YAKUZA and Tongs

[JeremyTheJew]

The Yakuza has been coming up here n there and Im wondering if there is still and presence in the US???

The Yakuza use to be in LA and Hawaii mostly.... What about now?

Yakuza movies are excellent when u get the right ones. If anyone needs recommendations lmk.


And for the TONGS.... They are still in NYC CHINATOWN but anywhere else???

[Wiseguy]

The Yakuza has been coming up here n there and Im wondering if there is still and presence in the US???

The Yakuza use to be in LA and Hawaii mostly.... What about now?

Yakuza movies are excellent when u get the right ones. If anyone needs recommendations lmk.


And for the TONGS.... They are still in NYC CHINATOWN but anywhere else???

I don't think the Yakuza has ever had much of a presence in the U.S. Some of their money, yes, but Yakuza members and associates? Other than some old reports mentioning Hawaii and California, I haven't seen much evidence for it.

Compared to the 70's, 80', into the 90's, there seems to be a lot less news involving the Chinese Tongs and gangs. We still see plenty of Asian criminal enterprises but most not necessarily affiliated with these traditional groups from the past. In New York, when was the last time you read about the Flying Dragons or the Ghost Shadows? There's been some news involving some of the Tongs on the west coast here and there, including when Shrimp Boy Chow (who's been around forever) was arrested a few years ago.

[Slumpy]

Frankly I think the reports that the Yakuza having lost significant membership and influence, while true on the face of it, is an image that is encouraged by the Yakuza itself. You'll often see these guys appearing in documentaries that detail the decline of the Yakuza which seems incredibly self serving and deceptive to me. They have likely just gone a little underground and begun operating more like North American and European OC.

That said, I agree with Wiseguy, I don't think they have any significant presence in the US, if any at all.

IMO, the Tong model was abandoned once LE became wise to the game, not too dissimilar to the Mafia ditching the social clubs once they became hotbeds for surveillance. The Tongs themselves still exist, but likely not as criminal fronts. Even the ones that were fronts had board members that were non-criminal civilians and the Tongs operated as a legitimate social outreach institution even when a criminal element existed.

[JeremyTheJew]

Frankly I think the reports that the Yakuza having lost significant membership and influence, while true on the face of it, is an image that is encouraged by the Yakuza itself. You'll often see these guys appearing in documentaries that detail the decline of the Yakuza which seems incredibly self serving and deceptive to me. They have likely just gone a little underground and begun operating more like North American and European OC.

That said, I agree with Wiseguy, I don't think they have any significant presence in the US, if any at all.

IMO, the Tong model was abandoned once LE became wise to the game, not too dissimilar to the Mafia ditching the social clubs once they became hotbeds for surveillance. The Tongs themselves still exist, but likely not as criminal fronts. Even the ones that were fronts had board members that were non-criminal civilians and the Tongs operated as a legitimate social outreach institution even when a criminal element existed.

I thought the TONGS were 100% gang and it was the Yakuza who had civies involved with them??

Ik that in China it's a crime to just be a member.

Anyone see the movies Election and Triad Election???
EXCELLENT MOVIES

[Wiseguy]

I thought the TONGS were 100% gang and it was the Yakuza who had civies involved with them??

Ik that in China it's a crime to just be a member.

Anyone see the movies Election and Triad Election???
EXCELLENT MOVIES

Tongs are fraternal organizations that, while ostensibly legitimate, would often oversee criminal operations. In New York back in the day, each Chinatown street gang was affiliated with a local Tong and were used as enforcers.

[Slumpy]

Nah, a "tong" is just a social outreach organization / social club. Many of them had no criminal association at all, which is what made them such great fronts for more criminal minded businessmen; It's like if Americans were to start using a Rec Centre as a front for criminal activity. They are/were about helping Chinese migrants acclimate to their new home by offering immigrant counseling and things like English classes.

Often, a singular tong is also a member of a larger tong organization and one particular tong is just that city's "branch", so you can have a situation in which Tongs under the same umbrella can be legitimate or criminal. That remains the case today, as recently as 2018 a branch of the Hip Sing organization (Chicago) was under investigation for organized crime links. Individual chapters have a great amount of autonomy and there is very little top-down oversight from the mother organization.

They are illegal in china because the root of the Tong system is in a political dissident movement whose aims were to oust the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). They were a secret society and all secret societies are outlawed in China.When the state crackdown came, that's when many members fled to various places in NA and Europe, bringing the Tong system with them.

[Wiseguy]

Nah, a "tong" is just a social outreach organization / social club. Many of them had no criminal association at all, which is what made them such great fronts for more criminal minded businessmen; It's like if Americans were to start using a Rec Centre as a front for criminal activity. They are/were about helping Chinese migrants acclimate to their new home by offering immigrant counseling and things like English classes.

Often, a singular tong is also a member of a larger tong organization and one particular tong is just that city's "branch", so you can have a situation in which Tongs under the same umbrella can be legitimate or criminal. That remains the case today, as recently as 2018 a branch of the Hip Sing organization (Chicago) was under investigation for organized crime links. Individual chapters have a great amount of autonomy and there is very little top-down oversight from the mother organization.

They are illegal in china because the root of the Tong system is in a political dissident movement whose aims were to oust the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). They were a secret society and all secret societies are outlawed in China.When the state crackdown came, that's when many members fled to various places in NA and Europe, bringing the Tong system with them.

They might not all be criminal but, as far as the ones most are familiar with - like in New York City in the past or on the West Coast - they have had a good amount of criminal activity.

[Slumpy]

Not much reason to talk about a benevolent association for immigrants that's doing what it should be doing. Even the criminal ones operated as a normal Tong on the surface. But upon further research, I am definitely wrong in my belief that the Tong model was abandoned. The Hip Sings in Portland were raided on drug conspiracy charges in 2012, and the Chicago PD apparently have an ongoing investigation into the Chicago branch.

[Pogo The Clown]

You hear about the Chinese Godfather? He made them an offer they couldn't understand.


Pogo

[Targenmantarian]

There's some in Honolulu. A few in LA and SF/Seattle/Vancouver and Toronto.

But it's not like a burgeoning movement or anything. They slide in wherever there's a Japanese population and do whatever they can to make money. But they were never a huge force. And now even less so.

Thing about the Yakuza is it's fragmented.

There's like dozens or even hundreds of families or organizations. Every town has one.

I'm friends with a Yazuka member in a small City in rural/industrial Japan. His crew is like 50ish guys or so. They do the typical pachinko shakedowns and run hoes and some drugs. And they tie into a larger organization. But they are largely left to do their own thing in their little segment of Japan that no one cares about or goes to.

He's into music. That's how we met. Him and his friends are great guys. Def more urbane than Goodfellas. They know more stuff about non criminal life be it art, travel, fashion, or film. Even farming. They are totally immersed in being low level small town gangsters. But they don't for money. It doesn't utterly define them the way it would guys in Kobe or dudes on Mulberry Street.

[CabriniGreen]

You hear about the Chinese Godfather? He made them an offer they couldn't understand.


Pogo

Lol, I gotta admit, this is great timing.....

[Wiseguy]

Yakuza Membership Hits New Record Low

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00694/

[scagghiuni]

Yakuza Membership Hits New Record Low

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00694/

i thought that yamaguchi-gumi had 10.000 members, according to this source only 4000 are full members (the resta re associates), it would be less than ndrangheta or cosa nostra in italy

[sdeitche]

I was working on a potential book project back in 2005, that never came to fruition, with a Japanese wrestler who infiltrated the yakuza in Hawaii. He just recently passed away. I amassed a good deal of material about their activities. Think I still have it in my cavern o' files- if so, will post some stuff.

[JeremyTheJew]

I was working on a potential book project back in 2005, that never came to fruition, with a Japanese wrestler who infiltrated the yakuza in Hawaii. He just recently passed away. I amassed a good deal of material about their activities. Think I still have it in my cavern o' files- if so, will post some stuff.

Why didn't the book come out?