The Yakuza
Italy has the La Cosa Nostra. America has the Mafia. The Irish and Jews have
their own crime organizations in America. Southeast Asia has the Triads. China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan have the Tong. Truly well known organized crime
organizations indeed. However, there is one organization that was not mentioned
in the above list, a group that has been around for over 300 years. A group that
has as much honour and principle as the Mafia, and is just as strong if not
stronger. The group is the Yakuza.
The Yakuza can trace its origins back to as early as 1612, when people known as
kabuki-mono ("crazy ones"), began to attract the attention of local officials.
Their odd clothing and haircuts and behaviour, along with carrying long swords
at their sides, made them quite noticeable. Kabuki-mono made a habit of
antagonizing and terrorizing anyone at their leisure, even to the point of
cutting one down just for sheer pleasure.
The kabuki-mono were eccentric samurai, taking outrageous names for their bands
and speaking heavily in slang. Their loyalty to one another was remarkable. They
would protect each other from any threat, including against their own families.
In fact, the kabuki-mono were servants of the shogun, also taking the name of
hatamoto-yakko ("Servants of the shogun"). The groups were comprised of nearly
500,000 samurai that were forced into unemployment during the time of peace
during the Tokugawa era, forcing them to become ronin ("Wave man," a master less
samurai). Many had turned into bandits, looting towns and villages as they
wandered throughout Japan.
The hatamoto-yakko cannot truly be seen as the forebears of that Yakuza. Instead, the Yakuza see the machi-yokko ("Servants of the town") as their ancestors. These people were the ones who took up arms and defended the villages and towns from the hatamoto-yokko. These people consisted of such occupations as clerks, shopkeepers, innkeepers, labourers, homeless warriors and other ronin. Everyone who was part of the machi-yakko was an adept gambler, which helped them develop a closely-knit relationship with each other and their leaders, much like today's Yakuza. The machi-yakko soon became folk heroes, praised by the townspeople for their actions against the hatamoto-yakko, though they were, for the most part, untrained and weaker than the hatamoto-yakko. They were very similar to England's Robin Hood. Some of the machi-yakko were even subjects of stories and plays.
The early Yakuza did not surface until the middle to late 1700's. These members include the bakuto (traditional gamblers) and the tekiya (street peddlers). These terms are still used today to describe Yakuza members today, although a third group, gurentai (hoodlums) has been added in the post World War II era. Everyone in those groups came from the same background: poor, landless, delinquents and misfits. The groups stuck closely in the same small areas without problems, as the bakuto remained mostly along the highways and towns, and the tekiya operated in the markets and fairs of Japan.
The Yakuza began organizing into families, adopting a relationship known as
oyabun-kobun (father-role/child-role). The oyabun was the "father," providing
advice, protection and help; the kobun acted as the "child," swearing unswerving
loyalty and service whenever the oyabun needed it. The initiation ceremony for
the Yakuza also developed in this period of time. Instead of the actual
bloodletting that was practiced by the Mafia and the Triads, the Yakuza
exchanged sake cups to symbolize the entrance into the Yakuza and the
oyabun-kobun relationship. The amounts of sake poured into each cup depended
upon one's status, whether the participants were father-son, brother-brother,
elder-younger, etc. The ceremony was usually performed in front if a Shinto
altar, giving it religious significance.
The tekiya's history is still widely debated. The most widely accepted theory
was that the tekiya came from yashi, an earlier word meaning peddler. The yashi
were travelling merchants of medicine, much similar to the American West's snake
oil merchants. Over time, yashi became a catch-all for all merchants and
peddlers.
They tekiya united with each other for protection and mutual interest from the
Tokugawa regime. They began to control the booths at fairs and markets. Their
reputation for shoddy merchandise was well known and well-deserved. Their
salesmanship was deceptive. They lied about origins and quality of products. The
would act drunk and make a show of selling their wares cheaply, so it would
appear that they were unaware of what they were doing. They would delude the
customer.
The tekiya followed the usual Yakuza organization: oyabun, underboss, officers,
enlisted and apprentices. The oyabun controlled the kobun and the allocation of
stalls along with the availability of the goods. He also collected rents and
protection money, and would pocket the difference between the two. Everything
they did was legal work. In the middle 1700's, the feudal authorities recognised
and therefore increased the power of the tekiya. Oyabun were given the authority
of supervisor, now being able to have a surname and carry two swords similar to
samurai, in order to reduce the threat of turf wars due to widespread fraud.
However, the tekiya still embraced some criminal traits, such as protection
rackets, the harbouring of fugitives and known criminals, and brawling with
other tekiya and gangs.
The bakuto were first recognized during the Tokugawa era, when the government
hired them to gamble with contraction and irrigation workers in order to regain
a portion of the substantial wages the workers received.
The bakuto contributed to Japan's tradition for gambling, as well as the
Yakuza's traditional "finger-cutting," and the origin of the word "Yakuza."
The word comes from a hand in a card game called hanafuda (flower cards),
similar to blackjack. Three cards are dealt per player, and the last digit of
the total counts as the number of the hand. A hand of 20, the worst score, gives
the score of zero. One such losing combination is 8-9-3, or ya-ku-sa, which
began to be widely used to denote something useless. This term began to be used
about bakuto, as they were, on the whole, useless to society.
Yubitsume, the custom of finger-cutting, was introduced by the bakuto. The top
joint of the little finger is ceremoniously severed, signifying a weakening of
the hand, which meant that the gambler could not hold his sword as firmly.
Yubitsume was performed was usually performed as an act of apology to the oyabun.
Further infractions would either mean the severing of the next joint or the top
section of another finger. It is also used as a lasting punishment just before
expulsion.
The use of tattoos also came from the criminal aspect of the bakuto. Criminals
were usually tattooed with a black ring around an arm for each offence he had
committed. However, the tattoos soon became a test of strength, as they were
applied by undergoing 100 hours for a complete back tattoo. The tattoo also
marked a misfit, always unwilling to adapt themselves to society.
The Meiji Restoration, starting in 1867, gave Japan a rebirth and its first of
many transformations into an industrial nation. Political parties and a
parliament were created, as well as a powerful military.
The Yakuza also began to modernize, keeping in pace with a rapidly changing
Japan. They recruited members from construction jobs and dock workings. They
even began to control the rickshaw business. Gambling, however, had to be even
more covert, as police were cracking down on bakuto gangs. The tekiya, unlike
the bakuto, thrived and expanded, as their activities were not illegal, at least
not on the surface.
The Yakuza began to dabble in politics, taking sides with certain politicians
and officials. They cooperated with the government so they could get official
sanction, or at least some freedom from harassment.
The government did find a use for the Yakuza as aid to ultra nationalists,
who took a militaristic role in Japan's adaptation into democracy. Various
secret societies were created and trained militarily, trained in languages,
assassination, blackmail, etc. The ultra nationalist reign of terror lasted into
the 1930's, consisting of several coups d'etat, the assassination of two prime
ministers and two finance ministers, and repeated attacks on politicians and
industrialists. The Yakuza provided muscle and men to the cause and participated
in "land development" programs in occupied Manchuria or China.
Things changed, however, when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The government no longer
needed the ultra nationalists or the Yakuza. Members of these groups either
worked with the government, put on a uniform, or were put into jail.
The American occupation forces in post-war Japan saw the Yakuza as a primary
threat to their work. They began investigations into Yakuza activities. In 1948,
their work stopped, as the forces thought their investigation was over and the
threat was at an end, or at least diminished.
However, the forces had rationed food, thereby giving the black market business
to keep the gangs in wealth and power. The gangs were able to act unhindered
since the civil police was unarmed. Some occupation officials even aided the
Yakuza.
The gurentai began to form during the occupation, as there was a power vacuum in
the government, as the occupation swept away the topmost layer of control in
government and business. The gurentai could be seen upon as Japan's version of
the Mob, its leader similar to what Al Capone was to the Mob. They dealt in
black racketeering, for the most part, but also they went so far as to use
threat, extortion and violence in their activities. Their members were the
unemployed and the repatriated. The government used one gurentai as a controller
of Korean labour, even though he was apprehended with criminal items.
The occupation forces soon saw that the Yakuza was well organized and continuing
to operate under two oyabun supported by unidentified high-level government
officials. They admitted defeat in 1950, as they realized that they could not
protect the Japanese people from the Yakuza. In the post-war years, the Yakuza
became more violent, both on the individual and collective scales. Swords had
become a thing of the past, and guns were now becoming the new weapon of choice.
They chose ordinary citizens, not just the other vendors or gamblers or specific
group targets anymore, as their targets for shakedowns and robberies.
Their appearances also changed, taking American movie gangsters (a la Guys and
Dolls) as their influence. They started wearing sunglasses, dark suits and ties
with white shirts, and began to sport crewcuts. Between the years of 1958 and
1963, the number of Yakuza members rose by over 150%, to 184,000 members, more
than the Japanese Army. There were some 5200 gangs operating throughout Japan.
Yakuza gangs began to stake out their territories, and bloody and violent wars
began to break out between them.
The man who brought peace between many of the Yakuza factions was named Yoshio
Kodama. Kodama was in jail for the early part of the occupation, placed in the
same section as cabinet officers, military, and ultra nationalists. He himself
was part of the ultra nationalist group Kenkoku-kai (Association of the Founding
of the Nation). In the late 1930's and early 1940's he worked as an espionage
agent for the Japanese government, touring East Asia. He worked on a major
operation to obtain strategic materiel needed for the Japanese war effort.
By the end of the war, he had obtained the rank of rear admiral (an impressive
feat at the age of thirty-four), and was advisor to the prime minister. He was
rounded up with other government officials in 1946 and placed in Sugamo Prison
to await trial. The occupation forces saw Kodama as a high security risk, should
he ever be released, due to his fanaticism with the ultra nationalists. Kodama
had made a deal with the occupation forces G-2 section, and upon his release,
was working for the intelligence branch of G-2. He was the principal go-between
for G-2 and the Yakuza by 1950.
In the early 60's, Kodama wanted the Yakuza gangs, who were now fighting one
another, to join together into one giant coalition. He deplored the warfare,
seeing it as a threat to anticommunist unity. He used many of his connections to
secure a truce between the gangs. He made a fast alliance between Kazuo Taoka,
oyabun of the Yamaguchi-gumi faction, and Hisayuki Machii, a Korean crimeboss in
charge of Tosei-kai. The alliance broke the Kanto-kai faction for good. Kodama
continued to use his influence to mediate the alliance between the Inagawa-kai
and its Kanto allies and Yamaguchi-gumi. The truce that Kodama had envisioned
was now at hand. Yoshio Kodama was then referred to as the Japanese underworld's
visionary godfather.
The oyabun to the Yamaguchi-gumi from the mid 1940's until his death in 1981 was
Kazuo Taoka. He was the third oyabun of the faction. Taoka had survived many
assassination attempts, including one in 1978, when he was shot in the neck by a
member of the Matsuda (a rival Yakuza clan who had sworn vengeance on the
Yamaguchi-gumi for the death of their oyabun) during a limbo dance exhibition at
the Yamaguchi-gumi household.
The Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan's most powerful syndicate. Their symbol is a
rhombus-shaped pin worn on the lapel of their suits. The combination of the pin
plus the showing of their tattoos could get them anything they wanted. However,
the pin was not always as powerful as they seemed. In 1980, when the Yamaguchi-gumi
attempted to expand their territory into Hokkaido, they were met at the Sapporo
airport by 800 members of local gangs who united to keep the Yamaguchi-gumi out
of their area. Nearly 2000 anti-riot-equipped police kept the two groups apart.
The Yamaguchi-gumi were prevented from opening their headquarters in Sapporo.
In July 1981, Taoka suffered and died from a heart attack, ending his 35-year rule as oyabun. His death was celebrated by his Yakuza underlings in the finest Yakuza style. Police raided Yamaguchi-gumi homes and offices across Japan, arresting 900 members, and taking such contraband as firearms, swords, and amphetamines. The funeral was grand indeed, bringing in members from nearly 200 gangs, singers, actors, musicians, and even the police (who attended dressed in riot gear).
Taoka's successor was to be his number-two man, Yakamen. However, he was in prison and was not due to be released until late 1982. During the absence of Yakamen, everyone (including the police) was surprised to see that the new temporary leader was Taoka's widow, Fumiko. However, Yakamen did not succeed Taoka, for he died of cirrhosis of the liver. The entire structure of Yamaguchi-gumi was now in chaos. The Yamaguchi-gumi controlled over 2500 businesses, sophisticated gambling and loan-sharking, and invested heavily in sports and other entertainment under Taoka's 35-year rule as oyabun. They operated under the same patterns that had existed for the Yakuza for over 300 years, basically depending upon the oyabun-kobun relationship that controlled the day-to-day management of the syndicate. The syndicate was grossing well over {\$460} million per year. Their management style was envied by such organizations as the Mafia and General Motors.
The Yamaguchi-gumi had 103 bosses or various rank from well over 500 gangs. Each of these bosses fared well, making over {\$130,000} annually. A syndicate head would make {\$43,000} per month ({\$360,000} annually after deducting \$13,000 per month for entertainment and office expenses). Of course, this would depend upon the number of soldiers the boss had under him. The Yamaguchi-gumi began to deal in narcotics now, primarily amphetamines. Other fields of choice brought in a high capital: money lending, smuggling, and pornography (hard pornography is illegal in Japan). Rigging baseball games, horse races, and public property auctions were commonplace for Yakuza. Seizing real estate, entertainment halls, hospitals, and English schools were also done by the Yakuza.
During Fumiko Taoka's rule, the membership of Yamaguchi-gumi rose to 13,346
members from 587 gangs by the end of 1983. Their control stretched to 36 of
Japan's 47 prefectures. A council of eight high-ranking bosses took control,
under the guidance of Fumiko Taoka, in 1983. However, the syndicate had to
select a new godfather. Masahisa Takenaka became the new oyabun, as everyone
preferred his militant style over Hiroshi Yamamoto's (his opponent) interi
(intellectual) Yakuza.
Yamamoto, in a fit of anger after losing, took 13,000 men from the Yamaguchi-gumi
and created the Ichiwa-kai, one of Japan's top three syndicates. In 1985,
Ichiwa-kai assassins slaughtered Takenaka, creating a bloody gang war. Kazuo
Nakanishi became the new oyabun for Yamaguchi-gumi and declared war on the
Ichiwa-kai. Police interfered and arrested nearly a thousand mobsters and
confiscated many weapons. The Yamaguchi-gumi was desperate to win, so they
turned to operations in the US to fund their war. They had obtained many highly
illegal weaponry, including rocket launchers and machine guns, in exchange for
narcotics, however the conspirators were arrested, including Masashi Takenaka,
Masahisa's brother, and Hideomi Oda, the syndicate's financial controller. The
Yamaguchi-gumi was thrown back into chaos.
Today's Japan does not appreciate the "noble" workings of the Yakuza. In fact,
on March 1, 1992, the Japanese government passed the Act for Prevention of
Unlawful Activities by Boryokudan (Yakuza or criminal gangs) Members. This act
designates the term boryokudan as a group with more that a certain percentage of
membership having a criminal record. It also identifies organizations with
strong violent or criminal tendencies.
The act mainly prohibits the boryokudans from realizing profits made from forms
of extortion not covered in previous existing laws, i.e., protection
rackets. The Yakuza is avoiding being called a boryokudan, mostly by trying to
hide behind actual businesses they use as fronts. They have also published a
book as of late, entitled "How to Evade the Law," which was distributed among
the members of the Yamaguchi-gumi. In fact, 77 gangs affiliated with the
Yamaguchi-gumi are registered as businesses or religious organizations.
In March of 1992, wives and daughters of Yakuza members marched in protest of the new laws through the Ginza. The following month, high-ranking Yakuza argued that they are not truly evil; their code of chivalry (similar to bushido, the Way of the Warrior) and samurai values calls upon them to defend the interests of society's weaker members, and their conduct expresses their noble values, not violence. However, these arguments were proven wrong in the public eye, when members of the Yakuza ambushed and stabbed filmmaker Itami Juzo over an anti-Yakuza movie entitled "Minbo no Onna" (A Woman Yakuza Fighter). A boryokudan defector commented on the attack, and was later found shot in the leg. Even outsiders of the Yakuza have protested the new laws against them. Over 130 lawyers, professors, and Christian ministers proclaimed that the Yakuza countermeasures were unconstitutional, basically on the grounds that they infringed basic rights, such as the freedom of assembly, the choice of occupation, and the ownership of property. In fact, even ordinary citizens are against the Yakuza.
Citizens of the neighborhood of Ebitsuka, a neighbourhood of Hamamatsu, 130 miles SW of Tokyo, did not want Yakuza activity in their backyard. The Yakuza were operating out of a green building, that the neighbours quickly termed as burakku biru ("black building"). The citizens videotaped everyone who went in and out of the building, noting specifically the ones wearing flashy suits, dark glasses, short hair and hints of tattoos on their arms. The Yakuza retaliated against the citizens, smashing windows of the local garage mechanic, stabbing the town's lawyer in the lung, and slashing another activist in the throat. However, after police arresting half of the gang, the Ichiri Ikka, led by Tetsuya Aono, abandoned the burakku biru in an out-of-court settlement, as they did not want to stir up trouble for gangsters elsewhere.
Yakuza strength rises and falls according to the tides of Japanese society, with
estimates of core membership ranging from 80,000 to more than 110,000 in the
years from 1945 to 1996. Some authorities believe Japan's National Police
routinely undercount the Yakuza, numbering only those names found in confiscated
membership rolls, or recorded from routine police intelligence reports.
In the late 1960s or early 1970s the Yakuza moved into the lucrative narcotics
trade and in recent years have stepped up their trade in firearms and other
contraband. According to various sources, Yakuza have formed alliances and
working relationships with Chinese Triads, Sicilian and American Mafia,
Columbian drug cartels, Jamaican Posses, and assorted other criminal
organizations throughout the world. Because of their unique role in Japan's
history and popular culture, and their usefulness in providing muscle to control
labour unions, and providing anonymous services to the public for a variety of
typical underworld products in vice and contraband -- accommodations between
Yakuza, police, ultra nationalists, government, political parties, and secret
societies seems to be an accepted fact of life in Japan.
Yakuza are active worldwide, wherever criminal enterprises flourish. In
addition, Yakuza will be encountered in larger numbers and wield greater
influence wherever large communities of overseas Japan reside for work and
study. The Yakuza have been very skilful in the employment of intermediaries and
the absence of Japanese within a community does not mean an absence of Yakuza.
For the Yakuza it doesn't matter where you come from, which country or from
which class of society you belong to, you can become a member anyway. The Yakuza
takes care of the misfits in society. Yakuza members can be youth that have been
abandoned by their parents, youths that have not coped with high pressure from
the school, refugees from Korea, China etc. Their nearest boss becomes like
their father and their comrades as brothers. The Yakuza offers not just
companionship but also money, status and authority. A part of a group where you
feel useful and needed much like the gangs in the USA suburbs. There are no
thresholds or requirements in order to become a member. But once inside there
must be obedience to one's superiors. The Yakuza sees himself, as Machi-yakko,
the people's rescuer and helper. Long before any working courts existed in Japan
the Yakuza existed. If your clans chief couldn't or wouldn't help at a dispute
that you had with someone you could turn to the local Yakuza for help. They
solved the problem in return for an amount of money. Today you can also apply to
the Yakuza for help. The problem however is frequently solved in a more brutal
manner than if you would turn to the police.
There exists two types of Yakuza, clan- Yakuza and freelance Yakuza.
Freelancing Yakuza are a Yakuza that do not commit any large crimes and belong
to a little group of hustlers. They however have some difficulties in surviving
or not being jailed, because the clan Yakuza does not allows anyone else to
operate within their territories. Clan Yakuza can tip off the police about
crimes that the freelance Yakuza are committing. If the freelance Yakuza earns
too much money, the clan Yakuza will kill the freelancing Yakuza or make them
disappear without a trace. Clan Yakuza do however have certain uses for
freelance Yakuzas. If the clan Yakuza wish do something that they don't want the
clan to be associated with, they can turn to a freelancing Yakuza, who for a sum
of money will do the job for them. A freelance Yakuza can also be used as a
scapegoat for clan crimes. If a freelancer is truly a genius he can manage to
start his own clan. Usually a freelance Yakuza eventually becomes a member of a
clan, if they aren't killed first.
The clan can be compared with the Sicilian mafias "family". The clan are
structured as a common family in traditional Japan and have a hierarchical
structure. The clans head chief is called Oyabun, which means Father. Beneath
him are his children (Wakashu) and brothers (Kyodai). All the members in the
clan obey the Oyabun and in return he protects them against all dangers. The
Oyabun is almighty within the clan and his word is law. All obey him without
hesitation even if it means danger to his own life. Beneath him, the Oyabun has
an adviser known as Saiko-komon who also has a staff of advocates, accountants,
secretaries and advisers. Saiko-mono have their own gangs.
The children's (Wakashu) boss is called Waka-gashira. He is number two in the
clan after the Oyabun, not in rank but in authority. He act as an middleman to
see that the oyabun's orders are carried out. The children can also be leaders
over their own gangs and the children in the gangs can be a boss over one in his
turn and so on. In that way the clan can have several sub families. The oyabun
"brothers", Kyodai, are called Shatei-gashira. Shatei-gashira are of higher rank
than the Waka-gashira but don't have more authority. "The Brothers" have their
own "children" or "younger brothers" (Shatei). Everyone obeys their gangleader,
but its always the oyabuns word that counts.
The oyabun, Yoshinori Watanabe, is the head of the clan, residing at the
Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters in Kobe. He obtained the position of the fifth
oyabun (or kumicho, supreme boss) in 1989. His original gang was the Kobe-based
Yamaken-gumi.
Kazuo Nakanishi remains as a saiko komon, or a senior advisor. He resides in
Osaka, with 15 sub-gangs under his control, giving him 439 members.
Saizo Kishimoto is the so-honbucho, the headquarters chief, with 6 gangs (108)
members under his control in Kobe.
Masaru Takumi is the wakagashira, or number-two man. He controls 941 members in
41 gangs in Osaka.
Testuo Nogami is the fuku-honbucho, an assistant, with 8 gangs (164 members) in
Osaka.
Under the kumicho are various komon (advisors), Shingiin (counselors), kumicho
hisho (kumicho's secretaries), kaikei (accountants), and wakagashira-hosa
(underlings of the second-in-command).
Keisuke Masuda is the number three man (shateigashira), residing in Nagoya with
4 gangs consisting of 111 members under his care. He also has several
shateigashira-hosa to aid him.
There are 102 senior bosses (shatei, "younger brothers") and numerous junior
leaders (wakashu, "young men"), making up then 750 gangs with 31,000 members in
the Yamaguchi-gumi.
The Yakuza has always been involved in politics and business right from the
start. The groups are always hungry for more power and money, wherever they can
find it.
In 1987, Noboru Takeshita was elected prime minister in Japan. There were always
suspicions of gangster ties in the election. When questioned on the accusations
in 1992, Takeshita denied knowing at the time that the Yakuza were involved.
What happened was this: during one of his speeches, a group was blaring comments
against Takeshita. Some other group of people had silenced the commentators. The
Liberal Democratic Party kingmaker was made to resign from politics in October
1992 when he admitted to receiving Y500m ({\$4}m) from a delivery firm, Sagawa
Kyubin. The owner of the firm, Hiroyasu Watanabe, paid the kingmaker for trying
to help save his business.
Watanabe admitted to asking Ishii Susumu, the late head of the Inagawa-kai, to silence the group. Susumu called in a gang from Kyoto, the Aizu Kotetsu, to do the job. Aizu Kotetsu had a grudge against Takeshita due to a confidence job (paying Y4 billion for a Y500m gold screen). Takeshita denied the screen deal, although money from it was given to his secretary. Shigeaki Isaka, who was very close to the leader of Aizu Kotetsu, would help Takeshita win the election, in order to have a hold over him, possibly for future blackmail. There is another Yakuza incident that hits closer to home. West Tsusho, a Tokyo-based real estate firm, bought two American companies with help from none other than Prescott Bush, Jr, President Bush's elder brother. What wasn't known at the time was that West Tsusho is an arm of the a company run by the Inagawa-kai's leader, Ishii Susumu. Tsusho purchased Quantum Access, a Houston-based software firm) and Asset Management International Financing \& Settlement, a New York City-based company.
Bush received a {\$250,000} finder's fee for Asset Management, as was promised
another {\$250,000} per year for three years in consulting fees. Bush was
unaware at the time that he was being a middleman for mob activity.
With the anti-Yakuza countermeasure act in place, the future for the Yakuza
seems bleak, at least in Japan. The North American expansion could do very well,
as they channel nearly {\$10} billion into legitimate investments not only in
the US, but in Europe as well.
The FBI is gearing up to handle the new threat from the Yakuza, now that their
handling of the Mafia is nearly complete. However, their investigations will be
difficult, as they can operate though shell corporations without the close
scrutiny that hampers crooks in other companies. Also, money laundering is not a
crime in Japan, so the investigations into the money angles of the Yakuza will
be extremely difficult.
However, Yakuza in Japan are already seeing their future weaken. Between April 21 and May 25 of 1992, police stations in many prefectures received nearly 145 calls from gangsters and their families asking advice on how to leave the gangs and go legitimate. In response to this, over 60 companies in Japan offered to take in reformed Yakuza as employees. The future for the Yakuza as of right now is uncertain. Perhaps the gangs will still survive in Japan, moving back into the underground where they hid during the occupation. Perhaps they will just move their operations elsewhere, amongst the Triads of southeast Asia, with whom they have had good relationships and business.
Despite not hoisting a family crest that is the billboard of Japanese gangsters, many mobsters related to Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest Yakuza organization with its headquarters in Kobe (western Japan), have advanced into the Kanto district (eastern Japan). The number of these gangsters greatly increased during the bubble economy. As of now, these Yakuza entrepreneurs (businesses invested in by the Japanese mafia) are related to those business types easily penetrated by the underground, such as finance, real estate and the investment banking system. The Yakuza have advanced into legitimate society from the underworld, and their companies most certainly support a certain part of the Japanese economy.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which has been concerned
about this situation, believes this tendency will further intensify because the
bosses of Inagawa-kai, the largest Yakuza group in Kanto, and Yamaguchi-gumi
from Kansai have entered into so-called matrimonial relationship as of the end
of November 1996, with each pledging their support over cups of sake. Therefore,
in the coming year, the police seem determined to strengthen supervision and
regulation of the movement of these gangsters. An executive of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police Department who prefers to remain anonymous said, "The world
of Yakuza shows a notable 'the-whole-world-becomes-the-ruling-party' syndrome,
as supported by Yamaguchi-gumi. This means that there will be fewer angry fights
between the Yakuza groups, thus less opportunity for us to prosecute them. We
are going to concentrate on exposing crimes by Yamaguchi-gumi-related people who
wear the suits of business enterprise through utilizing the Boryokudan
Countermeasure Law."
It's usual within Yakuza circuits to tattoo themselves, usually is it their
clan's badge that they tattoos in all over their body. The origin to why the
Yakuza tattooed himself comes from Bakuto. They usually tattooed in a black ring
around the arm for each crime they committed. Finally it became an evidence of
strength, when it could take over 100 hours to do a back tattoo. The tattoo was
to illustrate you were unwilling to accommodate yourself to societies rules and
norms. Now is it to illustrate your clan belonging.
Yubitsume is when you cut of one of your fingers and send it to the Kumicho.
This is done as an apology for disobedience. It can be done to expiate a
wrongdoing but can also be done to spare one of your "children". When you have
done something that your Kumicho dislikes you take a sharp item, cut of a
fingertip, wrap it in paper and send it to the Kumicho and begs for his
forgiveness.
If it's the first time you cut of the little fingertip there after it becomes
the next little finger and so on. Because of that you see Yakuza members that
are without several of his fingers. This helps often at wrongdoings, but if you
done something all to seriously, as e.g. betray the entire clan, there's nothing
that helps you from to become executed. The manner comes originally from Bakuto.
If a gambler couldn't pay back a debt or something alike, the persons tip of the
little finger got cut off, which damage the hand somewhat. This did in its turn
that the person in question not could hold his sword equally well as before. In
that way other people could see if a person haven't paid a debt, which could
bring certain problems, since gambling always been prohibited in Japan.
The bosozuku speed tribes are Japan's discontented youth. A little under one
half of them are from broken homes. They revel in noise and spectacle and
disturbing the pure and orderly operation of Japanese society. But they are more
than gangs of delinquents. They are proving grounds for the Yakuza.