Mainstream media last month broke a long-standing silence they've had concerning the activities of Japan's organized crime groups, which are referred to in official circles as "boryokudan" (violent groups) or, colloquially, as "yakuza."
The Mainichi Shimbun (Sept. 15) reported that Kobe's Municipal Board of Education had issued a warning to discourage local children from trick-or-treating at a Halloween event organized annually since 2013 by the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest organized criminal syndicate.
The board of education's latest move would appear to put the brakes on yet another, er, hallowed gang tradition.