On paper, the Ryuyukai were the most fearsome team in Japanese softball. A sort of mutual aid society for retired gangsters, the club had racked up nearly a century of hard time. The manager had been a top mob consigliere; the relief pitcher, who took the field in hot pink shoes, had once been sent to kill him.
But on a cloudless day in March 2022, these hardened ex-cons met their match: the Parent Teacher Association of Nakanodai Elementary School. The PTA showed no mercy, hitting pitch after pitch out of the scruffy park in suburban Tokyo. Midway through the game, the scorekeeper stopped counting.
Losing is nothing new for Japan’s iconic gangsters, the yakuza. For more than a decade, they have been suffering one defeat after another.