Yakuza

years have been forced to lower their standards when recruiting new members, and as a result some feel that they are neither as organized nor as powerful as they once were. In the past, choice recruits came from the traditional bakuto (gambler) and tekiya (peddler) classes, but today a rebel spirit and a willingness to commit crime for an oyabun is all that is necessary to join the yakuza ranks. Most new members currently come from the bosozuku (speed tribes), street punks known for their love of motorcycles.

This lowering of standards has led to the Japanese National Police Agency adopting the term boryokudan ({the violent ones}) for the yakuza, lumping them in with other criminal groups. The yakuza, which treasure their ancestral ties to the old samurai, reject the term and consider it an insult.

The origin of the yakuza is a matter of some debate. Some feel that its members are descendents of the 17th-century kabuki-mono (crazy ones), outlandish samurai who reveled in outlandish clothing and hairstyles, spoke in elaborate slang, and carried unusually long swords in their belts. The kabuki-mono was also known as hatamoto-yakko (servants of the shogun). During the Tokugawa era, an extended period of peace in Japan, the services of these samurai were no longer needed, and so they became leaderless ronin (wave man). Without the guidance of a strong hand, they eventually shifted their focus from community service to theft and mayhem.

Modern yakuza members refute this theory and instead proclaim they to be the descendents of the machi-yokko (servants of the town) who protected their villages from the wayward hatamoto-yakko. The official yakuza history portrays the group’s ancestors as underdog folk heroes who stood up for the poor and the defenseless, just as Robin Hood helped the peasants of medieval England.

Current yakuza members fall under three general categories: tekiya (street peddlers), bakuto (gamblers), and gurentai (hoodlums). The peddlers and gamblers trace their roots back to the 18th century while the hoodlums came into existence after World War II when the demand for black market goods created a booming industry. Traditionally the tekiya, medieval Japan’s version of snake-oil salesmen, worked the fairs and markets while the bakuto worked the towns and highways. The gurentai, by contrast, modeled themselves on American gangsters of the Al Capone era, using threats and extortion to achieve their ends. After World War II, in the governmental power void caused by the Occupation, the gurentai prospered, and their ranks swelled. They also brought organized crime in Japan to a new level of violence, replacing the traditional sword with modern firearms, even though guns were now officially outlawed in the country as a result of the surrender.

Yakuza also satisfy the desire of would-be gun owners in Japan, where guns of all kinds are prohibited. Yakuza members themselves are the prime market for firearms, and they favor the sleekest automatic handguns from Europe and America, often trading drugs for weapons. The yakuza specialize in the production and sales of met amphetamine (given the frenetic pace and competitive atmosphere of Japanese society, speed is the national drug of choice) and the yakuza frequently use it to barter with Western arms suppliers.

The yakuza also make millions of dollars a year through corporate extortion, and the sokaiya (shareholders’ meeting men) are the masters of this enterprise. Sokaiya will buy a small number of shares in a company so that they can attend shareholders’ meetings. In preparation for the meeting, the sokaiya gather damaging information about the company and its officers; secret mistresses, tax evasion, unsafe factory conditions, and pollution are all fodder for the sokaiya. They will then contact the company’s management and threaten to disclose whatever embarrassing information they have at the shareholders’ meeting unless they are “compensated.” If management does not give in to their demands, the sokaiya go to the shareholders’ meeting and raise hell, shouting down anyone who dares to speak, making a boisterous display of their presence, and shouting out their damaging revelations. In Japan, where people fear embarrassment and shame much more than physical threats, executives usually give the sokaiya whatever they want.

Organized crime groups in Japan — known loosely as the yakuza — in recent years have proven to be far more than gangs of thugs that oversee extortion, gambling, prostitution and other “traditional” gangster activities. Developments during the past year have revealed that the yakuza, having bought up real estate and stocks in the late 1980s, are playing a bigger hand in the Japanese economy. While organized crime groups for much of the postwar period have enjoyed an unusual degree of tolerance by the Japanese

Pages: 1 2 3 4