Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Behind the Yakuza: documenting the women of Japan’s mafia (2018)

dazeddigital.com

159 pointssjamella36 comments

As far as I know from my thesis on organized crime, Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone (Russian "Mafia", although I use the word mafia here tentatively because with the exception of providing illegal goods and services they have nothing in common).

The difference is yakuza is accepted as a semi-legal entity in the minds of the people.

Historically first yakuza (which were proto-yakuza, like nobody used the term yet) protected the city against ronin (masterless) samurais who came to loot the city. (Kaplan & Dubro, p.12) In addition to this they carry a Robin Hood-esque theme and one of the well known histories about them involves Chobei Banzuiin who, supposedly, repaired the roads and walls in Tokyo and opened up a casino.

But the word yakuza appears after a century more or less. Their origins involve traveling gamblers and street sellers. Even the word itself, yakuza, is a term for losing hand (ya-ku-sa, cards of 8-9-3)

Another term that's important, and unique if I may say, in Yakuza is the relation of oyabun-kobun. Oyabun acts as a father figure and kobun is the child figure. Kobun provides service and commitment to the Oyabun with no questions or hesitation. and Oyabun protects and helps the Kobun.

Everybody knows about the tattoos so I'll pass this.

Yakuza formalized in the beginning of 1960s with the help of Yoshio Kodama. He was charged with creating a spy network in China and given the rank of Admiral for his war effort even though he was a criminal.

If you want to read more about this, these were the books I've used in my Thesis on this section

Amaruso D. Gangster Incorporated. Glencoe:Free Press

Kaplan, D, Dubro A. (2003) Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld. California: University of California Press

Lyman M. & Potter, G. (2009) Organized Crime, New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Thank you, your comment really adds a whole lot of context missing in the article. Your description of the oyabun-kobun practice (親分子分慣行) also made me realise why to me “I give you my life” feels like such a weird translation for “命預けます”, the feeling that springs to mind is more akin to “I leave my life in your care” which clearly highlights that the relationship does not only go one way.

Glad to be of assistance. Thank you for your comment!

"Yakuza is a different breed say than Hell's Angels, Mafia and Vor V Zakone"

That's because Hell's Angels is a 1970's outlaw motorcycle group of misfits, the "Mafia" is (I assume you're reffering to the Italians) is a virtually defunct organized crime group who haven't been relevant for 60 years, and Vor V Zakone is a prison group.

They're ALL different breeds from each other.

The Italian mafias peaked 60 years ago or so, but they have been very relevant the past 60 years, just maybe not as open

1963 mafia killed JFK

1980's stole massive amounts in gas taxes https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://...

Early 90s window scheme where mafia received kickbacks from all large developers in nyc https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://...

I thought the mafia was still influential in Italy, albeit less as a criminal organization and more a system of business cartels?

Mafia is very much not defunct in Italy.

This reminds me of when I accidentally "crashed" a yakuza meeting.

I was still (compared to now) new in Japan, and was outside a train station in Tokyo waiting for my friend. This particular station has a quite nice and expansive courtyard; however, there is limited seating. So I see what I assume are two different groups of people seated along a span of three benches, with one open bench in the middle. I decide to take said bench.

Once I sat down, I realized it wasn't two groups but one. I also noticed that everyone stopped talking. Suddenly one woman in the group laughed, and everyone else followed suit.

A larger gentleman in the group then gets up from his seat, and not saying a word, comes and sits right next to me -- so close that our shoulders are touching. I was a bit surprised but didn't think much of it, gave him a "sumimasen (excuse me)" and scooted over a bit further. Once again the group all laughed. I then gave the group a quick look and noticed all the trappings of the yakuza: metal briefcases, the hairstyles, the suits, frequent use of "aniki (yakuza term for big brother)," and yet it still didn't click.

The big guy next to me was laughing the whole time. Finally, my friend showed up and I left. I tell her about the big guy that sat next to me, and how weird it seemed. As I'm relaying the story to her, everything fell into place and I realized -- "Holy f###, those guys were yakuza!"

In obvious hindsight, I realize the big guy was politely telling me that the seat was not available. My friend still laughs about the story to this day.

I have an interesting Yakuza story that I want to share:

One of my Japanese friends used to work for the Yakuza (without being a member). His job was to play Pachinko at rigged machines. The way Pachinko works is that every day some machines are randomly selected to be winning machines. The Yakuza somehow had intel on what machines were winners and relayed the info to their crew of seemingly normal gamblers.

They had to play for the whole day and in the night gave the winnings to their Yakuza contact. The sad thing is that most of his "colleagues" instantly went back to the Pachinko hall to gamble away their cut.

I heartily recommend the movie Pale Flower (1964)

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pale-flower-1...

> “Pale Flower" is one of the most haunting noirs I've seen, and something more; in 1964 it was an important work in an emerging Japanese New Wave of independent filmmakers, an exercise in existential cool.

For a wilder perspective, I like Takashi Miike. "Rainy Dog" is about a yakuza henchman whose boss had been killed. So he fled to Taiwan, and worked for triads as a contract killer. Because no other yakuza boss would have him, and his tattoos excluded him from mainstream society. Very tragic.

There's one such Yakuza boss whom I frequently see at my local sento bathhouse.

His two or three servile bodyguards and quite fantastically beautiful body tattoo, make him very easy to identify as a top crime boss.

Are these specific bathhouse that allow tattooes?

I don't know if it's all that rare. My wife and I attended one in Asakusa on our last day in Japan and saw a couple of yakuza guys. (And she saw one of the woman yakuza on the women's side.) We didn't go looking for them, it was just the closest neighborhood bath house to the shrine.

The other bath house I went to, the one at the bottom of Mt. Takao, did not allow any tattoos. But it was much larger and more commercial.

True. Most do not allow tattoos.

I have never seen any other gangs at this sento, which is located not too far from Kabukicho. My guess is that it's a private arrangement between the owner and this boss. It would presumably only be a problem if another gang showed up. But the tinted-window black limo with driver outside is a pretty good clue of who is inside.

I've seen an obvious yakuza in the onsen near where I live -- though only once. I stayed well away from him, as did everyone else. Sometimes even if a bathhouse has a no-tattoo policy you can get special permission. You need to know who and how to ask. I have found that this is generally true in Japan. It seems reasonable to me that at some places a yakuza could get permission to bathe at a non-busy time.

Incidentally, I have been told that there used to be a fairly powerful yakuza clan in Fujieda city (a few towns over from where I live). There used to be a sumo jungyo (unofficial tournament) held there every year and I was told that it was done as a favour to the resident yakuza head. After the crackdown on yakuza involvement in sumo, they cancelled the jungyo, lending at least some credibility to the story. I also heard that sometime about 2010 something happened and the yakuza clan in Fujieda is no more. My friend who told me did not want to elaborate. When I first moved here in 2007, I would occasionally see a couple of guys hanging out at the beach -- pretty obvious: dressed in suits even though it was 35C, with their tattoo sleeves just peeking out from underneath their coats. They would just stand there for hours. I don't know what they were doing (the beach where I live is almost always empty).

Haven't seen any of these guys for years and years, though.

I used to go to a bathhouse in Kyoto that explicitly allowed tattoos. The man at the entrance even had a long snake tattoo on his arm...

The bathhouse was rather nice though and while some of the customers were obviously affiliated with yakuza they were rather friendly and we would greet each other after I had been there a few times.

Back before it was massively renovated (mid 2000's?) there was a sento in Tokyo Station. It was called 'Tokyo Kur' I think. I visited probably five times and every time would see at least one wrinkled old man covered in tattoos like that. Sadly that sento is long-gone.

If you're looking for an alternative, some on this list are pretty good.

https://www.1010.or.jp/english/sento-location/ The domain name is a pun in Japanese.

NSFW for some workplaces. The content is artistic photos, including nudity.

Can't read this at work, but based on the comments I get the feeling this is a bit romanticized about who the Yakuza are and how they operate.

After reading about the case of Junko Furuta however, I have less of a benevolent opinion of Yakuza members.

I really liked the photography.

Having said that, Are the yakuza 'Great Men'?

This article has more content, including photos.

https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/40877/1...

Thank you for providing an alternative. While the subject matter is interesting, the submitted article was low quality, both in the writing and whatever editing it received (numerous grammatical and textual errors remain).

Ok, we've changed to that from https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/up-clo.... Thanks!

Is it just me or the article ends quite abruptly? I was expecting a story, not an intro and a few pictures.

It's an article about a collection of photography by an artist, not a photojournalist. Given that, this format seems typical. I would also love to hear more though.

(We've since changed the URL - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19756009)

I know every country has a similar problem but I still think it's a failure of the state, even if it's so common. The police know who the criminals are, ffs civilians know who they are, yet they do nothing and only deal with occasional spillover. I hate this.

I would say the crimes they seem to deal in are much different than the type gangsters in The Sopranos would deal in.

We have rights, you know.

When a state trades in excess freedom for order, overriding due process, presumed innocence and human rights, it becomes itself a criminal actor.

It's not an easy balance to achieve, but many modern countries manage to have a fairly low level of criminality and still guarantee these rights to its citizens.

"There will always be crime, so it's better to have organized crime than disorganized crime." seems to be the idea.

Some years ago I would had strongly disagreed with you. But now that I’ve lived in a city where the organized crime has been “disorganized” I can confirm it becomes hell, too many small gangs with no big bosses, making small and big crimes daily under the eyes of everyone, this is worst for the overall quality of life than having a big mafia that follows certain rules and obeys a big boss, making their crimes less visible.

The obvious alternative is less crime, of all sorts, not organized vs disorganized.

Sure, and the past has showed us that it’s possible to live peacefully, but it’s difficult to reach peace when billions of dollars and thousands of guns are being handed to the cartels every year. They say everyone has a price, if that’s true then cartels have the money to buy everyone. A frontal fight has been tested, and yes big bosses have fallen, but the violence only increases when big cartels become small cartels (usually antagonist small cartels). Could an ideology stop this? Can someone or something make corruption disappear? America legalizing all drugs is the only solution? Could Mexico legalize transportation without America legalizing consumption?

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