Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK (裏ハローワーク）
Japan has a wide selection of true-crime books: comic book re-enactments of gory murders, academic studies of government corruption, and everything in-between. But what sets Japan apart (according to Nate from the Waseda Ramen blog) is that a lot of the true-crime books are not just for thrills, they also serve a function of explaining how society really works, behind the scenes. This is important in a country where mainstream news is heavily controlled, and big institutions are not transparent.
Just for grins, I’ve translated Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK. This book is in the middle of the spectrum – which makes it just right for my Japanese skills.
HELLO WORK is what Japanese call their unemployment office, where people go to find job listings. URA means ‘the dark side of.’ URA HELLO WORK basically means ‘grey-market’ jobs – things that are not entirely illegal, but everything is paid in cash, under the table.
Anyway, Shinya Kusaka interviewed twenty different people, each of which has a shady job! The 20 different jobs are arranged from least illegal to most illegal.
Anyway, this translation will be a regular feature on Tokyo Damage Report – every Monday, I’ll start off the work-week with a new chapter, and a new job for you guys to get!
You can buy his book (the Japanese version) here.
Translation notes:
- I’m not fucking with the mah jongg chapter. That shit is psycho.
- 100 yen = one dollar.
- The author takes evident pleasure in making up Dickensian pseudonyms for his interviewees. In order to preserve the odd sense of humor, I’ve decided to translate the pseudonyms literally, and leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine how the name relates to the respective jobs.
- There’s a lot of normal-sounding words in this book; words which have a sinister double-meaning IN CERTAIN CONTEXTS. These sinister double-meanings would be clear to a Japanese reader, but for you guys, I’ll put these words in italics. For example, ‘He told me that his ‘people’ would cause ‘problems’ unless I accepted his ‘offer.’
AS YOU READ, ASK YOURSELF THIS:
1) how many of the crooks are introduced as ‘I knew this guy from my high school?’ (about half, I’d say!) How long before you wonder, “Where did this author go to school? Rikers Island?!?
2) Which rackets exist in your home country? Which rackets are ‘only-in-Japan’? I’d guess that most of these rackets exist in your own country but it is done totally differently in Japan because the laws here have different loop-holes.
3) How many of the interviewees make the claim that “If the ‘legitemate’ institutions of society were looking after the citizens, I would be out of a job?" This is a central theme of the book – that the justice system, insurance system, and legal regulations don’t help people. In USA’s crime books, you’ll hear about ‘the collapse of institutions.’ But this is Japan, and the institutions are not ‘collapsing’ : they are working as they were intended to: to protect the well-connected from being accountable to the public. OH SHIT!!!!!
4) If the interviewee says something that’s pretty preposterous – Is that because I’m a bad translator? Or is it because the interviewee is trying to dodge the reporter’s tough questions with non sequitur answers?
5) How much of the book is filler? Do you think the author is getting paid by the word?
6) Is this book an expose? Or is it a how-to, aimed at people who are desperate and actually looking for these jobs?
7) Is doing an unauthorized translation and posting it online ALSO a form of Ura hello work?
West Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!!!!!!!!!!
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[...] « Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK (裏ハローワーク） [...]
That’s what I’m talking about! I love this stuff! But… Mah jongg please!
@ Miles: Sorry, but I can’t understand that game even in English!
Ohhh, this is going to be good, I already enjoyed the tuna fishing chapter. Keep them coming!
Majiang is sketchy. I used to work out in a gym that was at the top of a Chinese hotel. Behind the gym were a bunch of Majiang rooms (the gym was super cheap and like the majiang rooms, no one knew about it so it was usually only me). In order to get to the rooms, you had to walk through the gym. Every now and then some motherfucker who couldn’t pay his debts would come running through the gym and then proceed to be tackled and then have the living shits beaten out of him by a bunch of strangely well dressed bouncers. Not only would his ass get smashed, but then the police would show up, who would threaten to charge the dude all kinds of nasty if he didn’t find a way to pay up as they were in on the deal and got a cut of the winnings (or losings).
I mention this only because lots of people seem to think majiang is a nice game that old Chinese people play on sidewalks as a peaceful way to pass the time like fishing or smoking pot.
Anyways,….looking forward to this new feature on TDR!
Is pachi-puro considered an “ura” shigoto? I gotta say your translation work is getting pretty tight!
@James: amazing story! what country was this in?
“AS YOU READ, ASK YOURSELF THIS:
1) how many of the crooks are introduced as ‘I knew this guy from my high school?’ (about half, I’d say!) How long before you wonder, “Where did this author go to school? Rikers Island?!?”
maybe he went to CROMARTIE HIGH SCHOOL home of a whole shitload of badasses oh snap
@admin
Shandong, mainland China, but I bet there’s stuff going on like that everywhere there’s majiang junkies.
Hate to split hairs but “Hello Work” does not mean any unskilled labor through any temp agency. Hello Work is the name of the government unemployment offices in japan. Check it here: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF
Great first chapter. Thank you. Well done. Eagerly awaiting the next chapters.
@miles: thanks for your explanation of hello work. After all the work of translating the whole book, it wouldn’t do for me to make a mistake IN THE FUCKING TITLE! I’ll fix it as soon as i get some coffee in me.
[...] What is Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK? [...]
[...] What is Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK? [...]
[...] What is Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK? [...]
Glad to see someone else has discovered the weird world of datsui mahjong. Just a note–this sort of thing is really only restricted to the virtual world. I’ve heard a couple of rumors about real life strip mahjong parlors, but they don’t last very long.
Mahjong itself in Japan has an overblown image. It’s shady, but squeaky clean compared to pachinko or the semi-brothel industry.
[...] What is Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK? [...]
[...] What is Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK? [...]
[...] What is Shinya Kusaka’s URA HELLO WORK? [...]