South Africa will sell elephant ivory to China and Japan despite international concern. From the AP (via Google News): It said that more than 20,000 elephants a year are killed illegally in Africa and Asia for the ivory black market, with Chinese nationals implicated in illegal ivory seizures in more than 20 African nations. Five years ago, the [...]

Leaders of the Japanese Organized crime group Yamaguchi-gumi are reportedly studying up aspects of a new law in Japan to protect themselves from arrest. From the Guardian: Japan’s most powerful gangsters are mugging up on legal terminology to skirt strict new laws that make them liable for crimes committed by their henchmen. The top three syndicates are thought [...]

In a first for the Japanese sport of Sumo Wrestling, a wrestler was arrested for marijuana possession in Japan.  From CNN: For the first time that sumo wrestling’s governing body can recall, one of its revered athletes has been nabbed for drug possession. On Thursday, the Japanese Sumo Association fired 335-pound Soslan Aleksandrovich Gagloev, better known in Japan [...]

Source: Yomimuri Shinbun, “Chinese fakes costs trillions / Exports of counterfeit Japanese goods to Middle East on the rise,” January 5, 2007.

Japanese Customs Officials are asking the public to return a box of marijuana that was placed in a passenger’s bag for a routine security test that went wrong. From the BBC News: A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security. Sniffer [...]

Greenpeace is accusing a Japanese fishing company of smuggling whalemeat onto the black the market. From the Guardian: Anti-whaling campaigners said today that they had uncovered an embezzlement ring at the heart of the Japanese whaling fleet, accusing crew members of stealing choice cuts of whale meat worth millions of yen for sale on the black market. Greenpeace’s [...]

Source: MRAG and the University of British Colombia Fisheries Centre, “The Global Extent of Illegal Fishing,” April 2008, pg. 7.

Source: Anson Musselman, “Sexual Abuse and Human Trafficking in Japan,” UCLA International Institute, November 17, 2003. 

Between January and June 2007, a half-year record of 331,136 counterfeit items were seized in Japan. Source: Kyodo News, “Fake brand seizures ht new half-year high,” Japan Times, August 24, 2007.

In 2005, Japan’s film industry loss an estimated 80 billion yen ($658 million) to piracy. Source: Japan Patent Office, “FY 2004 Survey Report on Losses Caused by Counterfeiting”,March 2005.