The Yakuza is the Japanese version of organized crime. According to Howard Abadinsky (320), approximately 60 percent of the estimated yakuza are affiliated with one of the three major groups of organized crime in Japan. Howard Abadinsky (320) asserts that these three groups include the Yamaguchi-Gumi, Sumiyoshi-Kai, and Inagawa-Kai. This paper seeks to discuss the history and criminal actions of the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization.
History of Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza Organization
Yamaguchi-Gumi was founded in 1915 by Harukichi Yamaguchi and is currently the largest yakuza family in Japan. According to Howard Abadinsky (320), the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization accounts for more than 50 percent of all the members of organized crime in Japan. Howard Abadinsky (320) asserts that this organization has more than 60 thousand members that are divided into 800 clans. Yamaguchi-Gumi has continued to develop rapidly even with more than 20 years of police domination.
Unlike the American organized crime members and the Russian organized crime members who are highly educated, intelligent, and powerful, many members of the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization, are generally unemployed or school dropouts with one or two parents of Korean or Chinese origin (Carter 32). According to Howard Abadinsky (217), an estimated 80 percent of the Yamaguchi-Gumi members were ethnic Koreans who had been subjected to generations of discrimination because their families were associated with dirty operations.
According to Nicholas Gage (37), Yamaguchi-Gumi families were associated with dirty occupations such as butchery, grave digging, and tanning. The findings of Yamaguchi-Gumi families have led many researchers to believe that organized crime is an equal opportunity employer in Japan.
While recruiting new members, Yamaguchi-Gumi uses talented scouts to attract delinquents, who are then given pocket money and employed in various errands as they wait to be recruited into the organization (Gage 37). Nicholas Gage (38) reveals that due to increased involvement in white-collar jobs, the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization has also been welcoming persons with computer and financial skills. Various researchers reveal that each recruit is given a mentor, and yakuza apprenticeship ranges from five months to 4 years during which the apprentice lives in the house of their mentors (Gage 38). According to Howard Abadinsky (218), while staying with their mentors, the recruits perform duties such as housekeeping and other chores while learning yakuza protocols.
The Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization remained organized for a long period until in the early 1980s when an internal rebellion by the Ichiwa-kai against the organization resulted in a great deal of violence that caused headlines in many countries. Howard Abadinsky (285) states that though Yamaguchi-Gumi had numerical superiority, the Ichiwa-kai had seized most of the organization’s weapons. As a result, Masashi Takenaka, who was the leader of the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization at that time, became desperate for firepower.
Notwithstanding this, Masashi and two of his ranking officers attempted to exchange large quantities of amphetamines for military arms in Honolulu but they were caught by the United States officials in the act (Cage 101). Nicholas Gage (39) states that the war between the Yamaguchi-Gumi and Ichiwa kai left more than twenty people dead and seventy injured. After the war, Ichiwa-kai was incorporated back into the Yamaguchi-Gumi organization. According to Nicholas Gage (40), the organization continued to thrive after the war.
Various historians agree that the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization members are highly ultra-patriotic and conservatives on matters that affect the well-being of Japanese citizens. Their distinct ideological orientation has endeared them to many right-wing politicians. As a result, the Yamaguchi-Gumi members have been actively involved in the politics of Japan since the foundation of the Yamaguchi-Gumi organization.
Nicholas Gage (39) asserts that the Japanese police share the political views of the yakuza and that they seldom arrest the members of the Yamaguchi-Gumi organization. According to Lauren Carter (38), the Yamaguchi-Gumi yakuza organization continued to grow and prosper until the late nineteenth century, when gangs became deeply involved in far right-wing Japanese politics (Whiting 13).
By the early 1990s, Yamaguchi-Gumi had established criminal groups in the United States, Canada, and Europe that is highly classy in their use of modern technology to bother law enforcement investigations in these countries. According to Lauren Carter (40), the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization has expanded to the point where it has become one of the most feared organized crime groups in the world (whiting 13).
The criminal actions of Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza Organization
The Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza Organization has a finger in almost every form of criminal activity, but particularly in sex-related industries fed by the importation of young girls from china and the Philippines. According to Lauren Carter (45), the Yamaguchi-Gumi organization is one of the wealthiest organizations in the world. Lauren Carter (45) asserts that most of their wealth comes from extortion, the sex industry, and drugs.
According to Lauren Carter (46), other activities that this organization benefits from including internet pornography, construction kickbacks, and drugs. Various researchers also agree that Yamaguchi-gumi Yakuza Organization also participates in other international crimes such as stock market manipulation and loan sharking (Carter 46). The Yamaguchi-Gumi controls all its criminal activities from its headquarters that is located in Kobe City (Cage 88).
Lauren Carter (47) reveals that members of the Yamaguchi-Gumi organization are also murderers. For instance, in 1992, a member of the organization murdered a Japanese film director Juzo Itami had portrayed them in his film. Juzo Itami was murdered with a knife. According to Lauren Carter (47), an assailant who was later identified as a member of the Yamaguchi-Gumi Organization sliced Juzo Itami in the throat (Carter 48).
The devastating earthquake that hit Kobe in 1995 also gave room for the Organization to continue with its criminal activities. According to Lauren Carter (54), the earthquake provided a vehicle for Yamaguchi-Gumi-controlled construction firms to increase their wealth. Lauren Carter (47) states that the members of the Yamaguchi-Gumi Organization threatened rivals so that they did not submit lower bids. The organization also collected a lot of money from the government and other agencies as insurance against construction site disruption.
Though these threats were criminal acts, Yamaguchi-Gumi leaders did not face any legal actions because they are more powerful than the government. According to Howard Abadinsky (218), the official police had established a personal relationship with the top bosses, therefore, making it difficult to control the crimes being committed by the members of the organization (Cage 97).
Conclusion
Conclusively, though the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza Organization is largely regarded as an organized crime organization in Japan, its role in the history of Japan has remained unique over a long period. The organization has been useful in providing urgent services to the public in times of calamities (Gage 101). Nevertheless, the Yamaguchi-Gumi Yakuza organization is still known for engaging in many activities that are not only illegal but also unethical. Currently, many members of this group are working overseas (Gage 101).
Works Cited
Abadinsky, Howard. Organized Crime. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
Carter, Lauren. The most Evil Mobsters in History. London: Michael O’Mara Book, Limited, 2004. Print.
Gage, Nicholas. The Mafia is Not an Equal Opportunity Employer. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2001. Print.
Whiting, Robert. Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001. Print.