Yakuza

     The yakuza are perhaps the oldest surviving criminal organization in the world.  There may have been older crime groups, but none have survived into the 21st Century.  The yakuza got its start in the early 17th Century, even before the appearance of the Chinese Triads or the Italian Mafia. In the early 1600s in Edo (the old name for Tokyo), two criminal groups sort of merged and became the yakuza organization.  The two groups were the tekiya, peddlers of stolen goods and shoddy merchandise, and travelling, itinerant gamblers known as bakuto.  In the pecking order of the Japanese society, they were scraping the bottom, true bottom feeders!  In fact, the bakuto (gamblers) were considered even lower than tekiya who were more or less in the same level as tradesmen.  In Japanese society, the daimyo (the lords, the aristocrats) were at the top, followed by the samurai, the warriors who protected them, then the scholars and the artisans (skilled craftsmen), farmers were next (very important since they provided food!), and the tradesmen were at the bottom.  The gamblers, bakuto, were a little below that!  The name itself yakuza, is derived from numbers 8(ya)-9(ku)-3(za), a losing hand in the Japanese game of oicho-kabu, a form of blackjack!
     With the merging of the two groups tekiya and bakuto, the new yakuza gained more influence and power.  Unlike their predecessors, they were organized, had at least a semblance of structure, the head was oyabun and kobun (adopted child) were the soldiers.  As time went on, the organization became more complex and different levels were established.  The yakuza began to adopt many of the ways of the samurai.  They realized that without structure and discipline, they would be nothing more than large groups of bakuto and tekiya, nothing special.  With new stricter rules, their own code of conduct, they became a more powerful force in the Japanese society.  Tattooing of body became one form of identification, separation from normal society.  This was a practice that was carried over from bakuto, the gamblers who used to tattoo their bodies. Yakuza members would cover their bodies with elaborate tattoos.  It is somewhat ironic that today the practice of covering ones body with tattoos has become so popular when you consider that even in our society, tattooing was a form of identification of gang members in prisons in the past!
     It is said that as Japan became a peaceful nation under the Tokugawa Shogun, no more civil wars, the need for samurai declined and fewer and fewer daimyo employed samurai.  Unemployed samurai known as ronin would roam about the countryside looking for work.  Some of these ronin naturally turned to life of crime and their influence with the yakuza is quite apparent.  The yakuza adopted many of the ways of the warriors, the bushido.  Naturally, it was somewhat of a corrupted version, just as the militarists corrupted the bushido back in the 1930s.
     Thus the yakuza survived, moving into the modern era, adapting to the times and always using the cover of respectable business front.  Although they were not as powerful as they are today, nevertheless, they grew to a sizable strength.  Under the Imperial Japanese rule prior to World War Two, it was somewhat difficult for the yakuza to operate, since the police had much more power than they did after the war.  Still, they managed to continue to grow.
     At the end of World War Two, the devastated Japan was almost completely dependent on aid from the U.S.  The occupying U.S. military had all the power.  The Japanese police was but a shell of what it was before the war.  Black marketeering became rampant and the yakuza was in the thick of it.  It was a natural role for the yakuza, dealing in stolen, illicit goods was what the old tekiya specialized in
so the yakuza stepped right into black marketeering.  The amount of money that the yakuza made in black market goods is staggering. 
     Along with black market goods, the yakuza got involved in prostitution and any other illegal activity that came along.  In the miserable conditions of ruined post war Japan, the population needed some sort of an outlet, a therapeutic activity to forget their miserable conditions.  Pachinko parlors were the answer.  Pachinko, a sort of a mindless pin ball game became so popular that pachinko parlors began to pop up everywhere.  Naturally, the bakuto, gambler component of the yakuza took over and pachinko parlors, for all practical purposes, were yakuza property.  They grew exponentially to Japan's economic growth.  When the occupation era ended, the yakuza was already a powerful, well established entity with ownership and interests in a variety of legitimate businesses.  Thus, the modern "transnational" yakuza was born.
     Many yakuza organizations were either run by or had heavy Korean membership.  Koreans in Japan had a very difficult time getting good employment and making headway in life.  Many turned to life of crime, even before the war and joined the yakuza.  When the yakuza groups began to really grow in post war years, there were Korean groups, especially from Osaka-Kobe area where there was a large Korean population.
     Today there are known yakuza organizations all over Japan, in every corner.  Tokyo has the largest number of different yakuza groups, but the largest organization is from Osaka, the Yamaguchi-gumi is considered to be the largest and most powerful of all yakuza groups in Japan.  There are even two Okinawan yakuza groups!  Tokyo, which has more than a dozen different known groups may very well have even more.  There are respectable companies like the Ando-gumi, which has long been suspected of yakuza connection but never proven.  Others operated quite openly, like the Akasaka-kai.  Everyone in Tokyo knows it is a gangster organization.
     The yakuza today have truly become transnational.  They are spread out all over the globe.  In the U.S. they are in Honolulu, Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and probably at least half a dozen other cities.  They keep a low profile and try not to make themselves noticeable.
In Europe they are in practically every major city such as London, Paris, Rome, etc., and in some Asian cities, like Manila, they are so well established that they actually support certain political parties and put on a respectable front.  In Manila, incidentally, they are primarily involved in human trafficking and gun running, collecting and sending young girls to Japan and other locations for prostitution, and sending Filipino made handguns to various places.
     Gun running has become a big business for the yakuza.  With such strict gun control laws in Japan (no private ownership of handguns) and other countries as well, selling illegal guns has become a big money maker.  It used to be that about 75% of handguns that were smuggled were U.S. made, but times have changed, there are more and more Filipino made guns (Philippines makes excellent copies of U.S. handguns) and Chinese guns, which are priced considerably lower and have a shorter distance to travel to reach Japan and other Asian countries.  At one time, a Smith & Wesson revolver that cost $400 in the U.S. was sold by the yakuza for $1000 or more.  However, lately, with the influx of Filipino and Chinese guns, the prices have dropped dramatically and U.S. made guns do not sell that well.  So, gun control advocates take note.  If you ban guns, there will always be those who will acquire them illegally and the illegal trade will benefit.  Remember what happened with the so-called "noble experiment," the prohibition!  Incidentally, the yakuza smuggle and sell handguns not just in Japan, but in any country where there is a ban on handguns!  They are truly transnational!
     Interestingly, most yakuza groups stay away from drug trafficking.  Starting with the largest yakuza organization, the Yamaguchi-gumi, down to the two on Okinawa, drug trafficking is verboten to its members.  Anyone involved in drug trafficking is dealt with most severely.....killed.  As strange as it may sound, they seem to have their own standards!  Considering that their main money makers are human trafficking (prostitution) and gun running, it does seem kind of odd that they feel so strongly about drug dealing!