Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld in War Nerd Reading List

Feb 28, 2017 Ronnie rated it it was amazing

When it comes to Japan, people are often eager to point to low violent crime rates to make a case for a harmonious, conflict-less society. Even portrayals of the Yakuza often invoke them as chivalrious gangsters merely following some old traditions, with the Yakuza themselves trying to point to Edo-period romanticism or other PR gags to keep that image alive.

Naturally though, any organised crime is going to be much more seedy and sinister than that, and the scale and institutionalization of the When it comes to Japan, people are often eager to point to low violent crime rates to make a case for a harmonious, conflict-less society. Even portrayals of the Yakuza often invoke them as chivalrious gangsters merely following some old traditions, with the Yakuza themselves trying to point to Edo-period romanticism or other PR gags to keep that image alive.

Naturally though, any organised crime is going to be much more seedy and sinister than that, and the scale and institutionalization of the Yakuza is mindboggling. Rather than chivalrious, prominent godfathers such as Yoshio Kodama made their fortunes plundering Manchuria and dealing in opium during japanese occupation times, with a long history of anti-communist activity, drug smuggling, human trafficking, union busting, physical assaults on leftists such as during the Narita airport protests, assassinations and debt collection since. Especially horrendous was the Yakuza involvement in the Minamita scandal - hired by one of the companies implicated to violently squash victims groups. Like many parts of organised crime, there is a strong connection between mobsters and the far right, even open fascism.

But what comes as an even greater shock is the complete openness with which they could operate for decades - gangs openly listing their front offices with no attempts made to hide the mob connection, Eisenhower's motorcade in japan being protected by hired gangs and even japanese prime ministers being both made by and consorting with Yakuza godfathers. At its peak counting roughly 100k members, the Yakuza seemed to have an omnipresence in society, even playing a very large role in the bubble economy - both using extortionate squatting and land theft practices, delving into speculation, and even engaging in the particularily odd practice of threatening to disrupt shareholder meetings with embarassing revelations unless paid off. The size of the debt the Yakuza accrued during the burst of the bubble the book alludes to is mindboggling.

There are some other interesting sidenotes in the book though: The japanese police not only having long shown an attitude of indifference (as well as incompetence) and even cooperation with the Yakuza, but also displaying direct sympathies to them as the "weeding out process" of leftists within the police hiring process gives it a very rightist outlook (which probably accounts for the xenophobic attitude and famously anti-immigrant violence the japanese police often indulges in).
Additionaly, the japanese justice system ranks amongst the most backwards in the developed world, with most cases being solved by having confessions essentialy tortured out of suspects. The japanese media, too, has not often delved into investigate reporting (and when it did, it usually faced massive backlash, as can be seen here http://apjjf.org/2016/24/Fackler.html ).

But what also feeds into the mob power is the extreme xenophobia displayed in japanese society towards Koreans and 'Burakumin', who face strong discrimination that accounts for the disproportionate amount of them hired by the Yakuza, and opens up a market for human trafficking and sex slavery.

The book is fantastic and very recommended to everyone fascinated by organised crime or even with just an interest in the country, since it colors a picture of Japan extremely divergent from the standard.
I'll close this review by pointing out that the deceased mobster Ryoichi Sasakawa sponsored a statue of himself carrying his sick mother on his back. He also founded the "Sasakawa Peace Foundation" among others. What none of those acknowledge, though, is that he also liked to call himself "the world's wealthiest fascist." ...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Rich Uncle Pennybags rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For starters, this is a serious historical book and it is rather long and detailed. I think some of the people complaining about being "bored" by this book would have been better off reading something like Tokyo Vice, which moves faster and does't bother with as much background (although its veracity has also been called into question... anyway that's a different issue).

The degree to which the yakuza is entrenched in Japanese business and society is really incredible and here is a book to give y ...more

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