Twilight's Receivers: The Violence of Images Behind the Deception (Late 2000s)

Twilight's Receivers: The Violence of Images Behind the Deception (Late 2000s)

Receivers. Young people who are positioned at the end of a fictitious billing scam group, and are sent out to make phone calls and perform disguised money transfers. They are sent to collect cash at the risk of being "disposable. At one point, the structure turns into an inferno of violence and images.

Since the 2000s, the number of special frauds, including the so-called "Oreore scam," has exploded; in 2004, more than 20,000 cases were uncovered nationwide, and the base of crime has rapidly expanded. As the old gangster organizations changed their forms, becoming "black market bytes" that cannot be monitored or controlled, and becoming more IT-oriented and decentralized, the receivers became the most vulnerable and easily exploited. Intermediaries were recruited through online bulletin boards and social networking services, and the lure of anonymity and instant money drew young people into the world of illegality.

One of the recipients was accused of betrayal by his peers and was lynched to death by a group of people at the Tokyo Detention Center, where we were conducting our research. Part of the assault was reportedly captured on video and shared with fellow inmates as an "example. Video, which is a means of criminal intimidation and at the same time a tool for recording and spreading information, has become a "new form of violence" that is distributed beyond the closed rooms of the underworld.

As crimes for money became more anonymous and sophisticated, violence itself also became a commodity to be distributed and consumed as videos. This case, told against the backdrop of Kabukicho, is not merely a record of a crime, but brings to light the structure of blackmail itself, which has been captured on video. The shadows of the nightlife are no longer those of the underworld, but exist as an extension of everyday life and ground reality.