Japan — Descending into the Underworld Global Diary "Thunder from the East" Japan — Descending into the Underworld By Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn Japan's image around the world is that of a squeaky clean, highly polished country. But there is more grit to the country than first meets the eye. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explore a dark underworld of Tokyo in this excerpt from their book, "Thunder from the East." And they find that just under the flashy veneer of Tokyo's Kabukicho district may be a hint of the direction in which greater Asia is moving. n the northwest of Tokyo is the Kabukicho district, one of Asia's largest "entertainment zones." It is a cluttered neighborhood of narrow alleys, neon signs, beckoning touts and raucous laughter. It is an area which wakes up at noon and parties until dawn, where gamblers and gangsters run rings around the police and where prostitutes and strippers undress for success. Kabukicho is packed with massage parlors, strip shows, porn stores, gambling dens, bars, hostess clubs and S and M services. There are even distinctively Japanese parlors called "image clubs," where customers act out fantasies by spanking prostitutes who pretend to be schoolgirls in uniform or by groping young women who pretend to be subway commuters. All of this happens in private fantasy rooms built to look like school classrooms or subway cars. Beyond the razzle-dazzle, Kabukicho offers a glimpse of the directions in which Asia is evolving. In the aftermath of World War II, when vast stretches of Tokyo were rubble as far as the eye could see, all this bustle was directed at Americans. About Us In the Media Think Tank Contributors Contact Us Globalization and Companies Countries Culture Development Environment Europe History Markets People Technology United States Key Quotes Inside The Globalist: Richter Scale G-Diaries GloboQuiz Read My Lips Factsheet Bookshelf Sexual energies running wild Click here to order this book. Indeed, the Japanese government ran brothels for the Americans so as to dissipate the sexual energies of the GIs harmlessly on prostitutes. The authorities ran recruitment campaigns asking war widows to sacrifice their own virtue by working in these brothels so as to "save" young Japanese women from the American brutes. Then, as Japan prospered, the clientele became increasingly Japanese. And eventually, in the 1980s, Western women began to show up in the brothels to cater to Japanese men. Prosperity had reversed the tables. Coming of the Chinese Yet ultimately, it is the Chinese who have come to dominate Kabukicho. Most of the prostitutes are now Chinese — and many of the gangsters and touts and petty thieves are from Shanghai or Guangdong or Fujian. For Japanese yakuza, the most important thing is staying alive — and making money is second. But for the Chinese gangsters, the first thing is money. "None of us like Japanese men," said a 25 year-old Chinese woman working as a prostitute in a Kabukicho bar. "They're so different from Chinese people. They're cold, and we're warm. They like distance, and we like to be close. I wouldn't choose them for pleasure." She shrugged, and added, "But this is business." The woman has prospered because of the same fierce drive that is lifting much of the rest of Asia: She takes classes in Japanese and English during the day, then goes to work in her bar and the nearby "love hotels" from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Gripped by a fierce drive "It's tough, but I'm making a lot more money than I was in China," she said. "With the money, I hope I can go to the United States. I have some relatives in Florida, in a city called Miami. That's where I'd like to go next." The Chinese success in taking over Kabukicho has a good deal to do with the reasons that Asia has prospered more generally: flexibility, drive and social stability. It may seem unorthodox to discuss a red-light district in terms of social stability. And yet crime is rare, the streets are safe, and when one Chinese prostitute stole some bills from a customer's wallet at a love hotel, she was banished from the industry forever. Reasons for success "Our biggest problem is the rise of the Chinese mafia," one yakuza, that is a member of the Japanese-style mafia, lamented. "The Chinese gangs are taking business from us in every area — in prostitution, in gambling, in selling stolen goods." People have prospered in Tokyo's Kabukicho district because of the same reasons that Asia has prospered more generally — flexibility, drive and social stability. He added, "The difference between us is that Japanese yakuza think of long-term business relationships, but the Chinese mafia thinks just of the short-term. Their only goal is money, money, money." His comment was strangely reminiscent of what Japanese industrialists often say of Chinese rivals. Chinese-Japanese differences The Chinese gangs prospered partly because they have been quicker than Japanese crooks to enter new fields and adopt high technology, like equipment to forge passports or magnetic strip cards that fool pachinko arcades. Chinese mobsters also won business by competing effectively on price: They offer contract killings, for example, for as little as $2,700. Good businessmen-criminals Chinese gangsters are so brazen that they are even robbing the yakuza themselves. "They know that we have money — and that if they rob us, we cannot go to the police," one yakuza said. "So it's terrible: A yakuza will be walking down the street, and these Chinese dogs will hold him up at knifepoint or gunpoint and demand his money." "There is nothing more humiliating for a yakuza," he continues, "than to be robbed by another gangster, but if he fights back he will be killed. For Japanese yakuza, the most important thing is staying alive, and making money is second. But for the Chinese gangsters, the first thing is money. The second thing is money. And the third thing is money." Entrepreneurial spirit This might be the reason that the Chinese brothels and massage parlors in Kabukicho edged out their Japanese rivals — they fought harder, charged less and were more "entrepreneurial." August 6, 2001 © 2000 by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Adapted from Thunder from the East. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for their coverage of the democratic uprising in Tiananmen Square in the New York Times. Click on the title to order this book: Thunder from the East Based on their reporting years in China and Japan, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the Pulitzer Prize-winning husband and wife team, reveal images of Asia deep beneath its varied surface — and chronicle the ways the continent stands to rise to the fore of world affairs in the 21st century. For more selections on the Globalist Bookshelf, please visit our archive. All contents copyright © 2001 by TheGlobalist.com. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Statement Countries People Issues Organizations Companies The Americas Europe Asia/Oceana Middle East/Africa Brazil Canada Colombia Cuba Mexico United States Austria Balkans Czech Republic France Germany Greece Poland Russia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom China India Indonesia Japan Pakistan Singapore South Korea Taiwan Thailand Vietnam Afghanistan Iraq Nigeria Israel United Arab Emirates A to F G to R S to Z Amato, Giuliano Ballmer, Steve Barak, Ehud Blair, Tony Brown, Gordon Bush, George W. Case, Steve Clinton, Bill Clinton, Hillary Druckenmiller, Stanley Duisenberg, Wim Fidel, Castro Fischer, Stanley Forbes, Steve Fraga, Arminio Gore, Al Grasso, Richard Greenspan, Alan Hussein, Saddam Koch-Weser, Caio Köhler, Horst Lindsey, Larry Luzhkov, Yuri Mahathir Mohamad Marx, Karl McCain, John Mori, Yoshiro Perot, Ross Pope John Paul II Prodi, Romano Putin, Vladimir Richard, Nixon Robertson, Julian Rubin, Robert Rumsfeld, Donald Schröder, Gerhard Soros, George Strauss-Kahn, Dominique Schrempp, Jürgen Summers, Larry Tietmeyer, Hans Trichet, Jean-Claude Trump, Donald Turner, Ted Wallach, Lori Welch, Jack Advertising Currencies Exchange Rates Debt Relief Development Aid Education & Development Energy Flight capital Futures markets Immigration Income Inequality Intellectual property rights Money laundering New economy Online shopping Political instability Stock markets Tax Policy Terrorism Venture capital Women & Development Bank of Japan Catholic Church European Central Bank International Monetary Fund Nasdaq Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange OPEC U.S. Federal Reserve U.S. Treasury Dept. World Bank World Economic Forum World Trade Organization A to F G to R S to z Allianz Amazon.com AOL/Time Warner AT & T Austrian Airlines Bank of New York Burger King Citigroup DaimlerChrysler Deutsche Telekom E*Trade Ford General Electric General Motors Goldman Sachs IBM Lockheed Martin Lufthansa McDonald's MCI-WorldCom McKinsey Microsoft Nissan Siemens Tata Enterprises Toyota United Airlines Vodafone Volkswagen Wal-Mart Walt Disney Whirlpool Yahoo! Japan