Here’s the REAL truth on the Yakuza!
Find out about the giant misconception about the missing pinky finger!
10 - Legality While the yakuza aren’t generally viewed
in the best light, they ARE actively trying to rehabilitate their image in the public
eye.
However, the most curious thing about the yakuza is that they’re able to operate in
the open.
They’re actually accepted within the Japanese government and the culture.
Why?
It’s because they’re seen as a necessary evil in any society, so they’re allowed
to operate under a watchful eye.
They were long tolerated for ensuring order on the streets.
If you think about it, what’s worse, organized crime, or disorganized crime?
Yakuza have long occupied a peculiar gray area in Japanese society.
It actually ISN’T illegal to be a Yakuza member!
Each Yakuza clan has its own headquarters registered with the police.
It’s easy to find out where the headquarters are for any clan, as it’s publicly listed.
However, even though the government allows the Yakuza to operate, stiff anti-gang regulations
also make Yakuza life a struggle.
Regular businesses are banned from dealing with organized crime, so yakuza members do
have trouble opening a bank account or just to receive mail at their office.
9 - That Corporate Money When it comes to money, who has the most?
Okay, aside from the government.
Really, the question isn’t who, but what.
Corporations are the entities that theoretically have the most money, but really, the people
who own the companies are still vulnerable.
When times change, you have to adapt, and this is the way Yakuza have come up with a
way to get what they want.
This is done through people known as Sokaiya, who are essentially corporate blackmailers.
What they do is that they start buying shares of a company.
They do it steadily and silently, and only just enough to get themselves invited to the
shareholders meeting.
And that’s when the game begins.
They start digging for the skeletons in the closets of the leadership of the company and
then basically blackmail them, in addition to other tactics.
The leadership has to do what the Yakuza wants or their dirty secrets will be exposed, whether
it’s made up or not.
This is in fact a pretty convenient arrangement and people are never threatened directly,
but they’re threatened in a roundabout way.
In fact, Sokaiya has become so prominent that the Japanese government introduced laws that
made it illegal for companies to pay off yakuza blackmailers.
8 - What’s the curve To get in the yakuza, you have to take…...an
entrance exam?!
Yes!
Yakuza members can’t exactly just waltz into the Yakuza lifestyle.
In 2009, Japanese Police found an exam that the Yamaguchi gumi clan came up for its junior
members.
It was a 12 question examination that tested knowledge about responsibilities and permitted
activities.
The examinations were supposedly started after the Japanese government passed harsher laws
against organized crime.
The topics in the exams ranged from vehicle theft to dumping industrial waste.
The leaders thought that it was a good idea if its junior members were aware of specific
laws just so that they don’t find themselves on the wrong side of it.
By ensuring that the junior members have a knowledge of the law in the right areas, the
leadership was hoping that they would be able to reduce high-ranking members getting sued.
Not a bad idea if you’re asking us!
7 - First on the scene What may come as a surprise to many people
is that the Yakuza aren’t actually all about crime!
As it turns out, they also care deeply about Japan!
They’re often the first people on the scene after natural disasters.
They bring relief and supplies with them and use all their resources to help people that
need it.
Many people view it as an attempt to improve their public relations while other people
believe that this philanthropy stems from a genuine concern for the people.
In 1995, the yakuza used boats, scooters and helicopters to deliver supplies to people
in Kobe after an earthquake.
In 2011 when the tsunami hit Japan, the Yakuza were among the first to reach the affected
areas.
It’s safe to say that these philanthropic activities aren’t without their benefits
either.
Whenever there’s destruction, there’s money to be made in terms of contracts for
rebuilding.
But supposedly, such actions also stem from yakuza knowing what it’s like to have to
fend for yourself, without any government or community support, because they’re considered
outcasts.
It’s also because of the Yakuza’s so-called “ninkyo” code, which values justice and
duty and forbids allowing others to suffer.
Well, whatever the reasons, the yakuza are among the first on the scene for relief efforts.
6 - Actual Scoop While it wouldn’t be wrong to think that
many crime syndicates operate solely on the basis of fear, many of them know marketing
as well.
That’s the reason why the Yamaguchi gumi clan of the Yakuza have decided to publish
their very own magazine, called Yamaguchi-gumi Shinpo.
One of the reasons the clan had decided to come out with a magazine was to boost low
morale.
They also did it because of the anti-gang laws put into place and just bad publicity
in general.
The timing of the magazine was also because it followed in the aftermath of a long turf
war that had many civilians caught in the middle.
Yakuza leadership knew that the magazine would eventually leak to the public, so they also
used the publication as a way to show people what being a Yakuza was really about.
They did this by instructing younger yakuza members to practice traditional yakuza values,
values that include loyalty and discipline.
In the past few years, companies were penalized for coming out with anything associated with
crime groups.
This reduced the once-thriving market of magazines and manga comics that detailed yakuza activity.
Maybe this magazine looked to fill that gap?
5 - See you in court Being a part of the yakuza doesn’t mean
that the Yakuza are above the law.
At least not in the sense that they can’t be sued.
One Japanese bar owner’s place was burned down after she had paid protection money to
the Yamaguchi-gumi clan.
So she sued clan leader Kenichi Shinoda for failing to protect her bar from any damage
caused by his own members.
This wasn’t the only case of civilians officially suing the Yakuza!
When another clan of the Yakuza began to have trouble with a rival faction in the streets,
the residents of the neighborhood decided to sue to evict them from their headquarters.
A lot of the residents were afraid of getting caught in the middle.
And funny as it sounds, the Yakuza have also not shied away from filing lawsuits themselves!
For example, one Yakuza syndicate called Kudo-kai was labelled dangerous by the police.
So what’d they do?
They filed a lawsuit saying that the labelling was against the constitution of Japan!
Because none of the other gangs in the area were labelled dangerous as well!
4 - Government Crackdown The growing presence of Yakuza all over the
world has even the US Government concerned, a big reason why the US had invoked sanctions
against Yamaguchi gumi, the largest syndicate in the Yakuza network.
In 2012, the US government stepped up its sanctions against Yakuza boss, Kenichi Shinoda
and his second in command, Kiyoshi Takayama.
The Obama administration froze their assets in the US and banned them from conducting
any sort of business in the US.
Obviously this step will lead to a reduction in their influence.
Even the Japanese government has introduced fines for people who are associated with the
Yakuza.
Apparently, these steps are proving to be effective as membership in the Yakuza is at
a 50 year low.
Even though the Japanese government will allow the yakuza to operate, it makes sense that
they don’t want them to grow too much in power!
3 - Irezumi Tattoos aren’t meant for everyone, but it
seems that more and more people are getting tattoos.
But Yakuza tattoos aren’t much like the normal tattoos put on most people.
Yakuza tattoos are done by manually inserting ink under the skin.
This process is known as Irezumi, and it’s done as a display of the person’s bravery
as well, because the process is supposedly pretty painful.
Irezumi is done by hand, using wooden handles and metal needles attached by a silk thread.
And when you think about the full body tattoos that many Yakuza members have, you can pretty
much guess the kind of pain threshold they have.
And that’s one reason why Yakuza members get tattoos.
The Yakuza are trying to help people, and that’s what being a yakuza was traditionally
about.
The tattoos are to show that they have the strength to help the weak.
However, that trait doesn’t need to be made public, as the tattoos are always made to
be able to be hidden under normal clothes.
2 - Yubitsume Many people think that having a cut pinkie
is a requirement to join the Yakuza.
However, that’s simply just not true.
You DON’T have to have a cut pinkie finger in order to join the Yakuza!
BUT cutting off fingers IS a thing.
In order to keep a pinkie finger intact, basically, a yakuza member just needs to not make mistakes.
The Yakuza are very much about honour and atonement.
When Yakuza members end up doing something that’s considered dishonourable, that’s
when they have to perform Yubitsume.
Yubitsume is the act of cutting off a pinkie to atone for offenses.
Since mistakes do happen, whether intentionally or not, there are a lot of Yakuza members
walking around with pieces of their pinkies missing.
Because of the act of Yubitsume, former yakuza members have become a good market for prosthetic
fingers!
Obviously, having chopped off fingers make former yakuza members easily identifiable
and makes finding a real job tough.
1 - Initiation Rituals The yakuza have a lot of traditions that the
members have to follow.
One of the most important rituals they have is their initiation ritual.
New recruits take a subservient role to one of the senior and more experienced members
to learn the ways of the Yakuza.
This role is called Kobun, or foster child.
The elder member is known as oyabun, or foster parent.
The organizational structure of the yakuza is pretty complex and there are a lot of steps
a member needs to go through before becoming one of the leaders.
The initiation ritual revolves around sake.
The Kobun sits opposite his oyabun while the drink is prepared by other members.
The kobun is then given a small cup while the obayun is given a larger cup.
This reflects their respective status.
They then drink from their own cups before the cups are exchanged and they take another
drink.
This completes the ritual and symbolizes a kind of a father son role between the two.
Sake plays an important role in the ceremony because it’s seen as a bond between a man
and the gods and this same bond is used to cement relationships between two people.
This is why the Yakuza ceremony is also performed in a Shinto shrine, as the ceremony is considered
sacred.
Here’s what’s next!