According to the article, the trio drank and dined at a sophisticated restaurant run by a third-generation geisha in Tokyo’s Kagurazaka district on June 21, days after numerous wrestlers were ousted one by one as having participated in baseball gambling and it was announced that a special investigation committee would be set up to look into the scandal.

Over sumptuous Japanese food and sake, sources within the sumo world say that Musashigawa was likely attempting damage control, trying to find out the nitty gritty on the investigation committee.

Politician Takeshi Fukaya, who once held Nakai’s position, said about the meeting in an interview with Bunshun, “By around June 21, the background behind the entire gambling ordeal had already been revealed. The National Public Safety Commission Chairman obviously knows information that hadn’t been released to the public, and it’s unbelievable that he’s just go and have drinks with the chairman of the Sumo Association. Reason enough for him to be fired in my books.”

Earlier that day, Nakai had reportedly been in Miyazaki overseeing activities on prevention of foot & mouth disease. There, he had taken heat from locals after he twice misread the names of areas when talking to the press. Says Bunshun: One can only imagine that he was busy worrying about his plans for that evening. After he made his way back to Tokyo, Nakai stealthily evaded the media and made his way to Kagurazaka.

Nakai is well known for his “roadside kiss” with a hostess that made the news after being published in Shukan Shincho in March, causing a stir after it was discovered he had given the woman a key to his apartment in the Lower House dormitories.

Hidetoshi Tanaka too is well known–in the sumo world as a Nihon University board chairman who in the past has helped a number of promising wrestlers make it to the top. Bunshun says, though, that Tanaka’s connections have a dark side; ex-Nichidai wrestler Kise Oyakata was eventually demoted in May of this year after it was discovered he was selling sumo tickets to the Yamaguchi-gumi.

Tanaka has dubious connections himself. He was involved in the planning of a sumo hall in Osaka that was announced by Heo Young Joong (aka Eichu Kyo), the “emperor of crime” who was the main culpret in the Itoman scandal. Also, according to sources within the university, when Yamaken-gumi head Kaneyoshi Kuwata was hospitalized at Nihon University before his imprisonment for weapons possession, Tanaka had acted has his personal guarantor.

The day after he admitted to gambling on baseball, Kotomitsuki had reportedly gone to Tanaka for advice. Sources say that Kotomitsuki had said he was ready to take all the responsibility, but Tanaka admonished him not to. Afterwards, Tanaka was concerned the wrestler wouldn’t heed his advice, becoming even more worried when he called Kotomitsuki’s mobile phone numerous times but received no answer.

Tanaka had reportedly fallen sick at the end of May, right when the news of Kise Oyakata and Kotomitsuki’s illegal gambling had hit headlines. A source reported, “It wasn’t just Musashigawa that suffered when the gambling issue hit the mainstream. Tanaka shared that pain with him. About half of the wrestlers in the Musashigawa stables come from Nichidai, and the two knew each other well. It was because of that Tanaka pursued a meeting with the man in the know about police investigations–Nakai.”

Says Bunshun, Tanaka likely thought that his talk that Kotomitsuki would be the perfect chance to get Musashigawa and Nakai together.

The Kagurazaka restaurant is reportedly well-known by Tanaka, and often used by him for for meetings and celebrations. They were welcome guests, and their hosts reportedly kept the visit discreet and the meeting away from the prying eyes of other customers. Everything went off without a hitch, reports Bunshun, and Musashigawa was said to have acted with a reverence and kindness toward Nakai that that belies his fierce persona.

Just days after the meeting, on July 24 police arrested an ex-wrestler for blackmailing Kotomitsuki. Then on July 7, police began raiding stables looking for evidence.

Nakai himself had made curious statements. Says one police reporter, “At a July 1 press conference, National Police Agency cheif Takaharu Ando had gotten a question about whether or not the Nagoya tournament would be held, and he answered that he wasn’t the right person to ask. No one had asked Nakai anything at all, but he suddenly said, “I think it’s great that they’re running their own investigation seperate from the official investigation as an effort to stamp out organized crime.”

The comment was made just days after drinking with Musashigawa.

So what went on at the Kagurazaka meeting? Was information leaked?

Shukan Bunshun attempted to ask Nakai directly, but he unsurprisingly refused: “Bunshun? That rag constantly says bad things about me. No way I’m going to answer.”

Tanaka too ignored Bunshun reporters, and the Sumo Association had not replied as of the date the article was published.

The article ends questioning whether or not a reliable investigation can be done if headed by someone like Nakai.

For more information on sumo connections to the yakuza through Nihon University, check out this related article on Tokyo Reporter.

The stolen Peko-chan mascots, from the Sankei News site

In unusual yakuza-related news, April 23 saw the sentencing of an ex-Yamaguchi-gumi higher up for a crime that’s worth a chuckle. According to Sankei News, You Inaba, 43, was sentenced to six years in jail for stealing 10 “Peko-chan” statues from Fujiya stores between May 2008 and February 2009 in Wakayama, Osaka and other cities. When laying down the charges, prosecutors said that Inaba “has had a huge effect on society because of the character’s position as a national icon.” Inaba testified that he stole the small statues with plans to sell them to get money for “drugs and entertainment.” The dolls are estimated to be worth a total of ¥590,000. Business must have been slow…

Meanwhile, here in the Kanto area, FNN reports that four Inagawa-kai bosses were arrested for threatening a ramen cart owner for shobadai, or protection money, near Tokyo station in December of last year. The four testified that the cart owner had a bad attitude, and that they demanded ¥20,000 from him while yelling, “Don’t make fun of the yakuza!”

We drove to Mr. Greenriver’s condominium in a fancy part of Tokyo, parked the car, got past security, and took the elevator up to his place. Of course, Mr. Greenriver was in the middle of having crazy sex with one of his mistresses when we arrived, and we could hear it through the apartment door. So we knocked a couple of times, he grunted out a reply and we waited in the hall. He came out fifteen minutes later, looking very happy and smelling like a bottle of spilled Chanel No.5, sake and sweat.  He mumbled an apology, told a couple jokes, and we left.

The three of us got in the elevator and the door closed behind us.

And nothing happened.

Nobody moved.

Mochizuki-san had his back to the wall of the elevator.  I was to the left of the door, and Mr. Greenriver was standing close to the elevator button panel.

After about a minute, I cleared my throat.

Mochizuki-san perked up, as if he’d woken from his sleep, and said to Mr. Greenriver, “Hey, push the lobby floor button.”

Mr. Greenriver responded, “Oh, usually my bodyguard presses it for me. Forgot I’m on my own today.”

“Well, I’m not your bodyguard,” said Mochizuki.

“But I’m a yakuza boss and you’re not. Am I supposed to press the button?”

“That’s right, I’m not a yakuza boss. I’m a civilian, now,  so you should press the button.”

Mr. Greenriver frowned. “But you used to be a yakuza boss. So isn’t that different?”

“When I was a boss, I out-ranked you. And I’m older than you.”

Mr. Greenriver folded his arms and pondered the statement. The elevator still hadn’t moved.

So I pushed the button.

They both look a little shocked.  I had been totally forgotten.

“It’s okay,” I said, “I’m a gaijin. That makes me the lowest ranking person here.”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Mr. Greenriver seemed enormously relieved that the problem had been solved.

Most yakuza groups are very hierarchical  societies. Reach a certain level and you never drive your own car, never press the elevator button,  never open your own umbrella or carry your own belongings. You don’t even open the car door. So when a yakuza boss is left alone, there’s a tendency for him to just sort of stand there waiting for someone else to do what we would all do normally ourselves.

Here’s a way to understand the state of mind of a big boss: If you’ve lived in Japan long enough, you get used to taxi drivers automatically opening and closing the door for you, as is common here, with a push of the button near the driver’s wheel. In Japan, you almost never open the taxi door yourself or close it yourself. However, when you go back to the United States and get out of a taxi without bothering to close the door after you pay, you’ll find that taxi drivers get very angry. That’s probably the closest we’ll get to experience what it’s like to have been a yakuza boss and then no longer be one.  The things you expect others to do for you are not done and it can take some adjusting.

Yakuza bosses don’t retire very well.  Maybe, it’s very hard to get used to being ordinary again. The standard retirement plan still seems to be a bullet in the head, self-administered. Or at least made to look that way.  Pulling the trigger may be the last thing a yakuza boss is ever expected to do for themselves. Personally, I think I’d rather prefer to learn how to press buttons for myself but then again, I’m not a yakuza boss nor have ever been one.

Addendum to the Elevator Story:

All three of us got out the elevator together. Mochizuki-san, got out first, then Mr. Greenriver, then myself. However, Mr. Greenriver soon took the lead and walked at a brisk pace right into the glass door of the lobby, bumping into it, and almost falling over. He wasn’t upset; he just laughed. “Usually,” he said, “the foot-soliders open the door for me. Forgot about that.” At this point I was laughing and Mochizuki was laughing at him as well.

Of course, Mr. Greenriver then did not proceed to open the door. So I did. And then the car door for him and I got in last. It’s important to know your place in the vertical society.

A question posted to Japan’s infamous home of trolls, the 2chan BBS:

If you strike the lottery for over ¥100 billion, will the yakuza come to your house?

Answer: Not to anyone’s knowledge, but one poster puts it best: “お前ら、当たってから心配しようぜ” (“You guys should just worry about it when it happens.”)

Some from the more reputable Goo:

Is it a good idea to date a yakuza’s daughter? What about her friends?

Answer: If you’re shallow and care about appearances, then probably no. But why not meet her parents before you judge?

For yakuza, are the penalties lighter for killing another yak than for killing a normal person?

Answer: The question received mixed reactions, with one person commenting that perhaps a lighter sentence in the case of two gang members may have to do with the fact that the victim provoked the murderer. Another refutes, saying that “without a doubt,” organized crime members will get a lighter sentence for killing each other than for killing non-members.

Jake’s view:  There still is a tendency to view yakuza upon yakuza violence as something that is treated more lightly by the courts. However, if you’ve read Tokyo Vice, you’ll know that the bet I made on the outcome of one yakuza’s trial proved to be way off because I was sure that the courts would be more lenient.  It was a costly mistake. At the same time, I would say it’s a safe bet to say that when the yakuza kill a normal person “katagi” that the law is very harsh with them.

Could you imagine a bunch of gangsters sitting around making these?

Do yakuza make New Year’s pine decorations?

Answer: Probably not. While carpenters tend to make the decorations and there may be some with seedy connections in the profession, the majority of pine decorations are likely clean.

Why are there no women-only organized crime groups, even though such things exist for bosozoku?

Answer: One hypothesis is that, because yakuza are from a more classic era, they would likely not allow it. Another user guesses that there’s really no benefit to having a female-only crime group. (There is, however, apparently a(n adult?) movie called “Onna Yakuza“)

In a fight between Al Qaeda and the yakuza, who would win?

Answer: All votes are for Al Qaeda.

Jake’s view: Both groups have a capacity for producing “suicide bombers.” In the old days, a yakuza would think nothing of going on a probable suicide mission against a rival gang group if the oyabun (father figure) asked him to do it.  Even now, I still think they are a bunch of tough dudes. And they’re smarter. Plus they know how to use a sword. In close combat, I vote for the yakuza.

If the yakuza disappeared, who would be worse off for it?

Answer: People who work in business districts would have trouble, with no one around to control chinpira punks who commit petty crimes and regulate the presence of Chinese organized crime.

Jake’s view: That’s the standard answer and one which the yakuza always use to justify their existence–it’s why every Yakuza fan magazine has a section on foreign crime.  In reality, Chinese organized crime works under the yakuza not over them.  It only took the TMPD and Immigration to do a couple of large sweeps of Kabukicho in the 2000s to effectively castrate “the Chinese mafia.”  Deportation will always be an effective tool in keeping down the “foreign mafia.”

What nagging questions do you have about these infamous thugs? JSRC can likely provide more reliable speculation than most online message boards!

Japan author sues police over ban on ‘yakuza’ publications

TOKYO: A Japanese author and son of a Yakuza gangster on Thursday filed a lawsuit against police in the country’s west for asking stores to take underworld comics and magazines off their shelves.

Crime writer Manabu Miyazaki argued that police in Fukuoka prefecture were suppressing free speech by asking stores not to sell manga comic books and magazines that describe the Japanese crime syndicates.

“I am an author,” the 64-year-old protested on his website. “I make money by writing and selling books.”

In his complaint with the Fukuoka District Court, Miyazaki said police had asked convenience stores to remove 73 comic books and three magazine titles from their shelves, and that many shops had following suit.

The police request meant to enforce an ordinance aimed at curtailing the influence of the yakuza, whose organisations are not banned under Japanese law and whose exploits are often the subject of manga comics and fan magazines.

The police list included a comic book based on a Miyazaki novel about the life of a yakuza man, said the author, who demanded 5.5 million yen (about 59,000 dollars) in damages from the regional government.

An officer at the Fukuoka police said they were aware of Miyazaki’s lawsuit but could not immediately comment on it.

Japan’s yakuza, whose members are known for cutting off their little fingers to atone for acts of disloyalty and mistakes, have long been active in gambling, loan sharking and money-laundering.

In April 2007, a gangster associated with Japan’s largest criminal syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, shot dead the mayor of the city of Nagasaki. — AFP

His argument is akin to artists complaining that their albums aren’t sold at Walmart because of questionable material, and at the end of the day the “censorship” is voluntary so it’s debatable whether he has any footing at all. What I found most questionable was the article itself–even to introduce the yakuza to people who have no background knowledge about them, AFP could have done a little better than the last two sentences.

Click here to see the article on Yahoo! News.

Fan magazines and comic books glorify the yakuza in Japan

Fukuoka prefectural police requested March 25 that convenience stores in the prefecture no longer stock yakuza fan magazines. Four chains have already begun removing the products from their racks, while two more say they will do so beginning next month.The stores include Lawson, Family Mart, Mini Stop, Popular, Daily Yamazaki and Circle K Sankus.

According to police, a crime prevention group requested in December 2009 that convenience stores and book stores stop carrying the publications, citing that several monthly magazines “glamorize organized crime and may encourage youth to join the groups.”

Officials insist they do not intend to censor freedom of expression, and that the move is purely voluntary. Some warn, however, that the move opens the door for possible censorship in the future.

Read the original article here.

Tonight I suddenly understood a mystery which had been eating at me for the last four years.

As a high school exchange student in Nagoya I witnessed an event which left me rattled.  I was returning from a field trip with my class. We were across the street from Nagoya-station, waiting to cross to the station’s entrance when all of a sudden a burly man came, and for lack of any artistic phrase, literally kidnapped a middle aged salary man standing in front of me, grabbing him and pulling him away. Nobody did anything. Everyone stood where they were. Mind you, there were at least 30 people watching all of  this; high school students and adults on their way to work.

As this was four years ago, I was not yet fluent and felt incapable of expressing my disbelief in anything but English. I am ashamed that I was also one of the people momentarily paralyzed. But thankfully the shock wore off within seconds. Unfortunately, by that time the man was hauling off that salary man down the sidewalk to an alleyway. A fellow student and I quickly yelled at our teacher (sensei)  to do something. She refused.  Just then we remembered there was a koban (police box) across the street in Nagoya station. We ran to the koban and tried to give as coherent an explanation as possible recounting what we had witnessed. The policewoman thanked us, but we never learned what happened.

Back at school  I was furious no one had done anything. I yelled at people and expressed my disgust at all that had transpired that morning. I then turned to my sensei and asked her why she did nothing. She said, “He was probably yakuza. I don’t want to get involved!” At that time I knew nothing other then yakuza were Japan’s equivilent of the mob. Moreover, I did not know just how powerful the yakuza were and what the roles they played in Japanese society were. I was ignorant at best. Therefore I could not comprehend her answer. I could only see her and the other adults at the crime scene as having failed as ethical people.  And even though I read your book back in December, my realization that my sensei had true fears of all too real consequences for getting involved did not occur to me until tonight when I read your January 27th blog entry.  To this day I am still rattled by these memories.

I never told my parents what had happened. What was I supposed to say? “Oh, the day was good, but by the way a man standing next to me was abducted, and no one did anything to stop it.” I suppose it is because I felt guilty of not having done more at the time. It’s a shame that has bored a hole into me which I do not know what to do with.

Personally, I think that Sam did far more than most people would do in a similar situation. It’s not a bright idea to play hero when a yakuza is beating the crap out of someone but going to the police or calling 110 (the Japanese equivalent of 911) is certainly worth doing.  Whether the police will do anything is another issue.

For many years in Japan, the yakuza could do whatever they wanted; they were above the law–they were, in a sense, invisible. In certain places, they still are. We have received several letters from people with similar stories. The worst of the yakuza are the ones that have no qualms about attacking civilians, although the unwritten rule has always been “we don’t bother ordinary people” (かたぎにめいわくをかけない／堅気に迷惑をかけない）.  And lately some factions  don’t seem to be afraid of the police either.

The Kodokai has always been the most belligerent of Yamaguchi-gumi factions. Traditionally, relations between the police and the yakuza were civil. Police detectives visited the offices of organized crime members and had reasonably polite exchanges of information. When major crimes occurred, the yakuza groups involved would  would turn over the criminal over someone to take the rap, or someone willing to take the fall for the crime, and the person would make a full confession.

Contrary to traditional patterns, the Kodokai will not let police into their offices, their members are ordered to not make confessions, thus they do not confess and do not cooperate with law enforcement in any way, and their antagonism to the police is abnormal for organized crime groups in Japan.

When  In 2009, it became widely known that the Kodokai was collecting information on the police officers and detectives assigned to investigate them–photographing their families, tailing them to their homes, and illegally obtaining records of their car registration. The National Police Agency decided that action was warranted. Since 2006, local police officers have known that the Kodokai engaged in such practices but the NPA did not make an issue of it until recently. In 2007, while speaking to the FBI and the National Police Agency as a guest lecturer at the FBI Seattle bureau office, I mentioned the Kodokai harassment of the police and caused several NPA officers to turn green as their FBI counterparts grilled them as to  ”Why the f*ck do you let those guys get away with it?”  The NPA representatives didn’t have a good answer.

On September 29th, 2009, the NPA sent out a directive to police headquarters nationwide to concentrate their efforts on dismantling and policing not the Yamaguchi-gumi itself, but specifically the Kodokai. In a meeting the same day of organized crime division chiefs from across Japan, Ando Takaharu, the Commissioner General of the NPA stated: “The Kodokai has powered up their antagonistic stance towards law enforcement. They are the driving force behind the Yamaguchi-gumi,”  and suggested that crippling them would weaken the Yamaguchi-gumi. This remains to be seen.

Since the NPA announcement, the Yamaguchi has begun trying to cultivate a more positive image, giving the media better access to their annual rice-cake making party at headquarters, and doing things like distributing cash gifts to the local neighborhood children in Kobe in late December of 2009 as “New Year’s gifts” (otoshidama) from “Uncle Takayama”. This has been reported with a mixture of scorn and bemusement by the mainstream press.  The police, in particular, have not been amused. For many people, when the yakuza commit violent crimes in front of them, they simply pretend not to see it. A legitimate fear of retaliation and the lack of a witness protection program helps keep the yakuza invisible and keep the public “blind.” But these days, for the police at least, the yakuza aren’t invisible anymore. It may take some time for the general public to see them as well.

“He who is present at a wrongdoing and does not lift a hand to prevent it–he is as guilty as the wrongdoers.” —Apache Indian saying.

You can light a cigarette with this bullet or just cause a heap of trouble.

20 minutes and five police cars later–a detective came up to the car, motioned the gang boss to get out. The detective had on white gloves and had the bullet in his hand.
“Mr. X, is this your bullet?”
“It’s not a bullet; it’s a lighter.”
“So you say.”
Mr. X noticed the white gloves the detective had on, which are usually only for crime scenes.
“What’s with the gloves?”

“Evidence. We don’t want to obscure your fingerprints on this bullet. You’re going down for violations of the Firearms and Ammunitions Law, pal…understand? Some serious jail time.”
Mr. X, says he was getting a little bit worried. The cop stared him in the face, and then the cop took a pack of Lark cigarettes out of his coat and handed a cigarette to Mr. X. Mr. X took the cigarette and put it in his mouth and the cop lit it with the bullet shaped lighter, laughing.
“Mr. X, pretty cool! I’ve never seen a lighter like this. Do you know where I can get one?”
“I could ask.”
“Yeah, let me know. By the way, you know we’re still going to seize this. Just to be sure. Gonna have to have forensics look at it.”
“Be my guest.”
And with that, Mr. X got back in his car and was allowed to leave.
Guns and weapons are taken very seriously in Japan, and bullet-shaped lighters are probably not a source of levity. When I heard this story, I thought I was going to have to go prostate myself in front of Mr. X again and was hoping not to hit my forehead too hard on the ground, but he told me he was more amused than upset. And he asked me to get him two more of the bullet-shaped lighters.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department spotted the head of the gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai syndicate at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan on Jan. 18. He moved after being prompted to do so by one of the information desk staff.

The gang boss was sitting in one of the ringside guest seats on the south side of the ring. These seats are normally reserved for individuals and companies that have contributed a certain amount to the Japan Sumo Association (JSA), and are not on sale to the public.

Police told reporters an interesting tidbit of information as to why they want to keep the mob out of the arena:

暴力団関係者が維持員席での観戦にこだわる理由について、捜査幹部は「相撲中継は刑務所でも見ることができる。土俵に近い維持員席はテレビに映りやすく、自分の姿を見せて服役中の組員を勇気づける狙いがあるのでは」と分析する。

Investigators said they deny organized crime members access to seats for donators because they believe that, “Sumo is broadcast even in jail; by sitting close to the ring and appearing on TV, gang leaders hope to cheer up and show support to members that are serving time.”

(From the Japanese Mainichi article)

Authorities are currently negotiating with the JSA as to whether or not they can prohibit yakuza in the general admission seats as well.

Police and the Japan Sumo Association have been actively trying to oust the yakuza from sumo since last July, when authorities were shocked to see elder members of the Yamaguchi-gumi sitting ringside at a tournament in Nagoya. The JSA made their first-ever retaliation against the yakuza in September at the annual autumn tournament, posting a sign denying entry to organized crime members. In October the group ammended their contracts with seat holders, adding a clause that allowed them to terminate special seats of anyone found to be related to the yakuza.

With some appropriate timing, there’s currently another frenzy going on regarding ex-yokozuna Takanohana, now a JSA member, who is currently steeped on controversey after he announced his intention to run for the JSA board of directors and was tossed out of the Nishonoseki stable group. Recently, weekly photo magazine “Flash” published photos of Takanohana at an event in Kobe in August, 2008, sitting next to a “head of an organized crime group.” Takanohana told the press that he was “invited be long-time supporters, and went because it was a memorial service for those who died in the Kobe earthquake.”

More info at Nikkan Sports (Japanese only)

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.