Yakuza: Japans Criminal Underworld

Japan gives yakuza criminal gangs the finger

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With many gangsters now seeking rehab, is this the beginning of the end for the yakuza? Y asumasa Aoki is not proud of his past. He does not want to talk about what he did to spend more than a decade of his life in prison. He will admit only that while he was a member of the notorious Inagawa-kai yakuza group in Tokyo, he was involved in kidnapping a man.

Pressed for more, he says the matter is closed. He prefers to put his past behind him to help others with their futures. Now 69, Aoki was sufficiently resilient to follow through with an idea that had formed during his incarceration when it might have been easier to slip back into a life of crime. In January , he opened the doors of Olive House, a small property in Kumamoto City that takes in anyone who has been in trouble with the authorities — including a good number of gang members who have decided that a life of organised crime is no longer for them — and helps them go straight.

It would not only be a place where they could stay, but a protective facility where they are truly able to reintegrate into life through a deep fellowship with other people who have been in similar situations. It was a brave move, given that the gangs in the past have not taken too kindly to anyone who wants to leave their ranks or those who help them do so. Members who upset the boss are invariably punished, with the worst transgressions requiring the perpetrator to carry out yubitsume , or cutting off their own finger. Others simply disappear and there are occasional reports of decomposed bodies being found in mountainous regions of Japan or washing up on beaches minus any potentially distinguishing marks.

Founded in in the seaside town of Atami, southwest of Tokyo, the Inagawa-kai grew rapidly and members earned a living from illegal gambling, drugs, blackmail, extortion and prostitution, but it never shied away from confrontation with other groups when it felt they were encroaching on its territory and there have been dozens of clashes down the years. Supported by religious groups and financial help from the government, Olive House has to date welcomed 71 people, including people serving suspended prison sentences, youths and members of organised crime groups.

Not everyone who enters the house turns things around, Aoki admits, and about 10 per cent of people slip back into bad habits, but a police crackdown on underworld groups across Japan means that Aoki believes that his support is going to become increasingly important in the years to come. The peak year for membership was , with more than , gangsters across the country. The figure for core members fell below the 20, figure for the first time in , the police said.

Yakuza are believed to have first emerged as gangs of unaffiliated samurai in 17th century Japan and still have strict codes of conduct that they adhere to, even if they have diverged into a life of organised crime. Marked out even today by their traditional full-body tattoos, which explains the continued aversion of ordinary Japanese to skin art, they operate illegal gambling dens and the sex trade in the big cities, as well as running protection rackets and selling drugs and weapons.

As the authorities have cracked down on their operations in the past couple of decades, however, many groups have set up front companies in an effort to appear legitimate.

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Many are in the property and construction sectors, but they also expanded into financial services. They also sought to develop similar businesses overseas, such as in the US and Southeast Asia, although cross-border crime-fighting efforts are making it increasingly difficult for them to evade the scrutiny of the authorities.

The Yamaguchi-gumi remains the largest single yakuza group, with an estimated 4, core members, according to police statistics. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, a splinter group, has around 2, core members, while the Sumiyoshikai has an estimated 2, followers.

Police statistics also indicate that gang members were investigated in 17, criminal cases in Killing the Deep State. United States Labor Party. Murder Under the Rising Sun. How America Lost Its Secrets.

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