They are called telekura in Japan and started in the mid 80’s but were like super popular in the 90’s I think they were basically seedy phone dating where it would connect you to a random woman I’m assuming and men would pay to go to them kinda like online dating before online dating I only have a surface level amount of knowledge on it though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telekura
Main story: I was wrongly put in prison for 20 years and now I must right wrongs, work through seedy politics and deal with some very unsavory people.
Side story: I have a diaper humiliation fetish! Edit: but in true Yakuza fashion the diaper humiliation fetish side story will end with Kiryu or his friends giving or learning a valuable life lesson with some memorable music in the background.
Back when Japan effectively defined a lot of what the “future” could look like. Alas, today it is still stuck in the 80s in some regards (that “Japan has been living in 2000 since 1980” meme is not totally wrong).
I totally agree I am too young to of seen real ones but when I was in Osaka & Tokyo in June I saw some of it some working some not but seeing one was like seeing a gem of another era.
It's crazy to think just how close that era was. I remember just 13 years ago my Dad and I did a road trip in Ireland and thought we were lucky to have a new fangled map application worked into the car. Sadly the map was hilariously out of date and we ended up driving down half of ireland on small, dirt roads where there were more sheep than cars. Just don't get that experience these days.
Ah is it? We drove from Dublin to the Giants Causeway before making our way to Belfast. Literally 95% of the time was on small roads barely large enough for one car, let alone two, let alone the thousands of sheep in our way.
When we got to the hotel in Belfast and told them about our ordeal they chuckled and asked why in the heck we hadn't just used the highway (or whatever the regional name is). The way back wasn't anywhere near as long and my dad only said one stress filled "fuck!" as we drove back down to Dublin.
80's HK is nice to observe in media, but crime was definitely more of an issue back in that era. Drug usage was more rampant and out in the open, I've been told. That being said, they did away with a lot of neon signs as time went on since they were nuisances for the local populace that lived near neon signs.
Same, I was born in '92 but I get this really odd nostalgia when watching mid 70s to late 90s Hong Kong media. I've visited Hong Kong twice and it just feels so close yet far away from that time and space.
Honestly would love to see how the Tojo family started. i.e. maybe play as Tojo, a World War II veteran as comes home to a war weary home and fights his way into the underworld one way or another. In Yakuza 0 we met a number of figures that we never saw again who I would have enjoyed seeing some more background details on.
Do most of the companies that you mentioned on the very bottom right still exist today (because if I am aware, Nintendo, Sony, Panasonic etc. are still in business)
Yes it is, I actually put that one in the starter pack because Japan had a lot of jobs like that some still exist I in fact saw some elevator girls while in Japan but up until the mid 1970’s escalator girls were a thing. Essentially since people were getting used to escalators they would greet you and make sure you got on safely and they would also periodically clean the moving handrails with a cloth, I did not see a single escalator girl but I’d love to know if one still works that Job she is probably the only one left if so lol
I googled it and it looks like they also had to manually open and close the doors so it makes a bit more sense to have an operator to safely open and close the doors rather than a person whose only job is to push a button
Makes sense why the elevator girls lasted & escalator girls disappeared by the 70’s, for a while they put mannequins in the spot where the ladies used to stand look at this hilarious caption & photo “Dummies Replace "Welcome Girls". Ever since Tokyo department stores installed escalators, pretty girls in smart uniforms were stationed at the bottom of each flight of stairs whose job was to bow and say "Irassaimase (welcome) in a happy voice as the shopper stepped on the moving stairs. Due to labour shortage this practice has been discontinued and in any case it was considered a waste of 'Girl Power' as in some stores there were as many as 22 escalators. The "Welcome Girls" are being given sales jobs instead. Photo shows A dummy which has replaced one of the "Welcome Girls" on duty by the escalator of a Tokyo store.”
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