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Mulboyne wrote:The police now have all the laws they require to handle this problem so you would have to think there are other factors staying their hand.
Reporting from Tokyo - Masatoshi Shimbo has always felt more than a bit paternal toward the changeling Roppongi district, the inner-city neighborhood where he grew up and his family made its real estate fortune.
But Roppongi often breaks his heart, over the decades turning from a U.S. servicemen's haunt into a respectable business district and then back to disrepute -- the gentle women in kimonos giving way to mobsters and drug dealers.
Good or bad, in this famously safe city, Roppongi stands out: elegant one block, seedy the next, a multicultural meeting spot known as Tokyo's most cosmopolitan dusk-to-dawn adult playground.
Popping up sometimes five or six to a block, the mostly young men from Nigeria and other African nations have a particularly un-Japanese way of doing business. In a country protective of its personal space, the hawkers sidle up to male foreigners, taking them in by the arm to suggest the charms of the scantily clad women waiting inside nearby hostess clubs.
Many take the bait of cheap drinks and casual sex -- and wind up with a headache the next morning. Patrons have had their drinks spiked, then woozily regained consciousness hours later with no memory of the previous evening or knowledge of the thousands of dollars charged to their credit cards.
In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo last year warned the 40,000 American citizens here to avoid Roppongi and its nearly 350 bars and clubs. Without citing numbers, officials pointed to a "significant increase" in drink-spiking incidents.
"The U.S. Embassy continues to receive reliable reports of U.S. citizens being drugged in Roppongi-area bars," the warning read. "Assaults on Americans have also been reported in connection with drink-spiking."
The July bulletin, which followed warnings by the British and Australian embassies, sent Shimbo into action. Within days, members of the Roppongi Commerce Shop Owners Assn. met with U.S. officials and pledged steps to correct the problem.
"I wish I could have told them there isn't such a practice in Roppongi," said Shimbo, the group's vice chair. "But in reality, these things do go on here."
When the economy was good, foreign-born stockbrokers and stock traders wandered out of their offices in the upscale Roppongi towers to spend their money here, attracting a parade of young, single Japanese women.
But Roppongi can also show a reckless, bad-boy side. In 2004, four foreign businessmen died after snorting cocaine that police said Roppongi dealers had mixed with heroin.
The area has also been the turf of yakuza. For years, the Inagawa-kai, a major crime syndicate, has been based in Roppongi. In 2007, there was a mob hit in broad daylight nearby.
The bar touts began appearing a decade ago. Slowly, their tactics have gotten more brazen, merchants say.
Shimbo's group began a night patrol five years ago to pick up street trash and erase graffiti, but now the volunteers spend much of their time observing the touts, reporting violations such as aggressive solicitation.
Merchants have posted signs warning against harassment of passersby and last year police made 28 arrests -- double from the year before. But the touts won't go away.
A tout who identified himself as Smithy, a Nigerian wearing a Scottish cap, denied that he harasses anyone. "I do not pull people into bars," he said. "They go in on their own free will."
Some visitors say that Tokyo police, in trying to bring order to the area, have harassed foreign bar patrons, searching them for drugs without proper cause, demanding urine samples.
"Nowadays, everyone is a mark in Roppongi," said human rights activist Debito Arudou, who has written about police practices on his blog. "I don't like being made a mark of."
In an interview, a 31-year-old American said his drink was spiked in a Roppongi bar last year. He later learned of more than $10,000 in unauthorized charges to his credit card.
The man, who said he did not want to give his name out of embarrassment, believes that Tokyo police were less than responsive to the case. Authorities say there is too little evidence to act on.
"I always avoided the area with the aggressive touts -- we called it the gantlet," said the man. "I never thought this would happen to me."
Shimbo wants to guard against such troubles. So he and his volunteers say they will continue their nighttime patrols.
"I love this neighborhood," he said. "I'm not giving up."
;)"Yeah, I've been always awkward toward women and have spent pathetic life so far but I could graduate from being a cherry boy by using geisha's pussy at last! Yeah!! And off course I have an account in Fuckedgaijin.com. Yeah!!!"
hairygateau wrote:i don't really mind the touts around roppongi,
hairygateau wrote:i don't really mind the touts around roppongi, it's mostly banter and you always have the option to just keep walking. this also does strike me as rather to do with the colour of their skin. quite a few haafu and caucasian guys working roppongi crossing these days. i wonder if they get the same treatment.
hairygateau wrote:Ha! - Gilbert's guys are always friendly although haven't been to 911 since it re-opened. used to be packed in like sardines a few years ago! happy memorys
waruta wrote:it's "gauntlet" ....farking newspapers don't seem to spellcheck anymore. One more reason I cancelled both Japan Times and Yomiuri
Samurai_Jerk wrote:gauntlet: undergo the military punishment of receiving blows while running between two rows of men with sticks.
Samurai_Jerk wrote:gauntlet
(US also gantlet)
•]http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/gauntlet_2?view=uk[/url]
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Now, that sounds ominous....
Greji wrote:Wow, two rows of men with sticks? And they're beating on you as you run?
Iraira, do you think you can find the location? Hair seems to be backing out on having a little jog with us!
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:...it's the blows from those guys that I'm worried about.
Samurai_Jerk wrote:Yeah, it's not my cup of tea either but it is better to receive than give, no?
waruta wrote:gantelope is found as late as 1836.
Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Well, whadda you know. Here I was thinking "gantelope" were skinny versions of those deer-like creatures that lions eat in National Geographic documentaries....
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