Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Roch]

A first generation son of immigrants from Korea was found not guilty of the murder and dismemberment of Miss Blackmann but was found guilty of eight other murders of bar hostessess - including one from Australia. His name is Joji Obara. His parents immigrated to Japan in 1952.

I have not found anything about this story in the Korean media, and wonder if his Korean ethnicity in view of the Cho Seung Hui mass murder has anything to do with it.

It might be relevant to add that the Korean population has always been viewed as undesirable and full of Yakuza members. (The head of the Yamaguchi guchi branch of the mob in Japan is an ethnic Korean like most of its members). Add Obara's multiple murder charge convictions to the exisiting outrage felt by so many Japanese people about the kidnappings and possible murders of their fellow brethern by North Korea in the '70s and '80s and we might have a real pickle of a story in the making about ethnic Koreans residing in Japan.

[contrarian]

That sure does look like a troll to me Roch. The guys name isn't even Korean.

[Roch]

[cangel]

I just recently moved to Korea after 6 years in Japan during which time I followed Japanese news quite closely. I have never heard the Japanese media,then or now, mention his ethnicity. As for Obara, all evidence pointed to him but again, the Japanese weren't able to sell it. Japan relies very heavily on confessions in criminal cases and their prosecutors, understandibly, are quite poor at their trade.

[Roch]

[Roch]

I read about Obara's Korean ethnicity in B.B.C. On-Line on Saturday.

[rocklee]

Joji Obara was born Kim Sung Jong to a poor Korean family, who gained wealth through running pachinko palours (gambling joints). Like I said, there are many many first, second generation Koreans living there taking on Japanese names.

[Roch]

[Roch]

By the way, now that he's known as a Korean ethnic, do any posters feel that he'll be the subject of Korean television or radio shows?

[whatever]

[Roch]

[whatever]

[whatever]

To everybody else viewing the thread, sorry to make it so confrontational. I've just been getting sick and tired of a small minority of posters on this board lately who bypass the usual channels of opinion in favor of attempting to pass off complete falsehoods as fact, trying to look intelligent in the process.

...Or, what the hell. Maybe he/she is just misinformed. Perhaps he/she is relying on wildly outdated information. But posting under authoritative pretenses trying to finger an ethnic Korean as the leader of one of the world's wealthiest and most entrenched organized crime synicates is misleading and potentially offensive.

What you've said is false. Period. Give it a rest.

[Roch]

[whatever]

You're the man.

Now, where do you even begin to substantiate your earlier accusations?

I will say again: the Yakuza have had their fair share of ethnic minorities, but those numbers have dwindled significantly over the last twenty-odd years. The syndicates that you might have a point in targeting have nothing to do with the Yamaguchi-gumi and certainly not Tokyo as turf. You must be mistakenly thinking of the Inagawa-kai in the early 1980's. The minor groups that you cite leadership of by ethnic Koreans are pathetically small in comparison to the Japanese-run syndicates. Your argument is not at all furthered by mentioning these. It's like I said that Koreans are the foremost baseball players in the world because a few dozen of them have cracked the Major Leagues.

The Yamaguchi-gumi and its leadership, which you particularly cite...do you have anything to say about that, or are you blowing smoke? As you would likely know, the leadership of Yakuza syndicates are well-known public figures. They make no attempt whatsoever to mask their identities. The current Yamaguchi-gumi kumicho is Tsukasa Shinobu, Japanese. Care to offer a refutation of that?


Evidence of ethnic Korean membership in specific regional syndicates at various points in history does not entitle you to make wild, false assertions of leadership in the present day.

The facts indicate otherwise on your most important points. We're not talking about the existence of ethnic Koreans in the Yakuza, we're talking about your nonsensical claim that the current head of the Yamaguchi-gumi is an ethnic Korean. In fact, the idea that an ethnic Korean could even ever be the head of that organization is laughable.