Yakuza and the DPJ

I just noticed that the December 2009 issue of the FCCJ's Number 1 Shimbun had a report entitled "Jake Adelstein and Tokyo Vice" by Gavin Blair. The report mentions an Adelstein's claim that the Japan's largest yakuza group, Yamaguchi-gumi, is supporting the DPJ.

Something that definitely falls into the controversial category is Adelstein’s claim that the Yamaguchi-gumi – Japan’s largest criminal organization – switching its traditional support for the LDP over to the DPJ about a year before the Democrats’ election victory. While somehow reminiscent of the Murdoch press in the U.K. shifting allegiance from the Conservatives to Labour (and recently back again) when either side emerged a likely winner, there may have been more to it than simply backing the winning horse, according to Adelstein. He quoted two Japanese weeklies – Asahi Geino and Shukan Jitsuwa – as reporting that the switch to the DPJ had been decided at top-level Yamaguchi-gumi meetings.

According to this passage, Adelstein seems to have quoted only vulgar weekly journals such as Asahi Geino and Shukan Jitsuwa, whose credibility is questionable. Also, Gavin Blair, the writer of the article, reported that the alleged Yamaguchi-gumi's support was definitely controversial. However, as long as I know, it is not controversial. Japanese news media already reported it in 2007. I remember this, because it was a big surprise for me that the whole Yamaguchi-gumi decided to support a single political party. There had been a few times that Japanese media reported that individual politicians had connections with some members of yakuza organizations. When such connections were revealed and reported by the media, they were always big scandals for the politicians that may lead to political death of them. Therefore, it was a big surprise that it was revealed that a whole yakuza organization officially decided to support a single political party.

Since Japanese media do not keep their articles on the web for a long period, the news articles have already been removed from the web. However, I could find a cache of an article. According to the article, a member of Yamaguchi-gumi was arrested for buying votes for a DPJ candidate in the election of the House of Councillors in 2007, and it was revealed that the headquarter of Yamaguchi-gumi had issued an official notice that ordered member organisations to support the DPJ.

Nintendo Wii kids

Their parents would also be happy.

Auspicious painting for the New Year

This painting is a typical auspicious Japanese painting for the New Year. Depicted on the big turtle are a family of cranes and "the three friends of winter": pine, bamboo and ume plum. In pre-modern period, it was believed that cranes and turtles had extremely long lives, as there was a saying: "cranes live for 1000 years and turtles live for 10000 years (鶴は千年、亀は千年)". Thus, the turtle and the cranes are symbols of longevity. Of the "three friends of winter", the pine symbolizes endurance and longevity, the bamboo reflects strength and flexibility, and the plum evokes purity of character.

SION, a Japanese blues singer

Sion's songs were my favorites in the late 1980s. He was as hungry as me in those days. The following is "Sorry Baby" by Sion:



Another clip of Sion, "街は今日も雨さ" (It's still raining in this town).

Itō Jakuchū's paintings of the whale and elephant are on display at Miho Museum

Last December, I wrote about newly found screen paintings of whale and elephant by an Edo-period Japanese painter, Itō Jakuchū (伊藤若冲; 1716-1800). When I walked around Shin-monzen, the antiques district in Kyoto, last Sunday, I saw many posters of the Jakuchu's whale and elephant.


According to the posters, the screens together with many other paintings by Jakuchu are on display at Miho Museum in Shiga prefecture from Sep. 1 to Dec. 13. You can see bigger photos of the whale-elepahnt paintings from this page in Miho Museum's Website.

Paddling in the water

I often go to the riverside of Kamo River in weekends. Kids were paddling in the water last Sunday.

Barbershop posters about politics

Barbershop is often supposed to be a place to talk about politics in irresponsible manner. Japanese call such argument Tokoya-no-seidan (床屋の政談); tokoya means "barbershop", and seidan means "argument about politics". Thus, tokoya-no-seidan means "barbershop argument about politics".

I don't know whether it has anything to do with the fact that barbershops are supposed to be such places, but I came across a barbershop that has posters of the LDP-leader Aso and the DPJ-leader Hatoyama on the sliding door of the shop.


They are apparently related to the posters of LDP and DPJ shown below. These posters are often seen on the street in Japan nawadays.


They are, however, significantly different from each other in the slogans written on them. The DPJ poster that features Hatoyama has a slogan saying "Seiken Koutai (政権交代)", which means "change the government". The similar poster on the door of the barbershop has a slogan "haegiwa koutai (生際後退)", which means "receding hairline". In Japanese, both change (交代) and recede (後退) are pronounced as "koutai", thus the slogan on the barbershop poster is a pun of the DPJ slogan.

The LDP poster that features Aso has a slogan saying "Mazu wa keiki da (まずは景気だ)", which means "The primary issue is the situation of economy". The similar poster on the door of the barbershop has a slogan "Mazu wa ke-e kiru" (まずは毛きる)", which means "The primary issue is cutting the hair".