Posted on 04/05/2017 7:55:18 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Godfather and grandfather--the dwindling, graying yakuza
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 5, 2017 at 17:15 JST
Yakuza members are fast becoming a fellowship of grandads with about 40 percent of the approximately 20,100 registered on the wrong side of 50, according to police statistics.
"I have a chronic illness and my true feeling is wanting to retire and take it easy if there was someone I could pass (the gang) down to," grumbled a 70-year-old leader of a gang affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest yakuza organization.
This particular old-timer has found himself unable to quit gang life because he was called on to support the boss of an upper-tier gang amid heightened tensions triggered by the August 2015 split of the Yamaguchi-gumi into two rival groups.
The statistics compiled by the National Police Agency were for the end of 2015. It was the first time those aged 50 or older exceeded 40 percent since 2006, when such statistics began being formulated.
Twenty percent of gang members are in their 50s, 15.1 percent are in their 60s and 6 percent are in their 70s or older, according to the NPA.
Compared with the end of 2006, the ratio of younger cohorts has fallen dramatically.
Those in their 20s decreased from 12.6 percent to 4.7 percent as of the end of 2015, while those in their 30s fell from 30.6 percent to 20 percent.
However, those in their 40s rose from 22.1 percent to 34.1 percent.
The 70-year-old gang member said the number of young people who want to join gangs dropped sharply after all 47 prefectures passed ordinances by October 2011 that prohibited individuals and companies from providing benefits to organized crime elements.
"In the past, gang members could have a dream of climbing up the hierarchy in order to reap money, be popular with women and drive a cool car," the gang leader said. "That is no longer possible."
But the leader did say the police would be unaware of the actual figure as steps had been taken to hide from authorities the number of registered young members by avoiding gangster rituals.
They might not go through with the traditional ritual of exchanging drinks of sake that made an individual a formal gang member, for example. But even without the drinks, they were still effectively gang members.
The reluctant gang leader could be considered young among gang heads as the oldest bosses in the Yamaguchi-gumi and the splinter group, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, are 80 and 79, respectively.
The NPA said earlier that the number of gangsters had fallen below 40,000 for the first time at the end of 2016 since the government began keeping track of yakuza in 1958. The figure was placed at about 39,100, including quasi-members who are not in the usual yakuza family.
Thanks for the post. I’m a Japan-lover having spend 3 years over there when i was in the Navy.
Always have curious about the yakusa. This was an interesting read.
Let me get this straight - in Japan, the organized crime families register their members? How does that work?
Just like it does in the DNC...
How does that work?
Lived in Sagamihara and Yokohama 1951-1961.
In those days, gangsters were recognized by their tattoos...
Next logical step, robot yakuza.
One tradition of yakuza is to cut off the end of one pinkie finger. Shows how tough and committed you are. Also if a guy shows you his hand with the short pinkie, he’s letting you know not to mess with him—he’s connected.
We certainly could send a hundred thousand of our gang members to help them out.
If they just had a union he could have retired at 38 with full benefits with guaranteed cost of living increases and full medical.
There’s a quickie Japanese place near me that has a dish called Yakinisomething beef.
For kicks next time I order it i’ll ask for Yakusu beef and see what kind of reaction I get from the owner.
It hasn’t changed. Only the hair styles and stupidity level. I really don’t see many on the streets. The ones I do are all very old. The young punks are just sideshow wannabes. Kabukicho has been very clean for the last 15 years.
Best post on the internet today.
The Tattoos start really sagging and looking bad by that age.
Somewhat mixed emotions here. The Yakuza are/were gangsters, that’s indisputable, but they are/were also an integral part of the social matrix and kept crime/vice within what Japan considered socially acceptable limits. Oh, there was a Mexican standoff relationship with law enforcement, but there was also an undeniable give and take aspect to that relationship, and Japanese LEOs maintained both official and unofficial contacts with the gangs.
What’s more, the Yakuza gangs did/do, although it’s commonly sneered at and overlooked, engage in a lot of community relations stuff. They are integral participants in numerous festival and shrine events, they work alongside the community in times of disaster, and even contribute financially to support a number of charities.
But the real reason I am nervous about the decline of the Yakuza is that it is leaving a power vacuum that the Chinese Tongs are moving into — and they already have in some areas. Those guys are the real deal. They play very very rough.
I think it is quite possible that, in a few years, Japanese society as a whole might regret losing the undeniably patriotic stability provided by the Yakuza to the callous cutthroats of the Tong.
Yo hommie..... weeze cain’t be spekin’ Engish, howdahell we gunna spek Japineeze???
KnowhutImsayin’?????
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