On the Run From the Yakuza

I have a friend whose dad knew two phrases in English: 'Do you know me?' and 'Japanese mafia'. The Yakuza are the 'Japanese mafia', and he was a big fan of all those 70's Yakuza movies.

Last April, one of my schools got a new principal. Principals are obviously responsible for the school, but they are removed from a lot of the administrative work. They dictate what they want done and someone does it for them. The principals I've worked with tend to spend their time changing light bulbs, doing yard work, and taking naps in their office. They tend to be quiet and shy, preferring to work away from everyone else.

This new principal was quiet too, in an unnerving kind of way. He had a rough face with leathery skin and a raspy voice from smoking too many cigarettes. If he was a gangster, he would be more of a Harvey Keitel gangster than a Joe Pesci gangster. Basically a guy you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of.

The vice-principal at this school is his antithesis: she's a large woman with a loud voice that laughs too much and never stops talking. During lunch one day, the vice-principal is running her mouth as usual, and the principal is sitting quietly next to her. He then quietly says to himself, 'You don't shut up, do you?' [My translation of: うるさいな...] The vice-principal stops talking, all the other teachers just sit there, and then everyone slowly lets out nervous laughter.

That was the kind of guy he was. Then one day, I come to school and his office is empty. He had quit.

It turns out he wasn't the gangster I imagined him to be, but actually owed the yakuza a lot of money. What I have figured out is that he took out some large loans (for a house, etc) from a bank, and couldn't make the payments. So he took loans from another source to pay for the loans he already owed. He did that several times, and it looks like the last loan he took was from the yakuza, and now they want their money back.

In order to pay them back, he retired early to collect his retirement money, all $200,000 of it. But apparently that wasn't enough. I'm not sure where he is now, but the yakuza have called the elementary school a few times asking for him.

One of the teachers told me that when the principal explained the story, he said, 'My wife took out some loans...'. What a swell guy.

***

When I first met him, he invited me to go eat genghis khan (Jingisukan) with him. No, the ex-principal isn't into eating the bodies of dead Mongolian warriors. It's also a style of grilling mutton.

I never got a chance to take him up on it. Maybe it's a good thing, though, because he might have asked me for some money.