(no subject)
The yakuza are a pretty fascinating subject. While never as chivalrous or honorable as their mythology, it's that very mythology that causes the Japanese government and people to somewhat condone their presence, within limits. Mostly because the only thing considered worse than organized crime is, well... disorganized crime.
That, and the fact their traditional targets tend to be either the very high, (banking and construction ripoffs, gambling, etc) or the very low (human sex trafficking), so the majority of the country never has negative first-hand experiences with them.
The symbiosis is interesting. Only in Japan would you have an organized crime group with permanent, physical offices with their sign on the door. That police investigators go to for tea, some casual verbal sparring with the local boss, who helpfully leaves lists of members and ledgers of financial activity in trash cans and the like for the police to conveniently discover. Of course, that's just to give the police enough information that they can keep their jobs, while not enough information to actually do anything about it, and never engaging in anything that can technically be called corruption. Everyone plays their role, everyone keeps their jobs, and everyone goes home happy.
Public acceptance of the arrangement seems to wax and wane from decade to decade. I'd say it's at a relative low point right now -- at least compared to the early 90's. But unlike the Sicilian mafia, the yakuza never seem interested in open infiltration and control of the government on a mass scale. So who knows, maybe they'll stick around for quite awhile longer.
On a slight tangent, but not the point of this post, BoingBoing had actual yakuza review the new Yakuza 3 game. It's an amusing read, although Jake Adelstein seems to have a sometimes suspicious knack for stories that just flirt with the edge of the very mythology the yakuza uses to keep itself going.
That, and the fact their traditional targets tend to be either the very high, (banking and construction ripoffs, gambling, etc) or the very low (human sex trafficking), so the majority of the country never has negative first-hand experiences with them.
The symbiosis is interesting. Only in Japan would you have an organized crime group with permanent, physical offices with their sign on the door. That police investigators go to for tea, some casual verbal sparring with the local boss, who helpfully leaves lists of members and ledgers of financial activity in trash cans and the like for the police to conveniently discover. Of course, that's just to give the police enough information that they can keep their jobs, while not enough information to actually do anything about it, and never engaging in anything that can technically be called corruption. Everyone plays their role, everyone keeps their jobs, and everyone goes home happy.
Public acceptance of the arrangement seems to wax and wane from decade to decade. I'd say it's at a relative low point right now -- at least compared to the early 90's. But unlike the Sicilian mafia, the yakuza never seem interested in open infiltration and control of the government on a mass scale. So who knows, maybe they'll stick around for quite awhile longer.
On a slight tangent, but not the point of this post, BoingBoing had actual yakuza review the new Yakuza 3 game. It's an amusing read, although Jake Adelstein seems to have a sometimes suspicious knack for stories that just flirt with the edge of the very mythology the yakuza uses to keep itself going.