In Japan, organized crime and criminals come under the general heading of Yakuza. According to tradition, the name is derived from the worst possible score in a Japanese card game. It comes from Japan's counterpart to Black Jack, Oicho- Kabu. The general difference between the cardgames is that in Oicho- Kabu is that a winning total of the cards is 19 instead of 21. As you see, the sum of 8, 9 and 3, is 20, which is over in Oicho-Kabu. In a hand resulting in a score of 20, the worst possible score, a player's final score would be zero. Among the losing combinations, the phonetic sound of an 8-9-3 sequence is ya - ku - sa. It's from there the name, yakuza is derived... without worth to society. This doesn't mean that they have no use for the society, it means that the members are people that somehow do not fit in the society, in other words societies misfits.
The Yakuza were itinerant gamblers, peddlers, renegade warriors and roving bandits. They served shoguns and municipalities and their legend includes a distinct Robin Hood quality that recently emerged during the recent Kobe Earthquake. The Yamaguchi-gumi Yakuza clan quickly mobilized providing on the scene assistance to Kobe's earthquake victims long before the national government resolved to act.
Yakuza form a central theme in Japan's popular culture and trace their origins to at least the 17th century. Therefore, among the world's criminal organizations the Yakuza are older than the Sicilian Mafia.
Yakuza strength rises and falls according to the tides of Japanese society, with estimates of core membership ranging from 80,000 to more than 110,000 in the years from 1945 to 1996. Some authorities believe Japan's National Police routinely undercount the Yakuza, numbering only those names found in confiscated membership rolls, or recorded from routine police intelligence reports.
Like the Sicilian Mafia and other underworld organizations, the Yakuza are formed into families, but in Japan other distinctions emerge including that of the oyabun - kobun (father role - child role) relationship, between Yakuza chiefs and their underlings.
The Yakuza evolved into their current form late in the 19th-century under figures like Toyama Mitsuru. This son of a Samurai founded the Genyosha (Dark Ocean) Society, and later Toyama's top aide Ryohei Uchida founded the Amur River Society (Black Dragons). Like organized crime in other cultures, the Yakuza began to control construction labor and dockside labor, adding to traditional areas of enterprise in the vices, prostitution, gambling, liquor distribution, and entertainment.
In the late 1960s or early 1970s the Yakuza moved into the lucrative narcotics trade and in recent years have stepped up their trade in firearms and other contraband. According to various sources, Yakuza have formed alliances and working relationships with Chinese Triads, Sicilian and American Mafia, Columbian drug cartels, Jamaican Posses, and assorted other criminal organizations throughout the world.
Because of their unique role in Japan's history and popular culture, and their usefulness in providing muscle to control labor unions, and providing anonymous services to the public for a variety of typical underworld products in vice and contraband accomodations between Yakuza, police, ultranationalists, government, political parties, and secret societies seems to be an accepted fact of life in Japan.
Yakuza are active worldwide, wherever criminal enterprises flourish. The Yakuza have been very skillful in the employment of intermediaries and the absence of Japanese within a community does not mean an absence of Yakuza.
Kabuki-mono were known for their ruthless behavior and terrorizing all the surrounding areas. They were well known for stabbing people for pleasure. Kabuki-mono were gave their groups scary names and spoke in vulgar slang.
The current yakuza did not evolve until about the middle of the 17th century.
Its members were bakuto (gamblers) and tekiya (street vendors). Something that was remarkable were their loyalty to each other. They protected each other regardless even if it meant going against their own family.
Kabuki-mono generally came from shoguns or samurais whom during long peaceful times were forced into unemployment.
Almost all yakuza have the same type of background poor, criminals and misfits. The Yakuza became a family for them. They got help with problems, got attention and could feel a certain saftey.
The gambling side of the Yakuza was at this time sorta put to the side, because the police were cracking down roughly on the bakuto- gangs. Tekiya on the contrary flowered and expanded since most of their activities were not considered illegal but more importantly not on the surface of society. Yakuza began to develope an interest for policy and started affiliations with certain political officials. They began to cooperate with the authorities in order to get certain contributions and to ease the harassment from the authorities.
About up until the year 1925 Japan had an Emperor. But the course of events in the world was proving that a democratic rule was better than aristocratic, therefore Japan initiate a public vote for all men 1925. Within a few years the communist and socialist parties were found.
Around then the prince, that became emperor 1926, existed however his staff of military and some other officials did not agreed with democracy. The economical depression at the end of 20th century created suspicion against the western worlds liberalism. They took advantage of this and different secret organizations were created that trained its members in warfare, languages, assassination, blackmail etc.
The ultranationalism terror lasted on into the 1930s. They murdered two prime ministers, two finance ministers, attacked several politicians, and industrialist.
The Yakuza supplied them with the muscles and men in order to help and train these underworld organization. This type of yakuza is called the unyoke (political right).
Yakuza became influenced by the American gangster movies and began to dress in black suits with white shirts, black sunglasses and cropped hair. They became tougher and more violent, the sword became history, now it was firearms. It was about this time that not just gamblers and storekeepers became exposed to violence but also the ordinary person was becoming more of a victim.
Between about the years of 1958 and 1963 the number of yakuza- members increased with over 150%, to 184,000 members, now are they well below that. There are an estimated 5,200 different gangs in Japan. Also during that time they began to mark out their territories and wars started between the gangs. It is beleived that the wars between the gangs were settled by a man named Yoshio Kodama. Kodama was Japans underworld counterpart to America's Al Capone.
There are no thresholds or requirements in order to become a member. But when you are inside srtict obedience to the superiors is demanded. The yakuza sees himself, as Machi-yakko, the people's rescuer and helper. Far before any working courts existed in Japan the yakuza existed. If your clans chief couldn't or wouldn't help resolve a dispute you could turn to the local yakuza for help. They solved the problem in return for money. The solution however was more brutal than if you had turned to the police.
The yakuza structure exists in two types of yakuza, clan yakuza and freelance yakuza.
Freelance yakuza
Freelancing yakuza are generally wanna be's yakuza that don't commit seriuos crimes and they are usually little more than a group of hustlers.
They have however some difficulties surviving since the clan yakuza do not afford them any protection or assistance and generally doesn't allow them to operate within their territories. Clan yakuza can tip the police about crimes that the freelance yakuza commit. If the freelance yakuza earns to much money, the clan yakuza kills the freelancing yakuza or makes him disappear without a trace.
The clan yakuza however have certain uses for a freelance yakuza. If the clan yakuza needs something done that they not want the clan to be associate with, they can turn to a freelancing yakuza that, for a sum of money, does the job for them. A freelance yakuza can also be used as a scapegoat for crimes. A freelancer is truly a genius if he can manage to begin his own clan and stay alive. Usually a freelance yakuza becomes a clan member unless he gets killed.
Clan yakuza
The clan have been compared to the Sicilian mafias "family". The clan is structured much like a common family in traditional Japan. The clan has a hierarchy structure. The clans head chief is called Oyabun, that means Father. Beneath him he has his children(Wakashu) and brothers(Kyodai). These are not his real children and brothers, only designations of rank and position they have within the clan.
All the members in the clan obey the Oyabun and in return he protects them against all dangers. Oyabun is almighty within the clan and his words is the law. All obey him without hesitation or concern for their own life.
Beneath him, oyabun has an adviser that is called Saiko-komon and he has a staff of advocates, accountants, secretaries and advisers. The children's (Wakashu) boss called Waka gashira. He is number two in the clan after Oyabun, not in rank but in authority. He acts as a middleman to see that the oyabun's orders are being accomplished.
The children leaders over their own (sub) gangs and over time can move up in the structure. In that way the clan becomes a ramification with several sub families. The oyabun's "brothers" or Kyodai, boss is called Shatei gashira. Shatei gashira is of higher rank than Waka gashira but doesn't have more authority. "The Brothers" have their own "children" or "younger brothers"(Shatei). Shatei, has its own sub gangs etc. Everyone obeys its gangleader, but it's always the oyabun's word that counts.
It's tough to beat someone up when your arthritis hurts every time you throw a punch. And speaking of punches, what do you do when you don't have enough hair left to give yourself a punch perm? There's really nothing that can be done. Not only has the Anti-Organized Crime Law taken the teeth out of the nation's organized crime gangs, time has taken its toll. It is said that the nation's yakuza, the organized crime gangs that once had a firm grip over the economy but are now a dwindling force, are being crippled by old age and a dearth of youngsters willing to enter the world of crime.
Turn the clock back to 1992. The National Police Agency had just devised the Anti-Organized Crime Law in an effort to rid the nation of the yakuza pestilence. Although the stringent controls the law places over the pinkie-less punks have probably been less than effective, an article of the law forbidding gangs to recruit minors has made its presence felt in a way police, to their delight, the number of the country's gang members is plummeting.
In the year the law was enacted, it is noted that about 65,000 people registered themselves as members of organized crime syndicates. By last year, that number had dropped to 45,000. Police attribute the decline to the aging of the underworld and the fact that kids are no longer easy pickings.
"It's a recession, so I suppose it wouldn't be strange that young people would want to join a gang, but they're not. As gang members get older, their numbers are declining, too," says a beaming member of the National Police Agency.
Some suggest the reason young people are shunning the syndicates is the tough life a yakuza leads. Although many join up with images of good money, lots of women and a nice car, it appears the reality is a little different, as one young syndicate refugee explains.
"I joined up because I wanted to get laid by a sexy woman every night. I thought it was cool. The day I went over and enlisted, the boss gave me 50,000 yen and I went out to a massage parlor and had the time of my life. Just as I'd finished, though, another gang member came to the parlor, dragged me out and took me back to the gang dorm," he says. "There I learned that I was only allowed out at certain times. They told me I had to wake up at 6 in the morning to clean the dorm. When I'd finished, I had to wash all the other members' clothes, then sit in the office and answer the phone all day. I was there for six months and only got paid about 10,000 or 20,000 yen a month. I never saw any women, either. It was boring, hard work and not worth the trouble."
A gang boss gives his explanation for the lack of appeal gangs now hold for the nation's best and brightest.
"Japan's a rich country now. No one has to worry about getting something to eat," he says. "There's still some young thugs running around, but they're all middle-class kids. They beat someone up and then go home to mommy and daddy. A real thug would never do that. Let's face it, how the hell can you go and punch someone out on a regular basis when you don't have to worry about where your next meal's gonna come from?"
