The total membership of yakuza crime syndicates in Japan decreased for the 15th straight year to hit a record low in 2019, the National Police Agency said Thursday. The total, including associates, came to 28,200 as of the end of 2019, down 2,300 from a ...
'First Love': A heartfelt throwback to the golden age of yakuza flicks
Masataka Kubota plays a doomed boxer who takes on the yazuka in Takashi Miike's newest film.
Man held for allegedly shooting at home belonging to deputy leader of Japan's largest yakuza group
Police on Sunday arrested a man for allegedly firing several shots with a handgun at a home belonging to the second-in-command of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation's largest yakuza group, in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture. No injuries were reported in the shooting. The man — believed to be ...
What's in a name? For the yakuza, quite a lot
The Yamaguchi-gumi is one of the most feared crime syndicates in Japan and yet its name may become a relic of the past in 2020 if recent reports are to be believed. In terms of size, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi is already on the wane. The ...
Former crime syndicate boss on Japan's death row dies in apparent suicide
A former boss of a Japanese crime syndicate on death row was found dead at the Tokyo Detention House on Sunday, Justice Ministry officials have said. Osamu Yano, 71, the death row inmate, apparently committed suicide, sources familiar with the situation said, noting that there ...
Aoi Okuyama: From Hokkaido to the mean streets of London
Japanese actor Aoi Okuyama makes her debut in BBC-Netflix yakuza series 'Giri/Haji,' earning acclaim from the British media.
The public safety commissions in six prefectures designated them Tuesday as “crime syndicates at war” in an effort to weaken them and stop their escalating battles.
The importance of defining organized crime in Japan
The definition of a crime is a critical part of law enforcement. After all, what constitutes a crime such as theft is fundamental to working out whether or not someone is ultimately guilty of committing the offense. With this in mind, the administration of Prime ...
A senior member of the nation's largest organized crime syndicate was shot dead Wednesday in Hyogo Prefecture by a man armed with a submachine gun and a handgun amid a possible gang feud, police said. Keiichi Furukawa, 59, a high-ranking yakuza of the Yamaguchi-gumi group, ...
It's illegal to pay gangs ... but that's not the point
A set of revised organized crime ordinances went into effect on Oct. 1 in Roppongi, Kabukicho, Shibuya and 26 other designated special districts in Tokyo. Under the law, any individual or group in these districts who pays protection money to anti-social forces — crime syndicates, ...
Fine for poaching glass eels to be raised to ¥30 million in 2023, Fisheries Agency says
The Fisheries Agency plans to raise the maximum fine for illegal fishing of baby Japanese eels, or glass eels, from ¥100,000 to ¥30 million starting in 2023, in a bid to stem a source of funding of organized crime syndicates, agency sources said Wednesday. The ...
New generation of quasi-gangsters fly under police radar
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 ...
