Organized Crime Exclusion Ordinance

[Ganma]

...could stifle international business according to this article:

[SIZE="3"]Tokyo ordinance a potential contract-killer[/SIZE]
Regulation aimed at hobbling the mob could backfire and stifle international business

By COLIN P. A. JONES
A prediction: if Japan ever becomes a police state, it will come about not by national law but municipal ordinances. And the war on organized crime could be the engine that drives the process.

With the coming into force of its Organized Crime Exclusion Ordinance on Oct. 1, Tokyo joined every other prefecture in Japan in having a set of local regulations intended to make life miserable for yakuza and other organized crime groups. With so much international commerce being done through Tokyo, perhaps the foreign business community may start to take note of what these ordinances mean, since they affect businesses of all types. They also grant the police potentially significant powers to interfere in commercial affairs.

As with those of other prefectures, the Tokyo ordinance has the commendable goal of making it harder for mobsters to function in society. Recent revelations about allegedly improper expenditures by Olympus, which some have speculated could be evidence of ties to "antisocial forces" (code for mobsters), have focused a great deal of attention on this policy goal.
...

[sublight]

It really seems like the people who drafted this bill threw together a bunch of stuff they thought sounded effective, but never bothered to think through the details (or worse, left everything vague on purpose).

Something as open-ended and ill-defined as this ordinance leaves a great deal of room for either under-enforcement or arbitrary lashing-out at targets of convenience (if the next Horiemon comes along making noises about shaking up business practices or possibly even getting into politics, just dig up a delivery service or construction consultancy that smells 'anti-social' and the nuisance goes away).

[Coligny]

So, nearly like every other japanese law in fact...

[Catoneinutica]

It really seems like the people who drafted this bill threw together a bunch of stuff they thought sounded effective, but never bothered to think through the details (or worse, left everything vague on purpose).

Something as open-ended and ill-defined as this ordinance leaves a great deal of room for either under-enforcement or arbitrary lashing-out at targets of convenience (if the next Horiemon comes along making noises about shaking up business practices or possibly even getting into politics, just dig up a delivery service or construction consultancy that smells 'anti-social' and the nuisance goes away).

Well, as the cliche has, this is a feature, not a bug. Anyone who thinks the "Rule of Law" obtains in Japan is seriously deluded. Japan, like China, is ruled by mandarins who enforce their tacitly agree-upon rules through the issuance of "administrative guidance," (gyosei shido). The laws as explicitly written are deliberately left vague or are so broadly defined that everyone's theoretically guilty (ever driven over 80 kph on the expressway?).

-catone
-yeah, obviously this isn't a Japan-only phenomenon. RHIP everywhere, for example if you're an American football coach who likes towel-snappin' bum-juggin' with the kids

[matsuki]

So, nearly like every other japanese law in fact...

Apparently so...

What is a business to do about this new ordinance? Ignoring it may prove to be a viable strategy (not one that I am recommending, mind you). The rules only require businesses to "endeavor" to have contracts with the required language, and there are no direct penalties for failing to do so. Thus, the regulation could become one of the many Japanese laws and regulations everybody ignores until the police want to arrest someone or the media needs a shame story.

Japaneeeeze raw...

[Coligny]

Well, as the cliche has, this is a feature, not a bug. Anyone who thinks the "Rule of Law" obtains in Japan is seriously deluded. Japan, like China, is ruled by mandarins who enforce their tacitly agree-upon rules through the issuance of "administrative guidance," (gyosei shido). The laws as explicitly written are deliberately left vague or are so broadly defined that everyone's theoretically guilty (ever driven over 80 kph on the expressway?).

-catone
-yeah, obviously this isn't a Japan-only phenomenon. RHIP everywhere, for example if you're an American football coach who likes towel-snappin' bum-juggin' with the kids

expressway... you mean them big paying roads where them speed limitz are 100kph ?

In aichi there are 2 implicit speed limits 60 for roads and 100 for highways... all the others are either explicit or implicitly condition based but in this case the popo would have hard time getting on your ass if there is no accident.

Road and traffic laws despite the fact that they appears to be optionnal most of the time are in fact quite squarely (surprisingly for Japan) defined...

[Samurai_Jerk]

It would basically be impossible to run any import/export business that involved the ports without violating this ordinance.

[Catoneinutica]

expressway... you mean them big paying roads where them speed limitz are 100kph ?

In aichi there are 2 implicit speed limits 60 for roads and 100 for highways... all the others are either explicit or implicitly condition based but in this case the popo would have hard time getting on your ass if there is no accident.

Road and traffic laws despite the fact that they appears to be optionnal most of the time are in fact quite squarely (surprisingly for Japan) defined...

Okay, ever driven over 100 kph on the expressway? J'accuse!

-catone
-80 is the limit on good stretches of the Kan-Etsu, and old farts in their k-trucks will pass the shit out of you if you observe it.

-got a ticket once for driving in the right lane. I apparantly wasn't using it to pass people, I was just cruising in it. I think they were backing off a speeding ticket. Glad they did, but the fuck?

[Coligny]

Okay, ever driven over 100 kph on the expressway? J'accuse!

-catone
-80 is the limit on good stretches of the Kan-Etsu, and old farts in their k-trucks will pass the shit out of you if you observe it.

-got a ticket once for driving in the right lane. I apparantly wasn't using it to pass people, I was just cruising in it. I think they were backing off a speeding ticket. Glad they did, but the fuck?

Guilty as charged. ONCE, and only to ovrtake because i was behind a semi that was starting to fishtail... Seriously to go from 100kph to 120 on the Note I was counting the minutes... that crap would need a calendar to be clocked around the Nurburgring...

As for the right lane... yeah... check the book... it's for passing slower vehicles... even if you are doing 100, you should stay left...

One other thing I'm guilty of is when there is no car behind i put my turning light as late as possible when doing a left turn to avoid having opposite cars turning right to cut me, especially at crossing with elevated pedestrian bridges.

there is also a quite twisted crossing on the daily commute where most people switch to the left lane in the middle of the crossing forcing the people originally on the left lane to either hit the brakes or hit the sidewalk... I'm nearly once a week at the local Koban to complain for the lack of proper ground markings... Some of the young police officer there hide behind their desk when they recognize mah blue pos reaching their parking...

[Yokohammer]

-got a ticket once for driving in the right lane. I apparantly wasn't using it to pass people, I was just cruising in it. I think they were backing off a speeding ticket. Glad they did, but the fuck?

Yeah, that's the rule, and it's a pain in the gluteus maximus. The right lane is for passing only, which means you're supposed to toodle up to slowpoke #1, pass him in the right lane and then return to the left lane where you soon catch up with slowpoke #2, pass him in the right lane and then return to the left lane ... and so on until your turn indicator bulbs burn out. For some reason that rule seems to go out the window when the roads get a bit crowded though. I wonder if there's a precise number of cars per meter of asphalt that is the dividing line between enforcing the law and looking the other way?

[Coligny]

I think the passing lane rule become moot when the regular lane speed fall below the minimum speed rule of 50kph on the highway.

[Yokohammer]

I think the passing lane rule become moot when the regular lane speed fall below the minimum speed rule of 50kph on the highway.

The boy's a genius!

By the way, why are you spending so much time on FG while you're in Saigon?
Is it that boring, or is it simply time for some sort of FG-holics 12-step program?

[Coligny]

After 2 days of commando shopping me Julie has been grounded because of her trust of local tap water... so i can chill at the hotel and go out alone at my pace... (45 min out, go back, shower, chill... the fact that I couldn't trust tap water on a daily basis for the last 8 years give me a big advantage)

[Catoneinutica]

After 2 days of commando shopping me Julie has been grounded because of her trust of local tap water... so i can chill at the hotel and go out alone at my pace... (45 min out, go back, shower, chill... the fact that I couldn't trust tap water on a daily basis for the last 8 years give me a big advantage)

Yo' Julie's a docteur and she the local drank tap water!? Oh well, as you seem to have noticed, it's a lot of fun just amblin' about there, trying to step over the electrical wires tangled up in the muddy pools where sidewalks might be someday and avoiding a pelvis-breaking scooter incident. The Vietnamese are like bizarro Japanese; they don't like the chinx either, but instead of being all shy n' furtive n' shit, they're always smiling and trying to annoy you, even when they're asking for money, as if to say, they know that you know that they know, blah, blah, that it's all bullshit.

My most-appreciated souvenirs, at least from American friends and family, were Uncle Ho kitsch items - anything with a depiction of that crusty old muh-muhfucka and his scraggly-ass beard.

[Coligny]

Yo' Julie's a docteur and she the local drank tap water!? .

And she will answer youz that she is an obgyn not a microbiologist... I though you wuz near that field too...
Old school docs like dad know their stuff... but if you want to be sure to be cured efficiently... go either to your local vet or to Korea...

[Coligny]

My most-appreciated souvenirs, at least from American friends and family, were Uncle Ho kitsch items - anything with a depiction of that crusty old muh-muhfucka and his scraggly-ass beard.

Sidenote: I had to go buy her some takeout at pho24... alone... in the dark... and during a 5 minutes walk i might have been stopped by 'moneymoney' at least 7 times... next time i will go on vacashiun here alone... for ethnological field research and stuff...

[Mike Oxlong]

[yt]eTEPlaHFdBs[/yt]

[matsuki]

And she will answer youz that she is an obgyn not a microbiologist... I though you wuz near that field too...
Old school docs like dad know their stuff... but if you want to be sure to be cured efficiently... go either to your local vet or to Korea...

You didn't stop her? We can only guess why not?

Sidenote: I had to go buy her some takeout at pho24... alone... in the dark... and during a 5 minutes walk i might have been stopped by 'moneymoney' at least 7 times... next time i will go on vacashiun here alone... for ethnological field research and stuff...

LOL, you didn't give them a sample of your nama harumaki?

[2triky]

Anti-yakuza laws are taking their toll

By MARK SCHREIBER

Five months after tough new ordinances cracking down on the activities of organized crime syndicates went into effect, it's not yet clear what impact, if any, they've had on gang activities.

"We are resigned to the new antigang regulations, but they have not interfered with our operations or caused us to incur losses," Hiroshi Kimura, the fifth-generation head of Kyushu's largest syndicate, the Kitakyushu City-based Kudokai, remarked to Flash (Mar. 6) in an interview. Kimura nonetheless believes the law unfairly stigmatizes innocent people, such as family members of gangs, and may foster "discriminatory treatment."

Kimura also vociferously denied allegations of his organization's involvement in a bust in Fukuoka City last July, when police confiscated a number of military weapons, including an Israeli-made assault rifle.

Kyushu, home to five major syndicates composed of 170 affiliates with around 3,000 members, has been embroiled in violent gang disputes for nearly five years. Conflict ignited back in August 2007, when Yoshihisa Onaka, head of the Kurume City-based Dojinkai, was assassinated by a shooter said to be affiliated with rival Omuta City-based Kyushu Seidokai. During 2011 alone, 18 shootouts occurred in Kyushu, half of which involved the construction business. On Nov. 26, 72-year-old Toshihiro Uchino, president of Hakushin Construction K.K., was shot to death outside his home in Kitakyushu.

Veteran yakuza-watcher Atsushi Mizoguchi writes in Shukan Gendai (March 3) that while the current crackdown may ostensibly aim at encouraging yakuza to leave their gangs and go straight, the older members "... are aging and have no real skills, so many have no choice but to cling to the old ways." For younger gang members, the future is decidedly bleak.

"Simply by virtue of their gang affiliation they can't legally rent a pad or open a bank account," writes Mizoguchi. "Without a bank account they can't obtain a credit card. I've heard that young gang members being forced out of Kansai, who come to Tokyo looking for work, can't rent a room and are living in their cars. They're just one step from becoming homeless."

Read more

[sublight]

They're just one step from becoming homeless.

Maybe that's the explanation for the two homeless guys I saw throwing tantrums in front of Omurai station tonight. One was in the station entryway yelling at the staff, and the other was across the street at the koban, tossing a shitfit at the cops.

Fun times.

[2triky]

Maybe that's the explanation for the two homeless guys I saw throwing tantrums in front of Omurai station tonight. One was in the station entryway yelling at the staff, and the other was across the street at the koban, tossing a shitfit at the cops.

Fun times.

Good times. Good times.