(TAPE 15) Nicola Interview Apr 17, 1991
(Incl.
SIDE A
(Incl: Net Worth/Yae, Pro-Wrestling Fix, Rikidozan Character, Wives; Miss Hokkaido & Yae, Yae, Post-Olympic Tokyo, Anti-Japanese Feeling, Gold Scam:Buzz,Ginza Machii and Nick, “Mafia Boss” of Tokyo & Steve Dunleavy, Miscellaneous/Annie, Pig Farming)
(counter 000)
(NET WORTH, INCL YAE)
A: If Yokota becomes an international air base, because it’s got big runways. It’s undeveloped actually and there’s no reason for Uncle Sam to keep Yokota and Atsugi. So I think that they will move Yokota out. But the war in the gulf changed it. So over there I got 300 tsubo. I’d say right now it’s worth 5 million yen a tsubo. Eventually, it’ll go to ten. So ten million yen a tsubo is a lot of god damn money. That’s 3, 6, 7 zeroes. Another one is 8 zeroes. Plus 30. About ten, 12 zeroes. Something like that. It comes to a lot of fucking money. And then the building makes…that restaurant makes about $600,000 to $700,000 a year profit. That’s worth a lot of money if you try to buy that profit. And it isn’t just a question of buying profit. Now you have the opportunity to advance.
Q: That’s 3 billion yen.
A: That’s just for the land. 3 billion yen is what…$25 million. No, gotta be more than that.
Q: Then, sell the restaurant?
A: The restaurant. We already paid $2 million dollars for the restaurant. So that’s another asset that you add to it. Because you don’t throw away the ….and then it’s got at least ichi oku yen a year profit…..so you get about 5 years of the profit. You get the asset…so 5 years of the profit would be 5 oku, the building is worth about 2 oku. That’s 7 oku. And the land, whatever…10 million times 300,000. 300 tsubo….Then, of course, the other restaurants which are not worth…This is worth a lot of money. I could sell this restaurant, if I really wanted to, if somebody was interested, I’d probably get at least a million and a half dollars for this piece. The only thing wrong is I got a contract that doesn ‘t allow me to do it. See. I can’t change the food in the restaurant, unless I get permission. I can not sell more than 50% w/o permission. But that’s why, you know, even joking around, I can sell you 50% of this restaurant free, if you had a company that was making money. I say, ok, you can have 50% of the restaurant. All you do is pay for the losses. See. It comes off your taxes. And then you develop the business and the first thing you know, you gotta pile like that one…I don’t think I’ll lose money. Last month, I lost very, very little. So now the restaurant is turning around, it’s getting better. Because, as the Japanese lose their power of purchase, my restaurant gets big because it’s got a low price. The cost to eat here is very low, compared to outside.
So, I had one company in Korea that’s got a baseball team by the way. It’s called Kankoku something…it was one the god dam 500. The 180th company in the international 500. They wanted to buy my place. I said no. My wife sez she don’t want to sell….They came to me through some franchise operator….
They want to buy me, my operation. I didn’t want to sell it.
Q: So, what’s your dollar value. Net assets and everything. You worth 100,000,000?
A: Dollars? No. Close to it maybe, but…
Q: You could say $100,000,000.
A: Well, I would be. If I didn’t lose my properties, main restaurant, and a few other pieces of property, I’d be the richest fucking American in Japan. I think I used to be anyway. But now, I dissipate all my money. And can’t find any money on me. I let it disappear as fast as it comes in. But, if you count the assets that I have and my wife has. She’s got most of the assets. She’s got a membership in Guam that she paid a half a million dollars for.
Golf membership. You know and that fucking bullshit. She’s got about 5 or 6 other memberships. Golf crazy.
I think that girl walking down the street. You look in jewelry box and you name it she’s got every kind of fucking stone and diamonds and cat’seyes. You name. She’s got every god damn stone there is. Just her stones alone must be worth at least a million dollars. Probably more. Probably more. More than a million dollars. She had an acquamarine ring when she went to Bernies, in the Kahala Hilton…Bernie Hurtig, he’s got a jewelry store in the Kahala Hilton in Hawaii and he had a beautiful acquamarine there, my wife looked at it, I looked at it, about 25,000-30,000 he was trying to sell it. And she walked in the store and she says, “Hey, Bernie,”…We know him for a long time. He used to be a book salesman. “What do you think of this ring?” He says, “Jesus, we’ll give you about $50,000 for it right now.” She ain’t about to sell it. She got all that kind of crap. I bought for her this, sapphires, you name it. But I never cared for money. Money was never something I was interested in. I’m interested in getting it and spending it. Giving it away. Buying things. I don ‘t care.
(Talk about movie Mr. Baseball)
(Can hear rightwing sound trucks outside. Playing “Kimgayo” Blaring out anti-Americans slogans)
A: He speaking English?
(MISCELLANEOUS: PRO-WRESTLING FIX)
Q: Okay, I got more. These are random questions now. Riki ever tell you about fixing bouts. Rehearsing bouts.
A: Ah, of course, that was pro-wrestling.It was always like that. I knew a guy called Pepper Martin. Pepper Martin was here. And, of course, quite a few of them were here…Now, he’s a movie star or thinks he’s a movie star. Or trying to be a movie star. He acted in “The Mean Machine.” With Burt Reynolds. Course, he would be straight out. He would say what’s gonna happen. How you go from one hold to another. You know that kind of crap. But it’s all. It’s entertainment.
Of course, the pro wrestler gets mad if you say he belongs on the entertainment page, not the sport page. I heard that argument many times before from pro-wrestlers.
Q: You remember the Sharpe Brothers matches. They fixed too?
A: You can’t say they’re fixed. They got to end at a certain time with a certain winner. In other words, you know it yourself. You been in Japan long enough to know that if Rikidozan loses, there ain’t gonna be nobody there tomorrow. So, he has to win. You know, they can win one fall and then the other fall is even. Americans can generally win the first fall. The Japanese win the second fall or something like that. The Japanese win the 3rd fall. And they won. And they go through all the bullshit. But these guys are pros. They’re not amateurs. It’s the same thing as a boxing match. In a boxing match, the fighter. One fighter can get $5,000. The other can get $500. Before the fight. Winning don’t mean nothing. If he wins, maybe the next fight he can get more money….(boxing bs)…So pro wrestling, the Japanese has to win regardless.
I think a wrestler will tell you that if he gets a grip on you, he can hold that grip for an hour. Then what do you do. You sitting in the stands waiting. The guy never lets the grip go? What the hell kind of show is that? So, they have to play the game. They have to make the customers cheer and yell. You show how smart you are by getting out of a grip. It’s all bullshit. You see where the Russians won the title the other day? Russian fighters. They got like 26 matches and 22 knockouts.
Q: What about …remember his fights with Lou Thesz?
A: Yeah.
Q: Lou Thesz was a real wrestler.
A: Lou Thesz was a world champion.
Q: He didn’t fuck around. He didn’t..
A: Well, you get money. If his title is at stake, nobody is going to beat him. But they’re not talking about titles. You know, he’s the great champion, this that and that and the other thing. But his title is not at stake. And I remember, I think Pepper Martin used to get $800 a wrestling match, or $800 bucks a day while he was in Japan. I imagine Lou Thesz got a tremendous amount of money. But he’s not gonna put up his title.
Q: But he did put up his title.
A: Well then he can’t lose. He’s gonna fight to win. And he’ll do anything he can to win. But then again, you know, I know as much about pro-wrestling as you do.
Q: In the beginning, when Rikidozan was enormously popular, didn’t the people know that it was fixed?
A: They don’t care. Don’t the people know that the umpires on the Giants (sic) are all pro-Giants. Do people care?
Q: I don’t think they know. I don’t think they pay that much attention.
A: They ain’t got the brains to know. They read the paper. That’s it.
Q: But I mean this people in front of the tv, standing in Ueno Park and hanging from the trees, falling off the branches..
A: That’s how they started, anyway.
Q: But he was so popular because he would beat the Americans. They didn’t have an inkling then that it was fixed, in the beginning?
A: I don’t think so. I don’t even think they know it today.
Q: Yeah, they know it today.
A: You think so.
Q: Yeah. Everybody says it. I was wondering about in the beginning., because…Pro-wrestling isn’t anywhere near as popular as it was.
A: Oh, 25 years ago. Riki’s time. When Riki started it, and he started karate. And nobody had karate except Riki. And the truth is that if somebody really hits you with a karate chop, you ain’t gonna get up. They’ll spin your fucking head off. But he ain’t about to hit you really hard.
Q: In the beginning the fans thought it was for real…or if they had their doubts they didn’t care because it gave them hope.
A: Remember, it was a defeated country. And anybody who does anything against the American, the foreigners, they cheered them. They do the same thing today, only today it’s commercial.
(RIKIDOZAN CHARACTER)
Q: Did I tell you that story about Primo Canera?
A: No. I met him, you know, when I was a kid in New York.
Q: Big guy.
A: Big son of a bitch, of course.
Q: Where’s he from?
A: He’s from Italy….What is he. 6’8″ 6’9″. He had a pair of shoes that fit on the table here. There’d be no room for nobody else….What about Primo?
Q: Well, after Riki got his thing going, he developed this pattern where the gaijin were the bad guys and they would always lose. In the beginning, it wasn’t quite like that. The Sharpe Brothers, Lou Thesz. These guys were real…
A: They were professional pros. They knew how to wrestle. They knew how to….Antonio Rocco. Remember that one?
Q: So then he got his little act down and he knew what the fans wanted to see. So he brought Primo Canera over one time and he had his first match in Tokyo and Riki let him have his karate chop about 15 times. It had absolutely no effect.
A: And Primo got pissed off and punched him?
Q: No, no, he just…he fought. And Riki couldn’t beat him. You know, it was just like swatting a fly off. And so, they had dinner the next night down in Kobe, down in Kobe. They had a night of before the next match. And they’re sitting there in this geisha house and Riki pulls out a sword and he sticks it in Primo Canera’s chest. He’s like that. And he just looks at him. And he smiles. And sez, “This is a present from me to you.” But just that one look was enough so that Primo Canera got the message. And the next match he started going down when he got hit with a karate chop. But he didn’t want to play along in the beginning. He was fighting for real. That was in that book I read.
A: I know somebody got pissed off and hit him. I forgot who the hell it was. Riki was playing this fucking game and the guy got pissed off. He hit Riki.
Q: In the ring?
A: Yeah. He really hurt that son of a bitch…Oh, Riki wasn’t a…I don’t like you to call him that because there’s people who come out with a fucking knife and try to …I’d stand up to Riki many days. Come on Riki, if you think you’re tough. You know, this is no fucking ring. This is the street. He wouldn’t do anything.
Q: That’s a good story.
A: The thing is, his son is around. And they got these ultra-nationalists. You got to be very careful. And now I’m 70 and I can’t defend myself. But there were a lot of guys who were big and strong. But Riki basically was a hell of a nice guy. Of course, everybody might portray him as a mean person, but he was not mean. He was easy to get along with….Like the day I was trying to screw his girl friend. He wasn’t angry. He didn’t get mad at me. He hit her. What the hell did you hit her for? I’m gonna marry that girl. Jesus .That’s the time when he wanted to watch us screw. Can you imagine that? Fucking Riki.
Q:: Unless he got drunk.
A: Oh, when Riki got drunk, that’s a different guy. That’s not the same Riki. You know he could get drunk. He used to drink straight bourbon. He never put a fucking ice cube or a god damn glass…or an ounce of water in any of his drinks.
(talks to headwaiter)
….never. Straight bourbon.
Q: He drink a lot?
A: He was a good drinker. He was a strong mother fucker, yo. He could drink bourbon like it was going out of style. And if you tried to keep up with him, he’d kill you….
Ebihara died the other day. I made him a world champion. Then how he pays back. He opens a pizza place near my Yokota restaurant. That’s gratitude for you.
Q: Maybe he’s trying to honor you.
A: I shoulda let him stay in jail. Dumb shit.
(WIVES: MISS HOKKAIDO & YAE)
Q: I need dates of marriages and divorces.
A: Forgot book.
Q: I really wanna meet Miss Hokkaido.
A: Well, good luck. Go to Hokkaido.
Q: You got her number for me. Call her for me?
A: Naw, I just know that she lives in a certain place. I mean the mother lives.
Q: I can’t go up there w/o proper introduction. This is Japan. What better person to make the introduction than you.
A: Except…I know where the mother lives. Cuz I think I paid for the fucking house that they built. But anyway, that’s beside the point. And I know it’s near the juvenile jail. And I know its….well, you go from the back of Sapporo. How do you say that?
Q: I don’t know.
A: You know they got a mountain resort there. You know “onsen.” It’s in the back of Sapporo. So you gotta come from Ku-chan/. (gives directions, 24th avenue, 24th street)
Q:But your wife, your present wife Yae-chan, she has no objection to talking….She said she would.
A: Yeah, she’ll talk to you. She’s got a better memory than I do. She was here the other night talking about people that I don ‘t even remember. She’s got a good memory for who comes here and who we know. Things that happen. I can’t remember shit.
Q: I’d like to talk to her next week on Friday. Say about 3 o’clock or 3:30?
A: You’re gonna get caught. You’re gonna get caught. You’re gonna get caught on Golden Week.
Q: That’s the 3rd, isn’t it. That’s a holiday. We should wait.
A: You better not try to catch her on Golden Week. She’s gonna go to her restaurant in Yokota. 3,4,5.
Q: You said she comes from a samurai family.
A: She comes from the Koizumi samurai family from Gumma. That’s of course Japanese history. And I think the, you gotta read your Japanese history, ….Takasaki, Maebashi, Ohta, something like that…
Q: What did her family think about her taking up with a gaijin back then?
A: Well, it was easy because her sister married an American before me. That’s the guy that’s the sherriff of Monterey.
Q: They didn’t object to that?
A: Well, in those days, it was very hard. The father and mother was dead. And if you can marry a gaijin at that time, you got a guaranteed income. You gotta think that way too, you know. So she married a guy that was probably a PFC or a corporal. Raymond Malpica…who, by the way, is a buddy, buddy of Colin Powell. They went into the army together. They lived in the same streets of New York City. He’s a friend of Colin Powell. He called up Colin Powell, the other day. Everyone was shocked. He picked up the phone and called Colin Powell. “Just tell him this is Sergeant Malpica.” And the guy spoke to him. And you know one of the son-in-laws is a Stealth Fighter….the war that America lost in the Gulf. Remember I told you that’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen. Bush is gonna be. His fucking rating is gonna go so far down. Trying to get people to assassinate Sadaam Hussein and yet he, the other presidents all tried Castro and they all failed. And the word is that a Jew is gonna do the assassination….Bullshit. (garbled) That son of a bitch is circumcised. I think they check everybody’s pecker.
Q: That’s right. At the airport. When you show your passport, you got to whip it out. Or else they won’t let you in.
A: You’re kidding. I believe it though, because boy.
(Note: Yae continues 6 lines down)
(POST-OLYMPIC TOKYO)
Q: Tell me. How did things start changing after the Olympics?
A: Well, of course, after the Olympics, things changed because now Japan was …today I was looking at MacArthur went home, 1951…on BS broadcast news…He left April 23rd, 21st and Ridgeway came in.
(YAE)
Q: Wait, one more question about Yae. Was she living alone when you met her? What was her story? Was she living with her uncle or something?
A: Gee, I can’t answer that question…Her brother-in-law Raymond Malpica introduced me to her. So she could have been living with her sister. But she was a kid then. Let’s she, she is 58 now. That was 36. 56. 35 years later. She was 21. She is the most successful woman in Japan. Bar none.
Q: Really?
A: Oh my god. She’s got every fucking thing you can think of. She owns Yokota. She owns my other two restaurants. She’s gotta be worth…of course, most like, you wanna say I’m worth about 100 million dollars. I’d say if I was worth 100 million dollars, Yae chan would be worth 90 million of it. And not only that, she knows how to carry herself. She know how to talk. She knows. She knows.
She can be very vicious too. I thought she was only vicious to me, but the other day she explained, she showed her vicious to people…she went to a funeral and they had this Nippon Taxi Company in the middle of the place\ with the funeral flower and my flower was at the end, not even under a shed and the rain was going on it, and she called in the shacho (president) yesterday, the day before, and she read the riot act. God what she didn’t tell that guy. Boy, she reminded him that I was the first man to buy Gouda Cheese from him and that he used to deliver it by bicycle. Now he owns his own building and he’s a big wheel and he gave Nihon Kotsu preferential treatment at the funeral. And boy I mean, she didn’t stop. She went on for at least one hour. That son of a bitch was standing at attention, bowing and bowing. And I got my camera and I’m trying to take a picture. The fucking camera wasn’t working. I had the batteries in backwards. Son of a gun.
So she can be very very outspoken. She remembers this and she remembers that. And she really laid it into that guy. And I got to admit, he deserved it.
Q: What guy?
A: The guy that supplied us Gouda cheese in the beginning. Name is Fumiya.
Q: He was running this funeral?
A: He died. He died and she went to the funeral.
Q: Who’d she read the riot act to?
A: The new president. The son or whatever the hell he is. Because they put her, you know the flower (wreath) you send to a funeral. They put it in a bad location and the rain came on it. And our enemy Nippon Taxi (Nippon Kotsu), they put their flower right in the middle. So then guy says “What can I do to make up for this?” She almost said, “Jump out the fucking window.” They’re thinking in terms of money. You know Japanese. She says, “Don’t you ever think that way.” She went to the funeral. You know they give you a omiyage (present/souvenir) to take back. She took it back and then she called the shacho (prez.), the funeral was just finished, I guess. And she told the guy to come over. He came over and she gave him the fucking presents that they give you at the funeral. And boy, she went right at him. I mean. I thought I was the only guy to get that kind of criticism. But I’m glad that somebody else got it for a change. I felt good about it while I was listening to her. Read the riot act, I mean boy. She says “Remember this time. Remember that time. Remember this time. Remember that time.” Jesus.
Q: What was the present?
A: Head bowed down low.
Q: No, what was the present?
A: The what?
Q: The funeral present.
A: I don’t know. It was in a shopping bag. It was a big bag. She wouldn’t even open it. She wouldn ‘t even look at it.
Q: How old was this president here, this guy?
A: He’s got black and white hair. So he’s got to be in his 40’s. 50’s. The old man died.
Q: Was he a relative?
A: No, the son. Or the general manager or something like that.
Q: So Fumie used to sell gouda cheese.
A: He’s the only guy, you know, I found gouda cheese. Checked it out and he did ‘t really have gouda cheese. He was supplying me with a few little items. So I told him to go get gouda cheese for me and he got gouda cheese for me. Cause Nozawa is the importer. But Nozawa is not a distributor. You know the Japanese chain system.
Q: So you helped him make a lot of money.
A: Oh, Christ almighty. He owns a big building now in Nihonbashi. Started out with a fucking bicycle. Delivered cheese by bicycle. Can you imagine that?
Q: He get that rich just by selling cheese?
A: Hey, yeah. I was a big cheese buyer. Well, of course, everybody wants to copy Nicolas. And all my cooks know what I’m using, right. And they all disappeared and work other places, other places, other places, other places. To give you an idea, Mr. Pizza uses about 20 tons of cheese a month. And that’s crap cheese. It ain’t 100% natural cheese. So I imagine the cheese imports in this country must be extremely high.
So I told her change. Get another importer. Or else, import yourself. It’s AA. The only thing wrong when you import yourself you got to import a container load. What the fuck to you do with a container load? Cheese spoils. So I told her. Go on a revenge tour. Sell it for exact cost. And you’ll fuck up the whole market.
Q: What else did you do for him that was so good?
A: Oh, I used to buy thousands and thousands and thousands of cases of tomatoes from him. To make tomato sauce. Oh, he was a big supplier. Cuz I didn’t want to bother looking for this and looking for that. So when I needed something, he’d get it, he get it. I used to buy one year of whole tomatoes at a time. One year. And he’d warehouse it. And deliver it to me. That’s a big order when you buying 30-40,000 cases of fucking tomatoes at one time. But you can do that with tomatoes, because they’re in a can. Cheese has got a 2 or 3 month life span.
Q: How did you buy the cheese? What are the units? How do you describe that?
A: Cheese just comes in a 20 kilo box.
Q: How much would you order from them?
A: A ton at a time. 2 tons at a time. I still think we use over two tons a month. Like every month we’d order 2 tons, 3 tons, but then before, we had a big restaurant. That was grossing a million yen a day. Everyday. You know the volume that place had. Jesus Christ. When you think a pizza is 150 yen.
(discuss schedule)
(POST OLYMPIC TOKYO)
Q: OK. After the Olympics. How Japan changed.
A: Well, I remember the money they made. They made a tremendous amount of money. They made international good will. They found out who they were. They were very stubborn. They were son of a bitches before the Olympics. You couldn ‘t bring a car into Japan. You could ‘t do nothing. But after the Olympics, they got more internationalized because of the money that came in. You know, like you ask that question about tv. You know how much money they paid for American League baseball. So you gotta remember, that time was almost in the same category. How much money did they pay for the Olympics. How much money did the Japanese make.
Q: You said you couldn ‘t bring an America car in before the Olympics, but after you could?
A: Life changed. I don’t even think you could do it then.
Q: It still cost twice as much. Oh yeah. I remember the Japanese would not bring in a car because they said it would destroy their industry. They didn’t even have an industry. I told you about the American military was teaching the Japanese to do assembly line production. And Toyota used to said all their engineers to work on the assembly line and so they learned what the assembly line was. We/they were what, repairing trucks and jeeps in the Korean War. And they took all that technology free.
Then, of course, the Japanese are good at making a better banana than you can. They improve on everything.
Q: OK, so they got cocky or what?
A: They started to get arrogant. Flex their muscles. Now they find out what people buy. The foreigners came to Japan. And they met man people. They made many connections. And they didn’t have nothing to offer. So I imagine if you look at the history of Japan after the Olympics, they really started making money. Properties changed. But I’d say property was going up before the Olympics.
Q: And you sold your land to the government so they could build that highway there. And you said you paid people to sit in your restaurant all day.
A: All day. I used to go to the nightclubs and give these girls tickets to come to my restaurant. And they would come and they would sit there and I remember the man came in one day from the highway commission and he was sitting in my restaurant. And he was sitting at a table. Then he had to sit at the bar. Then he had to go outside and wait because there was no more space.
And it was all a gimmick. I gave everybody 5,000. Come in my restaurant. Spend it. I did good I think.
I got two million yen from the government just because my sidewalk went down about 3 inches. Cuz they built the subway and they fucked the streets up. That was before 1964.
Cuz they built the Roppongi subway and the sidewalk in front of my restaurant sunk. Of course, it breaks. They gave me 2 million yen for the inconvenience. I only paid 3 million for the whole property. They gave me 2 because the sidewalk broke.
But, of course, you got to manipulate and maneuver those people.
And I had good manipulators. Good maneuverers.
Q: Sunk 2 inches?
A: Sunk 2 inches. Before the door was equal to the sidewalk. All of a sudden, it wasn’t equal, no more.
Q: So when was that, the subway?
A: It must have been 1962. It was before 64. Because 64, the highway went right through my restaurant.
Q: So you had to move the restaurant back when the hiway was built?
A: No, I moved over to the Gazembo-cho.That property was 170 tsubo. Cost me 47 million yen. The property cost 47 million. And I got 52 million yen in cash….Came to about 250 a tsubo, something like that.
Q: So paid these girls to come. You paid them 5,000 yen, told them to come in and sit down?
A: Sit down and eat and drink and take your time.
Q: How long did you do this? How many days?
A: Oh, about a week or ten days. I didn’t care. It was a lot of fun. You get a lot of sex of it it too. But anyway…Plenty of broads in those days. Good looking. They were nice looking girls. They were the cream of the crop.
Q: Week to ten days….Because he was trying to assess how much business you’d lose, right?
A: Eigyo-ken (business right). They wouldn’t give me only 4 times bigger property. I wanted more. 100% of the money for property. They wouldn’t give it to me.
Q: How much did they wind up giving you?
A: 97 million yen….That was a lot of money in 1964. A lot of fucking money. Nobody thought in terms of ichi-oku yen (100,000,000 yen), let me tell you. Nobody even thought that way, you know, they were…ten million yen was so much fucking money nobody even thought about it….They were down in the “nan-byaku-mon” (the millions).
Q: Now ten million yen seems like a summer vacation or something.
A: Well, you can buy three-quarters of a Benz, or a half a Benz.
Q: OK. Olympics changing things. Anything else?
A: Well, everything change after the Olympics. Like I said, the economic system in Japan started changing. They were getting stronger. That’s why everybody wants an Olympic, because it brings a lot of people in, they all got ideas. You’re a political science graduate. You should know.
Q: I want the words from you.
A: Well, I don’t know the words. I just know that they got on a higher plane. And right now, they’re so fucking high, you got to shoot a rocket up in the air to get them. But they were hard workers. There’s no question about it. The Japanese work very hard. They don’t have no problem because they all Japanese. They don’t allow foreigners to get involved. They don’t allow the boss to say like in the States, “Well, you’re nice to that guy because he’s a Jew like you. Or you’re nice to that guy because he’s black like you.” Over here, it’s one people. All Japanese. Nobody else qualifies. So they don’t feel bad by working, because everybody is from the same fucking mold. And everybody thinks the same. They all go to the same school. They all have the same way of thinking. And to me, they’re all fucking stupid, but you like that American commentator the other day on tv, what he said. He said, you know the Japanese, this girl, that 11 o’clock girl on the BS…she speaks beautiful English, very smart too, by the way…And she asked the guy, don’t you think we should get the islands back (inre the Northern Territories Russians occupy), he said, “Well when you go to war, you should expect to lose property.”
He didn’t want to say it, but she pushed him and pushed him and he finally said it. So now I asked, like yesterday, my nephew, he’s here, he’s a graduate of Fresno and he’s a big fucking computer salesman, and whatnot, his wife makes a quarter of a million dollars with that Fuji Xerox, and now they’re going to give her the international marketing. Can you imagine that? She’s gonna go way up.
And I asked him, I says, “What did we gain from the Spanish-American War?” And he couldn’t answer it. Fucking college graduate.
I said, “We got the Philippines from Spain.”
Then I says, “Well what’d we do with it? We gave it back to the Filipinos. We didn’t give it back to the fucking Spaniards.”
“So the Russians took the islands in the north. Why should they give it back to the Japanese?”
But then again, I guess if you go through history, a lot of countries…to me, that’s how the Japanese got those islands. They got them through the 1905 war with the Russians. But that’s the Manchester Treaty. I don’t know if you can find that book and you can just read the Manchester Treaty, it was done in Manchester, by the Americans. America saved Japan’s ass, that time. They attacked the Russians in 1904, and then the Russians took a fucking beating and then they started coming back and the Japanese said Banzai, let’s have a peace treaty. And the Americans manipulated the peace treaty and they got Korea. See? Then they only lost Korea because of the fucking World War II. But they don’t want to say that they had Korea because of the war with the Russians.
Q: I thought it went back to 1850, that thing with the islands.
A: It goes all the way back.
(ANTI-JAPANESE FEELING)
Q: When did you first start disliking the Japanese?
A: Well, in the beginning life was great, life was good. My life was very very good. I enjoyed life. I had no qualms with anybody, because I was making money and like I say I was a playboy and I was enjoying life. Then later on you get shall we say a little bit more sober. And you read the newspapers more and you see what goes on and then you start realizing that the world that I lived in and the world that I’m in are very different. You meet the arrogant Japanese. Because now they start to get arrogant. I’d say that started about…well, look what the guy did to me in 1972. He took my restaurant without a bill of sale. He didn’t give a fuck. He was a Japanese. This was Japan. What’d I lose on that deal, about $300 fucking million dollars. And I was in court 17 years. They just ignored the situation.
Q: They took, what’d you say, $300,000,000?
A: The land was worth $125 million. Just that land over there. It’s a 170 tsubo. Ichi-oku (100,000,000 yen) a tsubo, yo. Today it’s probably worth more than ichi-oku yen a tsubo. …That’s why when CBS called me up. Who called me up. Dan Rather’s is what?
Q: CBS.
A: CBS called. Right away the guy that got caught on the ground.
Q: Bob Simon.
A: Bob Simon called me, ne. And, uh…because he knows me and he knows the restaurant, see. He called me in Hawaii. And I told him, you don ‘t want to interview me, because I’m not going to say anything pro-Japanese. I hate the fucking Japanese. But, I lost a lot. I lost the land, the building, my employees, my name, my reputation, my trademark. And I couldn’t fight. 17 years in court and I didn’t have a chance. Nobody spoke about documentation. That’s out of the question. Can you imagine losing a piece of property without a bill of sale. Shit.
You know I got the paperwork on this court case now, another one…I’m being sued by a man whose got a receipt from me without a stamp on it. Can you imagine issuing a receipt without a stamp in this country? It’s illegal.
Q: Crazy Wong didn’t…
A: Crazy Wong. I got the thing over here. But he did a good job. He twisted the whole situation…But, of course, he come out in court. Then it’s a question of who the judge likes–an American or a Chinese. But tomorrow I got a meeting with my lawyer…But you know my thing is that everyday I meet so many Japanese, they come to the restaurant, they talk, they get propaganderized by the newspapers and the magazines and television. They’re great. They’re great. They’re the best. They know how to do everything. And they come and they speak out like that. So you say how can you help but being anti-Japanese–when you were brought up in the United States, and you been in the service and you seen what an American can do. You know, people don’t know what America did. In World War II, you know, we landed 13 million men in fucking Europe? You know that? 13 fucking million. Shit. We supplied the whole fucking Russian Army with Lend-Lease. When you hear people talk about anti-Americanism, you’ve got to get angry. “America’s no good.” “The niggers can’t read and write.” And yet, I think you put together the NBA and the NFL and American baseball, you get all the niggers and put their salaries together. Fuck, they’re making more money than Sony and anybody else.
(re tv report) This guy just got a 20 million dollar contract to play for a football team. You see that in the paper? And that’s every year, or just about. 4 year contract.
(POST-OLYMPIC GANGS)
Q: The gangs change much after the Olympics.
A: Well, they got more stronger. But the police got stronger. I’d say the gangs started disappearing in 1975. And they were cut down. So I’d say the last 15 years, they were …but they find different ways of making money. They do different things.
I asked that particular guy to help me, you know. I got no response. We were supposed to meet last week and nothing happened. So, go the other way. Go the legal way. I got a receipt that I gave him 38,600 bucks. Now I want my 38,600 bucks back. But slowly, I’m getting Interpol in it, I’m getting the police involved. Because you know, they, the Japanese expression, you know, “Two rats came out of the same hole.” You know that expression. It’s a Japanese expression. I’m a foreigner. The other guy’s a foreigner. It applies. As long as they’re Japanese, they don’t say that.
Q: Two rats came out of the same hole?
A: You two rats came out of the same hole. You two rats. So if you are arguing with an American or anything except a Japanese, they classify both of yah’s as “rats that came out of the same hole.”–which means you cohibitated together, or whichever way you want to say it? So they’re not interested. In other words, this is a breed away from them.
I know one Japanese. His name is Wada. No, his name is Yamada.
(GOLD SCAM: BUZZ)
(phone call: Do I have Buzz’s telephone number…I got his telephone number. So I can call him up. I already spoke to him on the phone. It looks like he ain’t got no job. You know there’s a question involved as to why he left so quick. And why he accepted a receipt that was phony. And why was he with my gold buyer, a whole day on Friday. And it’s questionable what he did. But eventually, I’ll know. I don’t know if he sold me down the river or something like that, which is possible. The man’s broke, he’ll do anything to make bucks. Cuz I was very surprised when I called him on the phone, course, it must have been about 2 o’clock in the morning. Over here it was about 5 o’clock. I didn’t pay that close attention, but then he never goes to bed early. So he said. So I called him up and he doesn’t have a job yet. And the man he’s supposed to meet came to Japan and he told me these things.And, you know, my mind is working. What the hell is going on?
…(bs)…what comes from me you can throw away…don’t feel bad, he owes me too….well, if you good looking and you know how to do it, you can do it….anyway I know you got something that was on the ceiling in my restaurant. Ein, something. They hold flowers on my ceiling. That’s all I know…(etc. bs….)…….(talking about Buzz, the things he left behind in his apartment when he suddenly left Japan, which includes computer…)…
…Well, this is a guy that can read and write and speak Japanese. How the fuck he can not survive in Japan is beyond me.
Yeah, I know, because I put him in here. He lasted 6 weeks here. He’s drinking. Sleeping on the job, He was putting the money in his pocket. So I just…that job is only one job and he must have borrowed ten times against it…I just had to let him go. I’m in Hawaii, and I had to call from Hawaii when I heard what he does…Nobody knows where the money is. You know we’re not talking big money. We’re talking nickels and dimes. And I told him if he could put the place in the proper position where he could make money in the afternoon, I’d give him 35% of the profit….I mean, in the evening….
…Anyway, David, sorry to hear the bad news. And then Rick Roa called, I asked Rick Roa, because he called Roa, and then Roa called me and then I called him back. So then I thought you were looking for the telephone number, so when you called, I was trying to find you. Yeah, I got the number, surely…..Buzz is 212-366-0815. You got him. OK. Take care Dick. Uh, David…..)
That’s the fucking gold thing. You know, the guy sold me down the river. But I’ll know eventually. All right, let’s get back to where you are.
Q: But it would only be $38,000. You’d have to split it with that guy.
A: No, no, no, my object was ,…I used him to help me use his apartment and I made the 2 people meet and I gave him $2,000 and I kept $38,000. Or 33,000. And so then when they came back to return the money which is next day, he only had 600 bucks. So he was short 1400. So that was one of my questions over there in this paper, I don’t know who I gave it to. If the Chinese is so hard up he’s trying to fuck me up, how come he never pushed for this $1400 bucks that somebody else owed. But this is all in that court statementpapers. You’ll see it. Eventually. It will be there….This is a guy named David Hayman. And he’s in the dog food business. You know Pet Foods? He’s a Canadian operator. Very big business. But he says that all the money he took from here, the guy put in his pocket and then the guy had to go over to Dave to cover up to return the money.
But this is…can you imagine that. The guy reads and writes and speaks Japanese and he can’t make a living in this country. God damn it, if I only could speak and read Japanese, the fucking money I’d save. Jesus Christ. I remember when I used to pay 175,000 yen to get a court translation. And they couldn’t translate that court for shit. Their English stunk and I used to use the Otani Hotel service, linguistic service.
(GINZA MACHII & NICK)
Q: You stopped seeing Ginza Machii in 1980, you said
A: Probably. Yeah. He’s sick at home. He doesn’t go out anymore. You know Machii bought a big home in Hollywood. Who did he buy it from?
Q: I didn’t read that.
A: He paid millions of fucking dollars from a movie star’s home. And I asked my wife the other day, do you think he’s sitting there in Hollywood in his big home? He’s sitting over here.
Q: Sumiya told me he was living in that building the TSK.CCC building.
A: Yeah, I been to that apartment that he’s got up there. Boy, let me tell you. He’s got a tennis court on the roof, you know. His tennis court. Not anybody. Just his.
Q: What else is there.
A: When I went there, of course, you can’t get in the apartment. You know, the elevator will probably not stop at his floor or something like that. Taiho used to live there. You know, the sumo-san (Taiho was grand champion). He used to live there. And when I went in his apartment, he had the old Japanese samurai hallway, what would you say it, the hallway would be samurai style, it’s got round stones in the middle, the little black ones all around it so you walk on the main one like the stump of a tree. Like that. And all black lacquer. It give you the impression it was a samurai home. But I was only up there once.
…you know the way the Japanese build their homes, with the 4 x 4 sticking out. And the floor was all black stones with big steppingstones….Between the stones were little black cherry stones. I don’t know what the hell you call them. But, of course, the place was immaculate and very, very beautiful. A long way from where he used to live before. He used to live Mita House before. Near Mita house. Across the street from Mita House.
Q: Expensive samurai swords displayed?
A: I don ‘t know.
Q: Is he married?
A: Oh, yes. Of course. He’s probably got kids. But he keeps that part of his life extremely quiet. My wife would know. She would know. Yeah, the wife is this, the wife is that. Fuck, I don’t even know if I’m alive.
Q: When did he stop thinking of you as a Mafia man? Ginza Machii.
A: Well, I used to tell him all the time I’m not. Because boy, if you don’t say you’re not, these people will think that you can do things for them. So I got no relation with those guys. I know who they are. I probably could walk over and say hello. But I ain’t gonna get involved…I told you what he did with Pascual Perez, one day.
Q: About the million yen?
A: Yeah, how would you like to sit down at a meeting like that. Shit, you know.Then he laughed and kept the money. Boy, you do that in the States with somebody, they ain’t gonna laugh and keep the money. They’ll hire somebody else and get rid of you.
Q: What was Ginza Machii’s reaction when Riki got killed? Did you talk to him about that?
A: No. Just his boys. Of course, you know, we know them all. They come here. Of course, Riki and Machii were very, very, very good friends. They were both Koreans. And I used to go out with those guys. And, of course, when they killed Riki, he sent those boys after them. And I think…of course Noguchi got stabbed in the deal. And now I think Noguchi is retired because of the knife wounds that he got….He was the one that stabbed the guy back that stabbed Riki. His job was to get him and he went and got him. I don’t know what happened to Noguchi ever since. I think he’s gone outta the…He could be dead for all I know. Or he’s retired. But of course those days, it’s all in the newspaper.
Q: But what was Ginza Machii’s personal…did you ever talk to him about that?
A: No.
Q: You saw him 2 or 3 times a week and you
A: Yeah, but you can’t talk to those things. Kawaii so (it’s a pity) or something. You don’t want to get involved, because he was sending his people out to get revenge and I’m not exactly the guy to stand on any side of the sidewalk. If you go against the group that killed Riki, they’ll come after you. I mean, who am I gonna call. Machii? Shit, don’t …not interested.
Q: But you didn’t commiserate with him or anything?
A: You cry the blues.You can’t help it. I mean Riki got hurt. But then again, Riki brought it on himself too. You got to remember that part. Riki hit the guy or some shit like that. The guy came back and stabbed him. Whatever the real details are I don’t know.
But, of course, what can you do. I mean Riki died real quick like. Nobody expected him to die. He got a little knife wound. And, of course, people were visiting him. They didn’t like anybody to visit him. And these are all the Tosei-kai people. They come over here and “Riki’s OK. We saw him yesterday. He’s fine.” This that and the other thing. Nobody thought that something serious like that was going to happen. Riki died, how many years ago..
Q: 1963, 64 he died.
A: Jeez. That’s 27 years ago. Long time ago.
Q: But I mean, when you talked to him about Riki, did he look sad?
A: Oh, yes. Of course, of course. Those guys were like brothers. Hey.
Q: Did he cry?
A: No, no, no, no. Just. Well, let me say it this way. When Riki died I think Machii changed. He lost that pizzazz.. Is that what you call it? I think that started him away from Crime Incorporated.
Q: What do you mean, he lost that pizzazz.
A: Well, this was a guy…they were like shit and piss, you know. So when Riki went by the way of the knife, I think Machii just sort of sobered up. Changed his way of thinking. And probably planned how to get out of the organizations. Because what, he retired 5 or 10 years ago. So you can imagine. I’d say Riki’s death probably made him think a different way of thinking. They were both probably the same age, uh? Both had the same upbringing. 2 peas in a pod.
Q: They start singing when they went out together?
A: Oh, they were so close together they were…when I used to go out with them. Of course, we all spoke English and Japanese. Ne. Even though the English was terrible and the Japanese was terrible. But Riki spoke pretty good English. Machii, of course, his English was terrible. Machii didn’t. I don’t even think he could speak 10 words of English. In those days, my Japanese was no good, but there was a common bond and there was a way to negotiate and talk to each other. But those two guys were inseparable.
Q: They sing together in night clubs?
A: They were not the singing type. I never heard Riki sing. I never heard Machii sing. But they’d go together and they were very, very close.
(MAFIA BOSS OF TOKYO AND STEVE DUNLEAVY)
( 2 Idiots Talking)
Q:Steve Dunleavy of the New York Post wrote you were the Mafia Boss of Japan? Isn’t that what you told me?
A: Probably.
Q: When was that, you remember?
A: Steve Dunleavy….you oughta call him up one of these days. Why don’t you, when you’re in New York.
Q: Is he still there?
A: Oh, yeah. He’s Murdoch’s boy. You know, he’s an Australian. New York Post.
Q: Oh, that guy. When did he write this? Jesus, that was ten years ago? When did he write that you were the Mafia Boss of Tokyo. (note: it was Lee Mortimer who wrote it.)
A: Oh, that’s before that.Before that. That would be when I lived in Roppongi. That would be before 1970….But Steve was one hell of a tough son of a bitch. Let me tell you. He was tough. He wrote the one about Sam the Dog. The dog told the guy to kill people.
Q: Oh, Son of Sam.
A: And he was on tv with a tv show called the reporters. And that was only a couple of years ago.
Q: That’s right. He wrote that Elvis book too, didn’t he…
A: I don’t know.
Q: But he wrote that in the New York Post about you?
A: But he just…well…you know…those days
Q: You’re the one that told me the story.
A: Yeah. Those days we were buddy-buddy. I can’t remember what I told you. But I was considered the Mafia Boss by certain people like Steve, when he got in trouble with the Tosei-kai group. He beat up Matsubara. He came running to me to get him out of trouble. And I hadda be the peacemaker.
But those days, everybody thought I was the Mafia Boss.
No matter how you deny it. The more you deny it the more they think you are.
But then again, why deny it. It doesn’t hurt. You keep a lot of the shit away from you.
But I imagine if you meet people who were around in those days, they’d probably tell you, “Oh, that son of a bitch, Nick.” They’d probably tell you more than I would.
Q: Why did he beat up Matsubara?
A: Oh, they were drinking. You know right after that. I was in jail at that time.
Q: What year was this?
A: Jeez. I don’t know. Gotta be. I gotta think. Cuz you see I was living in that house in Roppongi. And I didn’t change my house until 19…the Olympic came in 1964. And I bought this restaurant in 1968. Let’s say about 1968. In the neighborhood of 1968. About that year, he beat up Matsubara which is not a good thing to do.And, of course, I can’t remember what the hell I was locked up for… that was the rifle thing. And when I got out, Steve came over and begged me to make a peaceful settlement between the two of them. “They can beat me up, but no knives and no guns.” And Steve, if you wanted to beat Steve up, you have to have about ten fucking 200 pounders to beat that guy up. He was a rough, fucking Outback man.
Then after that, a little time after that, he left and went to the States. Then he probably started working for Murdoch. If he went straight to the States.
Q: So he never wrote that you were the Mafia Boss. He just thought it.
A: I’d say everybody thought it. He wasn’t a writer at that time..I don’t think that he was in the journalistic business at that time.
Q: What was he doing? (note: he was working at the Stars and Stripes)
A: Well, like everybody else. Enjoying life.God only knows how people made money those days. But you didn’t need much money to live in those days. That was the days where 5,000 yen was a lot of money….I remember I bought that house in Roppongi, 65 tsubo for 8 million yen. On the installment plan. Today that property, god only knows what it’s worth.
Q: So did you make a settlement with the Tosei-kai for him?
A: Yes, I did.
Q: What was that?
A: They just met and hit him a few times. That’s it. Probably because he submitted, you know. He apologized. And I had to apologize for him. He didn’t realize it. You know what you gotta do. You gotta kiss ass a little bit. Make them feel that they….Matsubara. he used to come to the restaurant here, but now he’s senile, and I think he’s probably 90% dead. And he looked like he got hit by a Mack Truck. But I imagine Matsubara today has got to be 80 years old. 75-80.
I remember Matsubara came to my restaurant when I had the old one. And I said, “Matsubara, no guns in here.”
And he took out about 3-4-5 guns and laid them on the table. He says OK, no guns . Get outta here. But those days, who cared. Who gave a shit.
Q: Were you there when they met Steve and punched him?
A: It was an arrangement between themselves. OK. You meet at a certain place at a certain time. You know. But Steve must have had something going. Because after that he left the country. So why take a beating and then go. Because they can’t hurt him anyway. He was a mean mother fucker. You could hit that guy probably square in the fucking nose and probably he’ll look at you and say what are you trying to do?
(MISCELLANEOUS)
Q: When did you expand your big restaurant at Gazembocho.
A: OK, I opened that first restaurant August 1, 1956. And I stayed there until the Olympics, 1964. And the Olympics, I think October of 1964, was very close to that date. Then I opened that restaurant. Took me 6 weeks to 5 weeks to build that restaurant. Can you imagine that? 400 tsubo. Or about 250 tsubo the first time. I had all the pipes. Everything I had. Sitting on my other property, which was where my house is. And they closed the road on me, but I fucked them. I had all the material ready.
Q: And then did you expand then?
A: That’s why I went there. From there I went there. Then I came here.
Q: But you never expanded once you went there.
A: I built that place twice. I put a 100 tsubo on it one time. And 100 tsubo on it the second time. That restaurant was a gold mind. So I built it in 64. And I expanded like 66. 68 again, like that. And I kept adding 100 tsubo. It was sitting on 170 tsubo of land. It became 110 tsubo on the floor. A basement and 2 floors plus a roof. Which eventually I made into an off…I made the roof a factory up there, certainly 100% illegal. But those days.
Q: A factory?
A: I made a pizza factory on the roof. Then I went and bought Atsugi land and made a new factory at Atsugi. And the world caved in.
Q: Why was it illegal?
A: Oh, first of all it was a light gauge metal, you know, a steel building. Permission for 2 floors above ground. And one below. And then I went above, on the roof and I put a prefab up there. And they allowed me to do that. But I had to move out in 2 years or something like that. So, I started looking for land. And I bought land in one fucking hour. Can you imagine that? Who could do such a thing? I decided to go to Atsugi Interchange. But I think I told you. I took my son with me. And I had a yellow corvette or some god damned sport car, that two people fit in. Have to use a can opener. And I went to an Atsugi broker. And so I buy a 100 tsubo of land….
I lost my Chinese…You know what she was doing?…Yeah, of course, we fired her. She was going around to my customers, selling them Sony products. Yeah. She had a side business going. I tell you, you know, these Chinese are something. They’re really something. And she was…you know the manager caught her holding hands with a customer….but anyway. She’s gone.
Q: She was holding hands…my Annie…was holding hands with a customer.
A: Oh, yeah. She was peddling fucking Sony products out of Hong Kong. Oh, I tell you, I don’t know what the hell she was. You ought to get that Boopie (Indian head waiter). You know, he don’t like to tell me this. But I hear a little bit each time.
Q: So you don’t have any Chinese working here now?
A: I still got one in Yokota. This guy (nearby waiter). This kid. I think he’s a Malayan. But you know he went to Cambridge? He says he’s Class A…I don’t know what Class A would mean. What the hell is Class A. Cambridge. He’s a smart son of a bitch. He’s not stupid. What were we talking about?
Q: Annie. Jesus Christ. I didn’t even get her phone number.
A: Well, what.
Q: That’s life.
A: I know she’d fuck. She offered it to me. I said “Get Lost. What the hell am I gonna do with you?”
Q: Did she really?
A: Yeah, they all do. They think I’m young. They think I’m healthy, you know. Yesterday, I laughed. I put my underwear on backwards. I went to the toilet and I couldn’t get my pecker out. And I said god damn it what kind of …and I had my underwear on backwards. Jesus Christ. Getting’ old baby. You’re getting awfully fucking old when you do that?
(PIG FARMING)
Q: What year did you official become a Japanese?
A: Uh, my 60th birthday. That would be about ten years ago. That’s right my passport is running out. So it’s January 17, `1981. (It’s 82) Something like that. 10 years ago. Now my passport’s gonna run out again. And I gotta worry, cuz I want to travel. And I can’t. What do you …they got rules about passports, right? So my passport runs out in August and I want to travel to the States, so I got to get a passport before August. And I’m gonna have trouble with the American Embassy. Cuz my visa’s in the old book.
Q: When did you stop selling pigs. What year?
A: When I brought Johnny (Simonetti) up there. I went in the pig business in Showa 57. (1982) I restarted, I should say. And Johnny got a heart attack, wait a minute, I was in that office. And I left that office in 1987. So let’s say 1986, I quit. So I started what 57 nen is 62 nen. No, That would be 57 nen. I was probably in the pig business 8 years. 7-8 years. 7 years.
Q: You started in 57 ne. That’s 1982.
A: Yeah, and I went out in 88, see. About 87, so. I mean it could have been I started in Showa 56 nen or something like that. But I stayed about 7-8 years. Lost a lot of money. A tremendous amount of money. But I liked the business. I liked the animals. They taste good when you eat them. When you sell’em you get a bitter taste, because you take such a fucking beating. But of course I plan was to raise my own pigs, make my own sausage factory, do everything myself. But like I say, you can survive in Japan if you keep your mouth shut and stay small. And as soon as you get grand ideas, hey you get shot down from everybody.
Q: What really sunk you with that?
A: My own farmers. Stealing my feed. Stealing my pigs. But, of course, the Japanese government prevented independent farmers from surviving. And the system was that you know, you gotta take a pig to the slaughter house and after it’s hooked, after it’s killed, cleaned and it’s on a hook, they give you a price. Now what the hell are you supposed to say.
Q: That’s interesting. After you kill, skin..
A: And it’s on a hook. Then the Japanese appraiser comes from the slaughterhouse, which by the way is owned by Nippon Ham. And he looks at the pig, he looks at the weight, and you know a pig has to be 70 kilos in order to be sort of properly, the meat is properly distributed. And then they look at it. And they give you a penalty. So the guy says 80 yen bakkin (fine), but it’s 80 times 70. You know, that’s 5,600 yen.
Q: What do you mean the weight has to be distributed?
A: In other words the pig has to be just the right size. He has to go in there at 105 grith.
105 centimeter grith. You know around here, they measure you. Then they stick a needle in to determine how much the fat is. You know. Then your pig hits the 100 kilos. He’s got the weight. Course, you gotta weigh your pigs. Then you put him on the truck and you take him to the slaughterhouse. And the pig is probably more intelligent than half the fucking population of the world. And right away he knows he’s in the slaughterhouse. He knows it. He starts squeaking and yelling. Jesus Christ Almighty. Because they can hear the other ones getting killed, I guess. And they , that particular slaughterhouse is in Yakumo, you can always remember Yakumo Koizumi (Lafacadio Hearn), you know who that guy was. It’s the town next to mine. It’s owned by Nippon Ham.
Q: Town named after Lafcadio Hearn?
A: I think the town came before him. Can’t answer that question. But then you got to understand that Nippon Ham is a ham producer. So the cheaper they get the meat, the more profit they make. So they got all kinds of angles on how to lower the price. The pig is too long. You get a fine. The pig is too short, you get a fine. The pig is too fat, you get a fine. The pig is too skinny, you get a fine. In other words, it’s “bakkin shobai.” (the business of fines). So I used to get an average of about 40,000 yen per pig.Which was not bad. Naw, less than that. If you get at that time, 600 yen a kilo was a good price. So 6,7 42. About that neighborhood.
But we used to…me, of course, me, I’m a bastard. I got to the guy that’s appraising, you know, how much money do I got to bribe you with so you don’t knock the shit out of me when I pigs go to the market. And of course I bring him whiskey bottles, cake, and then I got to Hakodate and Hakodate had a place called King Bakery where everybody bought ‘shoe cream.’ And I used to buy 20-30 fucking shoe creams at a time. They’re 50 yen each. Big deal. You know. And drive up back to my ranch, but I got to stop in Yakumo and deliver 30 shoe creams to his home. Then when I bring 20 pigs down to the slaughterhouse I make money on the deal. But you had to bribe the son of a bitch. And of course I’m a bastard. I said, “You feel that you’re a cheap bastard? That people have to bribe you.” But,
Q: You said that to the guy?
A: Oh, shit yeah. I insult them. Because they got their hand out, they want money. Why be polite? But, they, they can’t help it.” And they come over to your ranch, you know. They always want something. You know. Gaijins are different than Japanese. So, a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. Oh my god, you know. I get 10-15 pigs through the fucking slaughterhouse penalty box, I get away with it. Saved a lot of money, yo. But, of course, you can’t win. The Japanese system is that buy kobuta ne (baby pigs), all of them are born in March, April. You buy them 4 to 6 weeks later. They get ready for the slaughterhouse about October. And if you look in the newspaper the price goes down 20-30%. Now what are you gonna do? You have a choice. You either feed the pig or sell them. And if you feed the pig he eats 4,000 yen a month worth of food at that time. So you’re sitting in a bad situation. But, of course, we used to inseminate our own pigs so we’d make sure that none of the son of a bitches come out in March and April. So we get away from that price drop.
Q: So what did you in?
A: Well, you gotta expand. You gotta get bigger. I had the property. I had a pisspoor manager who was stealing my good pigs. They steal the pigs, they steal the feed, they steal the penicillin. They…this guy Kobayashi that lives up in Oshamambe, my boy up in Oshamambe beat him up the other day again. Twice already. Johnny Simonetti. He just don’t like that son of a bitch. But anyway. This guy used to steal me blind. I remember one time I went up there just about like today, you know. I went up there and I had a beautiful fucking pig. I think the Number was 47. Or 147. And this son-of-a-bitch had like 14 babies. You know a pig, when you pick up a pig, let me tell you, you see this table, that’s how hard he is. It’s not a dog or a cat. You know, they’re a bunch of fur. These pigs, the backbone, the body, they’re strong. They’re only about this big. I don’t think they’re more than 8 inches long. They’re solid. And I was up there and I remember, it was just before Golden Week and this 147, I remember, was a good pig, because I used to keep a record of all the pigs, who inseminated them, when they were born. What was the weight. You know I used to do all that shit. I got nothing else to do. And I left. I came back to Tokyo. And after Golden Week I went up again and the pigs were gone. He says “They all died.” And that was the end of my desire to go in the pig business. Because I had 14 good pigs. I had a good mom. And he sez, “All of them died.” That’s the most impossible story. But what am I supposed to do? Beat him up? I still got a thousand pigs in the barn. If I beat him up and kick him out, who’s gonna feed the fucking pigs. Who’s gonna clean the shit? You know pigs are very clean animals. Very clean animals. They’re clean. They don’t stink, you know. I can’t say the same for those who live on dirt. But these live in concrete buildings.
So then, of course, I had a chance to bring this guy Johnny Simonetti up there. And I sez “You go up there and you take over the place.” And, of course, the guy can’t steal no more. And Johnny is 6’1″ and he is a mean mother fucker. You say the wrong thing to him you better be prepared, because he’s gonna start swinging. He don’t fuck around, you know. So I had this Kobayashi, you know. With a Japanese wife by the name of Sasaki. And feed the pigs in the morning, they disappear and come back at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and feed the pigs again. And when nobody’s around they steal the pigs. When Johnny was there, of course, that was the end of the business, cuz they couldn’t steal no more. He watched. He’d count the pigs. He couldn’t get no penicillin because he controlled the penicillin.
Q: What do you need the penicillin for?
A: Oh, you gotta give them shots all the time. They get a cold. They get this. They get that. They just…Anybody can give them a penicillin shot. Get them in the ass with a fucking needle….But I enjoyed that business. Even though I lost a lot of money. But it didn’t matter because I was making so much money and I always figured the government lost 55 yen and I lost 45 yen. Cuz they get 55% of the profits. So they lose that 55 yen.
Q: 55% of…Just because it’s corporate?
A: It’s a kabushikikaisha (corporation), but it’s not a public company. It’s a private owned…
Q: It’s got nothing to do with agriculture..that’s just regular business in Japan. Corporate taxes.
A: It’s got nothing to do with agriculture. The company is Nicolas Enterprise. It’s a private company. Private companies pay 55% tax and public companies pay 35% tax. Because the Momma and Poppa cheats on the taxes. They don’t show the true income. But I showed true income and I showed bullshit expenses too. But…
But the American system is I believe the buyer goes on the farm and he looks and he says I give you so much for that pig. The owner can say yes or no. But over here, you can’t do that. They’re already hung up. So when I used to get pissed off at a price, I’d say, I’ll take it home Because I can eat pork. And I had a one ton refrigerator. So I can take about 10 or 15 pigs home and put them in my refrigerator….freezers. I had 3 deep freezers.
Q: In Japan, the price is fixed? It’s rigged?
A: It’s rigged. It’s published in the newspapers. And the price, let’s say today…is.. well, I think 580 was the break even point. If the price was 580 you broke abou even. But then the guy comes along with a 70 yen deduction. Sez this pig is skinny and so he wants a 110 yen deduction. And it’s 110 times 70 kilos. You know. It makes a tremendous dent in your income. So you had to bribe them, bribe them, bribe them. And they had their quota they had to show so much loss on. Penalty on each fucking group of pigs. They’re still doing business, but now Nippon Ham almost owns all the females. They knocked everybody out of business. Increased their own production. So if you think a Japanese businessman is mean when he goes overseas, they are just as fucking mean in this country. There used to be about 4,500 pig farmers in Hokkaido, you know back in 19, let’s see, 1975 or 1980. I don’t think they got more than 200 or 300 now. They just wiped everybody out….Maybe 350. 400. I’d say 90% were wiped out.
You know Hokkaido’s a big god damn placed.
Q: So they impose these penalties. It keeps the price down and it puts people out of business and gives them a monopoly on production.
A: Well, they wind up making all the money. The farmer gets hurt. Then the Nokyo has got another 3% in there. Nokyo gets involved. So the farmer can’t make enough money to survive. He can not increase his production. And the slaughterhouse makes all the money. And eventually, the farmer has to quit. The farmer quits, the slaughter house gets more stronger, as they start building their own branches.
Q: And the slaughterhouse is Nippon Ham. In Sapporo, it’s Prima Ham. You know, they’re well situated in such a way that they don’t …you can’t get to it if they fight with each other because they don’t build in the same place. So I can’t go to Hakodate because it’s too far away. So I go to Yakumo. The other way, if I want to go to Sapporo, that ‘s 175 kilometers away. That’s further than fucking Hakodate. And, of course, they do it to you sometimes. You call up, you know you want to bring in 20 pigs, the day after tomorrow. They say, “We’re sorry. We can’t take them the day after tomorrow.” Now they squeeze you. So now you got to keep then pigs another 3 or 4 days. & the guy says why don’t you try Mr. So-and-so at Sapporo, you know. They got deals working. & the guys says yeah you bring your pigs here, 20, yeah, yeah, ok. The first thing you know you got hit with a transportation bill that puts you on your ass. Now you gotta go, instead of 60 kilometers, almost 400 kilometers. Back & forth to Sapporo. All these things. In the beginning, I didn’t care. I didn’t need the money. I was enjoying myself. I was having fun. But after a while, you say, “Ah, shit, who needs this?”
So when Johnny went up there, I decided to close the place down. Johnny couldn’t take care of a fucking pig if he tried., He doesn’t even like to eat them. You know if you can’t eat them, you can’t even raise them. So now, he’s trying Turkey.
But you know Hokkaido..with the Japanese, it’s always the same thing. So I called up Johnny and he says, “The guy down the road…the government is paying his 100 to 200 yen per tsubo, to take his land.” Right next to my ranch they built a big road up there.And I sez Johnny, and he calls me up and says “we need about 800,000 yen to repair the roof.” I sez “OK, go ahead. But I want a mitsumori (estimate). I want a good one. I want to see exactly what’s happening.”
Then I sat down and sez if I can land at 100 to 200 yen a tsubo, what the hell do I want to fix my building for. I might as well buy another piece of land that’s more accessible. It’s on the main road. Near the main road. I don’t have to climb the fucking mountain. Because during the snow, hey. That land is inaccessible. So as soon as I told him to go to the brokers and find out who’s got land, he came back and said nobody wants to sell. I said I don’t want to buy I want to lease. (Jesus Christ) Came back and said nobody wants to lease. He sez the only thing you can buy is on the highway. 20,000 yen a tsubo. Fuck it. But the talk is 100 to 200. As soon as you try to buy it, none for sale. So I sez use your Japanese wife. Don’t use me. Use somebody else. Don’t say nothing about Nicolas. He sez, they all know it, it’s too late. I sez OK forget about it.
Q: I gotta take a piss.
(End of Tape)
Tokyo Junkie 