Political extremism in Japan his prewar, divine status, and repudiation of Article 9. Many, if not most, right-wingers had intimate connections with Japan's gangster underground, the yakuza. Japanese right-wing extremists (Uyoku dantai) are notable for their use of black buses, which often carry loudspeakers broadcasting nationalistic slogans. The ritual suicide of one of Japan's most prominent novelists, Mishima Yukio, following a failed attempt to initiate a rebellion among Self-Defense Forces units in November 1970, shocked and fascinated the public. Mishima and his small private army, the Shield Society (Tatenokai), hoped that a rising of the Self-Defense Forces would inspire a nationwide affirmation of the
Tetsuji Takechi censorship message in the film, and did not wish to be provoked into another embarrassing public confrontation with the outspoken director. Though he had won his court case, Takechi had become known as a risky and dangerous entity in the film world. Newspapers refused to advertise his films, and Takechi spent the next decade concentrating on writing projects. After his friend, the writer Yukio Mishima, committed "hara-kiri" in 1970, Takechi wrote "The Head Of Yukio Mishima", a best-selling, fictionalized version of the incident. In 1972, he again appeared in an acting role for director Kaneto Shindō in his Art Theatre