The fact that organized crime in Japan is so open and blatant blows my mind. This type of behavior has no place in a modern society. So crazy.
Think of how policing of organized crime works here. The authorities generally know who the leaders are, they may even interact with them semi-regularly. The leaders lead normal lives, and they lead criminal lives. Only the normal part 'shows'.
Just because you know someone's a criminal doesn't make it any easier to prosecute them. You have to build up a case and make it stick. When crime is organized, criminals can afford a stiff defense against that sort of thing. So the authorities have to take their time and get their paperwork in order. Time they don't have to take when it's just a few idiots robbing liquor stores.
So a known crime family in Japan can buy a big office building and staff it. It's not like they're hanging a sign out saying, "hey, lookie here, bad stuff going on in here. Come raid me pigs!" Do you know who owns all the office buildings in your city? It takes some journalist to make it publicly known.
Open criminal activity is far more prevalent in the US than it is in Japan.
This is exactly it. It's like someone seeing an ad on TV for the reality show "Mob Wives" and getting the impression that the Mafia is something that operates in the open in the U.S.
It's not possible to eliminate organized crime entirely. Not anywhere, unless you go full police-state with cameras inside every home and business. (And probably not even then.)
So keeping it semi-open and well-known makes it more manageable. It's a tradeoff. One reason we don't have much collateral violence from organized crime here, I think.
For the customs officer, I was bringing a box of stuff into the country as gifts to family. He was reluctant to let me through. A lot of ums, hmms, and lengthy "thoughts". I knew his thinking would be quickened by a US $20, but eff that. I wasn't doing anything wrong, so no bribe for him. I eventually made it through.
The fact is society has always been corrupt. It doesn't matter whether you are living in a democratic, socialist, communist country or dictatorship - there has and always will be corruption. It's human nature. You are never going to stop bad people doing bad things.
In the case of FIFA (and reportedly) the IOC, delegates were given gifts. How do you suggest stopping the royal family of Qatar (who we have no jurisdiction or control over) giving a FIFA delegate a rolex? Short of putting an implant in everyone's head uploading everything they do, say or think to some giant all-seeing mainframe, I doubt we can track the actions of everyone and therefore stamp out corruption.
It's not about accepting the practice of corruption, it should of course be punished when proven. It's about accepting that it's human nature. You're never going to stop murderers murdering, or robbers robbing. People have been doing these things since the dawn of our existence.
I found some interesting reading around this subject [1].
> Earlier Enlightenment-era thinkers looked to society to bring structure and civilization in order to restrain naturally corrupted mankind from chaos. In 'The Confessions', as in his other works, Rousseau takes an opposing view. He asserts that man begins in a pristine, uncorrupted state at birth, and gradually becomes corrupted through the assertion of society upon the individual. The true state of nature, says Rousseau, is uncorrupted
Whether you believe society corrupts the uncorrupted human mind, or that humans are born corrupted is up to you. I believe that no matter what, corruption is part of us, and part of being in a society.
[1] http://www.academia.edu/1922627/Rousseau_on_the_Loss_of_Iden...
FYI, crime rates including murder and robbery have been falling sharply for the last 20 years:
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-s...
Show me a single case of any society having never had corruption.
You might as well be arguing that humans can't possibly fly because up until 1903 nobody had. "The Write brothers will surely fail! Show me a single case of anybody having ever flown."
Corruption is an extremely difficult problem to combat. But what reason do you have to say that it can't be solved? Maybe you should produce an example of some corruption for which there can be no possible manner of correcting.
The ease and at which you've adopted this attitude of cynicism and helplessness is not making the world a better place, nor does it provide an example of good decision-making or maturity. It's classic FUD.
Does nature create perfect humans? If your answer is anything but yes, then it's a fact that corruption is a part of nature, much like thunderstorms or a sun rise.
> But what reason do you have to say that it can't be solved?
Because it's inherent to our nature. Can you stop people from loving one another? Do you think that's possible? If your answer is anything but "Yes", then you have your answer on corruption. It's exactly the same thing. Trying to eliminate something that humans have been doing since our existence isn't something that can be solved with naive optimism.
The answer isn't to eliminate, but to mitigate and minimize its effects. It's very similar to the war on drugs. You're never going to stop people from doing drugs, so you work to minimize their usage - legalize it and regulate it so you can minimize the damage.
This is complete bullshit and you should know better. Nature also created smallpox, if you'll recall. But we killed that just fine. You're a part of nature, and you'll die too.
> Trying to eliminate something that humans have been doing since our existence isn't something that can be solved with naive optimism.
Like flight? I'm not advocating naive optimism. I'm advocating a rational exposition of possible solutions, and you are stubbornly obedient to your own expectations of preferred attitude in a way that has nothing to do with solving problems.
And don't try to use meaningless examples like 'perfect human' and 'love' to argue about corruption. Until you've got some firm grasp on what corruption is in a way that can be consistently communicated, you are doing nothing but trying to define yourself to be correct.
You're not comparing apples and apples. You're comparing apples and oranges. If you want a more accurate comparison, it would be like if humans wiped out disease completely. And we're not even close to that. In truth, it would be impossible. Diseases will adapt and evolve to fight whatever cures we can throw at it. We can minimize and mitigate their effects, however.
> Like flight?
Do you think you could stop every human on this planet from loving? Again, if your answer is anything but "yes", then you're self-admittedly wrong. A hypocrite.
You can't eliminate something that is fundamental to human nature. It's silly and naive to even consider it.
> And don't try to use meaningless examples like 'perfect human' and 'love' to argue about corruption.
Why not? You're trying to eliminate something that is inherent to our very existence. Ok, so you don't want to use "love". Then how about laughter. Do you think it's possible to eliminate laughter if, for whatever reason, we wanted to get rid of humor?
It's a rhetorical question. No, you can't get rid of humor. And no, you can't get rid of corruption. They're the same exact thing. They're part of us. And always will be.
Humor is corruption? That's how you intend to convince me that it can't be eliminated?
The person who is offered the gift says "thank you, that is very kind, but I am unable to accept gifts."
You then have a register of gifts. Anyone who is offerdd a gift notes that in the register.
Similarly with anti-corruption regimes -- they not only keep honest people from engaging in prohibited practices, but also generally include features designed to detect and punish defectors. While these obviously aren't 100% reliable, they are intended to increase the expected cost of defection.
Here's a page that lists the different levels of access you get for donating to the UK's ruling political party:
https://www.conservatives.com/Donate/Donor_Clubs.aspx
There are so many ways to give influence via political donations, and the problem is just as you wrote: nobody gives a damn!.
I don't know how to solve the problem, any realistic chance of cleaning up politics seems to be an impossible task.
Humans are inherently corrupt. You're never going to have a morally perfect society. It just can't happen. It's like asking the sun not to rise in the morning. Nature is not perfect so humans can't be perfect either. Flaws will appear.
Believing that corruption can be stomped out is as naive as believing in Santa Claus. Once you accept corruption, you can work to minimize and mitigate its effects. Which is the goal since you can never, ever eliminate it.
Note that, ironically, humans are so selfish that everything is corrupt, and yet not selfish enough as the economy would like us to be.
Without going into the whole "altruism" vs "egoism" discussion. One simply needs to admit that there is a slight, never-zero skew for individuals to favor self and family over others. Hardly something you could use the word "suffer" for, without injecting your own personal bias into the matter.
What do you mean by that? Clearly corruption exists as you pointed out later but "has no place" usually means "unacceptable". I think the reason people believe that is because it's accurate.
Why they are able to become so powerful is an interesting question, and seems to tie in to Japan's culture and the conduct of the yakuza.