6 ms·

Summary: Probably not illegal because "Japan, it seems, prefers organised crime to the disorganised alternative."

by barking 11y ago

OliverJones 11y ago
A gang war in the 1980s claimed "over two dozen lives," eh? Every murder is a terrible. But a toll of two dozen is typical of a WEEK in south Chicago. Maybe there's something to be said for the writer's conclusion that "organized" crime is better than the alternative.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  Well Yakuza usually do not attack regular people and rather focus on businesses and corporations to get most of their revenues - and they own the sleazy businesses in town as well where people pay cash only.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    Dunno why, but i have the impression that organized crime in USA operated similarly until the prohibition. Since then they figured out how lucrative it was to deal in illegal substances, and shit snowballed from there.
    - douche 11y ago
      Roughly until that era, most of the hard drugs that street gangs deal in today were unregulated, so there wasn't a whole lot of margin in pushing cocaine, marijuana, or opiates. Anyone and their brother could just bottle up coca extract and laudanum and sell it as "Dr So-and-So's Magical Elixir" at the county fair.
  - ohashi 11y ago
    Most things are purchased in cash in Japan
unsignedint 11y ago
It's actually a bit complicated. One premise is that the Yakuza is very hierarchical, not only a personal hierarchy in clan internally, but as an organization. Members of the most major Yakuza clans, for example Yamaguchi-Gumi, are a leader of another clan himself, one tree down from the parent clan itself. So, when they say there's a certain Yakuza clan, you are not talking about one clan manging people under them; you are probably talking about tens, perhaps hundreds of organizations under the clan, which can stem two or three levels down. (So when they talk about 23000 clan members, that's including everyone in the tree -- there are only a little more than 80 members in "Yamaguchi-Gumi" itself.) Essentially, as a "public stance," many higher organization "prohibits" lower organizations down the tree from engaging in illegal activities. For example, Yamaguchi-Gumi's known to have very strict "no-drug" policy, and they even tell their under if they engage business of drug dealing, they will shun offenders. But here's a problem. Basically, it is expected that lower clans pay a membership due regularly to higher clan, and it can get very costly as a person goes higher up on the tree, except the leader of the very top clan himself, perhaps. (As a side note, a lot of news speculates this is probably why split of the Yamaguchi-Gumi took place in the first place.) That's you are talking about payment of 100000yen-ish (basically $10000-ish) every month. Being a leader of a clan under the main clan themselves, they will naturally order their henchmen below to pay him a membership dues. As you go down the tree, someone will have to get their hand dirty to make that kind of money; they could be legally to down right illegal business like prostitution (there's very legal gray areas of this in Japan), loan sharks, and some do, turn to crimes mainly, like fraud, and exploitations in order to make that kind of money. Essentially, while it is an argument that laws and regulations are attempting to make it harder and harder to get away with, basically the top clan's saying "hey, I am telling everyone to not engage in illegal activities, we even fire when they violate it, so we are not responsible for their actions."
- throwaway7767 11y ago
  Quite similar to how these things happen in corporations. No exec ever makes a decision to violate the law, they just put underlings into stressful situations where they can't achieve the set goals without doing so. The people at the top can then say they knew nothing of it, and they're shocked, shocked, that their employees would do such a thing.

Summary: Probably not illegal because "Japan, it seems, prefers organised crime to the disorganised alternative."

by barking 11y ago

Summary: Probably not illegal because "Japan, it seems, prefers organised crime to the disorganised alternative."

A gang war in the 1980s claimed "over two dozen lives," eh? Every murder is a terrible. But a toll of two dozen is typical of a WEEK in south Chicago. Maybe there's something to be said for the writer's conclusion that "organized" crime is better than the alternative.

ekianjo 11y ago
Well Yakuza usually do not attack regular people and rather focus on businesses and corporations to get most of their revenues - and they own the sleazy businesses in town as well where people pay cash only.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  Dunno why, but i have the impression that organized crime in USA operated similarly until the prohibition. Since then they figured out how lucrative it was to deal in illegal substances, and shit snowballed from there.
  - douche 11y ago
    Roughly until that era, most of the hard drugs that street gangs deal in today were unregulated, so there wasn't a whole lot of margin in pushing cocaine, marijuana, or opiates. Anyone and their brother could just bottle up coca extract and laudanum and sell it as "Dr So-and-So's Magical Elixir" at the county fair.
- ohashi 11y ago
  Most things are purchased in cash in Japan

unsignedint 11y ago

It's actually a bit complicated. One premise is that the Yakuza is very hierarchical, not only a personal hierarchy in clan internally, but as an organization. Members of the most major Yakuza clans, for example Yamaguchi-Gumi, are a leader of another clan himself, one tree down from the parent clan itself. So, when they say there's a certain Yakuza clan, you are not talking about one clan manging people under them; you are probably talking about tens, perhaps hundreds of organizations under the clan, which can stem two or three levels down. (So when they talk about 23000 clan members, that's including everyone in the tree -- there are only a little more than 80 members in "Yamaguchi-Gumi" itself.) Essentially, as a "public stance," many higher organization "prohibits" lower organizations down the tree from engaging in illegal activities. For example, Yamaguchi-Gumi's known to have very strict "no-drug" policy, and they even tell their under if they engage business of drug dealing, they will shun offenders. But here's a problem. Basically, it is expected that lower clans pay a membership due regularly to higher clan, and it can get very costly as a person goes higher up on the tree, except the leader of the very top clan himself, perhaps. (As a side note, a lot of news speculates this is probably why split of the Yamaguchi-Gumi took place in the first place.) That's you are talking about payment of 100000yen-ish (basically $10000-ish) every month. Being a leader of a clan under the main clan themselves, they will naturally order their henchmen below to pay him a membership dues. As you go down the tree, someone will have to get their hand dirty to make that kind of money; they could be legally to down right illegal business like prostitution (there's very legal gray areas of this in Japan), loan sharks, and some do, turn to crimes mainly, like fraud, and exploitations in order to make that kind of money. Essentially, while it is an argument that laws and regulations are attempting to make it harder and harder to get away with, basically the top clan's saying "hey, I am telling everyone to not engage in illegal activities, we even fire when they violate it, so we are not responsible for their actions."

throwaway7767 11y ago
Quite similar to how these things happen in corporations. No exec ever makes a decision to violate the law, they just put underlings into stressful situations where they can't achieve the set goals without doing so. The people at the top can then say they knew nothing of it, and they're shocked, shocked, that their employees would do such a thing.