Yakuza article

[Wiseguy]

Crime report suggests the yakuza are evolving
BY JAKE ADELSTEIN
August 1, 2015


It appears the National Police Agency is serious about cracking down on organized crime.

The annual White Paper on Crime, published this year on July 24, created its first separate section on organized crime since 2008 — the same year law enforcement officials acknowledged that organized crime had moved so far into the financial markets “it threatened the very economic foundations of Japan.”

This year’s section is entitled “Progress and prospects for organized crime countermeasures.”

I’ve been covering the yakuza for 21 years but for those who don’t know anything about them, here’s a quick primer.

The police term for the yakuza is boryokudan, or “violent groups.” Such entities are defined in related laws as “any organization likely to facilitate its members to collectively or habitually commit illegal acts of violence.”

The yakuza were originally federations of street merchants (tekiya) or gamblers (bakuto). They claim to have a history that goes back to the Edo Era and still portray themselves as “noble outlaws” who “fight the strong and defend the weak.”

Some, like the Aizukotetsu-kai syndicate in Kyoto, actually do have roots that go back as far as the 1880s. And, at least for a time, many of the organizations instituted a minimal code of ethics that kept the members from committing theft, robbery or rape. Income is primarily generated by racketeering, extortion, insider trading, loan sharking, prostitution and gambling.

The gang structures are rigidly patriarchal. The “children” in the family vow allegiance to a father, while gang members are divided into older and younger brothers with a traditional ritual exchange of sake. Yakuza members used to prove their fidelity to the criminal lifestyle by getting tattoos, although this practice is less common these days.

Most groups have evolved into criminal enterprises over the years. The largest of them is still the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, which was founded in 1915 as a labor dispatch service and once controlled the docks in Kobe. These days, the syndicate is believed to own offices nationwide, investing in IT and the stock market.

The Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate is currently headed by Shinobu Tsukasa. Since completing a spell in prison a few years ago, he has forbidden members of his syndicate to use or sell drugs, and tried to enforce a basic code of ethics. For this, Tsukasa deserves some kudos — at least, as far as organized crime bosses go.

The government passed several anti-organized crime ordinances in 2011, making it a crime for anyone to do business with yakuza syndicates. The groups are still legal, but strictly regulated. Since the implementation of such legislation, yakuza membership has been in freefall.

Including associate boryokudan members, yakuza membership peaked at 184,100 in 1963, National Police Agency statistics show. Membership hovered around 80,000 between 1992 and 2010 before falling to an all-time low tally of 53,500 at the end of 2014, the statistics show.

The white paper noted a few recent changes in operations, noting that syndicates are increasingly moving into fraud and white-collar crimes. Fraud used to be grounds for instant dismissal but, these days, it represents 10 percent of the yakuza’s total income, the paper shows. Extortion, which used to be the yakuza’s bread and butter has dropped from roughly 10 percent of the yakuza’s income to just 4 percent, the paper shows. Perhaps more alarmingly of all, the paper shows yakuza syndicates are becoming increasingly involved in “It’s me” scams.

The white paper includes a few remarks from police officers who investigate organized crime. The majority believes yakuza syndicates are expanding their powers because people continue to support their activities (63 percent) and some can’t cut ties to members (26.7 percent). Such people may include education minister Hakubun Shimomura, who is believed to have ties with Yamaguchi-gumi associates.

In order to dismantle the yakuza networks entirely, the white paper calls on police to arrest the leadership, expand wire-tapping powers and even consider plea-bargaining. It also discusses the need to create a witness protection program and, for the first time, acknowledge it needs ways to reintegrate former members back into society.

Detectives on the ground, however, aren’t nearly so optimistic. They claim yakuza syndicates aren’t losing as many members as reported, they’re simply going underground and moving into organizations that appear to be tolerated by the government.

Where could the syndicates go from here? That’s the million-dollar question …

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/0 ... b-tfvO6et9

[dixiemafia]

I know the Yakuza supposedly had a hand in the Pride MMA organization when they were actually bigger and better than the UFC. No telling what they are worth overall.

[scagghiuni]

Including associate boryokudan members, yakuza membership peaked at 184,100 in 1963, National Police Agency statistics show. Membership hovered around 80,000 between 1992 and 2010 before falling to an all-time low tally of 53,500 at the end of 2014, the statistics show.


how is it possible that they losed 30.000 members in 4 years?

[Lupara]

Perhaps they were hit by an atomic bomb.

[Pogo The Clown]

Perhaps they were hit by an atomic bomb.

Or Godzilla ate them.


Pogo

[Lupara]

[Five Felonies]

I know the Yakuza supposedly had a hand in the Pride MMA organization when they were actually bigger and better than the UFC. No telling what they are worth overall.

they didn't just have a hand, they were pride. dse, pride's parent company, were little more than a front for the yamaguchi gumi clan, things went smooth for a while but they got greedy and fucked it all up. too many rumors about shady underworld dealings caused fuji tv to shitcan their tv deal with pride, which killed them.

[AustraliaSteve]

Tokyo Vice was a good read. Adelstein is probably the best non-governmental Western authority on the Yakuza clans. It's a strange dynamic, with the clans technically being legal groups. Maybe not that strange though, considering it's fucking Japan. They only just criminalised child porn in 2014 FFS. There was an earlier bill that made the production illegal, but it wasn't until last year they closed the loop-hole that kept possession technically lawful. And as I understand, it still doesn't apply to their comics.

Found an older article by Adelstein where he talks about Tadamasa Goto, "the Japanese John Gotti", (his words), who made a deal with the FBI exposing some Yamaguchi-Gumi operations in exchange for a liver transplant performed in the US. I think this is the one I posted on RD a few years ago. Somebody else may have posted it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02544.html

[AustraliaSteve]

Reports that the Yamaguchi-Gumi clan is facing internecine problems.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/a ... oup-splits

[Giacomo_Vacari]

I think the reason why there is drop of known members in Japan is they are going to other countries, South East Asia has seen an increase of Yakuza members in those countries. Los Angeles and San Francisco both received waves of Yakuza in those cities from 2005 to 2008. The Obama administration as order no entry into the United States rough 40 members to those organizations, top of the list is Shinobu Tsukasa. They have shares in many legitimate areas around Los, San Francisco, Sacramento, Berkeley, and Las Vegas. In San Francisco, they are known to hold street races, own many bussiness in the Fish District.l, run gambling, loan sharking, prostitution using their wives and daughters if you can believe that to help blackmail and extort powerful clients, run drugs, and smuggling guns back to Japan.

[Five Felonies]

i'd add honolulu and other cities in hawaii as areas of the us where various yakuza groups hold influence as well.

[Giacomo_Vacari]

Hawaii has always been in the Yakuza grip, they run a lot of unions and representatives in the US Congress.
Update on the Yamaguchi-gumi split. The new group is called the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, with Kunio Inoue from the Yamaken-gumi as the Boss, Tadashi Irie and Koji Nunokawa of the Nakanish-gumi both from Osaka have joined the group, which leaves the Yamaguchi-gumi with no members in Osaka. Osaka alone add roughly 1300 members to the group. It seems that Shinobu, Takayama, and Yamamato were forcing many members into retirement, and other clans in the Yamaguchi-gumi decided to switch their allegiance to other Kai, Gumi, and Ikki groups.

[Giacomo_Vacari]

This is from Mediax 2008; NPA 2011a:27; Prefural Police Department Bulletins of Fukuoka, Osaka, and Tokyo of known Yakuza members and their clans.

Yamaken-gumi (Kobe, 7000) Kodo-kai (Nagoya, 4000) Sumiyoshi-ikka (Tokyo, 2200) Takumi-gumi (Osaka, 1800) Kohei-ikki (Tokyo, 1600) Matsuba-kai (Tokyo, 1200) Kyokuto-kai (Tokyo, 1100) Aizu Kotetsu-kai (Kyoto, 1000) Yokosuka-ikki (Kanagawa, 900) Iseno-kai (Saitama, 900) Nakanish-gumi (Osaka, 900) Dojin-kai (Tokyo, 850) Kato Rengo-kai (Tokyo, 800) Kudo-kai (Fukuoka, 650) Kyosei-kai (Hiroshima, 650) Kyokushin Rengo-kai (Osaka, 600) Shoyu-kai (Osaka, 600) Oishi-gumi (Fukuoka, 600) Kobayashi-kai (Tokyo, 600) Kogomutsu-kai (Tokyo, 600) Kokusei-kai (Osaka, 500) Shinwa-kai (Tochigi, 400) Kyokudo-kai (Hokkaido, 350) Kokurya-kai (Okinawa, 300) Kyodo-kai (Hiroshima, 300) Soai-kai (Chiba, 270) Koryu-ikki (Fukushima, 250) Asano-gumi (Fukuoka, 230) Tashu-kai (Fukuoka, 180) Goda-ikka(Yamaguchi, 160) Sakaumo-gumi(Osaka, 160) Kozakura-ikka (Kagoshima, 100)

The information is old but it does give a good ideal of the Yakuza size. These are the largest clans that do illegal activities, while other larger clans have maintained legal activities and are not named nor are the smaller clans below 100 membership that also conduct illegal activity. It is not against the law to be a member of the Yakuza in Japan, it is just what activities you do.

[scagghiuni]

yakuza membership peaked at almost 200.000 in the 1960s today they have 50.000 members and associates i wonder why they losed so many members maybe there are not enough youngs involved in crime and attracted to yakuza nowadays

[Giacomo_Vacari]

From what was told to me, many of the Yakuza members have gone into fully legitimate business and after a set number of years with no criminal activity and minor meetings with their clans during a year, the Japanese Police no longer considers them being members, even though they still are. Other members retired, and there is generation gap as well, not to mention a high suicide rate among 18-30 year olds in Japan.