Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From The Yakuza Or The Cops. Entry #02

#02. “If you can’t hurt the person you hate, hurt the person or people they love.” （反面教師例ーa teaching by bad example)

Once upon a time, a famous yakuza journalist named Mizoguchi Atsushi, wrote some articles about a Yamaguchigumi (Japan’s largest organized crime group) faction. They are known as the Yamakengumi. These articles made the Yamakengumi very angry. So some thugs were sent to dispatch him. They couldn’t find him, so they stabbed his son. The same thing happened in the past with a man in the Seijo area who angered the Goto-gumi and fled–in his absentia, his wife was stabbed so severely that it was a miracle she didn’t die.  It’s still an open case.

Let’s get back to Mizoguchi. According to someone who knows about these turn of events, Mizoguchi became frantically worried about his family. And he also became very worried that he was going to be killed himself.  A yakuza boss made an effort to reassure, telling him to calm down.  This is what he allegedly said to Mizoguchi. “Calm down. Be a  man. Don’t worry, nobody is going to kill you. Not now.  It would be too obvious. We’ll have to wait five, ten,maybe fifteen years before doing it. So relax. For the next five years at least–no one will touch you.” Somehow, I don’t think he found that reassuring.

In March of 2008, I was at the trial of Goto Tadamasa on property forgery related charges. He was found not guilty. The original investigation started with looking into the brutal murder in broad daylight of a real estate negotiator named Nozaki, if memory serves me well.  The Goto trial collapsed when the central witness for the defense balked at the last minute.  I knew one of the cops waiting outside in the hall, and asked him what he thought of the verdict.  He had the following to say:

“The guy who was going be on the witness stand–it’s a shame he backed down. Because in a year or two, when enough time has gone by–he’ll vanish. If he’d taken the stand, he probably would have ended up dead anyway, but at least it would have been death with honor.  You can’t outrun the yakuza–you just make them chase you even harder when you turn your back.  You probably won’t win if you fight them either. But you might have a better chance.”

If you piss off certain yakuza groups, you’re never going to win the war–you may win a battle.  But eventually, you’ll lose. The only way you could win is to drive so hard that the entire faction is disbanded and that someone at the top of the organization decides you’re more trouble than you’re worth. You have to be a huge troublemaker to get that kind of free pass.

I know an ex-yakuza who used to be a loan shark and a collector as well. His point of pride was that he never bothered the family of the debtor, never leaned on them to collect the interest, never called up the mark in the middle of the night and woke up his kids, never stuffed a dead animal in their mailbox, never kidnapped family members or lovers of the debtor–no matter how much money was owed. “A man’s debts are his own problem.  If he owes me and won’t pay, I’ll take it out on him–not innocent people. If you have a fight with your mistress, you don’t beat up her brother. I’m not saying you beat up the woman either, you know.  I’m saying it’s dishonorable to pick on people who aren’t involved. There are no fair fights, of course, but there are honorable fights. No real yakuza is going to go after the friends or family of their enemy. Collateral damage as is unacceptable.  That’s how it should be.”

Well, how things should be and how they are, are never the same.  Maybe the old-school yakuza lived up to those ideals of “an honorable fight” but if that time ever existed, it’s the ancient past for most of them. You might think you’re only risking your personal safety when you get in their way but that’s terribly naive. Because when they realize that you aren’t afraid to get hurt or maybe even killed for doing what you think is the right thing, they’ll look for different leverage.  Maybe, they’ll leave you alone for a while because they are afraid that hurting you will anger the cops–and turn public opinion against them. But they won’t forgive and forget.

I should state things a little better here.  I don’t really think there’s anyone who isn’t afraid of physical pain or death. I sure hell as am. But there are some people still crazy enough to take the risk.  That’s when you put people in danger.  Why do you think the Kodokai, the strongest faction of the Yamaguchi-gumi, follows detectives to their homes, takes down their license plate numbers, and photographs members of their family? The message is very simple. Here it is:

“Nothing is just business. Everything is personal. If you bring the war to us, we’ll bring the war to you–right where you live. So don’t fuck with us.”  And they only have to demonstrate that once for people to get the point.  Expose how they make their money,  get some of them arrested, pass on information to the police about their criminal activities–whether it’s human trafficking or  just illegal gambling–and you will quickly learn how intolerant the noble yakuza can be.

No matter how tough you imagine yourself to be, the intangible pain you’ll feel when someone is hurt because of what you did, even if you were doing the right thing, will hurt like nothing you can imagine. It feels like an internal injury and it doesn’t get better. Unless you’re a sociopath, and then you don’t care about anyone else but yourself.  Maybe sociopaths make the best journalists in the world in that sense. They certainly are well-adapted to be yakuza.  A yakuza doesn’t even have to lay a finger on you to hurt you, he just has to let you know that he’s willing to hurt the people you care about. That’s enough. Sometimes, the fear of that happening is worse than when it really does happen. It keeps you up at night—it makes you want to avoid close relationships, it makes you lonely as hell, and it makes you vulnerable.  It can also make you a little crazy.

If they back up what they say, they can force you into a position where you feel the responsible thing to do is kill yourself.  I knew one man who I think was goaded into doing it, for fear of what would happen to his little boy if he didn’t.  That works perfectly for them–get your enemy to kill himself and you’ll never go to jail for murder. A perfect crime.

Takeshita Saburo, one of the yakuza to receive a liver transplant at UCLA, used to have a signature line when he was shaking down a deadbeat. He’d beat on their door, of their home, in the middle of the night, and yell, “Time to pay up.  I’ll make you a deal.  Just bring down your little daughter so I can cut off her face. Then we’ll be even.” Sometimes, he’s tap a knife on the door, which would emphasize the point, especially if it was a metal door.  Metal on metal, especially if you scratch on it with a knife–it’s an unpleasant sound.

But here’s the corollary on this: almost everyone has someone they love. Even gangsters. So when push comes to shove, here’s what you have to do. You have to figure out who is the top dog, you have to find out who he loves, and you have to demonstrate him that those people are vulnerable. The more of them you know, the stronger your position. He can’t watch them all.  And you have to let him know that you are willing to hurt them, by any means possible, if it comes to that. You also need to be able to show that even if you’re obliterated, there are good odds someone else will do the job for you.  And the most difficult thing to do of all, is that you may have to demonstrate that. At least once. It isn’t a good feeling, so I’ve heard.  It hardens a person. It takes you down to there level. It makes you play God and do triage with other people’s lives. You have to decide, if that’s the case, “the pain of person X is less significant than the possible pain or death of my friend.”  So what do you do?

There are no rules to gokudo chess.  It’s a betting game.  You don’t have a choice in what you might lose–they often believe they do.  They expect that YOU will fight fair. Once you’ve sat down at the table with a dishonorable player, you’re locked in until you reach a stalemate or only one of you is left standing. There is a referee but you can’t count on him. You have to win at all costs and that requires excellent strategy, sometimes physical intimidation, psychological warfare, and sometimes you have to cheat. The best way to do that is to know what your opponent doesn’t want to lose. And if he doesn’t mind losing everything, then you need to know what he fears.  Fear is more powerful than love for some people.

I keep thinking my chess game is over but then just when I’m ready to walk away from the table, it seems like someone else wants to play. I never liked chess very much. And being forced to play, makes you think more and more about waiting until the referee leaves the room, and beating your opponent to death with the chess board. That would be a total victory.  No more rematches.

I’ve gotten some letters that lambaste me for putting people in danger, including my family, and a number of morally questionable things I did. Well,  I did what I had to do and I believe in my work as an investigative journalist and with some NGOs. Of course, I’m not happy to put people in uncomfortable situations.  But if everyone runs, than the whole world gets taken over by the bad guys.  And then nobody wins. There are people who deal with organized crime issues in Japan that move their families out of the country. They don’t quit their jobs. I admire that.  I might not be a great father but I don’t want to teach my kids that when the bullies of the world come calling that the honorable thing is to capitulate.

An honorable victory is the ideal. Sometimes that isn’t possible.  Hopefully, gentle reader, you’ll never find yourself in this position–but if you have to deal with someone willing to hurt your friends or lovers or family, because they can’t get at you–you have to show them that you can do the same thing–and that may stop them. And that’s an unpleasant lesson to learn.

Best to avoid that part of life’s education, when humanly possible.