Your NHK money hard at work (for the Yakuza)

[Taro Toporific]

:domo::domo::domo::domo::domo::domo::domo:
NHK linked to mob payoff
The Japan Times: Feb. 26, 2006....the public broadcaster has had more than its share of drama: credibility problems, embezzlement scandals and the subsequent budget shortfalls due to an outraged public's withholding of subscription fees.....
......The amount involved is 100,000 yen -- in return for which an NHK production subsidiary was apparently granted yakuza permission to shoot a scene in Kabukicho, Tokyo's entertainment and gangland hub, in a sector where the gang in question (Shukan Shincho does not name it) claims jurisdiction over commercial street activity.
"It was Jan. 18, and we were shooting in Kabukicho," the magazine hears from an unnamed "program insider," "when one of the staff people told his boss that to shoot in a place like that you needed permission from 'the authorities.' The staffer in question was someone who knew his way around; he had connections..more....

[Greji]

:domo::domo::domo::domo::domo::domo::domo::domo:
NHK linked to mob payoff
The Japan Times: Feb. 26, 2006

......The amount involved is 100,000 yen -- in return for which an NHK production subsidiary was apparently granted yakuza permission to shoot a scene in Kabukicho, Tokyo's entertainment and gangland hub, in a sector where the gang in question (Shukan Shincho does not name it) claims jurisdiction over commercial street activity.

It has always been that way, even for the hookers. "Hey, 1,000 yen or you don't work this corner!".

If you open a bar, coffee shop, soba house, you name it, and if you have not greased the right palms, the chinpira soon start showing up. Their presence alone may be enough to run off customers. Otherwise, they will start arguments with the staff, customers, each other, not out right violence (althought that is not beyond them of course) and the next thing you know, you have no customers. If you want to stay in business, you then have to drop by the local oyabun's office, or favorite bar (most of them like hold court for this little type of business at a bar where people can see them as the godfather, wielding their power), drop an little envelope on the table with a couple of yoroshiku oneigai's and the problem goes away! There are people who take this type of problem to the police and some do win that way, but the police cannot be around all the time, so there's a lot of people who prefer the old tried and true established route.

Protection and extortion has been the yak's so-called inherent territorial right for the last couple of 100 years. This dates an established police force, when the local oyabun received the blessing of the local bugyo to keep peace and order in the area that he contolled and wielded a jittei given to him on behalf of the daimyo! The Zenigata Heiji type oyabuns that are so favorably treated heros of the down trodden in the weekly drama's are no more than a film polished version of this system of enforcers.

Hey, 100 grand for an un-obstructed shoot and to get your cameraman back without his tripod stuck up his bum, they probably got a deal!

[Charles]

Hey, 100 grand for an un-obstructed shoot and to get your cameraman back without his tripod stuck up his bum, they probably got a deal!

That's always the way it works when you're shooting on location. There's always someone who will interrupt shooting unless you give them a payoff. I've seen it many times, right in front of my own home.
But what really confuses them is when you WON'T take a payoff and just want them to get out of your way. One day I came out of my loft and found a movie crew had set up and a honey wagon was blocking my driveway. I told them it was illegal to block driveways even if they had a permit to clear the street. They refused to move, so I could not get my car out. I got into a shouting match, so they decided to have me arrested on bogus charges. That is the usual practice, just have them arrested and hope they don't get bailed out in time to come back with reinforcements to cause more trouble.
But I DID get bailed out, and immediately came back with an LAPD officer who was NOT a rent-a-cop for the movie company. They dropped the charges after I threatened to have the director arrested for false imprisonment. And I made them move the damn truck. Victory! I was only 2 hours late for work.
Movie crews are the scum of the earth and there is no amount of money I'd take to allow them to use my property.

[jingai]

It's pathetic that a station with NHK's stature would put up with this. Can you imagine ABC news needing to make payoffs to shoot in gang-ridden areas of LA or NY? Even for non-news programs, this is absurd.

[Charles]

Can you imagine ABC news needing to make payoffs to shoot in gang-ridden areas of LA or NY?

Yes. Happens all the time.

[jingai]

Can you provide support for the above statement?

[Greji]

[jingai]

I don't want to "take it as fact" about TV crews in the US paying off the mob without supporting evidence (the NHK one I can readily believe, pathetic as it may be). I will ask reporters I work with in the US about this at some point.

[Greji]

I don't want to "take it as fact" about TV crews in the US paying off the mob without supporting evidence (the NHK one I can readily believe, pathetic as it may be). I will ask reporters I work with in the US about this at some point.

I was talking about Japan and it is not only NHK. I have no idea about the states, but with the mob influence in Hollywood and the movie industry, does it seem that impossible to you? Do a google on it, look at Seagal and some of the other cases. It may not be the same as it is done in Japan, but their influence is there!