As mentioned in several other comments, the numbers of yakuza members have reduced significantly in the 25 years since this article was published. An often unm

As mentioned in several other comments, the numbers of yakuza members have reduced significantly in the 25 years since this article was published. An often unmentioned aspect of these gangs is that many people end up in them due to the ongoing discrimination against Japanese people of buraku descent: https://www.kcpinternational.com/2021/09/the-burakumin-of-japan/ https://www.kcpinternational.com/2021/09/the-burakumin-of-ja... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza#Burakumin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza#Burakumin The buraku are not genetically distinct from other yamato Japanese, they were just stigmatized due to buddhist concepts of "impurity", and an effort to replicate the "untouchable" practices of India while importing buddhism. As such, in the modern world, they often had little other opportunity in life outside of yakuza membership. Many yakuza practices are violent and abusive, and I don't want to offer any apologetics for those practices. But like a lot of discussion of crime, the root cause (mostly poverty) is often overlooked, and the elimination of poverty and lack of opportunity downplayed as a possible solution.