Posted on 09/08/2001 11:55:57 AM PDT by sarcasm
TOKYO (AP) -- Brawls in popular nightspots. Shootouts in the swank Ginza shopping area. Underworld headquarters riddled with bullets.
As police work to contain a power struggle within one of Japan's richest underworld syndicates, an unusual wave of high-profile gangland violence has gripped Tokyo.
Police refuse to discuss details, other than to confirm the number and locations of shootings. But experts say it underscores a larger concern -- how a decade of crackdowns and economic hard times have made Japan's ``yakuza'' underworld increasingly volatile, and violent.
``These are desperate times for gangs,'' said Atsushi Mizoguchi, an expert on Japan's underworld. ``With the economic slump, the police surveillance, the defections, it's blurred allegiances.''
The current battle began in April, when more than a dozen empty shops and offices owned by outcast factions of the Kokusuikai syndicate were fired on in the late night and early morning hours.
So far, no one has been killed and no one has been arrested, though the violence continues.
Japan's crime syndicates are among the world's wealthiest, bringing in billions of dollars a year. Recent scandals have revealed close ties to Japanese police and prominent politicians, along with some of the country's biggest banks and brokerage houses.
Their core income is from extortion, gambling, the sex industry, guns, drugs and real estate and construction kickback schemes. They are also established in stock market manipulation and high-tech sectors such as Internet pornography.
Though gangsters in the past tended to avoid violence involving outsiders, such incidents are now on the rise as the underworld struggles to find its balance of power. In 1999, three shopkeepers were shot in a gang battle in Osaka, Japan's second-largest city.
Police are reportedly now also looking into whether gangsters were involved in a fire that killed 44 people at a mahjong parlor and bar in a Tokyo entertainment district where organized crime, including both Japanese and Chinese gangs, has long prospered.
Police declined to comment on whether they have any evidence linking the fire to gangsters. But last year, gangsters in western Japan were arrested for torching two sex clubs. Four people died in those fires.
The National Police Agency estimates the Kokusuikai has 520 gang members, mostly in the Tokyo area. It is loosely affiliated with the Inagawakai, which has more than 5,000 members nationwide and is the country's third-biggest gang. Police estimate there are 83,000 gangsters nationwide.
Though small in number, the Kokusuikai has long been seen as one of the richest, most savvy gangs in Japan.
Its strongholds include Tokyo's upscale Ginza shopping district and the nearby Shimbashi area, where Kokusuikai members frequently squeeze monthly fees from business owners.
As tensions have mounted, the gangsters have been out in force.
``Since June or July, gangsters have been roaming the area during the day in packs of 20 or 30,'' said Katsuya Yamada, a waiter at an Italian restaurant in Shimbashi, a popular after-work hangout for businessmen. ``In the few years that I've worked here, I have rarely seen them out in such large groups.''
The local gang headquarters, in a drab 10-story building, has become something of a landmark, watched around the clock by police in a well-marked patrol car.
Local business owners say the police car appeared in June, after the building was the target of gunmen who fired a few rounds and then fled.
Last week, the neighborhood was again the site of violence when a street fight erupted among more than 50 rival members. Wielding knives, umbrellas and beer bottles, they brawled until 80 riot police restored order. Four gangsters were injured.
A centrally planned economy, a slave-work mentality, and no guns. They told us Japan was an economic paradise with no crime.
Stories like this and the fact that their pathetic stock market is at a 17 year low proves the elites wrong, as usual.
So, there are 83,000 gangsters operating in Japan; how many police are there? The Japanese government, like those of Britain and Australia, has constructed a victim rich environment by passing draconian bans on firearms for citizens. So, the good people of Japan are left to cower behind cover when the police and the gangs catch them in a crossfire. There are many idiots in the US who want to turn this country into the same kind of nightmare. An armed citizenry is the best and most effective deterrent to criminal activity, both in and out of government.
Japan has one oif the finest air, sea, and mountain rescue organizations in the world. It was never called.
Media coverage focused on the mechanical failure that caused the crash, not on the refusal of any government authority to take responsibility for rescue work.
The same thing happened ten years later during the Great Hanshin Earthquake, where 5200 people were killed, 30,000 were injured, and over 300,000 were made homeless. The government did nothing. Glen Fukushima wrote about this particular disaster for the Japan Policy Research Institute thus:
" Ineffectual crisis management in Tokyo. The central government authorities in Tokyo at first appeared paralyzed because they were unable to secure information from the scene more accurate and timely than that provided by television news programs. Once the information was obtained, acting on it proved difficult because no clear lines of authority for disaster relief had been established that would permit effective coordination between central,regional, and local government authorities. What one saw was tatewari gyosei ("vertical administration," where agencies jealously guard their turf and refuse to cooperate with each other) at its worst. The need for Japan to establish a national emergency management agency similar to the U.S. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is clear, but whereas FEMA reports to the U.S. president, a comparable Japanese agency would most likely report to the prime minister, who may or may not have the necessary authority to make important decisions in a timely manner."
JPRI Occassional Paper "The Great Hanshin Earthquake"
Japan is an extremely safe place so long as you don't get hurt. No one will take responsibility for anything. It's an institutionalized "no good deed goes unpunished" scenario. For example, ambulance personnel are prohibited from providing paramedic care outside of CPR. People die on their way to the hospital, who would otherwise live had they been injured in other developed countries. Recreational boaters often drown within sight of the Japanese Coast Guard, who refuse to provide assistance.
Take note America,THIS is what the Democratic Party wants to force upon us!
The point is, now listen carefully, that outlawing the guns won't stop the "Hardened Criminals" it will only make it difficult to protect oneself from them.
If you want to discuss all of the underlying causes for the cultural differences between the US and Japan the conversation starts about 2000 years ago
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