BANZAI7 NEWS--One of our friendly readers sent the following link to a fascinating radio interview covering the Yakuza (Gangster) Culture in Japan (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120237244)
"People think of the yakuza as wielding swords and having tattoos and missing fingers. … What you should be thinking of the modern-day yakuza is Goldman Sachs with guns. … They are very good at gambling, and the Japanese stock market especially is like a huge casino."
Jake Adelstein
Listening to this program, I was reminded of the following statement by another gangster who does the "Work of God", Lloyd Blankfart, in the now infamous "Goldman Work of God" article in the Times of London:
“I’ve got news for you,” he shoots back, eyes narrowing. “If the financial system goes down, our business is going down and, trust me, yours and everyone else’s is going down, too.”
Has anyone checked to see if Roidu Burankufarutu has a full body tattoo or is missing a pinky cut for Hanku Paurusonu rastu yearu? ToBiguToFaru Gangu or Yamaguchi Goldman?
"Okane wa nai, kubi wa nai"; you have no money, you have no neck.
REPORTED BY FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW IN 2002:
"SOMETIME DURING Japan's annual cherry-blossom festival last April, one of Tokyo's top private economists held a meeting that would reverberate across the Pacific and trigger alarm bells at the highest levels in Washington. At his office in a glass skyscraper in central Tokyo, he spoke with a veteran investment banker and colleague who also happened to be friends with Paul O'Neill, the United States Treasury Secretary. The economist, an American, and the investment banker, also American, were discussing a matter long the subject of innuendo: Japanese organized crime-the yakuza-and its role in the bad-debt crisis that is primarily responsible for keeping Japan in recession.
The economist spoke with urgency because in the previous year a small cadre of former FBI agents and other U.S. lawmen had uncovered a pattern of collusion between the banks and corporations that dominate the Japanese economy and yakuza gangsters that might even make a Russian oligarch blush. What is more, the economist said, those links suggested that the yakuza, far from being just a motley band of pimps, drug pushers, gamblers and extortionists-with only a peripheral role in their nation's multibillion dollar banking crisis-were in fact one of the most significant obstacles to its resolution. After returning to the U.S., the investment banker wasted no time outlining to his friend O'Neill the details of what retired police chief Raisuke Miyawaki has dubbed the "yakuza recession.
Perhaps more alarming than the scope of gangster activity in Japan is that widespread corruption and conflicts of interest among politicians, bureaucrats and the rest of the nation's ruling elite could prolong the resolution of Japan's bad-debt crisis for another decade. Many Japanese politicians are reluctant to address the yakuza's role in the bad-debt crisis because they rely on gangsters for help raising campaign funds and fending off intra-party rivals. "There's not a single Diet member who doesn't know his local yakuza boss," says the secretary to a senior member of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's LDP."
(http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca/personnel/vernag/eh/f/noir/lectures/the_yakuza_recession.htm)
“Investigators are also alarmed at renewed yakuza interest in the stock market, with the threat of violence being used by gangs to gain inside information before investing their money, " the UK’s Guardian reports.
THE INDEPENENT--Picture the scene: a fleet of black limousines crunches up the driveway of a Buddhist temple nestled in lush pine-carpeted mountains an hour west of Tokyo. The precious cargo of limousine one – a violent but ageing mob boss – steps out into the sun, surrounded by four sumo-sized bodyguards and is welcomed by a priest. As cherry blossom petals blow gently in the wind, the gangster enters the shrine and proceeds to be solemnly ordained into the Buddhist priesthood.
It sounds like the opening of a terrible yakuza movie, but this is what took place in this picture-perfect setting when Tadamasa Goto, one of Japan’s most feared mob bosses, stepped out of the shadows this week and into the path of God.
Yomiuri Shimbun--Japanese media report that several unnamed Yakuza organizations have obtained preferred allocations of H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccines...
WE’RE TURNING JAPANESE
(Turning Japanese, The Vapors)
WilliamBanzai7
We’ve got a picture, We’ve got a picture,
Of horrendous economic news
You wrote “We love you” We wrote back “we too”
We sit here staring at Bloombergs, there’s nothing else to do
Oh it’s in color the DOW keeps going up n down
Our eyes are glazed And our deficit is flying in the clouds
Now we can kiss our Asset Bubble asses goodbye when there’s no one else around
We’ve got a picture, a real bad picture
Like a million years of stagnant economic hell
We want a doctor to take your picture
So we can look at your Lost Decade from inside as well
You’ve got us turning up and turning down
And turning in and turning ’round
[Chorus]
We’re turning Japanese
I think We’re turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think We’re turning Japanese
I really think so
We’re turning Japanese
I think We’re turning Japanese
I really think so
Turning Japanese
I think We’re turning Japanese
I really think so
No loans, no bonus, no jobs, no women
No fun, no sun, no good news, no wonder it’s dark
Everyone around us is in layoff danger
Investors all avoid us like a typhoon ranger
[Chorus]
More from 60 Minutes on Yakuza jumping the line for liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/01/60minutes/main5484118_page3.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
NYSE Photo by NYankee on Flickr.com
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