Many people assume gangs in Japan universally have ties to organized crime, but the situation on the streets is far more complicated than that.
It’s a subject that experts on organized crime such as writer Atsushi Mizoguchi have discussed at length over the years, warning that nonaffiliated gangs with no code of honor to speak of would replace crime syndicates should the latter’s influence ever wane.
These new groups are called hangure (half gray), a pun on the Japanese word “gurentai” that was once used to describe the thuggish gangs that ruled the streets in the immediate aftermath of World War II.