They control the courts and the police. They kill bankers who ask to pay off a loan. They consider themselves defenders of traditional values. They are not strong in their home country.
The origins of the Yakuza date back to the 17th century. As the Tokugawa family reigned, Japan almost completely isolated itself from the rest of the world. There were no trade contacts, there were no foreign influences, and there were no wars. Everyone was happy except the samurai, among whom the number of unemployed quickly rose to half a million.
Their lack of work frustrated them. After all, they could only fight and kill. Out of sheer boredom, groups of armed warriors began to harass the local residents . Merchants called machi-yakko stood up for the oppressed peasants. . They were also joined by the owners of social houses where gambling was a popular pastime.
After nearly a hundred years, this selfless help turned into a quite profitable business. Defenders began to force the Japanese to pay for their protection. Profits from gambling additionally made machi-yakko they have become very rich and influential people.
Quick earnings and life "above the law" - it attracted you like a magnet . First, the outcasts unable to find their place in nineteenth-century Japan. Then the representatives of the lowest social groups who were unable to earn their living.
One of the card games called Oicho-Kabu contributed to the creation of the new name of the organization. The worst hand of three cards (8, 9, 3) in one of the Japanese dialects was pronounced "ya-ku-za". This is the name of the biggest mafia in the world today.
Tattoos and fingers cut off?
Today, Yakuza has over ninety thousand members and its range is world-wide. Works with both the Italian mafia and the Chinese triads. And although everyone knows about the Yakuza, the truth about her is still mixed with legends. So who are contemporary gangsters? How to recognize them? What do they do? The answers are not as obvious as you might think…
A tattoo used to be the stigma of a person convicted of a crime. Today it is a symbol of belonging to the mafia. The bigger and more complicated it is, the higher the position of the person who wears it. Most Yakuza members have about seventy percent of their body surface tattooed . However, it is not obligatory in this organization! Not all gang members decide to get a very painful tattoo lasting about a hundred sessions.
Machi-Yakko often dressed in extravagant ways. Sometimes they added elements of women's outfits and even Western European clothes to their clothes. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861), portrait of Banzuiin Chōbei (1622-1657), leader of the Machi-Yakko group (source:public domain).
Other myths include the story of having little fingers cut off as an apology for breaking one of the Yakuza's rules. Only a few dozen years ago, many bosses required this from their subordinates. Today, they are departing from this medieval custom, focusing primarily on practicality. A hand injured in this way loses its full efficiency, and the use of a weapon is very limited.
Women in the Yakuza
Yakuza is a typically male organization, where women are considered the weaker. There is a belief that the fair sex can neither fight hard nor keep a secret which is crucial for the operation of this organization. It is also believed that when a woman is brought to a police questioning she will immediately report the male members of the Yakuza.
A woman may be admitted to the strict leadership circle, but only if she is the boss's wife. However, she cannot make decisions and participate in the interests of her husband. There are many bosses' wives, daughters and lovers in Yakuza . They are not treated equally with men and even if one of them breaks one of the rules, they are punished much more leniently than men.
"Godfather to all godfathers"
The three largest Yakuza groups - Yamaguchi-gumi, Sumiyoshi-kai, and Inagawa-kai - have more than fifty thousand members in Japan alone. They are famous for their far-right views . They feel like the defenders of the whole Land of the Rising Sun and its traditional values.
Many Japanese believe such stories and speak warmly about gang members. Even the fact that every year in the Yakuza's street settlements with other groups, several hundred people accidentally die .
Due to the deeply entrenched arrangements of the Yakuza within the Japanese judiciary, details of the day-to-day activities of the mafia rarely come to light. Both the police and the press are reluctant to report any further bloody actions and gang wars that shock the inhabitants of Japanese cities from time to time. This was the case in the second half of the 1970s, when the Yamaguchi-gumi fraction clashed with Matsuda-gumi
Japanese Mafiosi :. In the middle of Kazuo Taoka - "The Godfather of All Godfathers", 1952 (source:public domain).
It was for the death of the leader of Matsuda in 1975, in which Yamaguchi-gumi was accused. For three years, the "soldiers" of both sides literally killed each other in broad daylight . The head of Yamaguchi at the time was Kazuo Taoka, one of the most powerful leaders in the history of the organization. He had over twelve thousand devoted members at his disposal who guarded him like an eye in his head.
Toaka's high position is evidenced by the fact that in Japan he was known as the "Godfather of all godfathers". His relatives called him "The Bear" because he was known for the aggression with which he attacked his enemies. In direct duels his opponents tore to the face with his bare hands .
In July 1978, there was another bloody retaliation to kill Kazuo. In one of the nightclubs, during a pole dance show, 25-year-old Kiyoshi Narumi approached him with a gun in his hand and shot him in the back of the head. The bullet passed right through, exiting through the mouth. The murderer managed to escape, and Toaka, still alive, was taken to the hospital under special police escort. He survived and thus strengthened his position in the Yakuza. He also gained another nickname - "Immortal".
Narumi was not so lucky. A few weeks later he was found dead. His body (with a torn face and a split belly) hung in a tree in the woods near Kobe. The entire male part of the bomber's family (about twenty people) disappeared into thin air . Rumors had spread that their tongues and index fingers had been cut off before they died. It is said that Toaka himself took the act of revenge.
"Hostesses" from the "massage house"
Where does the Yakuza get its profits from? In this it is not much different from other organized groups on the other side of the law. Gambling has always brought the greatest money. Just one illegal arcade in a seedy venue can earn up to ten million yen (around one hundred thousand US dollars) in a month.
However, there are clubs where a single bet on a card game costs over a thousand dollars and the total daily stake can go up to a million dollars. Such elite places attract businessmen and politicians who sometimes lose all their achievements.
Once they "broke", they need a loan, which they are always happy to give ... Yakuza! And this is a huge percentage. As bankrupts do not have much choice, they use the services of "tattooed" bankers. There is also no question of not paying the debt. Everyone knows exactly what the failure to pay off a loan in such a bank ends up ...
Prostitution has become another area of great money. In the 1950s, there were almost two thousand "forbidden districts" in the Land of the Rising Sun, with over forty thousand brothels . After prostitution was banned in 1958, their number increased further, only the official nature of the services provided changed. Prostitutes have become "hostesses" and ordinary brothels have become "massage houses". From now on, all profits go to the Yakuza.
The distinctive Japanese tattoos have a long history. Artwork by (Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) (source:public domain).
Drugs tend to emerge wherever gambling and sex are concerned. However, this does not apply to Japan, where people are reluctant to use such drugs. It might seem that under such circumstances the Yakuza is not making money from drug trafficking. Nothing could be more wrong! If there is no demand among compatriots for the banned substances, they are exported abroad. Brokerage in trade between Asia and the United States has become an intrinsic business.
Only the right rules of the game
Like most criminal organizations around the world, the Yakuza also wanted to pursue legitimate business. At the end of the 20th century, she began to invest in land for the construction of hotels and golf courses . Due to their right-wing views, almost exclusively Japanese have access to such places. Many similar investments were made outside the "Land of the Rising Sun". In Australia and the United States, they are very popular among Japanese tourists.
Real estate trading has also become popular. After many fat years, the crisis came and in the late 1990s, bankruptcy caught the Yakuza's eyes. Banks willingly started lending mafiosi to mafia, and soon Yakuza took on at least half of the mortgage debts on Japanese real estate. The troubles of the banks came when they began to demand repayment of their debts . Or at least they tried…
Yakuza bosses do not like to be pressed by anyone, so in a self-aware way they decided to teach the bankers only the right rules of the game. It started with a murder. In 1993 the president of Hanwa Bank was shot dead who was the first to ask the Yakuza to "ask" for his loan back. Soon a similar fate befell the president of Sumitomo bank.
In total, seven top bank officials, dealing with attempts to collect debt from Yakuza bosses, were killed in similar circumstances. The last to be murdered was Tadao Homna, a former director of the Bank of Japan. At the time of his death, he was the new president of Nippon Credit Bank, and he was investigating bad debt records in one of the hotels.
Japanese tattoo. Photo Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934) or Raimund von Stillfried (1839-1911), Japan between 1870-1899 (source:public domain).
And although the witnesses heard the sounds of arguing and fighting coming from his room, the police said that the bank president shot himself . Honda's body was lost even before the autopsy. A few weeks later, all Yakuza debts were generously canceled, and busy gangsters were able to safely return to their business ...
The legitimate business has appealed to the Yakuza bosses so much that soon the profits from it may exceed those of "shady" interests. The Japanese policemen, however, have nothing to be happy about, as most of the money collected in this way is spent on illegal expenses, such as the purchase of illegal weapons and drugs, and the construction of increasingly luxurious "houses of carnal joy" ...
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When you come to Japan, you enter a world largely controlled by the Yakuza. One thing is for sure - this mafia is not worth messing with. When in Japan, it's best to just close your eyes and treat Yakuza as an inseparable part of Japanese folklore. In the Land of the Rising Sun, "to be silent" sometimes means "to be calm" ... and "to experience"!