10/7/2005

Gangsters squeezing govt offices
TOKYO–Gangsters and other groups are using stand over tactics on government offices to blackmail, extort and demand money or special treatment, according to a survey released by the National Police Agency. Ten percent of government offices heavied in the year to August said they had given into the demands….According to the respondents, who could give multiple answers, 34 percent of stand over groups attempted to coerce officials into buying products, and 31 percent demanded that officials subscribe to their magazines.…more…

One of the oddest jobs I ever had in my first weeks in Japan was writing “exposé articles for one of these subscribe-or-else magazines. Great job. Great fun. Great pay….And, I didn’t have a clue why they were paying me so much to rewrite their “notes” on fraud/waste in a local goverment office.

They said they published in English to gain an “international” audience. However it was written in English so Japanese “subscribers” would fear that the blackmail articles in the magazine about government corruption might be republished in Japanese. I so was sad to hear they cancelled the publication after only six issues (when the big bribes were paid).