Japan’s entertainment industry has roots in a vast world of clubs and cabarets with longtime yakuza connections.
After a mob-linked comedian who hosted a top TV show in Japan admitted his ties to organized crime, Japan’s anti-mafia authorities put in place some tough new laws to protect the entertainment industry from the Yakuza or Japanese Mafia– but street savvy crime reporter Jake Adelstein who spent many moons in Japan pounding a crime beat and covering the John Gotti of the Yakuza Tadamasa Goto , sees no change in the showbiz system. Read about this story from Mark Schilling of Variety
TOKYO — Six months ago, Shinsuke Shimada, a comic who hosted several big primetime shows on Japanese TV, admitted ties to organized crime and resigned from showbiz. His abrupt departure caused a media sensation as it shone a harsh light on the mob’s influence on the industry, and new ordinances went into effect in Tokyo and Okinawa in October making it a crime to pay off the yakuza — Japan’s mafia — or profit from dealing with them. read more Here
