“Even as a student, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
This is what Taro Prison says as Japanese Henry Hill at the beginning of the movie. Good afternoon. Taro was once a member of the Kodo-kai, one of the most violent gangs of the Japanese mafia, the yakuza.
“The fight was part of the job,” he explained. “When the boss gave the order, we all had to fight. There were no rules – kill or be killed.”
In total, Taro spent 17 years in prison – first on weapons charges, then on charges of a crime against a younger gang member whom he took under his wing.
“The first time they arrested me, they [the police] actually asked me to bring more firearms and in return they would help me reduce my sentence,” he shared. I. “But I didn’t cooperate, so they threw a book at me.”
Taro retired from the yakuza 15 years ago when he could no longer afford royalties and now chronicles his exploits on YouTube.
Unlike Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the Yakuza are not a secret society and operate openly, even with their own offices. For decades they had a code of honor and fight against street crime, and their influence reached the highest circles of power. For example, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) was founded by mafia mastermind Yoshio Kodama in the 1950s.
But after a gang war in the 1980s that left dozens dead and hundreds injured, public outcry led to harsh anti-yakuza laws that have been tightened ever since.
“The new laws and regulations that have been introduced since the 1990s hit them hard, especially the yakuza expulsion provisions that were introduced in 2010-2011,” explains Martina Baradel, a researcher at the University of Oxford who studies yakuza research.
“These new rules cut the link between ordinary citizens doing business with the yakuza. Now they can also be accused of being too close to yakuza members. And these new rules also made it harder for the Yakuza to get money, as many of their activities were legal, requiring them to resort to using someone else’s name in order to act. [their business]”.
The word “yakuza” (8-9-3) refers to the worst possible combination in a deck of cards. But now the self-proclaimed “losers” are rather outsiders. Laws against the yakuza make it difficult for them to survive – because they are forbidden to pay, they cannot buy a car, open a bank account or get insurance.
“If a yakuza uses even one credit card, he can be arrested,” Taro Prison said.
“You can’t even pay your phone bill. All are bad. Good luck in renting an apartment or even a hotel. Our lives are complicated.”
Tarot still has its finger on the pulse of the crowd. Although he is not allowed to enter their offices, he is allowed to visit their private apartments as a friend. Since no more than five of them can gather in public at the same time, if they board the same train, they must sit in different cars.
Unlike the others, Taro never had any tattoos or had one of his little fingers cut off (the yakuza’s way of apologizing), so it’s not immediately obvious that he was a gangster.
However, people like colleague Takano find it much more difficult to adjust to normal life.
“I spent 18 years in prison for murder,” he told me. “When I came out two years ago, it was a different era and everything has changed. All of a sudden everything was done with smartphones and I didn’t know anything about it.”
Takano was raised as a foster child, and the yakuza brotherhood represented his “real” family. He became a senior capo in the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest crime syndicate.
“When I was released from prison, I did not return to the Yamaguchi family,” he said. “I think I just decided to live a normal life. I had a very good position in the Yamaguchi clan and I did my job very well, so when I left they had to replace me.
“Honestly, it’s very hard to find a permanent job,” he continued, rolling up his sleeves to reveal the intricate designs on his arms. “I have tattoos, but not on all of my fingers, so it’s pretty obvious that I’m a yakuza. There are companies that make fake fingers, but it’s very expensive.”
More and more Japanese Nice Guys are giving up. The number of yakuza members has dropped from 70,000 in 2011 to an all-time low of 24,100 in 2021. And even after filing with the police to leave the crime family, they still have to live with the same restrictions for a five-year probationary period.
“It’s very, very difficult for someone to get out of the yakuza because they’re going to be in big trouble for five years,” Ms. Baradel said. “You won’t have a very good resume to get a job legally, which just goes to show why so many people stay in the underworld.”
Sometimes, the yakuza’s own rules make it harder to quit smoking.
“If you stay with the Kodo-kai for fifteen years, they will help you buy a house – the whole set!” Taro said. “But in other groups, if you decide to leave the yakuza, they will take all your money, your possessions, your business, everything. That’s why the yakuza in the Kanto region of Japan is called the Old Men’s Association because most of its members are in their seventies but can’t get out or have nothing. Therefore, no one can grow in their organization. For every thousand members, perhaps a handful will achieve something.”
With the police watching your every move and limited career opportunities, it’s no wonder the yakuza is no longer an attractive prospect for aspiring criminals.
“Once teenagers fighting on the streets idolized the yakuza and the general public was interested in what we were doing, articles about us made the news,” said Vannan, a former leader of the Chinese Dragons, a yakuza-affiliated organization. gang.
“Before, yakuza with a beautiful wife and a new car were cool. But that’s not the case anymore.”
Being the boss has also lost its appeal. In 2021, the boss was sentenced to death for the first time for multiple stabbings and shootings committed by his accomplices. Although there was no direct evidence of his involvement in the crimes, as the head of the organization he was responsible.
But organized crime in Japan is far from over. In recent years, a new term has appeared in the media: hangure or quasi-yakuza. While some of them are bikers and gang members outside of the official syndicates, many of them are the same yakuza from before who just decided to make life easier for themselves by canceling their formal membership.
“They’re still connected to the yakuza, so it’s just a matter of how the police classify them,” explains Baradel.
“So when the police say that the yakuza existed 100,000 years ago and now there are 24,000, yes, officially, but it’s only because of how they decided to register them.”
“The number of yakuza registered is declining, but there are also sub-members,” confirms Taro. “The police can count the official members of the yakuza, but no one knows the unofficial members. I think they are really growing.”
However, this is a struggle for those who are still trapped in life.
“I still keep in touch with my friends, but I haven’t been with my family for a long time and I’m surprised they can keep doing things like this because it’s really hard these days,” Takano said. “There’s a bit of pride in that and sometimes I wonder if I can go back and do what I used to do, but it’s too hard to even imagine.”
It’s just not cool to be a gangster anymore.
Additional reporting by Haruki Onazaki.
Niko Vorobyov – author stupid world. Follow him on Twitter @Narco_Polo420
Source: I News
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.