Yakuza: The Japanese MafiaYakuza (ヤクザ) are members of organized crime syndicates that developed from gamblers and peddlers as early as the 1600s. Today, there are more than 100,000 yakuza around the world.
Despite diminishing in size from its heyday, the yakuza remains an active force in modern Japan. In the 21st century, yakuza members deal mainly in extortion, protection rackets, sex trafficking, gambling, real estate, and construction. Violent yakuza crimes usually involve rivalries between families, but sometimes target civilians. Most crimes in modern times are variations on things the yakuza have been doing for decades - a white collar thrown in for good measure.
Unlike other crime syndicates, yakuza operate more or less in the open. Affiliation with a yakuza family is not illegal in Japan, and many families have offices and legitimate businesses. As you'll see with the below list, yakuza in modern times are deeply ingrained in the fabric of Japanese society, business, government, and finance, in part thanks to their rise in the wake of World War II. If you want to see some fictional yakuza in action, you can always check out a rundown of the best yakuza movies ever.
Of the 2,885 companies that participated in a study by Japan's National Police Agency, 337 (11.7%) reported attempted yakuza shakedowns. The study further indicates that one in five companies the yakuza attempts to extort ends up paying, and five of the companies in question paid more than ¥5 million ($60,000). The most commonly targeted companies were in real estate and construction, both fields in which the yakuza commonly work.
The Kudo-kai is a particularly violent yakuza family based in Kitakyushu, on the southern island of Kyushu. In 1998, members gunned down a 70-year-old man in public, at point-blank range. The alleged motive? The victim, Kunihiro Kajiwara, refused to give favorable treatment to yakuza in public works projects. In 2002, four members of the gang were arrested for the incident, and two convicted. In 2014, an alleged senior member of the gang, Satoru Nomura, was also arrested in relation to the incident.
On April 17, 2007, Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito (also spelled Iccho Itoh) was shot twice in the back with a revolver by Tetsuya Shiroo, a senior member of a Nagasaki affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza family. Shiroo had a long-running conflict with city officials over damage done to his car when he drove it into a hole caused by construction. The city sided with the construction company.
In a Los Angeles Times article, Bruce Wallace suggests Shiroo's real motive was the Ito administration's refusal to choose yakuza firms for lucrative construction contracts. This cut into Shiroo's revenue, and may have damaged his relationship with Yamaguchi-gumi leadership, as affiliate gangs must pay tribute to the yakuza families to which they belong.
Marcela Loaiza, a single mother from Colombia, arrived in Japan in 1999 through an arrangement made by a broker who told her she would be working as a dancer. The deal would allow her to earn enough money to help her family escape poverty. With wide eyes and an optimistic heart, Loaiza traveled halfway across the world to find out the whole thing was a set up for the yakuza, and she would be working as a prostitute in Ikebukuro, a bustling commercial district in central Tokyo.
After two years of hell, Loaiza sought help from the Colombian embassy in Tokyo. They took her in, helped her escape, and she wrote a book about her ordeal. Hers is far from an isolated incident. "The situation was terrible back then. The women were treated like animals," said an anonymous official. The yakuza fills its sex parlors with women from all over the world, driving them into debt and taking their passports once they arrive in Japan.
In 2005, the Japanese government cracked down on this system. Since the crackdown, yakuza have resorted to offering more attractive arrangements to women, such as student visas or spouse visas. Despite the crackdown, sex trafficking is a sordid reality in Japan. According to the 2016 Trafficking in Persons report released by the US State Department, Japan is a “destination, source and transit country” for sex trafficking.
In 2007, British newspaper The Guardianran a piece about yakuza taking massive profits earned from the construction industry to the stock market. To ensure maximum return on investment, yakuza threatened businesspeople for inside information.
After a crackdown on the collusion between financial institutions and the yakuza, several Japanese banks, led by Mizuho Financial Group, admitted to loaning money to yakuza. In some cases, the loans were never paid back, and used to buy goods sold on the black market.
The yakuza play a large role in sponsoring dogfights in Japan, which are legal in most of the country. Yakuza are deeply involved with the business; they breed and trade dogs, especially the Tosa, a rare Japanese dog bred specifically for fighting. Tosa are illegal in numerous places (the UK, Hong Kong, Turkey, Israel, Norway) due to their aggressive personalities. Yakuza typically sell Tosa for $5,000 to $10,000, though champions go for as much as $15,000. At the height of the economic bubble, in the late 1980s, dogs went for as much as $30,000.
Gambling is illegal in Japan, but it's OK to win prizes. In some instances, the yakuza run illegal gambling bookies for dogfights. In others, the system works a bit like pachinko, with cash being traded for tokens or prizes, then re-exchanged later or at a different location.
