Taking Stock - Hard men protest over new sex tax.
Japanese underworld bosses are this week contemplating a new threat to their seedy lifestyle. And this time it comes not from the police, but from the taxman. Cash-strapped local government officials in Yokohama City want to hit the red-light district’s ill-gotten cash in an effort to drag their finances into the black and are proposing a new tax on sex and betting. Apparently, gangland hardmen are up in arms about the proposals. TS wonders how they will treat the unlucky inspectors when they come to call.