Underground in Japan
by Rey Ventura

From the book

The Standing Men are like prostitutes. Our customers are discriminating -- they size us up. They like us young and strong, muscular but harmless-looking. They don't like a contrabida face. They don't want insolence. If you have long hair, it's better to hide it under a cap, and it's better to be clean-shaven -- only the oyabun is permitted a beard. It's important to be seen standing. If you were sitting, that would mean you are just loafing around on the gemba. The sachos look us up and down, and we greet them as politely as we know how. Their method of rejection is not to return our greetings. Every day begins with this little humiliaton. We put our lives, unquestioningly, in their hands.

From the Introduction

The world of Kotobuki, the Filipino enclave in Yokohama described here is sordid in all its externals. And yet it is possible for its inhabitants to say, "Koto is paradise." What could be meant by such an expression is part of the subject of this book -- for all its deprivations, the migrant worker's life has ts seductive side, its own lure. A refined morality does not last long in Koto, but the somewhat battered outlook which does survive deserves, I think, such respect as it gets here. This is a book about ordinary life conducted under the extraordinary conditions of exile and secrecy.
                                               -James Fenton

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