Did You Know - Yakuza Edition

The Yakuza in Japan…how are their activities tolerated, how is membership legal, how are their operations functioning so apparently publicly? And what does the recent publicized split mean for the operations of these organizations in the future?

Their activies are tolerated because they are organized and don’t mess with the government. A lot of times Yazkuza are part of the system where they operate. They protect local businesses for money in return. Sometimes even give homeless jobs. And because the Yakuza is so big it isn’t possible to suddenly just arrest everyone. The Yakuza leaders are smart while the people that get arrested are the low level thugs that usually do stupid shit like be drunk in public and get all the dirty work. Also recently Olympus (camera company) had a scandal in which their president was dealing with the Yakuza. Basically Yakuza is behind the scenes doing a bunch illegal stuff but aren’t doing enough to the point where it will lead to the government to crack down hard on them.

To elaborate on the homeless job part, there was news that Yakuza would go around telling homeless people they had jobs paying pretty high per hour but without giving much detail on where. What they were actually getting hired to do was dangerous work of cleaning up toxic waste around Fukushima. Basically Yakuza are also being used by corrupt companies as well to do dirty work while let the company look innocent and are closely connected with the big name companies. Also the recruiting process is usually like this. They have people going around and if you look like the type they may ask you if you want money for work. Once you join though it’s hard to get out. The thugs that do the low work also get punished by Yubuitsume which is usually getting the tip of your pinky cut off. However walking in the streets you won’t notice them unless you’re actively looking to join a gang.

To elaborate on how to tell who is Yakuza they usually have big colorful tattoos. depending on the tattoo drawn and its size on the back you can tell who is higher rank. Tattoos are really taboo in Japan and a lot of times onsens (bath houses) ban people with very large tattoos to avoid yakuza messing around. So sometimes foreigners face this too. edit: my comment seems like I’m defending Yakuza. I’m not, just giving reasons why the government is preferring to not do anything and let them continue their work. In reality Yakuza are fucking scum that take advantage of those weaker than them by using intimidation. While Yakuza does things to get community’s support like lets say raising money that is just propaganda. They don’t give a shit about you and do stuff like that so they can run without people saying anything.

(CavemanCircus.com)