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?
Next logical step, robot yakuza.
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.
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.