Reporters TICO-AN, KRISHEL

PANGANIBAN, RUZEL
Subject ORGANIZED CRIME INVESTIGATION (CDI 4)
Schedule MWF 2:30-3:30
Topic YAKUZA

YAKUZA
The term yakuza “is derived from an old card game whose object was to draw three cards adding
up as close as possible to 19 without exceeding it,” similar to our game of “21” or blackjack. “Ya-ku-sa”
represents the Japanese words for 8, 9, 3 which total 20, a useless number. Basically, yakuza means
‘good for nothing’ ”.

Yakuza, also called bōryokudan or gokudō, Japanese gangsters, members of what are
formally called bōryokudan (“violence groups”), or Mafia-like criminal organizations. In Japan and
elsewhere, especially in the West, the term yakuza can be used to refer to individual gangsters or
criminals as well as to their organized groups and to Japanese organized crime in general. Yakuza
adopt samurai-like rituals and often bear elaborate body tattoos.

Brief History
With the end of feudalism, samurai (knights) lost their role in life, and many roamed the country-
side as free-lance mercenaries. The yakuza-masterless samurai, unscrupulous itinerant peddlers,
professional gamblers, and common criminals-eventually formed structured groups, boryokudan. Under
the leadership of their kumi-cho (boss), they were able to exert control over sections of Japan’s urban
areas. By adhering to rules of conduct that preclude violence against the police and innocent civilians,
yakuza syndicates have been able to operate openly, with high-profile headquarters.
Like many of their American counterparts, the yakuza “were born into poverty and graduated
from juvenile delinquency into organized crime”. The Al Capone of Japan, Kazuo Taoka, was, like Capone
born into a poor family. He began his criminal career as a bouncer in Kobe, much as Capone filled this
capacity in Brooklyn before going to Chicago. Taoka, like Capone, played a major role in the gang
conflicts of the day, and both men rose to prominence because of their penchant for violence and talent
for organization.
World War II served to delineate yakuza gangs, a situation that closely parallels that of the “old”
and Nuovo Mafia in Sicily. After Japan’s defeat, the new yakuza that emerged was far more violent and
materialistic than their pre-war predecessors. Abandoning many yakuza traditions, they emulate
American gangsters in dress, often using firearms obtained from American in place of samurai sword.
These economic mobsters have international connections that extend to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia,
Russian Asia, Australia, and Latin American countries with large numbers of Japanese immigrants.
Present-day yakuza view themselves as modern samurai and maintain exotic rituals, including
extensive tattooing that often cover their bodies from necks to ankles, and clipped fingers that have been
self-amputated with a short sword in a ritual-yubizume-that serves as a sign of contrition for mistakes.

ORIGIN OF THE YAUZA

1. Bakuto, the Gambling Groups
 were referred to as the core of the Japanese organized crime groups
 They gave the country its hugely popular tradition of gambling, the custom of cutting off fingers,
and the first use of the word yakuza
 word was used by gamblers as an expression for something useless, but it was later turned
against them, meaning that they were useless to society
2. Tekiya, the Cheating Street Vendors
• The tekiya were originally groups of medicine merchants who later branched out and started to
peddle other goods and to engage in criminal activities.
• were one of the two groups that later formed the yakuza
• they had more in common with snake oil salesmen in Western countries, as they often sold faulty
goods that looked good until subjected to further inspection
3. Burakumin, the Untouchables
  people who were assigned to work with dead animals and dead bodies, occupations that were
considered unclean by the general public
 the general public called them eta, meaning heavily polluted or hinin, meaning non-human
 this class of people was discriminated against heavily by the samurai and the public
 burakumin joined the tekiya gangs as a means of escaping poverty and disgrace, and the tekiya
gangs were the only place where they were accepted as workers and humans, instead of being
branded as untouchables, or non-humans
4. Kabuki Mono, the Crazy Ones
 When samurai lost their masters in battle, many of them became bandits, looting towns and the
countryside while wandering around Japan
 they would do this until they were taken into the army of the feudal lords who were fighting for
dominance in Japan
 Until they were accepted, they often sought to support themselves through violence and looting
 During this time, they frequently formed bands of bandits
 However, after Ieyasu Tokugawa unified Japan in 1604, bringing about an era of peace, there
was no longer a need for the samurai
 Many of the samurai had to become merchants, civil bureaucrats, scholars, or philosophers
 But not all of them managed to merge into society; the samurai were after all men whose best
skills lay in being soldiers and practicing the martial arts
 These warriors became the kabuki mono: they started to don outlandish costumes and adopt
strange haircuts, their behaviour was bizarre, they used a lot of slang in their speech, and they
would terrorize townspeople at will.
 They carried swords of ridiculous length, which they sometimes used to engage in tsuji giri,
which was the practice of cutting a passerby in order to test a new sword.
 These samurai, who had been forced to retire, formed the legendary criminal gangs of medieval
Japan known as the Hatamoto yakko
5. Machi Yakko, the Village Defenders
 It is the story of a man called Chobei, who became a labour broker, recruiting workers to build
the roads surrounding Tokyo and to repair the stone walls around the shogun's palace.
 Making use of a scheme that would become a yakuza mainstay, he started running a gambling
den alongside his labour brokering work.
 The result of this was that it attracted more workers and also enabled him to retrieve a portion of
their salaries

Members of the Yakuza

It has been said that in the yakuza it doesn't matter where you came from and that the yakuza
welcomes and takes care of the misfits in the society. Yakuza members can be youth that been
abandoned by their parents, school dropouts, burakumin (equivalent of low-cast Japanese), Koreans or
Chinese. The gang boss becomes their father and their comrades their brothers. The Yakuza offers not
only companionship but also money, status, authority and a sense of belonging. There are no thresholds
or requirements in order to become a member. But when you are inside strict obedience to the superiors
is demanded.
Members of yakuza gangs cut their family ties and transfer their loyalty to the gang boss. They
refer to each other as family members - fathers and elder and younger brothers. The yakuza is populated
almost entirely by men, and there are very few women involved who are called "nee-san" (older sister).
When the 3rd Yamaguchi-gumi boss (Kazuo Taoka) died in the early 1980s, his wife (Fumiko) took over
as boss of Yamaguchi-gumi, albeit for a short time.

INITIATION CEREMONY
At the front of a banquet hall is a simple wooden altar laden with sake and food, offerings to the
gods of Shinto. Behind the altar are banners with the names of the sun goddess, the patron god of
warriors, and another associated with the imperial household. Recruits dressed in kimonos sip sake and
are given their regalia, a sword, a map of the gang’s turf, seals and some swaths of cotton. There is a
short address by the boss and the new members accompany kimono-clad women for some less formal
drinking.
CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES
 Gun trafficking
 Drug smuggling
 Alien smuggling
 Prostitution
 Illegal gambling
 corporate extortion, and the sokaiya (shareholders' meeting men)
 loan sharking,
 money laundering
 pornography
 slavery

ORGANIZATION
FAMILIES
1. Yamaguchi-gumi
Japans’s largest organized crime syndicate, with nearly 40,000 members. Based in Kobe, the
group grew rapidly and currently have a significant presence in the Tokyo area. There has been much
friction with police in recent years due to their size and relative hostility towards the police. The
Yamaguchi-gumi is the most international of all the organized crime groups and excel at economic crime.
They have several hundred front companies in Tokyo alone and are extensively involved in real estate, FX
trading, investments, restaurant management, construction, waste disposal, and controlling interests in
most of Japan’s talent agencies and “the entertainment business.” The group has extensive political
connections and has been officially “backing” the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) since 2007. The
former Minister of Financial Services, Kamei Shizuka, and the current special envoy to Prime Minister
Naoto Kan, admitted in a session of the Japanese Diet to receiving a payment of over roughly 5,000,000
dollars from a Yamaguchi-gumi boss into his own bank account. He was also a close associate of Kyo
Eichu, a special advisor to the Yamaguchi-gumi.

2. Sumiyoshi-kai
Tokyo’s second main group. Unlike the Yamaguchi-gumi or the Inagawa-kai, which run its
organizations in a very traditional, pyramid-like fashion (with power concentrated at the top), this group
is rather a federation of gangs which grants more autonomy to each group and relies less on tribute
coming from the bottom. They have a number of front companies operating in Tokyo and are often
involved in the real estate business.

3. Inagawa-kai
The largest group based in Tokyo. Though relatively small, the group is known for being well-
disciplined and efficient. It is structured in the traditional pyramid power scheme, with the bosses at top
making decisions for the group and collecting significant tribute from the lower ranks. Though
traditionally bakuto, the group has branched out into other typical yakuza business such as loan sharking
and construction. They were also one of the first groups to take their business international.

4. Kokuryu-kai
Amur River Society or Black Dragon Society. Founded in 1901, this far-right group held an
ambitious imperialistic agenda for Japan: to control all of Asia. Yakuza at the time were often sympathetic
to nationalistic causes, due to both ideological similarities (a resentment of foreigners and a worship of
traditional ways) and business concerns (left wing ideologies threatened to change some of the long-
standing power structures of Japanese society). Gangsters and groups such as these often worked
together.

5. Toa Yuai Jigyo Kumiai

East Asia Friendship Enterprises Association. A front company for the ethnically Korean yakuza
organization that is based in Tokyo. Despite its small size at 1,000 members, its activities span
throughout at least 20 prefectures in Japan, and abroad.
HEIRARCHICAL STRUCTURE

Yakuza clans have been compared to the Sicilian mafia "families". The clan has a hierarchal structure and
is structured much like a common family in traditional Japan.

1. Oyabun -clan chief

-also called Father

-almighty within the clan and his words is the law

-all obey him without hesitation or concern for their own life

2. Saiko-komon- adviser of the oyabun

*shingiin-law advisor

*kaekei-accountants

3. Waka gashira- Wakashu's boss

- 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.

Wakashu leaders often control their own subgangs and over time can move up in the structure. In this
way large clan become large groups made of subgangs and families. The oyabun's 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) and Shatei can have their own sub
gangs. Everyone obeys their gangleader, but oyabun always has the final word.

4. Wakashu- children of the oyabon

* Kyodai-brothers

*Shatei-little brothers

Take Note:

These are not his real children and brothers, only designations of rank and position within the clan. All
the members in the clan obey the Oyabun and in return he protects them against all dangers.

*ANIKI-means brother. As well as ‘father and son relationship’, yakuza’s honour fraternal ties.
* The guiding principle of the yakuza structure is the oyabun-kobun relationship. Oyabun literally means
"father role"; kobun means "child role." When a man is accepted into the yakuza, he must accept this
relationship. He must promise unquestioning loyalty and obedience to his boss. The oyabun, like any
good father, is obliged to provide protection and good counsel to his children.
The oyabun-kobun institution is one in which persons usually unrelated by close kin ties enter
into a compact to assume obligations of a diffuse nature similar to those ascribed to members of one’s
immediate family. The relationship is formally established by means of a ceremony involving many of the
expressive symbolisms of birth and marriage. Both the terms of address and the assignment of roles
within the group are patterned on the Japanese family system: the leader becomes a ritual parent and
his followers, symbolic children. These “children,” in turn, are ritual brothers to each other and seniority
among them is formally recognized by terms which imply elder brother-younger brother distinctions.

F. Code of ethics
SPIRIT OF THE CODE
The Jingi-- or Yakuza's Code of Ethics-- is a written code of conduct or behavior that by the law
of the Yakuza has been followed for the past several hundred years. Depending on the Oyabun-- Father
figure (Chairman)-- one could be removed from a syndicate or clan by simply disregarding one of these
rules. Some occurrence, however, are dealt with in a forgiving manner. The aforementioned is not a
general occurrence, and will most likely not happen with you. It is up to one's own personal conviction to
either follow, or disregard the Yakuza Code, but those who disrespect the code are scum, and are not
considered Yakuza who honourably live by this code.

THE CODE ITSELF

1.) The Yakuza Code of Ethics Prevents the use, sale, or distribution of illegal drugs.
Reasoning: The Yakuza were firm believers in personal and communal justice. The sale and distrobution
of drugs would shoten a man's life, thus taking his personal justice away.
2.) The Yakuza Code of Ethics Prohibits Theft.
Reasoning :As mentioned in the first rule of the code, the Yakuza believed in justice, and theft would
take a man's means to live, thus taking away his personal justice. Stealing from the community was even
worse than stealing from one man, and in Yakuza culture was even punishable by death.
3.) The Yakuza Code of Ethics Prohibits Robbery.
Reasoning: Same as number 2.

4.) The Yakuza Code of Ethics prohibits anything that may be considered an indecent act, or
an act that goes against Ninkyodo (Chivalry).
Reasoning : The Yakuza were known as the chivalrous organization of their community. The whole
purpose of the Yakuza was to serve their own form of justice. Acts such as rape or kidnapping were not
tolerated. If these acts were carried out against family members of the Yakuza (daughters, girlfriends,
wives, sons, etc.), those who took offense from the action would deal with such in a quite grizzly matter.
The Yakuza were firm believers in the rule, "A Life for A Life".
Example: If a man were to rape the daughter of a Yakuza, that man would be taking her innocence, and
in turn her future. Because of this, the Yakuza who had been offended would take the life of the
offender, thus taking their future from them as recompense.
Another example of going against chivalry is treachery. Treachery is something that could not be
tolerated in the days of the Yakuza. This was usually punishable by the severing of the offender's pinky,
and their immediate expulsion from the clan or syndicate as an act to show off that the Yakuza is a
traitor and should not be part of another family so long as he lives... Depending on the Oyabun-- or
father figure (Chairman)-- this could be an activity punishable by death.
5. A fairly recently addition to the code is “do not have any unnecessary contact with the
authorities”.

YAKUZA RITUALS
1. YUBITSUME OR FINGER CUTTING
Some yakuza members are missing pinkie joints. According to yakuza tradition, disobedience within the
gang is punished by severing the last joint on the little finger. If other punishable offenses occur, more
joints are removed. Cutting off fingers has traditionally been a way to apologize to bosses and is
regarded as a testimony of loyalty and commitment to the gang. In the old days offenders reportedly
were forced to cut the joint off themselves to demonstrate their toughness. These days, someone else
usually cuts off the finger while a friend holds down the hand.
2. OICHO-KABU CARDS
When yakuza members play Oicho-Kabu cards with each other, they often remove their shirts or open
them up and drape them around their waists. This allows them to display their full-body tattoos to each
other.
3. IREZUMI
Many yakuza have full-body tattoos. These tattoos, known as irezumi in Japan, are still often "hand-
poked", that is, the ink is inserted beneath the skin using non-electrical, hand-made and hand held tools
with needles of sharpened bamboo or steel. The procedure is expensive and painful and can take years
to complete.
The tattooing indicates the ability to withstand pain andcommitment to the yakuza family.
4. SAKE SHARING CEREMONY
The oyabun-kobun relationship is formalized by ceremonial sharing of sake from a single cup. This ritual
is not exclusive to the yakuza---it is also commonly performed in traditional Japanese Shinto weddings,
and may have been a part of sworn brotherhood relationships.
5. HOMOJO OR RED LETTER
-resignation is accomplished with a homojo or red letter
-signals that the person is no longer a member
YAKUZA TATTOO AND THEIR HIDDEN SYMBOLIC MEANING

1. The Koi Fish 9. The Skulls

2. The Dragon 10. The Foo Dog

3. The Phoenix 11. The Severed Head

4. The Snake 12. The Poeny

5. The Samurai 13. The Chrysanthemum

6. The Cherry Blossoms 14. The Maple Leaf

7. Oni Mask 15. The Lotus

8. The Tiger 16. Water

PERSONALITIES
1. Kazuo Taoka
-Al Capone of Japan
-born into a poor family
-died of a heart attack in 1981
2. Susumi Ishii
-boss of the Japan’s third-largest crime group Inagawa-kai
-died in 1991
3. Masahisa Takenaka
-installed as the head of the Yamagumichi in 1981
-died on 1985 because he was gunned down by rival member of his boryokudan
4. Tokutaro Takayama
-Godfather of the Aizu Kotetsu-kai boryokudan
-interviewed by reporters and he stated “Today, they don’t care about obligations, traditions, respect and
dignity. There are no rules anymore”.

5. Masashi Takenaka
-brother of the slain leader “Masahisa Takenaka” and replaced him as the leader of Yamaguchi-gumi
-attempted to exchange large quantities of amphetamines for military arms in Honolulu, but were caught
in a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover sting
6. Hisayuki Machii
-the Korean yakuza godfather who paved the way for Koreans in Japanese organized crime
-he established the Tosei-kai (Voice of the East Gang) and soon took over Tokyo’s Ginza district, the
square of Japan’s capital. Tosei-kai became so powerful in Tokyo that they were known as the “Ginza
Police”.
7. Kenichi Shinoda
-he had been jailed in Tokyo’s Fuchu prison since 2005 after being found guilty of weapons possession
charges, but was released on prison on April and went back to Kobe.
8. Tadamasa Goto
-for long time he was one of the largest shareholder of Japans Airlines
-he is famous for his attack on the film maker Juzo Itami
-in 2011, Goto published his Autobiography Habakariganara (“With All Due Respect”), with all the
royalties going to charities that support Buddhist temples in Cambodia and Myanmar
9. Noburu Yamaguchi
-leader of the gang where Taoka was first accepted
-adapted Taoka
10. Fumiko Taoka
-became the leader of the Yamguchi-gumi after the death of his husband

References:

Albaciete,Alvin (2018). 16 fascinating yakuza tattoo and their hidden symbolic meaning. Retrieved from
https://www.elitereaders.com/yakuza-tattoos-secret-symbols- meanings-history/?cn.

Hays,Jeffrey (2009). YAKUZA AND ORGANIZED CRIME IN JAPAN: HISTORY, HONOR, PUNCH PERMS,
PINKIES AND TATTOOS.Retrieved from http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat22/sub147/item811.html.

STEIN,JAKEADEL (2011). The Yakuza Code Of Ethics: Compliance In the Underworld. Retrieved from
http://www.japansubculture.com/the-yakuza-code-of-ethics- compliance-in-the-underworld/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica(n.d.). JAPANESE ORGANIZED CRIME. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/yakuza.