back and front pocket, plus the quote: “If you listen carefully, you can hear these things. If you look carefully, you’ll see what you’re after.”

Finally, the Norwegian Wood shirt replicates the font and color scheme of the artwork-less cover of its second book, and is the only shirt in the collection to feature no graphics or text on the back.

In addition, there’s also a ninth design that’s not being offered for regular purchase, but instead as a potential prize for 120 customers who buy one of the Murakami shirts, and salutes Murakami’s debut novel, Hear the Wind Sing.

The lineup goes on sale March 8, with each shirt priced at 1,500 yen (US$14.50) and available here through the Uniqlo online store.

Source: Uniqlo
Top image: Uniqlo
Insert images: Uniqlo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!



Credit:

Yakuza leadership airs complaints about COVID-19’s effect on money gains and operations

Nothing to shed tears over, really.

From shuttering factory doors to endangering cultural traditions, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been widespread throughout Japan, and naturally criminal yakuza groups have also been impacted operations-wise.

While the infamous crime syndicates are most well-known for making money through illegal means, such as gambling and the black market, one of their legal revenue sources that has been greatly impacted by COVID-19 is their food stalls.

▼ Can I buy these delicious takoyaki in good conscience still?

For some context, food stalls in Japan operate differently compared to other regions of Asia. For example, in countries such as Taiwan, India, and Malaysia, food stalls are mainstays of certain streets and market areas that people regularly eat from.

In Japan on the other hand, food stalls are typically temporary vendors, popping up near shrines and temples during special seasonal events such as hatsumode (the first shrine visit of the New Years) and summer festivals. While many of them are simply run by local businesses, some of them are overseen by yakuza groups. 

▼ However, due to the pandemic, many of these seasonal events have been canceled,
providing fewer opportunities for folks to set up their stalls.

An interview with a local yakuza leader on Daily Shincho reveals more in-depth details:

“We usually make the most money selling to folks visiting shrines at the year’s end and New Years. But this year cause of COVID-19, it’s become completely impossible. Compared to previous years, our profits are only one-third of what we usually make. The number of operating food stalls has shrunk because of government anti-COVID-19 measures, and in addition to that, the crowds visiting shrines have gone thinner.” 

Furthermore, he elaborated on the circumstances if a group decided to set up food stalls regardless of the pandemic:

“Even Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine, which receives the most visitors on New Years in Japan, has shortened our operating hours. No one’s around even at eight or nine at night, which are usually the peak hours. In the past business has always been good but….” 

With an overall decrease in sales and Ueno Park canceling its annual Cherry Blossom Festival for 2021, one of the largest hanami events in Japan, this year’s financial prospects are looking bleak, although quite frankly maybe that’s for the better considering the violence these crime groups perpetrate.

▼ Ueno Park also canceled its Cherry Blossom Festival last year,
closing entrances and leaving walkways eerily empty.

Outside of food stalls, COVID-19 has also affected how local yakuza groups operate in general. Considering most of their members are older and more at risk, some groups have suspended their annual end-of-the-year and New Year gatherings, cancelled drinking parties, and avoided working in-person as well.

Only time will tell how yakuza groups will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, though no doubt whatever they do will probably be really fishy.

Source: Daily Shincho via Yahoo! News via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Wikipedia/Fg2, Pakutaso (1, 2)
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!



Credit:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)