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152 chapter five Roppongi Troubles roppongi’s reputation The word gaijin is the colloquial Japanese word for “foreigner,” and nowadays, most of the news that comes from Roppongi is bad news, mostly about crime, and very often about foreigner or gaijin crime. Many people think of the neighborhood as Tokyo’s most dangerous district and avoid it. That is probably why there is so much of the other kind of media reporting from Roppongi too, that about campaigns by officialdom and grassroots organizations to clean up the neighborhood, about immigration actions against “bad foreigners,” and about upscale and “proper” events that signal the birth of a “New Roppongi,” such as museum openings and sales in designer-made shopping malls. But even the new development projects, unlucky Roppongi Hills in particular, generate bad news too, so the overall weight of the media presentation about the neighborhood is negative. Consider as a start the following short news item from the Web site Crisscross News Japan dated September 8, 2005: foreigner injured by sword in roppongi fight tokyo—A male foreigner was slashed by what appears to be a Chinese broadsword after a fight broke out among 5 to 6 foreigners in Roppongi around 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. Police received a call that there was a fight outside a restaurant . When they arrived at the scene, a man in his 30s was lying on the ground, bleeding from a wound to his stomach. Police are looking for two foreigners who fled the scene of the crime. (“Foreigner Injured” 2005) It is a just a small incident and unusual because a sword seems to be involved, but it represents the flavor of Roppongi’s troubles: once again something has gone wrong in Roppongi; once again it is something bizarre; and once again it is foreigners who are in the midst of whatever is wrong. Not only that, the incident took place not during the dangerous night hours but early in the morning when Roppongi Troubles • 153 things are supposed to be normal. Roppongi, unlike routine-fixed Tokyo, is unpredictable : you never know what will happen or when. Bloggers (in this case non-Japanese) responded with comments that could be expected: for example, “Roppongi is a low-class trash heap” in which foreigners who kill one another are “doing Darwin’s dirty work,” and “Roppongi is a ‘gaijin zoo.’” Indeed, most of the blame for what has gone wrong in Roppongi is placed on a “bad element” of foreigners, probably deservedly so to a point. As a result, much of the campaign to take back Roppongi and make it safe again is a campaign that touches on Japanese immigration policy, the visa status of troublemaking foreigners, and distinctions that are made, often with racist overtones, about “good foreigners” versus “bad foreigners.” In this chapter I discuss Roppongi’s fall from grace by looking at some of the crime and other incidents that now mark the neighborhood, as well as at some of the discourse in Japan about how to reclaim the district. I then look at a variety of specific efforts to turn things around on the streets: (1) a crackdown by police and private security forces against crime, rowdy behavior, and actions such as vandalism and litter; (2) the implementation of neighborhood beautification and landscaping; and (3) an extraordinary use of signage to both inform the public about Roppongi’s dangers and warn potential miscreants about the earthly consequences of their sins. That discussion sets the stage for some final words about “Receding Rhythms” in Roppongi and then for the examination of remaking Roppongi via urban redevelopment projects in chapter 6. I pause in midchapter to reflect on what is not being said about the troubles: that Roppongi has long been a haunt of Japanese mobsters, the yakuza, and that they continue to hold huge and seemingly unobstructed sway in the district. The animated discourse about reclaiming Roppongi from trouble is not about them, it seems, even though it is widely known that they occupy the root of illegal narcotics distribution, as well as guns, gambling, prostitution, and other ills that bear directly on the neighborhood’s troubles. No, the war against trouble in Roppongi focuses on foreigners, a much easier target, and the yakuza, as shown in the nighttime tour of the neighborhood in chapter 4, go about their business unmolested, as if they were in a parallel universe that others occasionally see but can do nothing about. dangerous terrain Thankfully, there...

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