Japanese Society Yakuza
Yakuza as a part of the Japanese Society – Their influence on the Japanese’s daily life (By Philippe Thê Long Hegglin)
1. Introduction
2. Yakuza as a part of Japanese society
a. Origin of the Yakuza
b. Their role in the Japanese society today
3. Conclusion
Introduction
It is said quite often that Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, what I comparing to Germany or other countries can confirm from my own experiences. With only 19.177 per 1,000 people got Japan #34 in a world crime ranking, while Dominica rates #1, United Kingdom #6, USA # 8 and Germany #11.(United Nations, 2000) Nevertheless japanese families, in our case homestay families, are all the time in my view exageratedly concerned about safety, wherefore you could think, that this is just useless talk. But the Yakuza , the japanese Mafia is famous all over the world with Kobe and Osaka having the highest crime rate in Japan. Especially in movies, the Yakuza are shown as the japanese equivalent to the italian Mafia, but in personal interviews with my former hostmother and other japanese colleagues Yakuza were often played down and even portrayed as nice and helpful. In the city i live – Kobe – is the headquarterof the Yamaguchi - gang (山口組), the largest Yakuza group with over 20000 members. They acutally control a large part of Japan and other countries. (Blathwayt, 2008, p.41) Sometimes i see them when i go shopping or to the Kobe’s Mosque, because the headquarter of a gumi is around this area and I as well as other japanese people got used to them. It is quite easy to recognize them, because they stick out as buffed, tattooed (sometimes you can see that it is protrude from the shirt), wearing sunglasses (even at night) and having expensive cars. But of course like every other Mafia, they control popular, semi-legal or illegal businesses like prostitution, drugs, protection racket and gambling. However there seems to be a big
1. Introduction
2. Yakuza as a part of Japanese society
a. Origin of the Yakuza
b. Their role in the Japanese society today
3. Conclusion
Introduction
It is said quite often that Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, what I comparing to Germany or other countries can confirm from my own experiences. With only 19.177 per 1,000 people got Japan #34 in a world crime ranking, while Dominica rates #1, United Kingdom #6, USA # 8 and Germany #11.(United Nations, 2000) Nevertheless japanese families, in our case homestay families, are all the time in my view exageratedly concerned about safety, wherefore you could think, that this is just useless talk. But the Yakuza , the japanese Mafia is famous all over the world with Kobe and Osaka having the highest crime rate in Japan. Especially in movies, the Yakuza are shown as the japanese equivalent to the italian Mafia, but in personal interviews with my former hostmother and other japanese colleagues Yakuza were often played down and even portrayed as nice and helpful. In the city i live – Kobe – is the headquarterof the Yamaguchi - gang (山口組), the largest Yakuza group with over 20000 members. They acutally control a large part of Japan and other countries. (Blathwayt, 2008, p.41) Sometimes i see them when i go shopping or to the Kobe’s Mosque, because the headquarter of a gumi is around this area and I as well as other japanese people got used to them. It is quite easy to recognize them, because they stick out as buffed, tattooed (sometimes you can see that it is protrude from the shirt), wearing sunglasses (even at night) and having expensive cars. But of course like every other Mafia, they control popular, semi-legal or illegal businesses like prostitution, drugs, protection racket and gambling. However there seems to be a big
References: Blathwayt, W.,2008, Yakuza bared - The changing face of Japanese organised crime. Bruno, 2007, The Yakuza, [online] Available at: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/gang/yakuza/1.html [Accessed 21 January 2011] Günther, H., 1999, Yakuza “die Japanische Mafia?”, [online] Available at: http://www.japonet.de/j-impressionen/yakuza.html [Accessed 21 January 2011] Hill, P., 2003, The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State Kaplan, D. and Dubro, A., 2003, Yakuza Japan 's Criminal Underworld Parkanian, J. 2010, Game Boy: Glossary of Japanese Gambling Games Takahashi, K. 2009, Capital punishment – Japan 's yakuza vie for control of Tokyo. United Nations, 2000, Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems [online] Available at: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri_percap-crime-total-crimes-per-capita [Accessed 21 January 2011]