Japanese Mayor Wouldn't Hire Johnny Depp

[Cenzton]

In Japan:

"Hi, I'd like to bottle and sell Schoolgirl Urine and Schoolgirl Armpit Smell, would that be ok?"

"Oh, sure thing, let's just go ahead and get your paperwork star--- wait, hold on a minute, is that a tattoo?"

"Uhm... yes, why?"

"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE RIGHT NOW YOU SICK BASTARD!"

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

The reason Japan hates tattoos is because they are almost always worn by gang members. Respectable Japanese people fear gangs because Japan as a whole is all about being polite and respectable.

Lets put it this way: We as americans see the nazi sign and say "That is horrible!!!" However there is a sign that looks just like that (except it goes the opposite way) that is the buddha sign for "peace". Americans could easily see the buddha sign and think Nazi, but that is wrong.

Japan sees tattoos as "bad gangs" but that is not how we see it. We just see it as a normal everyday thing that people sometimes have because it's fun or cute or daring. It does not always signify "you are part of a gang member".

 

[Leadfinger]

Hashimoto is just bad. Even though he's a lawyer himself, he encouraged people to make complaints to the bar association against defense lawyers for defending their clients. I guess he believes "guilty" people shouldn't be allowed to have a lawyer.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

In Japan:

"Hi, I'd like to bottle and sell Schoolgirl Urine and Schoolgirl Armpit Smell, would that be ok?"

"Oh, sure thing, let's just go ahead and get your paperwork star--- wait, hold on a minute, is that a tattoo?"

"Uhm... yes, why?"

"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE RIGHT NOW YOU SICK BASTARD! POSSIBLE YAKUZA AFFILIATE!"

I fixed it for you. Although, the shopkeeper should probably learn to not scream if they were indeed that, but hey, he sells schoolgirl urine and armpit smell. He's probably not the brightest guy in the world.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Isn't this the same asshole who's trying to ban various forums of hentai and anime, but makes exceptions for written/live-action works that depict the same thing?

You're thinking of Ishihara who, quite ironically, used to write softcore porn novels. Though Hasimoto has called for censorship of certain extreme genres of manga, and he has said that he thinks there should be limits on creative freedom and that Japan "needs a dictatorship."

As soon as lolicon comes into it, I lose all my sympathy. I'm not going to fight any law that wants to see that crap flushed out from the world. Yeah, yeah, censorship is horrible. Call me when they want to censor something that isn't a child porn surrogate.

Won't someone PLEASE think about the nonexistant children!

I don't care about the nonexistent kids, lol. I just don't care if someone wants to take that crap away from paedophiles. No great loss there.

But if you take the fake children away from pedophiles, they might end up going after the real children.

You're gonna have to do a lot better than conjecture, sorry.

Oh, I'm just saying. I honestly don't think there's anything I can say to make you realize that you're wrong.

Except he isn't wrong, loli is sick.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Except he isn't wrong, loli is sick.

The subject matter itself wasn't what was being discussed. It was the consequences of it being censored, which is very different.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Except he isn't wrong, loli is sick.

The subject matter itself wasn't what was being discussed. It was the consequences of it being censored, which is very different.

Ok there isn't really a bad consequence for censoring pseudo-child porn.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

No, you shouldn't.

Thing is, tattoos are extremely popular with the Yakuza. Gang members adorn their bodies with them and show them off to such a degree that tattoos in Japan are associated with the clans, so this is probably where this man's disdain comes from.

That would have been educational, had I not already known that, but you didn't know about my knowledge so that's okay. But in case you hadn't noticed THE ABOVE ARTICLE SAYS THE EXACT SAME THING. I'm not sure if you're trying to acting like you know more than everyone else, but you sure did a good job of it.

I think this man is speaking out of disdain for the Yakuza without actually saying that, rather than just being a doddery old man.

No. He says that if you have a tattoo, you can't get a job, your credentials don't matter, the amount of contributions you'd add don't matter. That's not expressing disdain for the yakuza, that's expressing disdain for behaving at all like a yakuza.

Japan is no stranger to stupid shit like this. Porphyria afflicted people who wear masks to protect themselves have been pulled over by the police for "looking like the Taliban."

 

[Guffe]

I guess there goes my dream of teaching english in Japan ... :'(

Not if you get in on your back/chest/butt because those are places almost always covered.

Persoally I find this silly, but that's just due to the culture I live in.

 

[zombiesinc]

It may seem extreme over here, but there are a lot of things we'd raise an eyebrow at that are quite common or even expected within Japanese culture. Even today it's quite different from Western culture. Honestly, I quite prefer it too... well, to some extent anyway. After visiting Tokyo even, I think I'd absolutely love living there for several years of my life.

 

[Exterminas]

Sorry people, the "Japanese culture is just different"-Argument is invalid here.

If tatoos would normally be regarded as a taboo in japanese society, there would not be over a hundred public servants with tatoos.

(Unless this city is some kind of extreme regarding the breaking of social taboos. But that would be like finding a european city, where over a hundred public servants have had sex with a sibling in their life, so I do not believe it)

The fact that this man is able to pursue his "fight" already indicates that he is a nut-job, because if he was representative of the public opinion, there would not be a case in the first place.

 

[Andrew_C]

Sorry people, the "Japanese culture is just different"-Argument is invalid here.

If tatoos would normally be regarded as a taboo in japanese society, there would not be over a hundred public servants with tatoos.

You do realise that Osaka has a population of well over 2.7 million, and a city workforce of over 38,000? And yet only 110 city workers, excluding teachers, but including people like garbage men, have tattoos.

If anything that just goes to show how taboo they are.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Except he isn't wrong, loli is sick.

The subject matter itself wasn't what was being discussed. It was the consequences of it being censored, which is very different.

Ok there isn't really a bad consequence for censoring pseudo-child porn.

Apart from the very real fear that it would lead paedophiles to enacting their urges on actual children, which is exactly what Buretsu said. If this is a consequence that you honestly can't see happening, I am very confused.

 

[Char-Nobyl]

This is very much likely the case, as not only are tattoos heavily linked and popularwith the Yakuza, they actually are used TO identify as Yakuza. I have... friends... who tell me stories, rather horrifying ones, to be honest. Yakuza use tattoos in a variety of ways. Not only are they usually a symbol of being in a clan, but Yakuza often have it in with tattoo shops and use them as both recruitment grounds and extortion grounds.

For example, a young Japanese boy goes to a tattoo shop and gets a tattoo that he thinks looks rather cool. Sooner or later, he'll have Yakuza members on his tail because it turns out he's wearing one of their "symbols" and they'll press-gang him into joining or do worse. It works the same for tourists, if they do what the young Japanese boy did, except they'll be press-ganged into giving their money and possessions they have on them, if they have any worth.

So, you see, tattoos have a taboo in Japan for a very good reason...

First off, that's circular logic: it answers the "Why are tattoos associated with the Yakuza?" question with "Because you can identify people in the Yakuza by their tattoos."

And second...really? You make it sound like the Yakuza recruit their members by relying on people being too stupid to realize that A) Japan hates tattoos and B) the tattoo their getting is a goddamn Yakuza symbol. How is that a good recruitment strategy? It just ensures that all your latest members are their against their will. You'll have police raiding groups that consist entirely of moles in no time.

In case you're not a follower of Japanese politics: Toru Hashimoto, decidedly far-right mayor of Japan's third largest city, doesn't care for tattoos. He especially doesn't care for them if they happen to be on city employees. On his order, Osaka civil servants, with the single exception of those employed by the education board which refused to comply on civil rights grounds, were forced to fill out a questionnaire and state whether or not they had any tattoos on their arms, legs, or other visible-to-the-public parts. Unable to sack the some 110 workers who admitted having been inked, Hashimoto is instead trying to force them to have their tattoos removed. If that doesn't work, he's stated he intends to ship them off to jobs where they'll have no contact with the public.

Spoken like a man who clearly never had a tattoo removed. I find it hilarious that a bit later, it's mentioned that he stopped dying his hair when he got elected...as if that's even remotely comparable to this situation.

When asked what he thought about popular foreign stars such as Johnny Depp and Lady Gaga having tattoos, Hashimoto responded that he wouldn't want them on his workforce.

"If Gaga or Depp wanted to work for Osaka, I'd refuse them. Maybe singers and actors can have them," he said, "but it's unforgivable for a civil servant to have one. Although there's no way Gaga would accept Osaka."

I think "unforgivable" means something other than what you think it does.

Hashimoto, a former TV personality who claims he stopped dying his hair brown upon being elected because it would be improper, began his campaign against body art after an incident in which an employee at a child-care facility was caught showing his tattoos to a child. There's a longstanding taboo against tattoos in Japan, as many consider them a sign of criminality.

...really? Their was a massive fuss because an employee showed a child his tattoo(s)? That's fucking par for the course if you're in the child-attending business in the US and you've got tattoos. It's an easy way to earn some measure of respect with kids, as cynical as that sounds, or just impress them. I consider it on par with showing them a card trick or something: it might not require much skill to acquire, but you've got it and they don't.

 

[talker]

he's just being an arse. so people have tattoos that other people can see. big deal. it's not like they are going to run through the streets in their underpants with a tattoo saying 'heaven this way' and an arrow pointing groinwards

 

[Char-Nobyl]

Actually, the use of tattoos is quite a widespread phenomenon amongst gangs.

That isn't really what I was getting at, but I'll roll with this line of logic.

The Russian Mob is particular notorious for gangsters using quite detailed and extensive body tattoos to identify each other.

Yes...but Russia's world of crime/punishment is much different from Japan's. I don't mean to slight Russia, but there's a whole mess of corruption left over from the fall of the USSR. It's one of the main reasons why A) the Russian mob is as powerful as it is and B) on a less related note, why so many third-world groups that shouldn't have the capabilities to arm themselves with military-grade weapons can get RPGs and Kalashnikovs wholesale.

As an example: When filming Eastern Promises, Viggo Mortenson got himself dolled up with extensive fake tattoos. While at a restaurant in between filming scenes, a group of Russian diners went silent out of fear, until he admitted to them that the tattoos were fake, and required for his film.

Again, a different world than Japan. And as someone who saw Eastern Promises, Viggo Mortenson would be exactly the sort of person you should be terrified of: he's not exactly young-looking in a profession that a lot of people don't reach middle-age in, and take a look at his tattoos...

...compared to these tattoos...

Note the key difference, because it's the line between the tattoos of an aspiring tough-guy and a certified badass. The Yakuza design? It's just that: a design. Singular. It might've taken a couple sessions to do it, but it's all one image, however intricate it might be. If you had the money for it, you could have the same thing in no time.

Stack that against Viggo Mortenson's. There's little to no symmetry, and using his apparent age (again), you can reasonably assume that he didn't get them all at once, or even all over a short period of time. Now look at his hand: it's got knuckle tattoos. You can't see it in that picture, but the deal's the same with his other hand. Different tattoos, yes, but that goes into my previous point.

Now, here's another critical thing: do you see how the Yakuza designs end about halfway up the forearm? There's a pretty obvious reason for that. Police absolutely love tattoos because they're like an ID that a witness can easily remember. Ask any cop, and he'll tell you that hand or especially neck tattoos are about as good as a perp getting his driver's license printed on his forehead.

So, going back to the knuckle tattoos. Unless you wear gloves, which isn't terribly often, they're going to be readily visible. Someone who gets hand tattoos is someone who doesn't give a fuck, possibly because they're stupid. But someone who has faded hand tattoos and has clearly been in the business of crime for quite some time? They're someone who went into a dangerous profession with things that would only make that profession more dangerous for them.

That's why the diner was terrified of him. He had the tattoos that said he didn't give a shit, and he had the apparent age to say that he hasn't given a shit for decades and still isn't dead or locked up.

It's as much a way of gangsters keeping each other in check as it is anything else. If you're all dolled up in gangster tattoos and you were to, say, go to prison, not only would those tattoos offer you a degree of protection from other inmates, they'd also mean that other members of your gang in prison can keep an eye on you and make sure you don't rat anyone out.

Erm...I don't really think so. Gangsters don't really get tattoos with the intention of using them for protection in jail. It's usually the other way around. As anecdotal evidence, a friend of a friend once did time in a state prison for a relatively minor crime. Still, he was a decent sized guy, and for the couple years he was in, it was clear that joining a gang was his best chance at making it through unscathed. The three biggest powers were the Latin Kings, the Bloods/Crips, and the Aryan Brotherhood. And seeing as he was about as white as you can be, he had to go with the Aryan Brotherhood.

It's worth noting right now that, while he didn't have a name or obvious appearance to match, he was Jewish.

So, as it so happened, he got a swastika tattoo on a pectoral. After a few years, he got out of prison, and decided not to get it lasered off so that, and I paraphrase, "Whenever I thought about doing something stupid, I'd look down by shirt and think better of it."

 

[JoesshittyOs]

It's not that uncommon.

I'm currently in Vietnam for a few weeks and tattoos are apparently nearly always linked with gangs. Which bummed me out, because artwork from around here seems nifty. Apparently it's like that all around Asia.