“The first joint of a little finger can be sliced easily,” he said. “You tie the bottom of it with thread tightly and put your body weight on a kitchen knife. But the second joint was tougher than I thought.” Luckily, there was a brother to hand, who could stand on the knife and slice through the knuckle. The loss of the tip of the pinkie on his right hand was his own fault — he got drunk and started throwing furniture around in a bar. Unfortunately for him, the bar belonged to a friend of his boss. Out came the kitchen knife again, and off came the top of his little finger. But his fourth amputation bore a whole different significance.

Over the past few years, as many people rushed to trade in their old phones for smartphones, Japan's philanderers have remained faithful to one particular brand: Fujitsu Ltd.'s older "F-Series" phones, which feature some attractive stealth privacy features. The aging flip-phone—nicknamed the "uwaki keitai" or "infidelity phone"—owes its enduring popularity to customers who don't believe newer smartphones are as discreet at hiding their illicit romances. Fujitsu's "privacy mode" is a layer of nearly invisible security that hides missed calls, emails and text messages from contacts designated as private. If one of those acquaintances gets in touch, the only signal of that communication is a subtle change in the color or shape of how the battery sign or antenna bars are displayed. If ignored, the call doesn't appear in the phone log. "If Tiger Woods had this Japanese feature in his phone, he wouldn't have gotten in trouble," said Mr. Natsuno, now a professor at Keio University's Graduate School of Media and Governance.

Warum duldet die friedliche japanische Gesellschaft die Yakuza? Man könne das mit ihrem Ehren-Kodex und ihrer früheren Rolle erklären, meint der Journalist Atsushi Mizoguchi. Yakuza-Mitglieder schwören, nicht zu vergewaltigen, nicht zu stehlen und keine Raubüberfälle zu verüben. Früher hätten sie der Polizei gelegentlich Tipps gegeben und ihr Kleinkriminelle ausgeliefert. In Nagoya schickte die Kokodai-Gumi Patrouillen auf die Straße. Das noble Bild der Yakuza ist allerdings ein Mythos. Dennoch glauben manche Leute noch, so Mizoguchi, im Falle einer Krise würde sich die Yakuza patriotisch verhalten. Als die Linke in den 1960er-Jahren gegen die Militärallianz mit den USA protestierte, prügelte die Yakuza Demonstranten in die Flucht. Nach dem Hanshin-Erdbeben 1995 zog die Yakuza die effektivste Hilfe auf. Auch nach dem Tsunami von 2011 schickte sie viele Lastwagen mit Nothilfe, deren Wert die Zeitschrift Sentaku auf 400.000 Euro schätzte. Danach bewarben sich ihre legalen Firmen aggressiv um Aufträge zur Müllbeseitigung. Außerdem, sagt Adelstein, ziehe die Polizei, wenn sie die Wahl habe zwischen organisiertem und und dem nicht-organisierten Verbrechen hat, das organisierte vor. Es lasse sich eher kontrollieren.  

According to industry executives, the market for "silver porn" has doubled over the last decade and now comprises about a fifth of the 3,000 adult films, worth 100 billion yen (£825m), that Japan produces every year. But, according to film producer Gaichi Kono, the industry is struggling to survive the switch from DVD format to online distribution. ... Tokuda usually appears with much younger women – the youngest was 54 years his junior – in films with such titles as Forbidden Elderly Care.