Nigerians to be banned in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

I've been amazed by the number of Bangladeshi touts in the back streets of Kinshicho at night. Huge packs of them but have never had any problems with them.

[IparryU]

Tokyo bar owner, 3 hostesses arrested for drugging, robbing customer
CRIME SEP. 02, 2013 - 06:46AM JST ( 25 ) TOKYO —
Police in Tokyo have arrested a Nigerian bar owner and three hostesses for drugging the drinks of a male customers and then using his cash cards to empty out his bank account.

Police identified the bar as Club Little Cat in the Kabukicho district in Shinjuku and said that about 20 men had been drugged and robbed since April, netting the suspects around 10 million yen, Sankei Shimbun reported. Police suspect that since the club opened seven years ago, male customers have been robbed of about 300 million yen.

The four were formally charged over a robbery that took place on April 20. According to police, a hostess targeted a 42-year-old male drinking by himself and plied him with whiskey containing a knockout drug. The hostess took the man’s cash card to a convenience store and stole 1.3 million yen, before returning the cash card, police said.

Police didn’t say how the suspects were able to ascertain the victim’s PIN number.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/tokyo-bar-owner-3-hostesses-arrested-for-drugging-robbing-customer

[matsuki]

I'm still more surprised anyone goes in those places. Big dude from Africa in Tokyo, wearing western clothes, talkin' bout naked girls and golden showers....seems legit

[J.A.F.O]

There are some Jamaicans down the block from my gym running a snack. Heard some shady things about those guys. Not sure if its warranted but then again.

[Russell]

Tin Man’s throne: the rise and fall of a Roppongi royal

Yoshi first met the nightclub owner once known as “the king of Roppongi” in 2011. Yoshi (not his real name), a building engineer from Utsunomiya who had emigrated to Nigeria extra-legally a year earlier in search of work, was swimming at the Transcorp Hilton, where Nigeria’s power brokers stay when they’re in Abuja, the capital.

He was with a friend, a Nigerian returnee from Japan, and together they approached a Japanese woman they had been surprised to spot. She was visiting with her Nigerian husband, she said. Her biethnic children splashed in the pool nearby.

The husband, Gilbert Otaigbe, told Yoshi he was in the hospitality business. He said he’d been arrested in 2010 for violating Japan’s vice laws. Ever since, he’d been wanting to relocate to Nigeria. He talked to Yoshi’s friend, and confided that he rarely left his house in Japan anymore. The police were waiting for him, he said. He couldn’t be too careful.

Otaigbe is the current owner of Black Horse bar and nightclub in Roppongi. At the height of his success in the mid-2000s, he owned at least seven bars, clubs and restaurants. The arrest he mentioned to Yoshi had come on the heels of a major police raid at Black Horse (then named 911 Black), conducted on the basis of Japan’s controversial fūeihō law, which forbids dancing at most nightclubs (detectives at the Azabu Police Station would not comment on the particulars of the raid or Otaigbe’s arrest).

Otaigbe had begun establishing Nigerian counterparts to his Japanese company, Skymit International, as early as 2006. But friends, family and employees insist that his arrest in 2010, followed by a lengthy forced shutdown of 911 Black, caused a fundamental shift in his perspective.

“Before that shutdown, Gilbert would react very negatively to anyone who idealized Nigeria and talked about going back there,” said a current employee at Black Horse and longtime friend of Otaigbe’s. “After it happened, he gave up on Japan. He started to say, ‘I’m in another man’s land.’ “

Contacted during work on this article, several Roppongi business owners expressed an understanding of Otaigbe’s bitterness; many of them insisted that the shuttering of 911 Black may have been the longest such closure in Roppongi history.

When Yoshi met Otaigbe in 2011, Otaigbe’s Nigerian company, Black Seed Global Services, was selling and installing small solar energy systems. He wasn’t making much money — tax documents indicate annual earnings of approximately ¥550,000, although Nigerian tax records are notoriously unreliable and a fraud investigator at Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service confirmed that Otaigbe had been sought by his office for questioning.

But Otaigbe’s employees figured it didn’t matter much; they were under the impression he owned a large distributor of machine tools in Japan, with a bustling office in Tokyo that employed over 100 people. In reality, Otaigbe’s office in Roppongi is rarely occupied by more than three people, and he has never owned any moneymaking enterprises in Japan that are not hospitality-related.

At the pool, Yoshi exchanged contact information with Otaigbe. Maybe they’d work together someday, Otaigbe said. Otaigbe called Yoshi the following April and asked him to take charge of his latest construction project: He was going to open a nightclub in Abuja.

Otaigbe, who came to Japan in the early ’90s as part of an initial wave of immigration from Nigeria’s Edo state, first took an interest in the nightlife business while working for a restaurant in Kamiyacho. After work, he’d walk to Roppongi with his friends and talk about how he planned to get in on the neighborhood’s action.

By then, Roppongi’s entertainment district had begun to decline, under pressure from developers who hoped to turn the area into an upscale, self-contained office and condominium district. But police enforcement wasn’t yet what it would eventually become; there was still money to be made, provided one knew how to keep the party going.

A few African immigrants proved themselves exceptionally adept at navigating Roppongi’s vicissitudes and intrigue; many of the area’s most popular nightclubs and hostess bars during the late ’90s and early 2000s were African-operated. There were no true kings in Roppongi, but the neighborhood’s African immigrant community boasted a handful of impressive fiefdoms.

Otaigbe’s first venture was a small basement club named Hideout, opened in 1998. Business was tepid until he hired a New Zealander who had previously managed at Roppongi gentlemen’s clubs. This new manager suggested that a steady female presence at Hideout would bring business; why not start by letting a few working girls hang out, and comping their drinks? The tactic worked — Hideout developed a reputation as one of the best places in Roppongi to meet women.

But it also forced a change in the club’s atmosphere: from mellow to raucous. Fights weren’t unusual; in one oft-repeated story about Hideout (confirmed by club employees), the son of an ambassador was beaten by a group of assailants while the party raged on around them. And keeping the girls around meant looking the other way when they used cocaine and Ecstasy. But none of this was unusual in Roppongi, and perhaps the only real headache was the feud slowly taking shape between Otaigbe and the owner of Gaspanic, then located in the same building, which belonged to a landlord none too happy to find himself burdened with two of Roppongi’s rowdiest nightspots.

Read on: it get's better and better...

[wagyl]

I concur. Worthy of a read.

[IparryU]

yup... that is roppongi life. everyone tries to stab you in the back to maintain their performance level and make sure no one can compare to them.

[Samurai_Jerk]

yup... that is roppongi life. everyone tries to stab you in the back to maintain their performance level and make sure no one can compare to them.

Sounds a lot like ..... almost every other profession.

[JAVGOD]

Deportation. Nigerians are a waste of air.

[***]

Trick to dealing with the touts. They will undoubtedly show you a picture of "one of the girls who works at the club/bar". Look at the pic and ask the tout, "Who the fuck gave her that fucking horrible boob job? Those tits are the worst I've ever seen." Most touts will laugh at this and relax, then you go into Spanglish mode. Ask the tout "Do you have cerveza in your bano, esse?" They will become confused, so repeat the question and really force the Speedy Gonzalez accent as much as possible. They will start to get uncomfortable, which is when you say, "You have no cerveza in el bano, you no have me, esse." and walk away clean. They will remember you and never talk to you again. Win win

Bullshit. Takes too much energy and time to fuck around with them like this.

[***]

Much easier to say you're going to meet your girlfriend. They always back off after that.

Bullshit. They don't care. They still hassle you.

Some guys have joked that they say, "I'm gay!" and that still doesn't deter them.

[***]

Deportation. Nigerians are a waste of air.

BINGO!

The government has to start taking harder action towards the yakuza hiring these Nigerian thugs. Having a couple of retired 65 year old Japanese dudes with armbands on giving them "cautions" about hasseling pedestrians isn't going to accomplish shit.

It's now September 19th. Anyone been down there recently and notice a difference since the September 1st local ordinance came into effect?

My guess is that it's business as usual - harass every white motherfucker that comes walking down the street.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Much easier to say you're going to meet your girlfriend. They always back off after that.

Bullshit. They don't care. They still hassle you.

Some guys have joked that they say, "I'm gay!" and that still doesn't deter them.

They leave me alone. I guess you just look like a trick ass mark.

[Coligny]

They leave me alone. I guess you just look like a trick ass mark.

I really wonder why...

homeless-computering.jpg

Ok, maybe not...

[Iraira]

Bullshit. Takes too much energy and time to fuck around with them like this.

Bullshit...works like a charm for me. You tried it out and didn't have the same results?....oh well, easier to just complain about it on the Interweb thing.

[matsuki]

Has anyone noticed any change in the qty or aggressiveness of them? I sure as hell haven't...except the ones that have already approached me a few times before and know better.

[Taro Toporific]

Has anyone noticed any change in the qty or aggressiveness of them? I sure as hell haven't...

Ban on street solicitation in Shinjuku not slowing down Kabukicho’s touts
tokyoreporter.com | 2013/10/17
Starting in September, Shinjuku Ward began implementing a ban on street soliciting for bars, clubs and karaoke boxes.
The move came following a jump in incidents involving touts, particularly in the red-light district of Kabukicho.
However, Spa! says that the ban has not stopped touts for fuzoku (adult-entertainment) establishments from running bottakuri (or rip-off) scams on customers.
“Along the central road of Kabukicho, 90 percent of the touts are still doing it,” says a tout who started working in the trade prior the ban coming into effect.
More...

[IparryU]

Has anyone noticed any change in the qty or aggressiveness of them? I sure as hell haven't...

Ban on street solicitation in Shinjuku not slowing down Kabukicho’s touts
tokyoreporter.com | 2013/10/17
Starting in September, Shinjuku Ward began implementing a ban on street soliciting for bars, clubs and karaoke boxes.
The move came following a jump in incidents involving touts, particularly in the red-light district of Kabukicho.
However, Spa! says that the ban has not stopped touts for fuzoku (adult-entertainment) establishments from running bottakuri (or rip-off) scams on customers.
“Along the central road of Kabukicho, 90 percent of the touts are still doing it,” says a tout who started working in the trade prior the ban coming into effect.
More...

because rules are never enforced... unless it is dancing. that is a huge no no....

[matsuki]

Enforcement? There is no penalty for breaking that law...can it even be called a law?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Enforcement? There is no penalty for breaking that law...can it even be called a law?

I know a guy who works as a tout in Ueno who spent a month in jail and had to pay a several hundred thousand yen fine for approaching people on the street earlier this year. I guess Taito-ku gave their ordinance some teeth and they probably threw the book at him since he's an FG (Bangladeshi to be exact).

[IparryU]

Enforcement? There is no penalty for breaking that law...can it even be called a law?

I know a guy who works as a tout in Ueno who spent a month in jail and had to pay a several hundred thousand yen fine for approaching people on the street earlier this year. I guess Taito-ku gave their ordinance some teeth and they probably threw the book at him since he's an FG (Bangladeshi to be exact).

Yup, when I worked in Roppongi I always worried about our touters because if they fuck up and show a customer where the place is and they follow, the police arrest the bartenders as well... Happened before and my bar hit the news, luckily, I wasn't working that day, but my friend/fellow bartender did go to jail...

[matsuki]

So give the law teeth and get some results?

[IparryU]

So give the law teeth and get some results?

you would have to give them balls too so they have enough testosterone to wanna bite...