How Tradition Turned into Bloodshed – The Yakuza: an Introduction

By: Anjali Arumuganambi S6EN

Photograph by Yang Seung-Woo; Capture from Vice – “30 years with the Yakuza”

https://www.flickr.com/photos/68126320@N03/with/6199646585/ – Yang Seung-woo, Flickr Portfolio – (trigger) WARNING!!! Graphic nudity, Graphic violence, pornography etc.

A pack of men in sharp, tailored suits and dark sunglasses strut down the street. A few of their collars hang open, showing off a glimpse of the vibrant and intricate ink work on their chests, and presumably, their entire bodies. One suddenly spots a man with a peculiarly pint-sized pinkie.

From : The Yakuza and the Triads by Charles River Editors

The Showa era, when morality and humanity were said to be the virtues of the Japanese. Back then, the world was sad, the skies a bleak red, but the city was full of life. In the old days, the yakuza were gentlemen, hailed amongst the citizens, people who helped the weak rather than the strong. But time has gone by. And now money is everything

The Yakuza. A name that’s whispered amongst the Japanese people. While some, parents, grandparents fear for their children and their loved ones. Others, teenagers, in their troubled youth, will hear the rawness of the deep revving from their million dollar bikes, and from then on can never turn back. In the West, we see them through a rose coloured light, young men who follow a noble, yet perilous path of violence. Those cast out by society, the wretches lurking in the dark corners of the streets. The poor fools who snatched at the chance of brotherhood, and bet their lives in exchange for a certain love, and the joy of living for another. These beautifully inked men, who kill easier than they breathe, rape and defile many a young women, and prostitute little children, leaving their parents a house void of young laughter, a 3 foot coffin, and no body to be found.

The Yakuza is a much feared organisation that has been around since the 1700s. One of the largest, most notorious, transnational organised crime groups, the yakuza is a gang based in japan. Although the name yakuza is most commonly used in the west for the japanese mafia, they go by a multitude of other names. The Japanese national police refer to these “violent groups” as boryokudan, whilst the yakuza refer to themselves as ninkyo dantai a “chivalrous organisation” ninkyo dantai. At their peak, there were more than 200,000 members divided into 22 designated crime groups or “clans”, of which some of the most famous and violent included the Yamaguchi-gumi, Inagawa-Kai and the Kudo-kai.

Internally, clans were organised into family-like hierarchies ruled by strict codes of loyalty, and as result have managed to dominate Japan’s underworld for centuries. Their business concerned engagement in various circles including gambling dens, prostituation rings, brothels, pimp circles, drug cartels, even extending to human trafficking mostly within east-asian countries, resulting in a prestigious criminal reputation and extensive international influence in the black market. (Picture: by Tokyo Reporter from “Inagawa-kai gangsters arrested for prostituting runaway girl in Yokohama”)

During the 20th century the yakuza stood at the base of their biggest growth yet. Due to their cooperation with the police and their heavy influence in japanese politics, they settled into society as illegitimate bringers of justice. During or in the aftermath of a natural disaster or war, the yakuza were known to react quicker and more effectively than the government. Succeeding the Fukushima earthquake, the yakuza sent out trucks of supplies including food, clothing, and other necessities, within the first 24 hours of the disaster.

During the war period from 1939 onwards, as the political structure collapsed, the yakuza were the ones able to provide for the starving helpless population through their gains from the black market. As a result of their reputation and the impact of WW2, the yakuza grew massively in numbers. As the number of orphans, widowed spouses and childless parents increased drastically in these times of distress, they turned to the yakuza, seeking solace along with other Japanese who faced the same sorrows. Ultimately, they would adopt a highly patriotic and nationalistic mentality, operating in the interests of the japanese, slowly building a trustworthy reputation as “the helper of the people”.

However, nearing the end of the 20th century, as the once young orphans have grown old, inheriting positions of power such as leaders and masters, they now retire leaving in drones. With no master to instil proper discipline and etiquette, the youth making up today’s yakuza, disobey the initial code of the yakuza, and have devolved into a petty criminal gang no longer bound by honour or loyalty. Police have since cut ties with the yakuza, and public view has been turned against them. As a result of new legislation since the early 21st century their numbers have plummeted. They used to uphold a strong moral code, describing a strong and discrete line between the forbidden and the permitted. Now that code doesn’t exist. Loyalty is a coward’s excuses, honour is found in violence, adventure in crime, and trust through murder.

Once lost souls, those of the yakuza made this lifelong commitment to each other, that felt like it was at odds with the fast-paced internet-fueled society of contemporary japan. Now it seems, as the twilight of the yakuza fast approaches, the end of the century lies in wait for them.