Posted on 04/28/2009 6:10:08 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
In Japan, even mobsters bite the recession bullet
AFP - Monday, April 20
TOKYO (AFP) - - They made their money with sex, drugs and gambling but then invested much of it in high finance. Now Japan's yakuza have their back to the wall as the economic crisis takes aim.
Just like the legitimate businesses they have muscled into, Japan's mafia are being squeezed by the steepest economic downturn in decades, and as profits have plunged, management has been thinning out the ranks.
One of the victims of the downturn is Taro Hiramatsu, a heavily tattooed retired gangster in his 50s who said he never felt all that comfortable with the underworld's new high-flying ways to begin with.
"The yakuza have been hit by the financial crisis because theyve invested in the stock market among other things," said Hiramatsu, the number two of his crime gang until he was unceremoniously kicked out last year.
"For yakuza today, money buys everything, including senior positions," Hiramatsu -- not his real name -- told AFP in a recent interview, his intricately inked arms crossed defiantly over a potbelly.
(Excerpt) Read more at ph.news.yahoo.com ...
Ping!
LOL.. I totally misread the headline.. for some reason I read MONSTERS, and all I could think was “Well that is new twist on the Godzilla movies. He tears up TOkyo because he lost everything in the stock market.” LOL
Gojira !
Gojira!?!
AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh
PApa! We must stop the military. Gojira only wants to withdraw his 401K!!!!
How telling.
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