Oddly enough, the mayor of Nagasaki has been gunned down by a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza gang, which has ties to extreme right-wing nationalists in Japan. (courtesy of Japanprobe.com)
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30 Comments
There was another shooting in Wakayama prefecture last night. VT shootings was a big news in the morning, but at night the whole japanese media was shocked by this two shootings (especialy about the mayor of Nagasaki).
By the way, Yamaguchi gumi is a typical Yakuza group which has its origin in gambling. It is differnt from the Yakuza groups related to right wing societies.
In Nagasaki/They Like Bukkake
Thanks for the link. Do I need to put more focus on right-wing nationalism in future postings to get more traffic?
“In Nagasaki/They Like Bukkake”
Are you speaking about Udon nudles or….?
I don’t understand why the title is “the ghost of Japanese militarism” without even questoin mark!) The information as it is, it is as off the mark as saying this is a conspiracy by some Koreans, pointing out that many of the extreme right wingers and Yamaguchi members are zainichi Koreans.
I am from Nagasaki. The mayor Itoh is a friend of my close friends. I happened to be in Nagasaki from April 13 to 16 to attend my class reunion and stayed at a hotel 100 feet away from the place where he was killed. Strangely enough, about 30 % of the Yakuza and/or right wing organizations are ethnic Koreans.
What are you trying to convey by the remark “the ghost of Japanese militarism”?
If you read newspapers carefully, you’d find this is just an act of brazen criminality rather than an attempt by an right wing type to make a statement.
I don’t like people who love jumping to a conclusion. I don’t.
Where do you get your numbers on 30% of Yakuza or right wingers being Koreans? Right wingers in Japan hate all non Japanese(particularly Chinese and Koreans) and tend start fights/disputes with their neighbor nations.
It really doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. You might as well claim that 30% of Russian Neonazis are Jewish or non Europeon foreigners.
http://research.yale.edu/wwkel.....951130.htm
http://216.239.63.104/search?q.....apwtEEJ:...
Even Japanese rightist abhor the extreme right-wingers.
http://yellowpeep.blogspot.com.....-cult.html
It is well known that some of Japanese rightists are pro-American.
VG866,
Regarding tocchin’s comment “Strangely enough, about 30 % of the Yakuza and/or right wing organizations are ethnic Koreans.”
It is from the Public Security Intelligence Agency; PSIA (Japanese version of CIA).
Suganuma Mituhiro, a former member of PSIA gave a speech about Yakuza at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan October 19, 2006.
He did say “30 % of the Yakuza and/or right wing organizations are ethnic Koreans.”
I’m sure you can find movie clip on Youtube or somewhere.
VG866,
Here is the clip:
http://vision.ameba.jp/watch.do?movie=172558
VG866, you can see the words 韓日友好(Korea-Japan friendship) on the black car of a right winger in the photo ponta posted. We say 日韓(Japan-Korea) when referring to the bilateral relations. It is only Koreans who say 韓日(Korea-Japan).
Toru, I was reminded of the assassinations of certain anti-military (pro-peace) Japanese during the 1930’s, especially considering the mayor’s views that are against militarism in Japan. Reading about the connection that the assassin had with such a “right-wing” group, it takes little imagination to remind one of the past.
The assassin mailed letters that imply other reasons for killing the mayor but who really knows what is going on.
“who really knows what is going on.”
Exactly. That’s why we should not jump to a conclusion.
According to your logic, you could say this is a North Korean terrorist attack because the mayor was (I hate to use past tense here) anti-nuclear weapons and 30% of Yakuza are Koreans (that includes those who belong to North Korea). See?
People can be reminded of many things based on prejudice, bias, malice intention when we don’t know “what is really going on”.
“people in 2ch started to claim the criminal may be Korean”, a Japanese rightist said.
http://yellowpeep.blogspot.com.....akuza.html
The rightist says such a claim is baseless—I think he is right.
The following article is very nice.
The mayor is not a left-winger, but a pacifist conservative backed by LDP, and the background of this case seems a local financial problem in the post-Koizumi era, not an ideological one.
http://www.latimes.com/news/pr.....;cset=true
This is an interesting thread. It’s been so long since I paid attention to the yakuza issues that I’ve forgotten alot of the details. Eons ago I did a short stint with NCIS in Yokohama and the little interest we had with gang related crimes was in monitoring activity of the North Korean generated gambling scene but we always distinguished between yakuza and korean gang related activity. That might have been a gross generalization error on our part. I’m curious if any of you with more knowledge of Japan can tell me if there are certain yakuza “clans” or groups that the public there identifies more with ethnic Koreans or, more better yet, North Korean activity. Much Grass!
This is perhaps one of the most irresponsible and ignorant blog posts I’ve ever seen.
Politics had absolutely nothing to do with it, if you would bother to take about five minutes to do research.
Old biddies blabbing on a street corner have better standards than this.
Toru, what I meant by “who really knows what is going on” is that this matter is under investigation and we don’t know if this is the work of right-wing militants or just pure crime business but this is the second time in the last twenty years that a Nagasaki mayor (Hitoshi Motoshima) has been shot. The last time was in 1990, when then-mayor was seriously wounded after saying that the Emperor bore some responsibility for the World War II and that gives one a pause to consider because the actions of the past cast ripples through time.
WJS, sometimes these posts are like bait by which one might learn more from those who post, even if it is of a different opinion. Sometimes very interesting people post things that are generally not known and that is great.
Likewise, sometimes one catches unpalatable things that must be thrown back into the sea. You are, without a doubt, going back into the ocean.
I think you have something to learn from the article below which has a reference to this blog.
“Instant prejudice: Korea and Virginia Tech”
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww.....index.html
“Instant prejudice: shooting in Japan and Japanese Militarism”
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/.....ilitarism/
Glug, glug.
So much for a sense of responsibility about blogging. Now we get excuses for passing on false rumors. You call it bait, I call it baiting.
Somebody gets killed for something a generation ago and then someone else gets killed in the same city, so it has to be for the same reason. Sure.
Could we see some, oh, actual research about what Itoh may have said about the emperor? If anything at all?
Could we see some actual research about the running feud the gangster had with City Hall?
This post is on the level of rumors at a junior high cafeteria lunch table. And about as valid.
You might read this and reexamine this “baiting” attitude. The author–a blogger–considers most blogging to be a parody of democracy.
http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/.....f_dem.html
Ponta, the first two links dont work or go nowhere. The third link is to a blog site. I dont know about you but blogs tend to be opinion based(hence the reason why theyre blogs). The person who wrote that article doesnt provide any real evidence and is mostly basing his views on assumptions. The site you brought up is the american equivalent of a conspiracy site on UFOs. Its no wonder why I was so easily able to beat you in that comfort women debate. Because you have a tendency to use blogs as proof.
Id also like to know where Suganuma Mituhiro got his numbers from. Where did he get that 30%?
VG866
Sorry for the links.
As for the fact, toru’s comment 12 reconfirms the fact.
As for the blog, obviously you haven’t read the blog. It is an fact and argument that is important. As he claims it is a fact that many black van rightist member are Koreans.
VG866
Did you beat me somewhere? I don’t remember you. Could you give me the link where you were able to beat me. Or are you
a “ghost” of somebody?
Regarding the debate on comfort women, my evidinces mainly came from official statistics, Korean and Japanase professors’ articles, books.
If you want to discuss it again ,whoever you are, I am willing to discuss it on that thread again.
Just tell me where it was.
Esteemed Marmot,
I have to agree with many posters that you over-reached a bit with the title. Reference your source, reminds me of a bitter lesson I learned some eons ago: “The first report is usually wrong”.
Okay, here’s something I’ll leave for discussion. This is from an IHT article (Martin Fackler):
R. Elgin:
It’s been suggested that it’s not a mere 100,000 yen, but a far larger issue of Yakuza losing power and influence, of which the dispute over 100,000 was an example of. The IHT article is also misleading, since he had been gradually raising his demands and had demanding 2 million yen in compensation. (http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200704180347.html)
There’s still a possibility it could be because of the mayor’s politics, but most of the evidence at this point points to yakuza frustration over declining power and influence.
Thanks for the information James. It seems that this Shiroo also arrested for suspicion of blackmailing the former mayor of Nagasaki that was shot in 1990, just a few months beforehand.
I did also read: “On Wednesday, Motohisa Mizuta, the 64-year old leader of Suishin-kai, an affiliate of the a Yamaguchi-gumi organized crime organization of which Shiroo was acting leader, submitted to police a letter notifying the group was being disbanded.” I am not sure what that might imply, if anything.
I’m guessing that the Suishin-kai wouldn’t have been able to operate under the circumstances and pressure, so they disbanded. One could argue that it could also be a way for the Yamaguchi-gumi to distance itself from the crime it secretly ordered, but I think the Suishin-kai would have probably disbanded regardless of the reasons for the assassination.
I have read the blog you posted and I found it incredibly stupid. They are merely speculating that “so and so” is Korean. If you want to prove a conspiracy theory then youre going to have to bring out cold hard facts rather than guessing, assumptions and blogs. That site is no different from those bigfoot or UFO sites. Just recently one of Japans most famous political blogs accused the Nagasaki mayor of being killed by a Korean and claimed it as fact. Only for the police to discredit it and confirm that the killer was a Japanese national. In the end you had a bunch of misinformed and misguided fools who took blogs for facts(i noticed that Japanese people are particularly vulnerable to believing whatever blogs say). This is what happens when you take blogs for more then a grain of salt. You end up misinformed.
Yes I did beat you in that debate, quit acting as if you dont remember. Does Park Yu-ha ring a bell to you? I know you remember, and its rather convenient that you left the moment I presented proof that the Japanese government coerced women into sexual slavery. Before I presented that bit of information you were debating quite fiercely. I dont need to tell you what topic it is, you know what topic im talking about. Secondly you never presented actual proof, you only accused Koreans of being the perpetrators despite all the evidence against your claims and the lack of evidence for you claims. In fact many of the members here requested proof for you assertions which you repeatedly failed to provide.
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