TOKYOMANGO

Government outlaws yakuza & possession of child porn

Wow! From Jake Adelstein:

The National Police Agency announced today an immediate ban on designated organized crime groups and their activities in conjunction with the establishment of Japan’s version of the RICO act, the criminal conspiracy laws/kyobozai（共謀罪). The Criminal Conspiracy Laws were passed in an extraordinary session of the Diet, where the newly ruling Democratic Party of Japan showed amazing and surprising leadership after a series of incidents in which organized crime groups targeted regular civilians in neo-terrorist acts.

Quite revolutionary.

Guy claims to be yakuza surgeon in this week's The Office

This week's episode of The Office featured a snippet about a Japanese immigrant who claims to be a top surgeon who operated on a yakuza boss. Funny!

(Thanks, Ritchie!)

PR lady quits her job to become a cheerleader

Reuters Germany did a short video report about a woman who quit her day job as a PR person to become a cheerleader. I don't understand German, so it isn't clear to me whether cheering on the side of the street is her actual profession, or if she's just doing that for fun or for the Reuters show.

Link (Thanks, Martin!)

Love in 2D in Russian

Apparently, my NY Times Magazine piece Love in 2D has been translated and syndicated in Marie Claire Russia.

Link (Thanks, Ilya Chentsov!)

Video: Yume by Shunsuke Saito

Some Monday morning eye & ear candy. It's called Yume, and both the animation and music are done by Shunsuke Saito.

via Pink Tentacle