What’s a Japanese Mobster to Do in Retirement? Join a Softball Team. (Published 2023) (2024)

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What’s a Japanese Mobster to Do in Retirement? Join a Softball Team. (Published 2023)? ›

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.

The aging of yakuza members and their financial difficulties have also hobbled the syndicate, experts say. The number of arrested yakuza members in 2023 declined to 9,610, compared to 22,495 in 2014, according to the police. Yakuza crackdowns have driven many members to quit and sent others underground.

In Japan and elsewhere, especially in the West, the term yakuza can be used to refer to individual gangsters or criminals as well as to their organized groups and to Japanese organized crime in general. Yakuza adopt samurai-like rituals and often bear elaborate body tattoos.

There remains no strict prohibition on yakuza membership in Japan today, although many pieces of legislation have been passed by the Japanese Government aimed at impeding revenue and increasing liability for criminal activities.

Until the early 1960s yakuza concentrated on gambling, especially pachinko, and the entertainment industry where prostitution and protection rackets were profitable. They tended to be relatively unaggressive outside of these activities. Recruitment is frequently through gambling or in recent years, motorcycle gangs.

Anti-Chinese discrimination (also directed at Koreans) is common and goes back before the second world war. But it should not mask the reality that, for the foreseeable future at least, the yakuza still runs Japan's criminal underworld.

The Yakuza is a network of highly organized, transnational crime families with affiliates in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and is involved in various criminal activities, including weapons trafficking, drug trafficking, human trafficking, fraud, and money laundering.

For those who had been gangsters, though, the team's rules were clear: New members must prove they have quit the yakuza. The process of leaving can be difficult; traditionally, it cost a finger joint.

As a 50 billion dollar criminal syndicate with a strong grip on underworld businesses and illegal activities – loan sharking, dispute resolution, drug trafficking, gambling, arms trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking, extortion – as well as plenty of legal ones – nightclubs, construction, ramen, golf courses, ...

The yakuza is dominated by men and leaves only informal roles to women. Typically a woman involved with the yakuza might be an anesan, a boss' wife who takes care of young affiliates and mediates between them and her husband. Wives and partners of the members support the group in a peripheral way.

What are yakuza not allowed to do? ›

Japan's anti-mafia rules introduced in 2011 prohibit the yakuza from accessing a slew of services, including opening new bank accounts, signing property contracts and entering golf courses.

These gangs controlled many businesses, engaged in sophisticated gambling and loan sharking activities, and invested heavily in sports and other entertainment. They also became involved in drugs, money lending, smuggling, and p*rnography.

The men of yakuza follow a strict code of conduct and hierarchy. They sport irezumi (a distinctive style of Japanese tattooing), slick back-combed hair, tailored suits, and are most avidly known for following unconventional rituals like yubitsume, the amputation of the left little finger.

Tokuryū, the shadowy criminal groups taking over from yakuza in Japan.

Yakuza groups are registered with the police as are many of the leaders and prominent figures. You can find their offices easily. The police know what crimes they make money from. The moment you make them illegal, you lose that.

Triads are also active in other regions with significant overseas-Chinese populations: Macau, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. They are often involved in migrant smuggling.