Comments on: Street Vendor Gangsters?

By: Sayaka

Sayaka — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t you remember that a street vendor was also a Yakuza member in the movie ” 新仁義なき戦い”? It’s true that street vendors in Shibuya Center-gai do not look like Yakuza at all but once you get to suburbs then it is kind of obvious that those street vendors have a deep connection with Yakuza, dayo.

By: Kmlawson

Kmlawson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sayaka! Thanks for reminding me! You are right!

By: derek

derek — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Of course, there are other scary ‘kai’ groups as well. In Kofu, the Yamagishi-kai has a really strong presence. They are a semi-separatist commune that support themselves by selling very high quality dairy and other farm products. They were always somewhat disturbing though, since the news would occasionally talk about how the police were investigating them for violating child-labor laws, evidently they forced thier kids to work in the farm all day, and never really attended school. Also to join the group, you had to give all your financial assets, and of course you never got them back, even if you left.

By: Kmlawson

Kmlawson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Derek, that is absolutely bizarre! I wonder why these kinds of organizations have a tendency to form here (around such…mundane sources of income)…

By: Sayaka

Sayaka — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yamagishi-kai is kind of famous in Japan. Here is their homepage: http://www.koufukukai.com/

I believe there are more bizarre groups in the US, too, though.

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, the U.S. certainly has it’s share of bizarre separatist communes. What makes the U.S.’s infamous is that these groups generally also stockpile a lot of weapons, and because of this they tend to end violently and tragically. Ruby Ridge (a group in Idaho about 20 years ago), The Waco Branch Davidians (led by the infamous David Koresh about 10 years ago), etc. Even the horrible Jonestown incident 25 years ago. While the Jim Jones mass-suicide incident was in Guyana, his group People’s Temple was definately a U.S. organization.

Perhaps only the Aum Shinrikyo or the Panawave Laboratory might compare to some of the more frightening U.S. groups. (Of course, according to some people, my own religion may fall into this group…)